Special ability

Version 0.21: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

A special ability is a spell-like ability that certain monsters possess. Special abilities are genetic, which means only members of a particular species are able to use special abilities. Silence does not work on special abilities, but there are many monsters which possess normal spells that cannot be silenced either.

Some special abilities:

• The ability of some monsters to blink, such as crimson imps. Note that some monsters instead possess Blink as a spell.
• Ghost moths' and eyes of draining's MP-draining gaze.
• Floating eyes' ability to paralyze you.
• All Mara's abilities.
• Dragons and draconians have breath attacks. The Serpent of Hell can summon and abjure (in addition to its breath attacks). Some breath weapons are implemented as special abilities, while others are implemented directly as spells. This has little effect on the player, as none can be silenced.

Players can acquire special abilities in a few ways:

• Play a race that gains special abilities as they become more experienced (such as tengu or demonspawn).
• Transform into a creature that has a special ability (Dragon Form).
• Mutate yourself via quaffing a potion of mutation, or by worshiping Xom or Jiyva.