Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context VideoGame / DungeonCrawl

Go To

1%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1386548416086144400
2%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.
3%%
4[[quoteright:336:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/title_denzi_invasion_5981.png]]
5
6->That's what's so great about Crawl: every time, you don't even have rage at the chance of the heavens to sustain you; you know, with a cold certainty something like that of a priest who has lost his faith in God, that your death was caused by none other than yourself, and that a better man could have avoided it.
7-->-- '''<nrook>''', as quoted by the Dungeon Crawl knowledge bots under "fair."
8
9''Dungeon Crawl'' (called ''Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup'' in full, or ''Crawl'' or DCSS for short) is an open-source {{roguelike}} game, based on the late 1990s roguelike ''Linley's Dungeon Crawl''. Along with ''VideoGame/NetHack'', ''{{VideoGame/Angband}}'', ''[[VideoGame/AncientDomainsOfMystery ADOM]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfMajEyal ToME]]'', it is considered one of the major modern roguelikes, with a large fanbase and active player community and devteam.
10
11''Crawl'' sets itself apart from other roguelikes with a number of distinguishing features:
12
13* '''emphasis on game balance''': ''Crawl'' goes to lengths to avoid the problem of UnstableEquilibrium, mostly by carefully limiting the resources available to the player, and their usefulness.
14* '''emphasis on simplicity''': The dev team prefers to simplify rather than complicate the game mechanics, and often remove features from the game if they're turning out to be cumbersome, repetitive, or redundant.
15* '''emphasis on playstyle''': The game tries to accommodate many different styles of play, which is one reason why the game has such a huge roster of species, classes, and gods - and also why this roster changes with each new version, as the dev team tries out new ideas and discards flawed ones.
16* '''emphasis on species over class''': character classes in ''Crawl'' are little more than a starting package of skills and equipment. It's possible for a player to change their character's role entirely over the course of a game. Species, on the other hand, makes a huge difference in what a player can do: a vampire plays very differently to a minotaur, for example. This is a reversal of the class-based gameplay in most other roguelikes.
17* '''anti-grinding''': The only way to gain experience in ''Crawl'' is to defeat enemies, and there is only a limited number of enemies per dungeon floor. (There's still a ''lot'' of dungeon, so you'll never be lacking in places to get experience - the question is whether you'll survive the attempt.) Skill grinding is also impossible for the same reason, as your skill points come directly from your experience - you can't improve your skills without challenging and defeating monsters.
18* '''anti-frustration''': ''Crawl'' tries to make cheap shots as rare as possible. Being killed without warning is almost unheard of - the game will always warn you if you're about to do something that may have adverse consequences. A basic threat-level system will warn you when you're facing a dangerous enemy, so you can generally always see the danger coming, and there are many different ways to escape a dangerous encounter. Weapons and armor are indestructible and cannot be taken from you (although they can be temporarily degraded).
19* '''anti-spoilers''': ''Crawl'' tries to give players as much information as they need to be able to make tactical decisions, to reduce any reliance on secrets or spoilers. In theory, a player who knows the game inside and out should still have no significant advantage over a new player - success should instead rely entirely on tactical skill. The game will tell you the probability of success on almost all actions that involve random chance, and the player can examine any enemy to see what they can do in a fight and take appropriate precautions.
20* '''skill customization''': At any time, players can choose which skills they would like to favor over others, which means that every player is effectively multi-classing. For example, it's possible to start as a SquishyWizard and put all your skill points into Fighting, eventually turning them into a MagicKnight. In keeping with the emphasis on simplicity, customizing your skills is entirely optional - the game will actually manage this for you by default (by keeping track of whatever it is you do the most, and assigning your earned skill points to those skills).
21* '''religion''': ''Crawl'' has an entire pantheon of gods for players to follow, which grant special powers and abilities while adding restrictions to what you can do in game (followers of good gods, for example, cannot use evil weapons or dark magic). This adds a third dimension of religion to the species/class combination.
22* '''auto-explore''': A single key-command will cause your character to explore the dungeon by themselves until they encounter something interesting or dangerous, rather than making the player trawl every inch of the dungeon manually. This makes for smooth, fast gameplay. It's especially good when playing in a terminal over SSH, or on a mobile device, where moving about can be slow or fiddly. Crawl even has a single-key "auto-attack" command, which will make your character attempt to attack the nearest enemy (moving toward them if necessary).
23* '''screen scrolling''': Your player character is always centered on screen. This is quite rare in terminal-based roguelikes -- most roguelikes had their beginnings in the 1980s, when shifting large numbers of text characters on a terminal wasn't always a fast operation. Nowadays, it's less of a problem.
24
25In terms of flavor, the game has a similar medieval fantasy setting to most roguelikes, having been inspired by most of them: elves, dwarves, and orcs all make an appearance; weapons are the typical array of medieval blades, sticks, and bows; magical wands, potions, and scrolls can be found everywhere, and of course, there are many, many, many monsters waiting to kill you. [[ExcusePlot The plot is minimal]]: the player's task is to go to the bottom of the dungeon, nab the [[MacGuffin Orb of Zot]], and escape.
26
27You can download it [[http://crawl.develz.org/wordpress/ here]] or play it [[http://crawl.akrasiac.org/ online]].
28
29----
30!!This game provides examples of:
31
32[[foldercontrol]]
33
34[[folder:#-C]]
35* OneUp: Felids get an extra life every few levels - very unusual for a roguelike, but then, Felids are an unusual species.
36* AcidAttack: Corrosion is a status effect that can be inflicted on the player or on enemies; it temporarily degrades weapon bonuses and armor class by several points, and multiple instances of the effect can stack, making acidic enemies among the more dangerous in the game. (Fortunately, there is no permanent equipment degradation in Crawl; corrosion eventually fades away). Some items can provide corrosion resistance to counter this.
37** Jellies are likely the first acid-using enemy you'll encounter; they're just acidic blobs that can corrode you when you hit them or when they hit you. They used to be able to dissolve items on the ground, but that ability was removed for everyone that doesn't follow Jiyva, the god of slimes.
38** The oklob plant is feared for this reason -- it spits incredibly damaging acid at any adversary careless enough to wander into range. The game will actually mark the area around them as a hazard when you encounter them, so that you don't accidentally wander too close. And if you're a worshipper of the plant god Fedhas, you can grow them yourself.
39** The wand of acid allows you (or, if you're unlucky, an enemy) to fire bolts of acid, and is one of the more powerful wands you can have in your arsenal, capable of bringing down some of the tougher enemies in the early game.
40** Yellow draconians have an innate acid spit attack which can additionally splash onto enemies next to the target.
41* ActionBomb:
42** The scroll of immolation turns all nearby monsters into walking bombs, although they won't go off until they're killed by other means. The "Inner Flame" spell can be used for a more targeted effect.
43** Ballistomycetes, which can be grown by followers of the plant god Fedhas Madash, produce spores that seek out nearby creatures and explode, dealing damage to and confusing everything in their blast radius.
44** The spell Conjure Ball Lightning creates some friendly ball lightnings which immediately make for the nearest monster and explode in a giant electrical discharge.
45* AerithAndBob: The names of enemies in ''Crawl'' range from common (Robin, Erica, Frederick) to unusual (Crazy Yiuf, Mennas, Tiamat) to TheUnpronounceable (Ilsuiw, Mlioglotl, Gloorx Vloq).
46* AgonyBeam: The Necromancy school of magic offers two: the relatively mild Pain and the PercentDamageAttack Agony. Symbol of Torment, a full-screen variant of Agony, is not available as a spell for player characters (though certain monsters have access to it). Players can still make use of it through a couple of rare items and as a power granted by the god [[TheUnpronounceable Kikubaaqudgha]].
47* AlienGeometries: While the geometry of the Abyss is locally Euclidean, the realm itself extends infinitely in all directions, making mapping it an impossible and meaningless task.
48* AllYourPowersCombined: The eight Rings of the Octopus King and the Trident of the Octopus King. Each ring is a slightly improved version of mundane rings found in the dungeon that adds minor boosts to your stats. However, each ring also adds +2 to the enchantment of the trident. As an octopode (the only species capable of wearing all the rings at once), it's theoretically possible to have a ''+24'' venomous trident while having +16 to HP, AC, EV, and SH, as well as flight, increased spellcasting success, extra MP, the ability to see invisible creatures, and resistance to fire, ice, acid, [[LifeDrain negative energy]], poison, and electricity. In practice, however, it's highly unlikely you'll find more than one or two of these items in a single game.
49* TheAlmightyDollar: Gozag Ym Sagoz is the god of money, and only cares about money. Gozag's followers can request various assistance by spending gold, and both slain enemies and dead followers turn into gold because this god considers "flesh and spirit are inferior to wealth".
50* AlwaysAccurateAttack:
51** Several spells bypass accuracy checks, but one of the earliest examples is Magic Dart, the starting spell for Hedge Wizards and Conjurers. It has excellent range and can never miss, but it also has a very low power cap and is easily stopped by armor, which quickly renders it obsolete once you start encountering enemies who can just tank it. It can sometimes be situationally useful if there's something you absolutely need to hit.
52** The artifact crossbow "Sniper" was blessed by Ashenzari to have infinite accuracy, and will never miss.
53* AlwaysChaoticEvil: In this case, "evil" is defined by what you are, not what you do. The gods of Good are implacable enemies of demons and undead, and while demonspawn and undead [=PCs=] can ''act'' however one likes, the Good Gods will refuse any worship from them, and the powers of Zin and the Shining One are naturally harmful to them.
54* AmplifierArtifact:
55** Rings of ice or fire increase the power of ice or fire spells cast by the wearer, respectively. However, they also make the wearer more vulnerable to the opposing element.
56** Most [[MagicStaff magic staves]] amplify the power of a particular kind of spell when wielded.
57** The Archmagi ego (most commonly found on robes, though some artifacts can also have it) increases the power of ''all'' of the user's spells when worn.
58* AnimateBodyParts:
59** Flying skulls are fast and evasive nuisances found in several endgame areas. They're not very dangerous even en masse, but their shrieking is likely to attract attention from deadlier threats.
