Inner Flame

[ajon]

I can see this spell being useful if you can target something a few spaces away in crowded areas but is it every actually a good idea? Getting into a corridor with bolt of fire seems like it would almost always be a better option if there's enough enemies approaching to consider inner flame.

[bel]

Inner flame is in the starting book and lvl 3. Bolt of fire is not and is lvl 6.

It is situational. Worked well with enslavement, but alas, enslavement is no longer a spell.

[MrRokkomies]

On its own, innerflame is simply suicidal. But if you have some other tools to use with it it is very cheap and powefull. The explosion does good damage and the clouds of flame are awesome. Try using it with poison+blinking, confusion or slow/switftness+ranged. Still, it is very situational and needs planning.

[nago]

Easiest use is with undead servant, you can also get cheap kills outside los (maybe summons work too, I don't know).
In any other situation I don't like it very much, too annoying to use - but it's certainly powerful.

[Zwobot]

Using Inner Flame makes you feel smart though! You can block the entrance of a corridor and inner flame whatever bee is on the other side for a cheaper fireball effect when it finally dies to poison/spear/flame tongue.

In all seriousness it's more or less a filler spell for a FE. I'd still learn it cause more tools are always better - but yeah.

In conjunction with Meph/Enslavement (the wand) or other tools to occupy a group that's too large to deal with I might use it before making an escape. Though scrolls of immolation are much more satisfying in that sort of scenario.

[Taracair]

Indeed it is very powerful with the Enslavement spell. First you put Inner Flame spell on a monster (the weaker the better), then charm him with Enslavement and attack the crowd. If it's weak enough it can be killed with one hit of another monster and BAM! Kamikadze has done the work.

[suboptimal]

Don't take my advice, because I suck at Crawl, but I've found Inner Flame very useful for dealing with packs of monsters where tactics permit its use. Especially if you can get behind a conjured flame, tagging the weakest creature in a group with IF and then killing that monster is one very efficient way to eliminate a group. It can also be an effective way to deal with large groups from a distance (in a Bailey, for example) but there you want to tag a creature or two with it then start throwing fireballs, which quickly become the more efficient route.

It's a dangerous spell that'll get you killed if you mishandle it, but that makes it interesting.

Oh, and it creates lots of snacks.

[MrRokkomies]

One thing to note is that if you use conjure flame to create a gap between you and the monsters, when the innerflame goes off it creates flameclouds. If the group doesn't die fast enough, the conjured flame will no longer keep them away from you, since they are now already standing in a cloud of flame. This can be very dangerous if the monster can kill you in one hit. Had this happen with death yaks...

[bcadren]

My favorite way to use it was obliterated from crawl in trunk. [Two monsters appear. Pick the one you think would lose a fight. Inner Flame, then Enslave it. Watch it blow up in the enemy's face.] That's about the only way to keep a AM going if you run out of ammo early (save a good melee weapon that doesn't need much skill).

[XuaXua]

Wands of enslavement still exist.

[suboptimal]

Had this happen with death yaks...

Death yaks (and your run-of-the-mill yaks as well) seem to be more likely than not to just wade into the conjured flame anyhow in .16. I've lost a few FEs to their bovinity attempting to use IF on them.

[ololoev]

Maybe it would be better to move innerflame 1 or 2 lvls up and make it act like mass innerflame, apllying hex on several monsters in los?

[dowan]

I think inner flame might be a lot more usable and useful if you could recast it on an enemy to remove the inner flame status. Because it really sucks to have an enemy you can't kill because it will blow up and kill you back.

[XuaXua]

Maybe it would be better to move innerflame 1 or 2 lvls up and make it act like mass innerflame, apllying hex on several monsters in los?

So, Scroll of Immolation, then?