Sky beast

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Revision as of 15:05, 21 March 2016 by Bwijn (talk | contribs) (updated to 0.17, not changed (saw it in 0.17))
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Version 0.17: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.
sky beast YSky beast.png
HP 16-38
HD 5
XP 130
Speed 10
AC 3
EV 13
Will 20
Attack1 5 (hit: electricity: 5-6)


Resistances rElec+++, rDrown,
rWater, Asphyx
Vulnerabilities None
Habitat Land
Intelligence Animal
Uses Uses nothing
Holiness Natural
Size Large
Type sky beast, sky beast
Flags Flying
No skeleton
A strange aerial creature formed of clouds and tortured flesh that sparkles with electricity and, every so often, slips entirely from view.

“Her own mother lived the latter years of her life in the horrible suspicion that electricity was dripping invisibly all over the house.”
-James Thurber, _My Life and Hard Times_. 1934.


Useful Information

Sky beasts are unusual flying creatures that can be a dangerous nuisance when first encountered (usually D:5 or so, though they can appear out-of-depth). Their melee attacks deal an additional 5-6 electricity damage per hit to those without resistance, and they tend to turn invisible during combat or when fleeing. They also occasionally create tiles of shallow water (or turn shallow water into deep water) when turning invisible.

Tips & Tricks

  • Their tendency to turn invisible may make combat with them an aggravating guessing game. Fortunately, they rarely ever do anything more exotic than approach you and start attacking, so it's easy to guess where one will be when you engage it in melee. Alternatively, reading a scroll of fog or hitting it with Corona will make it much easier to spot. Also, keep in mind that they are generally only briefly and intermittently invisible. Often a short retreat will get them to become visible again. This will work multiple times.
  • These are likely the first monsters you'll encounter with mutagenic chunks. If you feel like gambling with mutations, here's an early opportunity.
  • They cannot be raised as zombies or skeletons. Don't bother trying.

History

Prior to 0.12, sky beasts would flee once heavily injured. Coupled with their tendency to turn invisible, this made finishing them off very annoying.