60** Curse skulls are highly durable sentinels that patrol the Crypt; when they spot intruders, they [[EnemySummoner call in hordes of undead]] while periodically invoking [[PercentDamageAttack Torment]].
61** The wild magic of the Realm of Zot provides the rather silly undead curse toe, which is nevertheless still capable of Torment and [[FesteringFungus summoning deathcaps]].
62* AnimateInanimateObject: Certain spells and effects can cause weapons to come to life and fight either for or against the player.
63** Tukima's Dance is a low-level Hex spell that the player can cast on enemies, causing their weapon to dance out of their hand and start attacking them.
64** There was a whole level, The Hall of Blades, which contained nothing but animated weapons. Now there's a smaller version of the Hall of Blades which always appears on the second floor of the Elven Halls.
65** Xom can do this to any weapon bestowed upon you at any time. Beogh and the Wu Jian Council will also summon dancing weapons, but only if you invoke their wrath.
66** There are a few kinds of animated statues in certain rare vaults; they tend to be pretty formidable enemies despite (or perhaps because of) being unable to move.
67** [[ChestMonster Mimics]] used to be this. There were two types: one that would pretend to be an item and another, called the feature mimic, that pretended to be a door, staircase, or some other major dungeon feature. Both would attack you when approached, but in later versions they just vanish when you reveal their true nature.
68* {{Animorphism}}: Transmuters have a few spells for self-transformation into animals, Spider Form being the most easily attainable. Vampires can also transform into bats in their bloodless state.
69* AnnoyingArrows:
70** Largely {{averted|Trope}}. The first time you meet a centaur, you'll find that arrows are ''not'' merely annoying, since centaurs are good with their bows and can deal a lot of damage. Even worse, centaurs are ''fast''; fast enough to chase you ''and'' fire at you every turn unless you're a fast creature yourself. This means that you can't even easily run away to escape; they will just pursue you and fill you with arrows.
71** Played mostly straight with arrow traps, which have since been removed from ''Crawl'' due to being easily avoidable and only posing a threat to characters that were already almost dead.
72* AntiAir: Until version 0.27, the Airstrike spell did greater damage to flying creatures -- which includes the player, if an enemy uses it on them.
73* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Reducing player frustration is a key part of ''Crawl's'' design philosophy -- anything that can be simplified or automated by the game usually is, so that you can focus on your tactics instead.
74** The most notable example, and arguably ''Crawl's'' killer feature, is auto-explore: a single keypress will begin exploring every part of the dungeon floor that you haven't yet seen. The game will tell you when the level has been fully explored, so there's no need to go hunting for that one last tile you missed.
75** The game starts with a sensible set of auto-pickup defaults so that your character will pick up anything that you'd reasonably want to. However, auto-pickup is automatically suspended whenever you're within sight of an enemy, so that you don't waste a turn trying to pick something up while you're in danger.
76** If an enemy turns invisible in front of you (or if an already-invisible enemy attacks you), the game automatically turns off auto-pickup for the same reason, but will automatically re-enable it once the enemy is dealt with.
77** When transforming into something else, your equipment simply merges into your body instead of being destroyed or falling off.
78** As well as auto-explore, there's also auto-travel: you can simply tell the game where you want to go, and it'll figure out how to get there and then take your character there by the quickest route - or, if it can't get there for some reason, it'll tell you why not.
79** The game automatically places travel restrictions on dangerous areas and will not allow you to enter them without confirming first.
80** The game will always ask for confirmation on potentially dangerous or irreversible actions (eg. using an area-of-effect spell at point-blank range, stepping into dangerous traps while badly injured, abandoning your religion), and will outright prevent you from doing harmful or lethal things to yourself (eg. walking into deep water, drinking poison). You're still likely to die for a thousand other reasons, but at least the game is rooting for you.
81** The game disallows redundant actions, such as reading scrolls of identify when you have no unidentified items. This prevents you from accidentally wasting useful resources.
82** If you read a known scroll and then decide that you didn't want to do that (eg. reading a scroll of enchant weapon when you don't actually want to enchant any of your weapons), the game will allow you to back out without wasting the scroll.
83** The game remembers everything your character has seen, even if you didn't notice it yourself. You can simply type in what you're looking for and the game will tell you exactly where it is and even take you there if you want.
84* AntiGrinding:
85** Starting in version 0.26, the game has a "Zot clock" which ticks down constantly, and will bring [[NonstandardGameOver the doom of Zot]] upon the player if it reaches zero. The only way to escape this fate is to keep exploring to find new branches of the Dungeon.
86*** It's possible to get free of the Zot clock entirely by clearing a [[BonusDungeon Ziggurat]]. However, as a Ziggurat is [[ArcNumber 27]] floors of larger and increasingly lethal hordes of powerful monsters, the only characters capable of clearing a Ziggurat are ones that have long since been ready to win the game.
87*** Older versions used hunger as an anti-grinding measure instead -- the limited amount of food forced the player to continue deeper and deeper instead of remaining on the same level for extended periods of time. (There were a few ways to get off the food clock -- mummies and vampires did not eat at all, and people in lich form also had no need of food.)
88** New monsters do not spawn on most levels, leaving you with no reason to stay on an already-cleared level. Older versions would begin spawning disproportionately strong monsters before stopping monster generation altogether.
89** Grinding is possible in two areas that generate infinite items to loot and monsters to slay: The Abyss and Pandemonium. However, both are fairly dangerous and characters that can survive long enough to grind there are likely to be ready for the endgame anyway.
90** If a game lasts a whopping ''two hundred million'' turns, about a thousand times longer than even the slowest player would take to beat the game if they were really trying, the game will tell you that [[NonStandardGameOver the world ended while you were standing around.]]
91* AntiHoarding: Most of the powerful miscellaneous items go inert after a single use and will recharge after some time, which makes players feel less worried about wasting them.
92* AppealToForce: One of the best options a would-be Messiah of Beogh has for recruiting orcs is to kick their asses or kill other orcs who don't follow him. Beogh especially approves if you kill enemy priests, even if they're also priests of Beogh; that's how orcs deal with heresy.
93* ArcNumber: [[http://crawl.chaosforge.org/index.php?title=27 Crawl seems to have a fondness for the number 27]]. Maximum EXP and skill levels are 27, the [[BonusDungeon Ziggurat]] has 27 floors, the number of playable species are 27 (as of 0.30), and so on... Maybe Linley's a [[Music/WeirdAlYankovic Weird Al]] fan.
94* AnArmAndALeg: One of the sacrifices the player can make to Ru the Awakened is their own hand.
95* ArmorAndMagicDontMix: Wearing armor decreases your spell success rate proportional to how heavy the armor is. Wearing leather armor won't hinder your spellcasting by much, but wearing full plate renders you incapable of casting all but the most basic of spells without investing significant amounts of experience into both your magic and armor skills.
96* ArrowsOnFire:
97** A bow of flame turns arrows into flaming bolts when fired. In previous versions, it was possible to get "arrows of flame" too, which could be fired from ordinary bows for the same effect.
98** The unique centaur enemy Nessos uses a particularly deadly version of this, combining an (often highly enchanted) flaming bow with [[PoisonedWeapons toxic arrows]] for a combination that's highly lethal to anyone who doesn't have resistance to both poison and fire.
99* ArtificialBrilliance:
100** Enemies in Crawl are aware of the classic roguelike trick of bottlenecking (luring enemies into a narrow corridor to take them out one-by-one), and some will take measures to foil it:
101*** Enemies that are using ranged attacks won't blindly follow you round a corner; they'll keep their distance as they approach so that they can still shoot at you from afar.
102*** If an enemy is blocking one of their own allies from reaching you, they will move aside if there's room to do so -- even if it means voluntarily taking a hit while they're repositioning. They'll also move out of the way to give allies with ranged weapons or spells a clear line of fire.
103*** If you do manage to force a group of enemies into a bottleneck, their allies will still attempt to find an alternate route to you via other corridors, so that they can surround you from both sides.
104*** Even if all those options fail, you're still not necessarily safe: enemies can use a wand of digging to carve a way through to you, if they have one.
105* AsteroidsMonster:
106** Inverted and then played straight with slime creatures, [[BlobMonster living wads of goo]] that tend to travel in packs. When they see a tasty adventurer such as yourself, they merge to form bigger and stronger slime creatures unless you can kill them quickly enough. If you let them merge all the way into a titanic slime creature, they can start doing upwards of 100 damage in a single hit; running away is generally the best strategy if they get that far. If you can manage to get away, they'll split up again after a while. They may also split up if you're fighting them in an open area.
107** You ''could'' try polymorphing a merged slime creature... [[OhCrap but that tends to just generate]] ''[[OhCrap several]]'' [[OhCrap nasty monsters like storm dragons or glowing orange brains]].
108** The Abyss features starcursed masses, which play the trope straighter. Unlike slime creatures, you actually ''want'' them to combine, as the more starcursed masses there are onscreen, the more damage their [[BrownNote otherworldly screeching]] will do to you (even paralyzing you if there's enough of them).
109* AtomicSuperpower: The Irradiate spell allows the player to unleash mutagenic energies on their surroundings, deforming any enemies unlucky enough to be nearby. The player also gets a hefty dose of the mutagenic contamination too, so this spell is dangerous to perform too often.
110* AttackAnimal: This is what Summoners are all about; they start off with a spell to summon rodents to harass foes, and quickly move up to summoning imps, hounds, and protective golems. A wand of enslavement can also net you a temporary commandable ally, and there are various other evocables that can summon creatures to aid you.
111* AttackDrone: You can summon a magical one with the spell Iskenderun's Battlesphere. It fires bolts of unblockable energy at whatever you're currently blasting.
112* AttackReflector: Shields of reflection can bounce back ranged attacks in the opposite direction, whether it's an arrow or a magical blast of energy. However, they won't block piercing attacks like bolt spells or magical enchantments (though a rare artifact called the Warlock's Mirror will reflect even those). Additionally, amulets of reflection will provide a small amount of protection and a permanent reflection bonus, both of which can stack with other shields.
