Spell Suggestion: Crystallize, Tmut / Earth

[Hurricos]

Rapidly reorganizes the composition of a rocky piece of material, turning it to crystal. Tougher stone is harder to recrystallize, but the strongest casters will find a simple feat in turning even the mightiest metal walls to brittle crystal.

This spell can also be cast upon a petrified or petrifying subject, or one composed of brittle material, but the subject may resist unless they are fully stoned.

L7 Tmut / Earth. Smite targeted, LOS (think LRD targeting). This spell immediately turns the target wall or applicable monster into brittle crystal, leaving them indefinitely vulnerable to destruction by Shatter or Lee's Rapid Deconstruction. If the target is rock or a petrified monster, they are immediately turned to crystal with no chance to resist; otherwise, if they are petrifying or made of bone (skeleton) / metal (war gargoyle) / stone (gargoyle) / rock (earth elemental) / ceramic (ushabti), they make a check of power against HD to resist (suggestion: roll dPower against 10dHD). If the target is a non-rock wall, the chance of Crystallizing it is 4 times the chance of destroying it with LRD at the same power. This means you'll have a 1 in 3-or-so chance of crystallizing a metal wall at max power. Non-LRDable targets are not applicable to this spell.

Uses: Making LRD more usable in empty environments, immediately handling petrified enemies so that they can't outlast Petrify and kill you, preparing deathtraps and such.

[duvessa]

so it's a spell that is optimal to cast on every wall in the game that you might LRD?

[milski]

Beyond the tedious optimal play issue, I just don't understand what purpose this spell serves. It's a level 7 spell that works on a very specific set of monsters and is purely useful as setup for a lower level spell, since as far as I can tell crystallizing monsters has no direct effect.

That doesn't really mesh with Crawl design at all.

[ololoev]

With this spell typical EE's petr -> LRD chain will transform into petr -> crystalize -> LRD!

[Croases]

I'd rather see something like this:

Crystallize, L4 Earth/Tmut
This spell channels transmutative energy through the caster's spells and weapons, converting any monster killed for its duration to a tough but short-lived crystal statue.

Crystal statues are susceptible to LRD, can be attacked, and have the original HP of the monster killed (think immobile, non-attacking zombies, unsure if they should block LoS - I want to say yes because I liked the LoS-blocking thing that door mimics had but I have a hunch that it would be abusable somehow). This creates interesting situations because you can't kill a rat or orc to wall yourself off (it will die in no time), but if you kill a yak in a corridor you can prevent the rest of the pack from getting to you, and if you have an axe you can even create a pseudo-corridor/Tomb of Doroklohe in open space. You also have the option of standing back and using LRD, or bouncing bolts of fire/cold from them like actual green crystal walls!

This serves as an "offensive" escape spell and a low-level counterpart to Glaciate's ice pillars, which are neat but have no real use because you don't need their protection when you can cast a level 9 dual school spell. Still sounds kind of like "Death Channel with walls" though.

[duvessa]

With this spell typical EE's petr -> LRD chain will transform into petr -> crystalize -> LRD!

petr -> LRD chain already completely sucks compared to just LRDing a wall next to the monster, this one would be even worse.

[kuniqs]

I'd never use this considering LDRing twice costs less mp and deals more damage than crystalizing-then-LDRing

[pubby]

Lehudib's Crystal Spear could an effect like this, instead of it being iron shot with bigger dice.

[Hurricos]

Beautiful. You guys have taken my shitty suggestion and made some great ones.

Most of the purpose of this was to make larger Lees blasts (5x5), create blocking statues, and immediately end tough but petrified enemies. Would have been great for packs because of better Lee's, and ending monsters using a chaos Qbl + Yara's, but I do prefer the idea of infusing your attacks and spells with crystal seeds to crystallize a monster target on kill for use as a block or LRD target. LCS instantly crystallizing a target also sounds fun, but it could be bad that it will then block.

[Hurricos]

With this spell typical EE's petr -> LRD chain will transform into petr -> crystalize -> LRD!

petr -> LRD chain already completely sucks compared to just LRDing a wall next to the monster, this one would be even worse.

If you have a wall, if the target has low AC, and if you are fighting a single monster. Otherwise, Petring an ugly then crystallizing can be used to absolutely end the rest of the pack for piddly MP cost due to giant crystal blasts + possibly blocking.

[Hurricos]

Beyond the tedious optimal play issue, I just don't understand what purpose this spell serves. It's a level 7 spell that works on a very specific set of monsters and is purely useful as setup for a lower level spell, since as far as I can tell crystallizing monsters has no direct effect.

That doesn't really mesh with Crawl design at all.

The direct effect is instakill. (N.b. this instakill is in a situation where stabs or Lee's could have done it anyways.). They cannot act again once crystallized. Then, you're left with a target that can presumably have spells bounced off of it, and can also be targeted directly by Lee's (and also block things from passing like ice blocks, useful for casting past them). Yes, its primary focus is with Lee's.

Also, getting on-demand Crystal walls for reflection is fun and good.

Best first implementation may be to start with an unrand "Lehudib's Crystal Staff" that can be eVoked for LCS (capped at some power), and can Earth staff crush to crystallize opponents on death.

[milski]

You could probably stand to indicate things like "this spell prevents the monster from taking any action" if that's an intended consequence of the spell.

[Hurricos]

You could probably stand to indicate things like "this spell prevents the monster from taking any action" if that's an intended consequence of the spell.

I thought it would be obvious as you can, for the most part, only crystallize petrified targets ...

You know, because it's harder to move if you're crystal than if you're stone ...

But OK. I could have mentioned it more clearly.

[milski]

You could probably stand to indicate things like "this spell prevents the monster from taking any action" if that's an intended consequence of the spell.

I thought it would be obvious as you can, for the most part, only crystallize petrified targets ...

You know, because it's harder to move if you're crystal than if you're stone ...

But OK. I could have mentioned it more clearly.

http://crawl.chaosforge.org/Crystal_guardian

http://crawl.chaosforge.org/index.php?t ... tal_statue

[Ceann]

You could easily just make it L7 do something like...combing Petrify/Irradiate but make it instantly turn them into crystal, then after a few turns they have an irradiate type of explosion. If it doesnt kill the target they can move again as the crystal covering has detonated. You can also freely cast LRD on their crystal form until it explodes.