Reflection
Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.
| You reflect any successfully blocked ranged attacks back towards the attacker. |
Reflection is an ego that can be found on shields and amulets. It reflects all successfully blocked projectiles, both physical and magical, back in the direction they originated. An amulet of reflection grants +5 SH, though shields of reflection don't give any more SH than their mundane counterparts.
Keep in mind that you must block the attack in order it to be reflected. Some spells can't be blocked - while you can reflect a devastating crystal spear or orb of destruction, you can't deflect an Airstrike, Bolt of Fire, or javelin. For a list of what can and can't be blocked, see Shields. And since you must succeed your SH roll to actually block, reflection works best at high levels of SH.
Tips & Tricks
- Reflection is strong against enemies with blockable projectile attacks, such as centaurs and yaktaurs. Monsters tend to deal high damage compared to their HP, so a few reflected shots should kill them. Unlike in NetHack, reflection won't stop instant death.
- An amulet of reflection is largely good for the +5 SH alone. This amulet gives added defense, without the MP complexity of guardian spirit, and works at full HP, unlike regeneartion. The reflection can be treated like a bonus, though its certainly nice to have high SH when using the amulet.
- A shield of reflection is at least better than a mundane shield. Due to the rarity of shields with an ego, reflection can end up being your best shield, where you might as well use it.
- The reflected attack can miss and may strike unintended targets.
See Also
- Warlock's Mirror, an unrand buckler that can also reflect enchantments and piercing attacks.
History
- Prior to 0.25, the brooch of Shielding carried the reflection ego.
- Prior to ???, the game treated the reflected attack as an attack initiated by the player. If you followed a god who prohibited certain attacks, you would invoke penance for these unintentional reflected attacks.
- The amulet of reflection was added in 0.18.