113* AttentionDeficitOohShiny:
114** Weaponized by followers of Gozag Ym Sagoz, god of gold -- monsters have a chance to be distracted by your aura of wealth.
115** In the description of the book of Clouds:
116--> A book of magic spells for creating an assortment of clouds. It is difficult to read, as the text is frequently interrupted by descriptions of unusually-shaped clouds the author spotted while writing.
117* AutoRevive: The dreamshard necklace, a rare artifact amulet that will prevent a single lethal or near-lethal blow, destroying itself in the process.
118* AwesomeButImpractical:
119** A black draconian's BreathWeapon creates a wild blast of electrical projectiles. It's possible to cause heavy damage to all enemies nearby, but since you can't aim where the blast goes, it's entirely possible to blow up the wall behind you instead of the charging ogre unless you're surrounded (in which case you ''will'' damage yourself as well). It's also very loud, so you'll alert all of said ogre's friends to your position.
120** Subverted with the level 9 spells. While the sheer amount of skill you need to reliably cast such difficult spells is staggering (you can easily beat the game without touching a level 9 spell), their power makes up for that investment, and it can be well worth the effort to master one in the [[BonusLevelOfHell late-game areas]].
121** Random artifacts quite often wind up in this territory. While they're mostly more powerful than their mundane variants, they can still be useless for the player by having ruinous negative effects in addition to the good ones or simply being of a type the player's character can't use effectively.
122** Distortion-branded weapons. While they can cause significant damage or even instantly banish enemies by tearing holes in reality, they can also harmlessly blink them away, giving the enemy a chance to recover and making you track them down. Worse, when you stop wielding them, they tear holes in reality around ''you''; this can have some very nasty effects, including a 25% chance of banishment. Worse still, enemies can use them against you.
123* BackStab: The player can make stealth attacks (attacks against sleeping, distracted, or unaware enemies) which can do vastly more damage than a regular attack, particularly if you're using a dagger or other short blade. Some characters are built around stealth, and Dithmenos, God of Shadows, is an excellent choice for any sneaky character, as it wreaths you in darkness and allows you to silently jump into the shadows of nearby enemies.
124* BadassBookworm: Because of the flexible skill training system, spellcasters can choose to increase their fighting and weapon proficiency if they desire. They might lack the raw strength of a trained fighter, but there are items that can compensate for that.
125* BadBoss: [[MadGod Xom]] considers its followers to be toys and acts accordingly, blessing and cursing them essentially at random. And if it gets bored with you, you can pretty much expect death to follow soon. Even if it likes you for the moment, [[EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor it has a bad sense of humor]] and will often intentionally give you excellent gifts that you can't use (you're a physically-weak and sneaky spellcaster? Here, have this awesome artifact [[ArmorAndMagicDontMix plate armor]]!).
126* BanishingRitual: The Banishment spell can send beings to the Abyss, taking them out of the fight. Unfortunately, some enemies know this spell too and will use it on the player. Worshippers of Lugonu can also gain a divine banishment power.
127* BarrierChangeBoss: Tiamat is an unique draconian enemy who changes its color often to gain various elemental resistances. She always drops the unique artefact called dragonskin cloak after killed, and [[VictorGainsLosersPowers it gives you a similar ability]].
128* BenevolentBoss: Most of the gods are happy to help you out, even the evil ones; as long as you're doing their bidding, they'll support your efforts. (There are some exceptions to this; Fedhas Madash cares more about nature than about you, and [[MadGod Xom]] rarely cares unless he finds you entertaining). Not only do they give you lots of benefits with very few demands of their own, all of them are also extraordinarily forgiving. They'll always let you off the hook for accidental transgressions (at least the first time) and even when you press their BerserkButton the worst you can generally expect is to lose any divine powers until they're happy with you again. The Three Good Gods are even okay with you abandoning your religion entirely, only punishing you for doing so if you [[FaceHeelTurn switch to worshipping an evil god]].
129* TheBerserker:
130** Berserker is a playable class, starting you off in the favor of the magic-hating berserker god Trog. Like the real Viking ''berserker''s, berserkers in Crawl start out wearing animal skins.
131** Transmuters play similarly to this, although with a more magical twist: their level 2 Wereblood spell acts like a more controllable berserk rage, rewarding them with healing and cumulative damage boosts each time they slay an enemy. It also makes them howl uncontrollably, which tends to bring even more enemies to the fight.
132* BewareMyStingerTail: Present on various enemies, like scorpions or manticores. Green Draconian player characters gain one naturally at level 14, and certain other characters (the rest of the draconians and [[SnakePeople Nagas]]) can get it through rare mutations. Demonspawn can grow a slightly different version that applies a weakening poison instead.
133* BigCreepyCrawlies: While their size is understated with tile size limitations and brief textual descriptors, the Spider Nest is an entire branch of these. According to their size categories, the swarming spiders are the size of chimps, the invisible ghost moths the size of yaks, and the emperor scorpions the size of elephants!
134* BigEater:
135** Back when food was still a concern, some species (trolls in particular) had high metabolisms and needed lots of food. Ghouls had an unending hunger for flesh and were able to eat vast amounts of meat (even meat that no other species could stomach) without ever becoming full.
136** Most species couldn’t eat chunks of freshly butchered meat while not hungry, but Trolls, Kobolds, Felids, and Ghouls could. In even older versions, other species could obtain this ability by wearing an Amulet of the Gourmand or mutating to become a carnivore.
137* BioArmor: The artefact "Cigotuvi's embrace" is a necromantic bio-armor of sorts. It's somewhat weak in its base form, but augments itself with bits of dead bodies if any are nearby, growing tougher as it absorbs more corpses (though the extra protection will gradually slough off over time).
138--> A suit of armour borne of rotten flesh and bone and gristle, held intact by the will of a long-dead sorcerer. The dreadful energies within it call to the bodies of the recently dead, protecting the wearer with a cocoon of carrion.
139* {{Biomanipulation}}: The Malmutate spell possessed by several dangerous monsters inflicts a negative mutation on the player.
140* BirdPeople: Tengu (called "Kenku" in previous versions) are a species of wingless avian humanoids, frail-bodied but with vicious beaks and talons. They gain the magical ability to fly when levelled up.
141* BlackMagic: Necromancy and demon summoning are considered to be this by the three Good Gods: Zin, The Shining One, and Elyvilon.
142* BladeSpam: The Manifold Assault spell warps space in paradoxical ways, allowing a single melee weapon to strike multiple targets at the same time.
143* BlatantLies: Sometimes, ghosts of former adventurers will claim that there is no end to the dungeon and it just goes down and down forever. This is not true; the Dungeon goes down for exactly 15 levels, and after that, you hit the Depths and eventually the Realm of Zot. There are some branches that ''are'' endless -- the infinite Abyss and the demonic realm of Pandemonium -- but these exist in other dimensions and there are ways in and out of them.
144* BlessedWithSuck:
145** Certain "good" mutations can cause this. Level 3 Mutation Resistance renders you permanently immune to mutation, including mutation ''removal''. Your only hope at this point is divine intervention.
146** Some of natural attack mutations prevent you from wearing certain armor types if they progress enough. For example, you might find a really good helmet, only to grow horns, antennae, and/or a beak (which prevent you from wearing a helmet).
147* BlobMonster: Lots of them, especially in The Slime Pits. They even have their own god: Jiyva, who grants worshipers slime-related mutations and abilities.
148* BloodKnight:
149** While many gods like the killing of certain enemies, a few are ''only'' happy if the player is killing everything they come across. For fighters, Trog will bestow [[TheBerserker berserker strength]] and protect their followers from its [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique harmful effects]] as long as they keep a steady stream of death and corpses coming its way. Casters have Vehumet, who doesn't even care about the corpses part, probably because its [[WaveMotionGun preferred]] [[FantasticNuke methods]] [[LudicrousGibs don't leave any]].
150** The Wereblood spell temporarily gives your character the mindset of a Blood Knight, making them more and more bloodthirsty (and increasingly dangerous) the more enemies they kill.
151* BodyHorror: Players can accumulate any number of mutations - good and bad - over the course of the game, in various different ways:
152** Players can intentionally mutate themselves by drinking a potion of mutation, which randomly removes and bestows mutations, good and bad. Players may sometimes play "mutation roulette" to deform themselves in the hope of getting some cool abilities.
153** Magic contamination, caused by failing to cast powerful spells or using certain magical effects too often, can result in deleterious mutations if it gets too bad.
154** [[MadGod Xom]] will sometimes grant mutations. Whether these mutations are beneficial or not depends almost entirely on Xom's mood.
155** Worshipping the Slime God Jiyva can also result in your gaining mutations that eventually culminate in you becoming a BlobMonster in all but name.
156** The Demonspawn species kind of has this as its gimmick; as you level up, more of your demonic ancestry asserts itself, which can often result in deformities (albeit beneficial ones).
157** Some monster attacks cause mutations, such as the neqoxec demon's Malmutate spell. These hostile mutations are almost always bad.
158** The small and large abominations are said to be made by [[CameBackWrong combining multiple corpses into a single creature using necromancy]]. Some monsters have a spell called Twisted Resurrection that allows them to create these creatures out of nearby corpses.
159** The side area "Cigotuvi's Fleshworks" is pretty much built entirely on this trope. Not only is it a WombLevel full of horrible, twisted mockeries of life, there are several areas filled with mutagenic fog that will swiftly devolve you unless you take proper precautions. Then there are the in-progress experiments: deformed humans, febrile elves, and sickly orcs that are locked in various organic cells. They invariably beg for death... if they are [[AndIMustScream still capable of speaking]], that is.
160* BonusDungeon:
161** The ziggurat, a side portal of [[ArcNumber 27]] wide-open floors jam-packed with enemies from almost everywhere in the game. Generally speaking, the survivability and destructive might required to clear the increasingly-difficult floors is more than enough to complete even the extended endgame. They can be repeatedly chained, and have received constant updates to increase in population and smarten-up monster selection with each completed ziggurat — as of 0.19, just a few ziggurats can produce end floors with dozens of orbs of fire and [[SerialEscalation the end results of a dozen can throw out hundreds of Pandemonium lords]].
