Monstrous Menagerie

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Monstrous Menagerie
Level	7
School1	Summoning
Source(s)	Book of Beasts
Casting noise	5
Spell noise	0
Power Cap	200
Flags	Mons abjure

Summons a powerful exotic creature to the caster's aid: a manticore, a lindwurm, or, at high power, even a sphinx. Casting the spell at higher power also increases the strength of the beasts themselves.

Monstrous Menagerie is a level 7 Summoning spell which summons an exotic, ranged creature.

Effect

One beast is summoned. Higher spell power gives a chance of a sphinx, and boosts the strength of the creature. There is a summon limit of 2; additional summons will cause the oldest to very quickly time out.

Possible summons:

• H Manticore
• k Lindwurm
• H Sphinx

Chance of a sphinx is equal to (1 - 61 / <power>) / 2. Otherwise, there's an equal chance of a manticore or lindwurm.

Summoned monsters gain from 0 to 6 additional HD based on spell power. The formula is (<power> - 50) / 25, rounded in a weighted fashion.

Duration of the summons is around 36 turns, it does not depend on the spell power.

Strategy

The most standard of the level 7 Summonings spells. All monsters from this spell can attack from range; a distinct advantage compared to the lower level spells. Having a summon cap of 2 also helps.

Monster Version

The monster version functions like the player version, except no HD bonus is given to the summoned creatures.

The following enemies cast Monstrous Menagerie:

• @ Kirke

History

• Prior to 0.28, Monstrous Menagerie had a summon cap of 4.
• Prior to 0.27, Monstrous Menagerie could summon 1-3 harpies.
• Prior to 0.22, for Dithmenos worshippers Lindwurm was replaced by a Manticore.
• Prior to 0.18, the spell level was 6.
• Prior to 0.17, the spell was found in the Book of Beasts and Book of Summonings, but not the Grand Grimoire.
• In 0.16 the spell got its summon cap reduced by one.
• Monstrous Menagerie was added in 0.14.