Harlequin's trap

Version 0.34: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

A magical trap left behind by the ineffable, spectacular revues of chaos. When you or a hostile monster steps on it, up to three of the strongest monsters in sight will have their attacks temporarily interwoven with a touch of chaos. Your allies will avoid stepping on it.

A harlequin's trap is a trap that buffs 2-3 of the strongest monsters in the trap's line of sight by adding the chaos brand to their melee attacks for 20-28 turns. The trap cannot affect holy monsters.

This trap rarely spawns naturally in the Depths, Zot (particularly Zot:5), and Pandemonium.

Strategy

Chaos can inflict deadly effects like slow, berserk, and 1 turn paralysis, so be careful. It only affects melee attacks, so it isn't too dangerous if it affects enemies that don't rely on melee, and you can keep your distance to avoid it.

History

• Prior to 0.34, the chaos-laced status would overwrite the default attack brands a monster had, and would only affect the first attack. Additionally, it did not function on derived undead.
• This trap was added in 0.33.