162* BonusLevelOfHell:
163** The entire extended endgame is this. In order to win, you only need three Runes of Zot, which you can get fairly easily from the two Lair branches and the Vaults or the Abyss. It's only completionists and people who want a challenge who go after the others.
164** The Hells are a literal example, four areas chock-full of demons and other monsters based around their theme, each with an incredibly powerful demon lord at the bottom. To make matters worse, while exploring any of the Hells, you are periodically assaulted by "a mystical force" which does various unpleasant things to you. Each Hell also applies a specific, unpleasant effect as long as you're in it:
165*** The heat and smoke of Gehenna prevents the use of scrolls.
166*** The cold of Cocytus freezes potions, preventing their use.
167*** The oppressive rot of Tartarus halves willpower.
168*** The abrasive atmosphere of the Iron City of Dis corrodes the player's equipment. (-8 AC and slaying)
169** Other optional end-game areas include the [[BlobMonster Slime Pits]], the mummy-filled Tomb of the Ancients, the reality-bending [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace Abyss]], and the infinite demonic realms of Pandemonium.
170* BooksThatBite: The walking tome enemies are, animated and hostile magic books. They can conjure "living spells" to harm you.
171* BoomStick: Many magic wands are Boom Sticks, since they fire out bolts, beams and enchantments. The rods found in old versions were also Boom Sticks, but slightly more complex; each carried one or more spells which could be evoked by the wielder but were powered by the rod's own mana pool.
172* BoringButPractical:
173** [[CarryABigStick Maces & Flails]] don't do anything special like other kinds of weapons ([[CoolSword Long Blades]] use dexterity instead of strength, Axes can cleave to hit multiple creatures at once, Polearms give your attacks a longer reach), but they feature solid, dependable damage at decent speed for moderate skill investment.
174** Okawaru, the god of war, offers only equipment gifts and two fairly non-flashy (but incredibly useful) powers. Despite lacking in flavor, Okawaru is often considered to be an excellent god for melee characters.
175** Vehumet is the same for a lot of spellcasters. Since all you have to do to gain favor is kill monsters, and Vehumet has no restrictive practices nor does it require investment in any skills you wouldn't already be training, it's an excellent choice for mages focused on destructive magic.
176** This also applies to several spells:
177*** Summon Butterflies (which [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin summons butterflies]]) was a low-level spell that was immensely useful for blocking most enemies from getting to you, allowing you to either beat a hasty retreat or reposition yourself. It was removed in 0.26 due to being ''too'' BoringButPractical, as it was easy for pretty much any character to use, but was eventually reintroduced as a scroll in 0.29.
178*** Conjure Flame. It deals no damage directly, but is immensely useful in the early game because it can block weak enemies; stronger enemies can be lured into the flames, where they will burn constantly.
179*** Mephitic Cloud deals no direct damage, but creates a small area of confusion-inducing clouds, making it tremendously useful until the mid- to late-game, when things start getting too tough for it to work. It can even shut down otherwise dangerous early uniques.
180*** The most basic of basic spells, Magic Dart. Its damage doesn't scale much with your level, but it also has a paltry 1 MP cost and is 100% accurate - as long as you have line of effect to the enemy, you ''will'' hit, guaranteed. Because of this, it can be used to pick off fleeing enemies or to take out the ever-annoying [[ActionBomb giant spores]] from a safe distance.
181*** Searing Ray. It does high damage for it's casting cost (especially as it can be maintained for three turns at 1MP per turn), has a fair range, follows the target as they move and can hit up to four enemies if they are all in its path as it's a penetrating spell. The only downside is you have to stay still to maintain it. It's great if monsters are all lined up in front of you in a corridor.
182*** The main attack spells of the Earth Magic school (Stone Arrow, Iron Shot, Lehudib's Crystal Spear) simply fire a physical projectile at a single target. No frills or flashy mechanics like area-of-effect, piercing, or elemental damage, but raw physical damage is one of the hardest things in the game to resist; even the mightiest of demon lords will have a hard time shrugging off a sustained barrage of iron shots or crystal spears.
183* BossRush: This can sometimes happen by accident if the game happens to spawn several unique enemies on the same floor, as you can end up rapidly facing one unique after another.
184* BottomlessMagazines: Played straight with ranged weapons as of 0.29, all of which have been granted infinite ammunition. Thrown weapons are still consumables and tend to be in limited supply, however.
185* BreathWeapon:
186** Most adult draconians have these (only grey draconians do not), as do most dragons and drakes. Nagas can also spit poison.
187** The spell Dragon Form temporarily transforms the player into a fire-breathing dragon. Draconians instead retain their own color and breath weapon (or lack of one).
188** Other species used to be able to get breath weapons of their own if they were lucky with mutations, but that feature has since been removed.
189* BubblegloopSwamp: The Swamp branch, an area saturated with trees and shallow bogs.
190* CannibalismSuperpower: The unique enemy Gastronok is a giant slug who, according to his description, gained intelligence, magical powers, and a snazzy hat by eating a powerful wizard.
191* CardsOfPower: Decks of magical cards are granted by Nemelex Xobeh, god of cards. There are three types of decks: destruction, which contains cards that create damaging effects; escape, which will let you flee from battle and/or heal; and summoning, which will summon creatures that will fight alongside you (most of the time, at least).
192* CareBearStare: The healing ability granted by Elyvilon, god of pacifism, can calm monsters and make them uninterested in fighting you.
193* CastFromCalories: Before the hunger system's removal in 0.26, casting spells made you hungry. Training the basic Spellcasting skill reduced the hunger cost, easily negating the cost of first- or second-level spells, but higher-level spells cost exponentially more to cast. A rare magical staff negated spell hunger entirely while wielded.
194* CastFromHitPoints:
195** Certain rare abilities cost HP to activate instead of MP. Notable examples are a demonspawn's [[{{Hellfire}} Hurl Damnation]] ability and every ability granted by the destruction god Makhleb.
196** The spell Sublimation of Blood allows you to convert blood into MP, allowing you to keep blasting away at the expense of your HP. In older versions, chunks of meat or potions of blood could be provided to regain power harmlessly.
197** This is one of the djinn's [[PlanetOfHats racial hats]]; they use HP for both health and magic. While this means you're immune to anything that negatively affects your MP, it also means you're essentially slowly killing yourself by casting spells -- an amulet of regeneration is an even better find for a djinni than for most characters.
198* CatsHaveNineLives: While felids gain their extra lives one at a time as they level up rather than starting with nine (and they can only hold up to two extra lives at a time), the sapient cats being the only species with an extra life mechanic ''at all'' is a clear reference to the myth.
199* ChainLightning:
200** Present as a level 9 Air/Conjurations spell in the game. It targets a nearby enemy, and then chains off of them to other nearby creatures (possibly including you and/or your allies!) until it runs out of power.
201** A favorite spell of the unique enemy Nikola, who is [[ShoutOut named after]] famous inventor [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla Nikola Tesla]]. In his hands, it can deal buttloads of damage in very short order, even if you have electricity resistance.
202** Arcjolt hits anything standing next to you, and anything standing next to them, and anything standing next to ''them'', and so forth. If you're facing packed ranks of enemies, you can easily fry an entire horde in a couple shots.
203** There is also a less powerful version called Static Discharge, which begins from the squares right next to you.
204* CharacterAlignment: Many gods the player can choose to worship follow a strict alignment, which dictates how the player pleases (or displeases) them. They are also tagged as such in the game. [[invoked]]
205** There are three good gods, Elyvilon, The Shining One, and Zin. They universally forbid the use of necromancy and unholy items and harming of non-hostile beings. Zin is also stated to be LawfulGood, so it punishes former believers who converted to chaotic gods, in addition to evil gods.[[invoked]]
206** There are two ChaoticNeutral gods, Jiyva and Xom. Jiyva is a god of shapeless slime (to reflect this, even their name slightly changes in each game) who wants to devour everything. Xom is an unpredictable and wild god who doesn't give a damn about you other than as a source of entertainment.[[invoked]]
207** There are six evil gods, and Makhleb and Lugonu are stated to be ChaoticEvil. However, as of 0.30, this distinction doesn't have any gameplay effect, since LawfulGood Zin already despises them for being evil gods. [[invoked]]
208** All other gods are considered as "[[TrueNeutral Neutral]]", which means the good gods allow you to convert to them without getting divine retribution from them.[[invoked]]
209* ChestMonster: Although there are no actual chests, there are two different kinds of mimic (item mimics and feature mimics). In older versions of ''Crawl'', mimics stayed in mimicked form while attacking you, resulting in funny lines like 'the potion of healing hits you!' As of version 0.16, mimics no longer fight you -- they just cackle and disappear.
210* ChoiceOfTwoWeapons: Players will often have have several weapons that they switch between depending on the situation - most commonly, a main melee weapon for fights and a ranged weapon to attack enemies from a distance. For convenience, the game has a swap key which switches between weapons slots "a" and "b", allowing players to switch two pre-prepared weapons instantly without going through their inventory.
211* ChurchMilitant: Most gods approve of their followers slaying foes and often directly support the player to that end. Of particular note are The Shining One and Zin, who both want their followers to purge the world of evil creatures, and Okawaru, who is the god of war; their followers are Church Militants in a Military Church.
212* CloudCuckoolander:
213** Crazy Yiuf, a unique gnoll who wields a quarterstaff of chaos and speaks only in gibberish. Interestingly, if you hit him with the confusion status, his dialogue becomes normal. Even more interestingly, if you worship Xom, the god of chaos, you can understand Yiuf's rambling and all of his lines become [[ShoutOut shout outs]] to famous philosophers and scientists.
214** [[TalkingWeapon The Singing Sword]] is this sometimes too, especially in a pitched battle when it starts screaming gibberish as loudly as possible.
215* ColorCodedForYourConvenience:
216** Draconians start off in an immature brown form, but once they reach experience level 7, they grow up and turn into one of the 8 different draconian subspecies, each of which has a different color and ability.
