Oblivion hound

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

oblivion hound h 32px
HP	72-147
HD	20
XP	2066
Speed	13
AC	6
EV	13
Will	20
Attack1	45 (bite: plain)
Attack2	30 (claw: plain)
Resistances	rMiasma rN+++ rTorm
Vulnerabilities	None
Habitat	Land
Intelligence	Animal
Uses	Uses nothing
Holiness	Demonic
Size	Medium
Type	hound, oblivion hound
Flags	See invisible Unblindable Evil

A demon lapdog of the queen of Tartarus, bound to hunt her enemies. The first time a foe hears its howl, it will echo in their mind, calling nightmarish creatures to hunt them. Those who survive have the small consolation of being inoculated against that particular hound's howl. “Standing over Hugo, and plucking at his throat, there stood a foul thing, a great, black beast, shaped like a hound, yet larger than any hound that ever mortal eye has rested upon. And even as they looked the thing tore the throat out of Hugo Baskerville...” -Arthur Conan Doyle, _The Hound of the Baskervilles_. 1902.

Useful Info

Oblivion hounds are demonic canines that roam the realm of Tartarus or under the companionship of Grunn.

They can use Oblivion Howl, which gives you the Howl status condition. For the next several turns, other denizens of Tartarus (undertakers, reapers, tormentors, Tzitzimimeh, and putrid mouths) will be called in to near your location. These reinforcements are not summons, are unaffected by abjuration and worth XP and piety.

Each particular hound can only affect you once with Oblivion Howl. If you resist it with willpower, the hound can continue to Oblivion Howl until it succeeds.

Spells

Spell set I
Slot1	Oblivion Howl	Natural flag

Tips & Tricks

• Though their signature ability may be scary, do not ignore them as melee threats, either. To the lightly armored, they can deal over 100 damage a turn if they attack twice.
• With Will++++, Oblivion Howl has a <10% chance of success. With max willpower (Will+++++), Oblivion Howl can never succeed. But in Tartarus, willpower is halved - you won't have this amount of will in practice.
• Oblivion hounds have very low will themselves, especially for the Hells. A simple wand of paralysis will shut them down long enough to smash them.
• If you can't kill them before they get a howl off, try to retreat to an area where you can duck out of sight of any particularly nasty summons.
• A potion of cancellation will remove the Howl status, if you're in a pinch.
• Despite being named Oblivion Howl, silence will not prevent this ability.

History

• Prior to 0.34, oblivion hounds were known as doom hounds.
• Prior to 0.30, Doom Howl was not resisted by willpower.
• Doom hounds were introduced in 0.18.