Difference between revisions of "Mummy"

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*Mummies do not breathe, and thus cannot [[asphyxiation|asphyxiate]] (deep water remains fatal, causing unraveling rather than drowning).
 
*Mummies do not breathe, and thus cannot [[asphyxiation|asphyxiate]] (deep water remains fatal, causing unraveling rather than drowning).
 
*Being undead, mummies may not worship [[The Shining One]], [[Zin]], [[Elyvilon]], or [[Fedhas Madash]].
 
*Being undead, mummies may not worship [[The Shining One]], [[Zin]], [[Elyvilon]], or [[Fedhas Madash]].
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Mummies have a base [[Strength]] of 11, [[Intelligence]] of 7 and [[Dexterity]] of 7 (before Background modifiers).
  
 
==Preferred Backgrounds==
 
==Preferred Backgrounds==

Revision as of 06:46, 21 April 2014

Version 0.13: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

This page covers the player species. For the monster, see Mummy (monster). For a list of all monstrous mummies, see List of mummies.

These are undead creatures who travel into the depths in search of revenge, redemption, or just because they want to.

Mummies progress slowly in levels, half again as slowly as Humans in all skills except fighting, spellcasting and necromancy. As they increase in levels, they become increasingly in touch with the powers of death, but cannot use some types of necromancy which only affect living creatures. The side effects of necromantic magic tend to be relatively harmless to Mummies. However, their desiccated bodies are highly flammable. They also do not need to eat or drink and, in any case, are incapable of doing so.

Innate Abilities

Mummies have a base Strength of 11, Intelligence of 7 and Dexterity of 7 (before Background modifiers).

Preferred Backgrounds

Due to their undead nature, mummies are prohibited from becoming Healers. Like Ghouls, they are also prohibited from becoming Transmuters.

Level Bonuses

At the permanent loss of one magic point restore your Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence, and heal a large amount of rotted hit points.

Starting Skills and Equipment

Mummies receive the skills and equipment listed for their background, with the following exceptions:

Difficulty of Play

SimpleIntermediateAdvanced

Mummies are a very difficult species to play. First and foremost, they cannot quaff potions. This knocks out several survival tools, some of which are especially critical in the early going. Among other things, lack of potion use also means that confusion is in effect as bad as paralysis for Mummies. Beyond this major liability, Mummies also level up very slowly, their intrinsic rF- can cause unexpected (and lethal) spikes in damage until it is offset, and their aptitudes are bad in almost everything. They cannot use many useful spells, nor helpful tools such as berserk and the various forms one can access through Transmutations.

Mummies gain intrinsic spellpower enhancements to Necromancy spells at level 13, and another stacking enhancement at level 26. In addition, Mummies never hunger and can ignore all nutrition costs (and gain). Unfortunately, these advantages usually provide little or no benefit in the early parts of the game, when characters are not yet well established, and thus most vulnerable.


Skill aptitudes

The higher the value, the better the aptitude.

Skill Aptitude Skill Aptitude Skill Aptitude
Attack Miscellaneous Magic
Fighting 0 Armour -2 Spellcasting 2
Dodging -2
Maces & Flails -2 Shields -2 Conjurations -2
Axes -2 Stealth -1 Hexes -1
Polearms -2 Summonings -2
Staves -2 Invocations -1 Necromancy 0
Unarmed Combat -2 Evocations -2 Translocations -2
Throwing -2 Shapeshifting N/A Alchemy -2
Fire Magic -2
Short Blades -2 Ice Magic -2
Long Blades -2 Air Magic -2
Ranged Weapons -2 Experience -1 Earth Magic -2

Strategy

Mummies should be considered a challenge species. However, if one wants to play to their advantages (such as they are), one way to do so is by starting as one of the "mage" backgrounds and worshiping Sif Muna, as this guarantees the opportunity to make good on a Mummy's lack of hunger by exploiting Sif's channeling as quickly as possible. This can work with summoning spells in particular, as a Mummy can constantly keep a large number of summons surrounding him while still having max, or near max, MP. This type of strategy is easiest to set up with Mummies that start as Wizards, Summoners, or Ice elementalists. So long as one constantly keeps summons around—a task that Mummies reduce simply to an exercise in the player's patience—then once this strategy gets going, it can be extremely strong.

Necromancer is not a bad start for Mummies, either, and it gives you allies that do not require continually recasting one's summoning spells. Mummies are also immune to many of the side effects and miscast effects of Necromancy. Do note however that mummies unfortunately cannot use one spell that appears in the necromancer's starting book, regeneration.

Assuming you have managed to offset their rF-, high level Mummies fare well in the optional extended endgame. However, one has to survive all the non-optional parts first, during which time torment immunity does not help, and yet all the disadvantages of Mummies are as salient as ever, if not more so.

Mummies must always be careful of sources of confusion: they have absolutely no way to cure it except to let it wear off naturally, which can make confusion almost as bad for them as paralysis is for all species. While confused, you cannot use spells or scrolls, and cannot accurately or effectively use melee, ranged weapons, wands, or movement. Thus, Mummy characters should value extrinsic MR even more highly than other species, and should keep an eye out for an amulet of clarity.