217** Unlike the original ''Crawl'', ''Stone Soup'' provides various information in the form of colored text, including the types of corpses/mutations, artifact identifiers, prohibition of items (dark grey items cannot be used at all, red items are prohibited by your choice of god, purple items can be used but are quite risky), etc.
218** In the ASCII-based console version, enemies of the same general type are represented by letters of differing colors (for example, an orc warrior is a yellow "o" while an orc priest is a green "o"). Stronger enemies usually have brighter colors.
219* CombatTentacles: The playable octopode species can use their tentacles to slap and squeeze enemies to death. Several monsters have these as well; one such example would be the [[KrakenAndLeviathan krakens]] roaming the Shoals.
220* ComboPlatterPowers: The randomly generated artifacts can have virtually any combination of effects. Thus, you can have a spear which poisons your enemies, makes you resistant to fire, and lets you teleport. Quite often, one or more of these effects is either situationally useful or inherently negative, forcing the player to consider if the random artifact is worth using at all.
221* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: {{Zig Zagged|Trope}}.
222** {{Inverted|Trope}}: There are lots of things the player is allowed to do that most monsters can't, like firing ranged weapons at point blank range (the few enemies that *will* fire at point blank range, like deep elf master archers, are among the more dangerous in the game); most enemies will always swap out to a melee attack even if it's inferior, which it usually is. Additionally, there are some items that can't be used by monsters at all, like condenser vanes, or have diminished effects, like the wand of charming, which only confuses players rather than charming them.
223** {{Subverted|Trope}}: Enemy mages will never run out of MP or suffer spell miscasts, however there are ways in which the game simulates these effects. For example, antimagic weapons can't drain the MP of enemies (due to enemies not having MP), so instead these weapons apply a stackable spell failure rate on hit. There are also ''simulated'' enemy spell miscasts thanks to Cantrip, a monster-only spell which only provides flavor text (like making a monster's eyes glow, or causing an ominous feeling) when cast, essentially wasting a turn.
224*** {{Double Subver|sion}}ted: Not all enemy mages have the Cantrip spell, only the earlier ones which need it to tone down their power. The effect is that most enemies are still immune to miscasting.
225** Played Straight:
226*** The powerful Conjurations spell [[PainfullySlowProjectile Orb of Destruction]] launches a massive EnergyBall that homes in on enemies and deals ridiculous amounts of damage; however, it dissipates if it leaves the player's line of sight. Monster-created orbs don't have that problem.
227** ZigZagged: For player characters the delay between attacks depends on the weapon's base attack delay and the user's skill with the weapon. [=NPCs=] attack once per global turn, meaning they attack faster than normal with heavy weapons such as scythes or giant clubs, but slower with daggers and shortswords.
228* CommonplaceRare: While suits of body armour are abundant in the dungeon, auxiliary armour like boots, shields, or gloves are rare sights. Even when you cleared many parts of dungeons, there is a chance that you still can't find them.
229* ConcentrationBoundMagic:
230** A couple of spells can be extended across multiple turns with significantly less mana cost than a full recast, provided the caster remains completely still and takes no other action during the additional turns.
231** Amulets of the acrobat (which, although unrelated to the spell magic system, do work by means of an enchantment) dramatically increase EV as long as the wearer is standing still or traveling, but don't function while the wearer is busy with any other action.
232* ConvectionSchmonvection: You can stand right next to lava in the game with no ill effects aside from the occasional burst of fire or sight-obscuring smoke, though the lava bordering the edges of certain very hot areas will prevent you from flying over it using convection as a justification.
233* TheCorruption: Demonspawn slowly get more and more demonic as they gain experience levels. It doesn't necessarily turn them evil, but it can result in BodyHorror.
234* CosmicPlaything: The player character, if they worship Xom. One of the titles Xom can give is, in fact, "plaything."
235* CouldntFindAPen: The necromancy spellbook Book of Decay is said to have been written with the author's blood. The version the player can find is just a copy though, made with regular ink.
236* CowardlyBoss: In older versions, there was the monster-only Teleport Self spell. [[MiniBoss Unique monsters]] like Prince Ribbit or Sonja had it, and they tried to escape with this spell you once they got seriously injured.
237* CowardlyMooks: In older versions, heavily damaged monsters would become afraid and flee, possibly firing ranged attacks at you in their retreat. However, this mechanic was judged as violating the RuleOfFun and removed.
238* CruelElephant: Several types of elephant enemies appear in ''Crawl'', like elephants, [[DireBeast dire elephants]], or fire-breathing hellephants. All elephants can knock you back and prevent you from taking stairs, which cuts off an often critical means of escape. They can also cross water, making them more difficult to get away from.
239* CrutchCharacter:
240** Ignis, a god of flames that's [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly dying from lack of worship]], will give you all the power it has left should you follow it. Its invokable abilities are immensely powerful in the early game, but they can only be used a handful of times, and taper off rapidly around the Lair. Of course, once you run out of invocations, you'll have to switch or be stuck with a vestigial god, and switching gods means Ignis [[TakingYouWithMe will spend the last of its strength trying to kill you]].
241** Demigod characters get a number of early-game advantages, including higher-than-average HP, MP, base stats, and stat growth. However, they also have the worst experience rating of any species, meaning they need a lot more XP to level up. All of their skill aptitudes are below average, so they also take more XP to gain skill levels. Finally, demigods cannot worship a god, meaning they lose access to secondary powers and guaranteed sources of equipment.
242** Gnolls train all skills equally at a very fast rate, which makes it easy to pick up and use just about any useful item you come across. Later on, their inability to focus skills becomes more significant and greatly limits their damage output (though they'll always have the best available weapons and mid-level spells).
243** Enchanters. Their level 2 and 3 hexes effectively one-shot-kill most enemies if you combine them with a dagger, especially early on. Few early enemies resist them, and they later get line-of-sight spells to deal with groups. But almost all hexes fail against enemies with high Willpower, short blades fail against non-hexed enemies with high armor, and many of the nastiest enemies in the late game have high Will, armor, or both. Fortunately, you can compensate by branching out into other schools of magic mid-game.
244** Venom mages start off with an extremely effective set of attack spells - magical poison darts, poisonous vapours that can be targeted without direct line of effect, confusion-inducing gas clouds that shut down spellcasters, and even poisonous radiation that hits every enemy within view. The catch? All of these spells are practically useless against poison-resistant enemies. Early on, that just means easily-outrun undead and the occasional ice beast, but almost everything that matters in the late game is resistant or immune to poison. Branching out into another element is virtually required to win the game.
245* CrystalDragonJesus: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] almost to the point of parody. The messianic religion in this game is the faith of Beogh, the god of the ''orcs'', and a follower of the orc religion gets to be "Orc Jesus" with the ability to walk on water and an entourage of orcish apostles. Of course, Beogh is also a [[JerkassGods racist jerkass of a god]], and becoming Orc Jesus involves killing anyone who's not an Orc (and any Orc who won't convert) for the glory of Beogh.
246* CrystalWeapon:
247** The zealot's sword, a holy artifact weapon made from one huge piece of crystal.
248** The spell Lehudib's Crystal Spear launches, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a crystal spear]] at a target for massive damage. There also used to be an artifact weapon of the same name -- it was rather less impressive than the spell, but could still be thrown to hit distant targets before [[PrecisionGuidedBoomerang returning to its thrower's pack]].
249* CursedItem:
250** Older versions allowed just about any piece of equipment to be cursed. When equipped, a cursed item was impossible to remove without first removing the curse -- if you didn't have a scroll of remove curse, you weren't going to be taking off that (usually poor-quality) armour anytime soon.
251** Cursed items are still around in later versions, but are restricted to the god Ashenzari, who grants curses [[CursedWithAwesome that also improve your skills]].
252** Some magical items (most commonly artefacts) are still risky to use by virtue of having unpleasant effects when you ''stop'' using them. Artefact equipment might do things like [[MaximumHPReduction heavily drain your maximum HP]] or fill you full of magical contamination if you take it off.
253* CursedWithAwesome:
254** In old versions, some the items you found could be cursed (ie. you can't remove them), yet were still actually beneficial or provided a positive effect.
255** Some of the mutations which are considered "bad" can actually have good effects.
256*** [[HairTriggerTemper Berserkitis]], which causes you to randomly go berserk in combat, with all the usual benefits and drawbacks of doing so.
257*** MP-Powered Wands, which causes all wands to drain MP in addition to using up charges, but also strengthens their effects.
258*** Subdued Magic, which decreases spell power, but also decreases spell failure rate, making spells easier to cast.
259*** In previous versions, teleportitis (a frustrating affliction which made you randomly teleport around the map) could be used as an emergency escape option if you had some means of controlling it. However, following the complete removal of teleport control, this is no longer an option, and in fact teleportitis now specifically drops you near enemies.
260** Weapons with the distortion brand cannot be unwielded without potentially causing massive damage to you, or even banishing you into the Abyss. However, distortion weapons are ''insanely'' powerful, so being stuck with one isn't necessarily a bad thing.
261** This is the god Ashenzari's schtick. Ashenzari periodically offers to curse an equipped item of your choice -- you won't be able to enchant the item or remove it without destroying it forever, but each curse comes with a bonus to your skills.
262** Ru the Awakened is another god example on the same lines as Ashenzari. Ru demands that the player sacrifice parts of their own being, such as the ability to drink potions when threatened, the loyalty of summoned creatures, or even [[AnArmAndALeg one of their own hands]]. In return, Ru grants incredible cosmic power.
263[[/folder]]
264
265[[folder:D-F]]
266* DamageDiscrimination: Enemies don't generally try to attack each other, but when they do, there is no damage discrimination. Tricking or compelling powerful enemies to attack others is a useful strategy if you can pull it off.
267* DanceBattler: Followers of Uskayaw, the god of revelry, play like this, with the ability to [[ShockwaveStomp stomp to damage creatures around them]], pass through lines of enemies, and even merge with and explode a single enemy as a FinishingMove.
