Statue Form (spell)

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

Statue Form (spell)

Statue Form is a level 6 Transmutations/Earth Magic spell which changes the caster into a sentient, mobile statue. This makes the caster immensely strong and durable in exchange for slow action speed. Gargoyles cannot cast Statue Form, as they are already made of stone, while Ghouls and Mummies are unable to change form.

For the duration of this spell the caster gains the following:

Pros

• Unarmed Combat Base Damage = UC + 12
• +50% damage bonus to all melee attacks, applied after AC
• A huge AC bonus: 20 + 12 * power / 100, max 38
• +30% HP
• Immunity to poison & miasma
• rElec, rN+
• 50% reduction to torment damage (stacks with rN)
• Immune to petrification and sleep, unbreathing.

Cons

• Body armour, gloves, and boots meld into your character, becoming inactive
• The base cost of all actions is increased by 50%. Like being slowed, and stacks with slow.
  • Movement delay is set to 1.0, but slowed to 1.5.
• Vulnerability to Shatter and Lee's Rapid Deconstruction

Strategy

Despite the scary sounding speed penalty, Statue Form is a fairly strong spell. It is best used with unarmed fighters unable to use most or all armors, like trolls, felids, and octopodes. Any character might find its resistances useful, with rTorm particularly good in the extended game. Already slow characters won't mind the speed penalty as much, while potions of haste can negate it in a pinch.

Being a statue is more durable than the stats may suggest. Unlike most Transmutations, Statue Form doesn't meld shields. And unlike heavy body armour, you'll get your full, unencumbered EV. You have above-average values in HP, AC, EV, as well as decent SH, leading to a very high effective HP.

Statue Form does not explicitly penalize spellcasting, but it slows casting spells by 50% (with no compensation). As a result, it makes spells less effective as a primary method of killing enemies. Statue Form can still be worth using on a Conjurations-focused caster for its defenses, but bear in mind the risks.

Tips and Tricks

• Amphibious species can still use Statue Form in deep water, but will incur the penalties from standing in (shallow) water. Statues sink.
• Manifold Assault lets you throw your fists from full line of sight, partially negating Statue Form's low speed. Other low-level Translocations are already quite useful when slow.
• While Statue Form gives a +50% bonus to all melee attacks, including weapons, you attack 50% slower. So there's no net benefit to weapon damage.
• Very useful for (15 rune) low turncount speedruns. Since you act at 1.5 delay, you'll regenerate 1.5 decaAut per move, while only taking 1 "turn".

Humanoid	Palentonga	Naga	Djinni	Octopode	Felid
	File:Statue form palentonga.png

History

• Prior to 0.30, Statue Form's +50% melee damage applied before AC reduction, resulting in slightly higher damage.
• Prior to 0.27, Statue Form had 39% guaranteed damage reduction and was forbidden by Yredelemnul.
• Prior to 0.26, Statue Form had an immunity to rot.
• Prior to 0.20, Statue Form scaled with strength, with UC = 6 + STR/3 before the 50% damage boost.
• Prior to 0.18, Statue Form's AC bonus was lower (17 + (spell power)/10), as Stoneskin was removed. Statue Form also gave a +2 STR bonus and a -2 DEX penalty.
• Prior to 0.17, Statue Form enhanced the AC bonus from Stoneskin.
• Prior to 0.16, Gargoyles could cast Statue Form; it gave them a lower AC bonus which still stacked with their natural AC and 50% GDR.
• Prior to 0.15, Statue Form also granted -10 EV, and gave gargoyles 62% GDR. It also used Earth Magic to determine AC instead of spell power and prevented scrambling.
• Prior to 0.14, merfolk could not use Statue Form in deep water (if they fell in while in Statue Form, they would revert to normal).
• Prior to 0.13, it only granted the player one rank of poison resistance.