Call Canine Familiar

Version 0.32: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

Call Canine Familiar
Level	3
School1	Summoning
Source(s)	Book of Callings Book of the Hunter
Casting noise	3
Spell noise	0
Power Cap	100

Summons an inugami to the caster's aid. These mystical canines form a bond with their summoner, strengthening them in direct proportion with the caster's spellpower. Recasting this spell while your familiar is nearby will imbue it with additional magic, mending some of its wounds and causing its next attack to strike more quickly and cleave adjacent foes. “There seemed a strange stillness over everything. But as I listened, I heard as if from down below in the valley the howling of many wolves. The Count's eyes gleamed, and he said. ‘Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make!’ Seeing, I suppose, some expression in my face strange to him, he added, ‘Ah, sir, you dwellers in the city cannot enter into the feelings of the hunter.’” -Bram Stoker, _Dracula_. 1897.

Call Canine Familiar is a level 3 Summoning spell which summons a mystical canine to your aid.

Summoners start with this spell.

Useful Info

Summons an inugami, or supports it if one is already present.

Higher spellpower increases the summon's stats directly, rounded in a weighted manner:

• HD = 3 + power/15
• HP = 14 + power/4
• AC = 5 + power/10
• Melee damage = 5 + power/7

Duration of the summon is around 81 turns (duration class 5); it does not depend on spell power.

There is a summon limit of 1 inugami. Casting the spell while an inugami is present will heal it for 5 + power/5 to 9 + power/5 HP, and cause it make a cleaving attack immediately (in addition to its regular turn). If it has less than 11 turns left, it will also gain 6-9 turns of duration.

If the inugami dies (not counting expiry or Abjuration), you cannot cast this spell again for 13-21 turns.

Strategy

• The inugami is a fast, reliable ally. You can't summon multiple dogs in a row, but they are significantly better at combat than the earlier Summoning spells.
• If the inugami dies, you can use other summoning spells and/or kiting to stall out time.
• This is the only spell in the Summoner starting book that summons an ally with see invisible. At the least, it's decent at dealing with early sky beasts and unseen horrors.

History

• Prior to 0.32, recasting this spell did not increase the dog's duration if it had less than 11 turns left.
• In 0.31, this spell was reworked. Prior to this version:
  • Instead of an inugami, you could summon either a hound, wolf, or warg. To decide, a random value within power ± 10 was chosen; if 60 or more, a warg was summoned, if 40 or more, a wolf was summoned. Therefore, reaching 30 power and 50 power were relevant breakpoints.
  • Recasting the spell did not cause the summon to heal or make an attack, and you could cast the spell again if the summon died.
  • The duration class ranged from 2 (around 18 turns) to 6 (around 171 turns); the formula was 2 + (1d<power> - 1) / 4 (capped at 6).
• Prior to 0.14, this spell could also summon jackals and its summon cap was 3.