268* DangerousForbiddenTechnique:
269** Several scrolls have effects which - although powerful - can be dangerous to the user if they are not careful:
270*** The scroll of immolation fills all enemies in sight with an inner flame, which will cause them to detonate in a powerful fiery explosion when killed - this typically results in a ''devastating'' chain reaction. If you read one when surrounded by enemies, you'd better be prepared to survive the resulting firestorm.
271*** The scroll of torment halves the HP of every vulnerable being in sight, including you*. (*Being an undead species or in lichform allows you to ignore torment damage. Negative energy resistance, being a gargoyle or in stoneform, as well as worshiping Kikubaaqudgha all provide partial torment resistance.)
272*** Similarly, the scroll of vulnerability halves the willpower (ability to resist magical effects) of everyone in sight, including yourself.
273** Higher-level spells can be these if your character is not adept at casting them, as there is a chance they may backfire; in extremely unlucky cases this can have catastrophic results. The game lists potentially dangerous spells in red and highlights potentially lethal spells in magenta, and will explicitly ask you for confirmation if you attempt to cast one.
274** The Death's Door spell (which is already extremely difficult to cast due to being a Level 9 spell) renders you completely invincible for a short duration (a maximum of [[ArcNumber 27]] turns). The downside is, using it also leaves you with extremely low HP, so once it wears off, you'll be very easy to kill, and you have to wait a few turns before you can cast it again. It also prevents all forms of healing save for Borgnjor's Revivification, which will not only paralyze and confuse you when used to exit Death's Door, but is itself dangerous to cast (as it [[MaximumHPReduction permanently reduces your maximum hit points]]).
275** Some rare items grant the ability to turn invisible, which is useful in many situations; however, this ability also [[MaximumHPReduction temporarily reduces your maximum HP]].
276** Lugonu's "Enter the Abyss" saps most of your HP and MP, drains a lot of piety, and dumps you in the Abyss, which is not a safe place to rest. But, it offers a 100% guaranteed 1-turn escape from any dangerous situation outside the Abyss.
277** Greater Servant of Makhleb has only a moderate cost, lets you summon a powerful endgame monster, and is available quite early. The only catch is that this endgame monster has a chance to arrive hostile, and it's just as good at killing you as it is at killing everything else.
278** Ru's Apocalypse deals massive damage to all enemies in line of sight, killing most things in one shot and applying some of the strongest debuffs in the game to anything that survived. Using it makes an extremely loud noise and drains your max HP by a huge amount that will take a long time to recover (but that doesn't stop you from using it again for even worse draining).
279** Using a weapon of distortion under most circumstances is very dangerous. These weapons do heavy extra damage and have a chance to instantly banish (effectively killing) any opponent, and both effects are completely irresistible. But, trying to switch away from the distortion weapon will inflict a severe backlash unless you worship the god of the Abyss. Possibilities includes heavy damage, bad mutations, or being banished yourself.
280* DarkIsNotEvil
281** Ashenzari, the god of divinations and curses who all-but-demands that you wear cursed gear. Ashenzari is also one of the very few gods who does not reward killing or sacrificing corpses ''at all'', not even for specific monsters, and grants no directly offensive powers.
282** Ru the Awakened is another god example, on the same lines as Ashenzari. Despite calling for some potentially gruesome sacrifices like [[AnArmAndALeg a hand]], [[EyeScream an eye]], or the capacity for love for cosmic power, Ru is apathetic and doesn't even care at all if you abandon it. Of course, you're not getting that hand back if you do...
283** Dithmenos, the god of shadows used to have more of a [[TheSacredDarkness Sacred Darkness]] flavor, but has since been reclassified as [[DarkIsEvil evil]].
284* DarkMessiah:
285** A Hill Orc worshipping Beogh plays this trope straight. Beogh is an evil god who rewards killing, is stated to advocate the extermination or enslavement of non-orcs, and is generally kind of a {{Jerkass God|s}}. Worship them yourself and you'll be subjected to gushing praise by most of the orcs you come across who consider you their savior.
286** Saint Roka is an unique enemy orc, and they have the same powers as a worshipper of Beogh with a very high piety, including the ability to walk on water and a herd of adoring orcish followers who will lay down their lives for them. If the player character is a Hill Orc worshipping Beogh and has high enough piety, there's a chance that they can even convert Saint Roka themselves to their cause.
287* DeadlyEuphemism: Fedhas Madash, the god of plants and fungi, appreciates "contributions to the ecosystem" - ie. dead bodies.
288* DeadlyWalls:
289** The walls of the Slime Pits inflict Corrosion debuff (reduced defense and slaying) on players standing next to them. Followers of Jiyva the Slime God are immune to this effect and can even temporarily coat walls around them with corrosive slime.
290** The Frozen Ramparts spell coats nearby walls with ice that freezes enemies that stand next to them.
291* DeathOfAThousandCuts:
292** Zombies and skeletons are vulnerable to this, since they can't regenerate; you can hit them a bunch of times, escape, heal up, hit them some more until they die. This doesn't work on most other enemies because they heal over time.
293** Also present with deep dwarves. Even with their innate damage-reducing ability, it can still fall under BlessedWithSuck for player characters.
294** Very relevant for summoners. Even fairly weak creatures can slay powerful foes [[ZergRush if there's enough of them]].
295* DebugRoom: Wizard mode, which gives you pretty much full control over your character and the game world.
296* DestroyableItems: There used to be a lot of ways that items could be destroyed, but they have all been removed since players found it too annoying. In earlier versions, scrolls could be destroyed by fire damage, potions could be shattered by cold, food could be ruined by [[ActionBomb giant spores]] or eaten by [[HarpingOnAboutHarpies harpies]], weapons and armor could be corroded by acid, and jellies would devour almost anything they found on the ground. Of these, only acid corrosion and jellies eating items still exist in modern versions -- corrosion is a status condition that temporarily reduces your weapon bonuses and AC, while jellies will only eat items if you worship the Slime God Jiyva.
297* DefeatMeansFriendship: The main perk of worshipping Beogh, the orc-exclusive God, who will give you an increasing chance for orcs that die in your presence to become your permanent followers (including unique orcs). At high piety you may even ask Beogh to resurrect a dead orc, who will join you right away.
298* DemonLordsAndArchdevils: The strongest of ''Crawl's'' various demons are those represented by an ampersand (&) in the console version. There's Geryon, the gatekeeper to the four Hells. The bottom floor of each branch of Hell contain one of the hell lords (Asmodeus, Antaeus, Ereshkigal, and Dispater), all of whom guard a [[PlotCoupon Rune of Zot]] apiece. The endless demonic realms of Pandemonium contain four more named demon lords (Cerebov, Lom Lobon, Mnoleg, and Gloorx Vloq), each of whom presides over one specific level and guards another Rune. Other levels in Pandemonium are each ruled by one or more randomly-generated Pandemonium Lords, all of whom have a chance of guarding yet another Rune. All of these are extremely challenging boss fights, as you can find enough Runes to complete the game elsewhere in the dungeon.
299* DevelopersForesight:
300** In previous versions, characters with hooves had a small stealth penalty that was negated by not actually walking on the ground (i.e. while flying or wading).
301** Spells that animate corpses will change their flavor text depending on which kind of creature is being animated ("The dead are walking/crawling/slithering/flying/hopping!")
302** A side effect of the Wereblood spell is that it makes you howl uncontrollably - however, if you happen to be in a non-humanoid form while the spell is in effect, you instead make a loud noise appropriate to your form (such as hissing, if you are in spider form).
303** Item descriptions will specify where you obtained the item - usually, by stating where it was found, or which monster you looted it from. However, if it was originally a dancing weapon (a magically-animated weapon that attacks you), the description will instead read "You subdued it in [Dungeon level]."
304** In older versions, vampires needed to feed on blood to keep certain innate powers. When feeding on the blood of a recently deceased mammal, the game will tell you that "This warm blood tastes delicious!" When feeding on reptiles and other such creatures that aren't warm-blooded, there will be no such message about the blood's warmth.
305** The wand of mindburst performs a psychic attack on the mind of a creature. If you use it on a creature with [[MultipleHeadCase multiple independent heads]] such as a two-headed ogre, the game instead uses the plural "minds" when describing its effect.
306** Certain items have slightly different descriptions when inspected by characters that cannot smell (e.g. mummies).
307** Being [[TakenForGranite petrified]] does not stop constricting attacks. Turning something that is actively strangling you to stone does nothing to relax its grip.
308** If you are a creature that doesn't have hands, the handedness of weapons is instead described in terms of the appendages you have, eg. "It is a two-tentacled weapon".
309* DevilsPitchfork: Hell knights, red devils, and other demon-aligned monsters can carry demon tridents. They're one of the best one-handed polearms available.
310* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: [[spoiler:Killed the Royal Jelly without being a worshiper of Jiyva? Congratulations, you've committed deicide -- Jiyva is removed from the game and all of its altars disappear.]]
311* DifficultyLevels: Winning with a Spriggan Enchanter worshiping Nemelex or a Minotaur Berserker worshiping Trog is pretty easy, but playing some species (Mummies, Ogres, Demigods) is by design much more difficult than others (Vampires, Trolls, Humans). There also is a "Wanderer" class, which starts you with a few skills chosen completely at random as well as some pieces of equipment chosen at random, neither of which are guaranteed to correspond with each other. Play a mummy wanderer who worships [[MadGod Xom]] and... well, at least your quick death might be funny.
312* DimensionalTraveler: High-level worshippers of Lugonu can travel to and from the Abyss at will, opening their own personal gate to do so. Everyone else has to rely on more difficult or dangerous methods such as hard-to-reach gateways or weapons of distortion.
313* DiscOneNuke: Starting as a Cinder Acolyte or getting very lucky with altar generation can let you worship Ignis the Dying Flame, who is designed to be one. Ignis immediately gives you almost full piety and a set of abilities that are devastatingly powerful in the early game, but you can never gain more piety, so you only get a handful of uses and will inevitably have to swap to a different god (and deal with Ignis' wrath when you do).
314* DishingOutDirt: Earth elementalists get some highly effective attack spells that range from blasting sand at your enemies to literally blowing up parts of the dungeon.
