Phial of floods

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

Type	Miscellaneous item
Name	phial of floods
Icon

An enchanted vessel of elemental water. Removing the stopper unleashes a torrent of water, smashing the target and flooding the nearby area. If any creatures engulfed by the wave need air to breathe, they'll be unable to cast spells until they recover. The strength of the torrent and the duration of the flooding increase with Evocations skill.

A phial of floods is an evocable item which releases a torrent of water with an effect similar to Primal Wave.

Useful Info

Fires an aimed beam of water, with range 5. In addition to dealing damage, the phial does three things:

• Creates shallow water around where the beam hits. It will never cover stairs.
• Potentially knocks monsters back.
• Waterlogs monsters; this status will silence the monsters for its duration, preventing them from casting spoken spells. The phial will waterlog monsters, hostile and friendly, which were standing on a created water tile (before being knocked back). The center target will also be waterlogged, even if no water was created there. Note that unbreathing creatures are immune to this effect.

Your Evocations skill increases the damage of the phial, the duration of the water, and the duration of the waterlogging.

• Damage of the phial is equal to 4d(5 + 3 * Evocations / 5). Unbreathing, amphibious, and aquatic creatures take 50% damage.
• The waterlog has a base duration of 2.1 + 2 * Evocations / 5 turns, which is then modified by a random factor from x1 to x1.5. Again, unbreathing creatures are immune to this effect.

The phial of floods expends itself after one use; it can be recharged by gaining experience.

Like all miscellaneous evocables, only one phial of floods can spawn in a given game.

Strategy

A fairly powerful evocable item, since it can shut down dangerous spellcasters like deep elves and Jorgrun. In addition, the knockback/water can delay enemies, and the attack itself does a fair bit of damage. In order for the waterlogging to last for a reasonable duration, you'll need some Evocations training.

Tips & Tricks

• The phial's water can be used for a few purposes:
  • When used over water, Fire Magic creates damaging steam clouds. Using the phial can increase your fire damage output by a small bit.
  • Water extinguishes Sticky Flame. You can fire at the floor (using . instead of f or Enter to fire) one space ahead of you to end the fire. Conversely, the phial's water will end Sticky Flame for your enemies, too.
  • Water reveals invisible creatures that aren't flying; it negates all the combat benefits of being invisible. Of course, the water can reveal invisible players, too.
• Note that the phial can evaded. If you need to waterlog a specific monster, confirm fire with . to cause the wave to stop on a given tile - the wave always waterlogs the creature on the tile it lands on.

History

• Prior to 0.30, the phial had a range of full LOS. The duration of waterlogging was also much longer.
• Prior to 0.26, the phial would create two separate pools - one from the phial itself, and the other from the Primal Wave spell; only the phial's pools would waterlog creatures.
• Prior to 0.25, the phial summoned friendly water elementals instead of waterlogging monsters. Also, the player could use the phial while confused.
• In 0.19, the impact damage was significantly reduced.
• Prior to 0.14, all elemental evokers recharged simultaneously.
• This item was added in 0.13.