Sphere of Battle

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

An orb encased in vividly coloured scales, wrought by a long-forgotten wizard. It was the mage Iskenderun's favourite playtoy.

the sphere of Battle

Orb

Enhances the power of the wielder's destructive spells
Weakens your non-destructive magic
Automatically creates a battlesphere when monsters are in sight; the battlesphere's power depends on your Conjurations skill.

Desirability

The sphere of Battle is useful for blaster casters, adding a spell enhancer and a level 5 spell's worth of damage. However, the loss of a regular shield (or different type of orb) can be very painful.

Characters that do not plan to use destructive magic have no use for the sphere of Battle. Djinn can make use of this orb's spell boost, but as they cannot train the Conjurations skill, the battlesphere's performance will be weaker. Also, the spell Iskenderun's Battlesphere becomes redundant, as you can only have one battlesphere at a time.

History

• This item was introduced in 0.30, replacing the staff of Battle.

Previously, you could hit enemies with the staff to fire the battlesphere. It only boosted the Conjuration school and the battlesphere only triggered on Conjurations spells (or staff melee attacks). It did not weaken your non-destructive spells. Also, the battlesphere's power was calculated as if you had cast Iskenderun's Battlesphere, instead of purely using Conjurations skill.