315** Sandblast: Blasts enemies with ambient dungeon grit. Deals surprisingly high damage for a level 1 spell, but requires 1.5 turns to cast, and its damage is heavily reduced by armor.
316** Passwall: Allows the user to pass straight through one or more tiles of plain rock wall. Requires several turns standing around meditating (depending on how many tiles you're passing through), but is a godsend for players who want to sneak up on things or just want to take shortcuts. Doesn't work on any walls harder than rock.
317** Stone Arrow: Launches a stony projectile for straightforward, reliable physical damage.
318** Animate Armour: Summons the spirit of your equipped body armor, creating a durable (albeit slow-moving) ally. Heavier armor makes for stronger allies, but as ArmorAndMagicDontMix, wearing heavy armor makes the spell harder to use.
319** Leda's Liquefaction: Turns an area around you to mud, slowing groundbound enemies and hindering melee combat.
320** Petrify: [[TakenForGranite Attempts to turn an enemy to stone.]] Petrified enemies are somewhat damage-resistant, but are helpless to defend themselves (especially against skilled stabbers or stronger Earth Magic useful against brittle targets).
321** Borgnjor's Vile Clutch: Summons a line of zombie hands that clutch at enemies, pinning them in place and constricting them to cause damage and reduce evasion.
322** Lee's Rapid Deconstruction: Violently fragments walls or other brittle objects to create damaging shrapnel, though it's not strong enough to completely destroy walls. Especially effective against monsters made of brittle substances (bone, stone, ice, metal, etc)
323** Iron Shot: Launches a metal projectile for solid physical damage. Like Stone Arrow, but much stronger.
324** Statue Form: [[ElementalShapeshifter Turns you into an animate statue.]] You'll be very durable and resistant to electricity, poison, and negative energies, but you'll also move and act more slowly.
325** Lehudib's Crystal Spear: The absolute strongest single-target attack spell in the game (that isn't a OneHitKill, at least), but has a short range and is somewhat inaccurate.
326** Shatter: Wreaks utter devastation on the dungeon around you; deals heavy damage to everything onscreen, and is capable of breaking down all but the mightiest of walls. However, it doesn't do much to flying or insubstantial enemies, and is extremely loud to boot.
327* DivineIntervention:
328** All the good gods will occasionally protect you from damage that would have killed you. It's not a reliable way to escape death, though -- most often, it'll just buy you one more turn.
329** The orc god Beogh will do the same thing for players who follow it, but unlike the good gods, the protection is revoked if you're under penance.
330** Elyvilon, the god of pacifism and healing, has a more reliable version that will always block fatal damage for a short time, but will greatly reduce your piety each time it activates.
331** Xom, god of chaos, will occasionally revive you after you die, just because.
332* DisintegratorRay: The now-removed wand of disintegration used to be able to vaporize monsters, although this was eventually changed to make them ''[[LudicrousGibs explode]]'' instead. It was especially good against brittle monsters like statues. The wand has since been supplanted by the wand of mindburst, which causes psychic damage (but can still make [[YourHeadAsplode heads explode]]).
333* DoppelgangerSpin: Rakshasas (and the unique rakshasa Mara) can do this; once they start blinking all over the place, it becomes virtually impossible to tell which one was the original.
334* DoubleWeapon: A Lajatang is a two-handed staff with blades on the ends, and it's a stronger cousin of quarterstaff.
335* DownTheDrain: The Sewers, an early side area filled with green water and lots of aquatic/amphibious vermin.
336* DraconicHumanoid: One of the playable species is Draconians, who start out in an immature brown form, but eventually change into a random color and gain a corresponding BreathWeapon. They have wings, but they aren't big enough for them to fly (unless they gain a special mutation, which only the air-themed black draconians develop naturally). Enemy draconians roam the halls of the Realm of Zot at the very bottom of the dungeon and exhibit abilities much like the player versions.
337* {{Druid}}: The spriggan druids of the Swamp practice animal empathy by summoning beasts from elsewhere on the level and empowering said beasts with their death. They practice plant control by [[WhenTreesAttack animating the nearby mangroves to smack the player with roots and branches]].
338* DualBoss: Dowan and Duvessa, the elf twins! Dowan is a SquishyWizard and Duvessa is a nimble warrior. If you find one twin, the other is sure to be nearby. They also have TwinTelepathy, so if you kill one of them, the other one [[TurnsRed gets stronger]]. (Duvessa goes berserk while Dowan gains more powerful spells and gets auto-hasted as soon as he sees you.)
339* DualWielding: The player can only wield one weapon at a time. However, some monsters, notably two-headed ogres and ettins, are capable of this. The devs have repeatedly stated that dual wielding for players is one of the things that will never be implemented in ''Crawl''. Gyre and Gimble, a pair of artifact quick blades strung together with a chain that strikes twice per swing, is probably the closest we're ever going to get.
340* DungeonBypass:
341** Often necessary. Sometimes the only way to escape a monster is to run for the stairs to the next level.
342** [[StrongAnts Formicids]] can burrow through walls to get around obstacles or create choke points. They can also dig a hole in the floor, which they can use to escape from dangerous enemies. Of course, you might dig your way down into the middle of a group of even more dangerous enemies...
343** Powerful Earth Elementalists and followers of Lugonu can skip large parts of certain difficult levels (including the bottom floor of the [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Realm of Zot]]) by blasting holes in the walls. You can also skip to the loot room of most branch ends by randomly (or occasionally even nonrandomly) teleporting, but you're more likely to land yourself in hot water than to actually save yourself any trouble.
344** Even exploring more mundane areas can sometimes be made easier by using a wand of digging to make your own passageways through rock walls. It comes in handy if there's a nasty monster you don't want to deal with or a wall you'd have to go the long way around. Or, just use the Passwall spell to go straight through walls without need for a tunnel.
345* DungeonCrawling: Gameplay revolves around exploring the titular Dungeon. [[MeaningfulName There's a reason the game is called what it is]].
346* DungeonShop: Played straight in that shops do appear seemingly randomly throughout the dungeon -- however, this may be a JustifiedTrope, as the game canonically contains "interdimensional caravans" which appear to use portals to travel from place to place. There is also a god of gold, Gozag, who can summon merchants into the dungeon.
347* DurableDeathTrap: There are many potentially dangerous traps in the game, and they will never fail to work, even in the Tomb filled with ancient mummies...
348* DyingCurse: While average mummies don't curse you, elite mummies like guardian mummies or royal mummies can curse you after you killed them; They will torment you, hit you with pain spells, drain your stats, or summon shadows or demons. This is a big part of what makes the Tomb of the Ancients (an area chock-full of high-level mummies) so maddeningly difficult.
349* EarlyBirdBoss:
350** The infamous Sigmund can show up as early as the second floor. When most players are still using [[WithThisHerring robes and daggers]], Sigmund can bring invisibility, confusion, flame spells, and [[SinisterScythe a massive stat-boosted scythe]] to the party. Get used to him being the last thing you see. [[{{Invisibility}} Or don't see]], as the case may be.
351** Grinder, a minor demon with a reliable paralysing spell and a bunch of elemental and status resistances (most notably to Mephitic Cloud, a popular early-game spell) who can show up as early as the third floor.
352* EarlyGameHell: A player who's just started a run likely has no identified potions or scrolls and can easily be taken out in only a few hits by even cannon-fodder enemies. Poison is a particularly big concern. This is especially prominent for casters, who can easily suffer from CripplingOverspecialization until they train up their non-magical skills ''and'' who won't have the MP or magical skill to handle large groups of enemies for a couple of levels.
353* EldritchAbomination:
354** Abominations, unsurprisingly, which are so weird that the game can't even attempt to describe some of them. One of them, the aptly named "unseen horror", is naturally invisible to most beings; it's only if you have supernatural sight that you find out it's an abomination at all.
355** There is also a spell, ''Malign Gateway'', that opens a portal to a dimension supposedly populated by these. Luckily, whatever abomination lurks on the other side can only reach its massive tentacle through the portal.
356** Lugonu, God of [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace the Abyss]], as well. Not only does Lugonu grant followers powers to corrupt the fabric of space itself, as of 0.12 both Lugonu and the Abyss lose the generic demonic motif in favor of a chaotic[=/=]cosmic horror motif.
357* EldritchLocation: The Abyss is a plane of chaos with no recognizable structure, so alien and twisted that even the unfathomable Zot cannot pursue the player here -- which is not much of a consolation, because the Abyss is one of the more dangerous places to find yourself. The realm is full of demons and {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, and its layout twists and warps constantly, pulling you deeper and deeper into its depths the longer you stay there. It's also the place where the evil god Lugonu the Unformed lives. Followers of Lugonu can get the ability to jump in and out of the Abyss at will, as well as banish other creatures to the Abyss.
358* ElementalArmor: Ozocubu's Armour is a spell that generates armor made of ice. The god Ignis grants its followers the ability to [[WreathedInFlames shroud themselves in fiery armor]].
359* ElementalBaggage:
360** Worshipers of Qazlal can transform destructive clouds into friendly elementals, though they also summon those clouds constantly. There used to be a Summon Elemental spell that required tiles with the appropriate element nearby, but it was removed from the game.
361** The Sandblast spell used to require rocks to be used as a base component. Older versions gave you the option of casting it without rocks at the cost of decreased power and range, while the new version just makes it take a bit longer to cast than most spells.
362* ElementalEmbodiment: Crawl's elements can appear in embodied forms. Certain items can let you summon these, as can spells a few enemies cast.
363* ElementalPowers: Crawl has three of the classical elements: Air, Earth, and Fire.
364** In one of the game's few plot points, Water magic has been largely forgotten, [[IceMagicIsWater replaced by Ice]]. Water elementals do still exist, and if one travels to the Shoals, they'll find a few practitioners of water magic: the merfolk aquamancers and the unique merfolk water witch Ilsuiw.
365** Followers of Qazlal Stormbringer gain various powers such as summoning elementals, blasting anything in sight with a random element, and the joys of being surrounded by an ever-raging tempest. Just don't expect to sneak up on anything.
366* ElementalRockPaperScissors: Played straight. Ice and Fire are opposites, Earth and Air are opposites. Fire hurts ice monsters and vice versa. In previous versions, equipment enhancing one school of magic would hinder its opposite.
367* ElementalShapeshifter: Using the Granite talisman turns the user into a slow but very durable animate statue.
368* EmotionBomb: The Anguish spell can cause enemies to become stricken with guilt, causing them to experience the pain of any injury that they inflict (whether upon you or your allies).
369* EnemySummoner:
370** Higher level mages can usually summon allies to fight for them, as can many uniques.
371** Statue enemies will often use summons to fight for them, since they can't move themselves.
372** Ironbound convokers specialize in this - they can summon enemies from elsewhere on the level and give them a magical boost in strength.
373** Boggarts are weak little goblins that are tremendously more dangerous than their physical attributes suggest - although they can't put up much of a fight themselves, they can effortlessly summon illusions of powerful monsters. Even worse, they can turn themselves invisible and leave you to fight their summons while they safely hide. It's recommended to kill a boggart as soon as you possibly can.
374** Howler monkeys make an incredibly loud noise when disturbed, which alerts and attracts nearby enemies.
375* EnergyBall: Which size would you like? The small [[AlwaysAccurateAttack Magic Dart]], the large Iskenderun's Mystic Blast, or the huge [[PainfullySlowProjectile Orb of Destruction]]?
376* EverythingTryingToKillYou:
377** It's a roguelike. Expect to see mice, cockroaches, bats, iguanas, yaks, frogs, newts, wolves... Also, spells and abilities that are supposed to summon friendly allies can potentially do the opposite.
378** Enforced with followers of Ru who decide to [[LoveSacrificedForPower sacrifice love]], which will turn even your summons and undead minions hostile. The only things that won't be out for your blood at that point are "creatures" that are the active part of a spell (like an orb of destruction or ball lightning) or AttackDrones like battlespheres or spectral weapons.
379* EvilIsEasy: Played straight with the gods. Good gods hold their followers to much higher standards compared to evil gods; all of the good gods have long laundry lists of things that they dislike. Compare this to the evil gods: Beogh only has one real BerserkButton (desecrating orc corpses and altars). Kikubaquudgha and Mahkleb don't even have that — the only way to upset them is abandonment.
380* EvilLivingFlames: The orb of fire is an enemy made of fire. A lot of them roam in [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon the realm of Zot]], and they haul exceedingly powerful fire attack.
381* ExcusePlot: The main plot is literally a one-liner.
382-->They say that the Orb of Zot exists deep, deep down but no one ever got to it.
383* ExperienceBooster: Certain items and effects can increase your aptitudes in particular skills beyond their natural levels, making your experience points more potent when invested into those skills.
384** Manuals temporarily boost your aptitude in a given skill, depending on what kind of manual it is.
385** This is part of the deal offered to you by the god Ashenzari - in exchange for accepting a curse, they will support several of your skills at once.
386* ExpospeakGag:
387** The spell "Lee's Rapid Deconstruction" causes dungeon walls to ''explode''.
388* ExtremeOmnivore:
389** If you follow Jiyva, god of slimes, all slimes in the Dungeon will gain the ability to eat any item they touch except magical artifacts. They can also [[AsteroidsMonster split into multiple slimes]] if they eat enough.
390** In previous versions, slimes would eat items even if you ''didn't'' worship Jiyva, and would heal when doing so. This included any ammunition you shot at them -- if you were fighting one with a ranged weapon, you'd have to hope your arrows were doing more damage than they were recovering by eating them.
391* TheFairFolk: While the elves in the game are clearly Tolkienian, there is a spriggan species (based on the mythological Cornish fairy of the same name) that keeps all its fair-folk features, such as the lack of wings.
392* FallenAngel: Profane Servitors, ex-Angels/Daevas corrupted by Yredelemnul, are much stronger than regular Angels and come with an aura that shields everything that tries to kill you. [[CrossMeltingAura They're also immune to holy damage]]. Worshiping Yredelemnul yourself only protects you from the aura.
393* FantasticRacism: Played straight with some of the gods.
394** Beogh, god of the orcs, does not accept worship from non-orcs, seeing them as inferior.
395** The "good" gods (The Shining One, Zin, and Elyvilon) do not accept undead or demonspawn due to seeing them as AlwaysChaoticEvil. Similarly, each of these deities will instantly excommunicate a player that uses the Necromutation spell to become undead.
396*** In older versions, Fedhas Madash (god of plants, fungi, and decay), would not accept undead worshippers because their existence goes against what it considers the natural order.
397** Prior to 0.27, Yredelemnul, the god of undeath, would not accept worship from gargoyles on the grounds that they're not entirely alive and therefore can never become undead. Other species also used to face excommunication from Yredelemnul if they used the Statue Form spell.
398** Dithmenos, the god of shadows and darkness; it was stated that if the lava orc species was ever introduced officially into the game, Dithmenos would refuse service from them on the grounds that the light they give off when WreathedInFlames is offensive.
399** Demigods, due to their divine heritage, are prevented from worshiping ''any'' of the gods.
400* FastballSpecial:
401** The unique hobgoblin Robin can pick up her goblin allies and lob them at you. Not only does this hurt, it also gives her a tactical advantage; you can't rely on the usual "force enemies into single file" trick in a narrow corridor, because she can throw them so that they land on your other side, surrounding you.
402** Other enemies that can do this include Polyphemus, a cyclops who will throw his herd of death yaks and catoblepae at you, and iron giants, who will throw ''anything and everything'' at you.
403* FaustianRebellion: It is entirely possible to abandon your god if you no longer find them useful, and/or to choose a new god. This will usually make the god you abandoned [[EvilIsNotAToy angry at you]]; however, it is also entirely possible to survive their wrath until it runs out.
404* FeaturelessProtagonist: You get to choose your name, species, background, maybe a starting weapon, and that's about it. ''Crawl'' never asks the player to supply a gender or any other personalising details; indeed, for the more average humanoid species, the in-game description of them is "You are rather mundane." The non-ASCII version of Crawl does at least give you the ability to create a VirtualPaperDoll for yourself.
405* FighterMageThief: Crawl divides all the character classes in five different groups - but there is great variation within each (except maybe Adventurer):
406** Fighter - Includes anything with focus on physical combat, from heavily armored fighters to {{Bare Fisted Monk}}s and stealthy brigands.
407** Zealot - Includes every class that starts out with a religion: berserkers, chaos knights, abyssal knights, and cinder acolytes.
408** Warrior-mage - Includes combat-oriented magic classes, such as enemy-hexing enchanters, [[VoluntaryShapeshifting voluntary shapeshifter]] transmuters, and [[MageMarksman hexslingers]].
409** Mage - Includes the generalist spellcaster hedge wizard, as well as a variety of more specialized mages.
410** Adventurer - Includes three classes, the magical device-user class artificer, the [[MasterOfNone randomized wanderer]], and the delver, which begins their adventure several floors down but starts with several useful items.
411* FireIceLightning: Present in Fire, Ice, and Air magic spells, respectively. There's also Earth magic, but that tends to be pure physical or NonElemental damage. Weapons can also have flaming, freezing, or electrocution brands (among others).
412* FishingForMooks: The usual strategy for defeating Robin of the Strong Arm. She always surrounds herself with a large band of goblins and hobgoblins, and fighting her and her band at the same time is dangerous as she can buff the strength of her allies and [[FastballSpecial throw them at you]]. The easier way to take her down is to lure away her allies while she's not looking, kill them out of sight, then go for her directly.
413* FishOutOfWater:
414** Most obviously applies to merfolk (semi-literally; they can get by just as well on land as in water), but the game makes a small plot point of some of the player species being unsuited for a dungeon (since they enter it from ground level). For example, the only playable orc species is the hill orc, while all the ones in the dungeon are cave orcs.
415** Meteoraes are celestial creatures, so they are easily found by the denizens of the dungeon -- they inherently glow, greatly hindering their stealth, and Zot tracks them 10 times faster than any other species, leaving them with little time to explore and fight without suffering a NonStandardGameOver.
416* FissionMailed: If you worship the chaos god Xom, sometimes it will save you from death; the game even gives you the "You die..." message, only for Xom to intervene and revive you.
417-->You die...\
418'''Xom:''' Hey, that's my toy!\
419Xom revives you!
420* FlamingSword:
421** Flaming is a brand some weapons can have, including swords. These weapons are quite helpful against hydras, since they prevent them from [[HydraProblem re-growing their heads]].
422** Flaming scimitars in particular are the signature weapon of efreets, Azrael (a unique efreet), and Erica (a unique human spellcaster).
423* FlunkyBoss:
424** Robin, an early unique hobgoblin who has a horde of goblin and hobgoblin minions that she can motivate with her battle cry. She also [[FastballSpecial throws them at you]].
425** Pikel, a nasty kobold who is always accompanied and defended by his four human slaves. Killing him will free the slaves and render them non-hostile. Version 0.26 reflavored his slaves to lemures, enslaved souls used as servants; freeing them allows them to pass on, removing them from the dungeon entirely.
426** The Royal Jelly, boss of the Slime Pits, spits out lesser slimes whenever it takes damage.
427* FlyingSeafoodSpecial: The Skyshark is a [[ThreateningShark shark]] that flies. If it gets a taste of blood (damaging a living, non-construct opponent), this flying predator becomes even more powerful.
428* FlyingWeapon: The spell Tukima's Dance will temporarily animate an enemy's weapon into a Dancing Weapon, which will float around and attack on its own (previous versions had it animate the user's weapon instead). There's also the Hall of Blades and the Tukima's Studio sublevels, which are both full of {{Flying Weapon}}s.
429* ForcedTransformation:
430** Circe ([[SpellMyNameWithAnS called Kirke in this game]]) is a unique sorceress, and like in the classic story, she has a spell that turns you into a pig. She is also surrounded by pigs that change back into humans when you beat her.
431** Prince Ribbit has this trope as his backstory, inspired by the [[Creator/TheBrothersGrimm Brothers Grimm]] fairy tale "Literature/TheFrogPrince". He's a human [[BewitchedAmphibians trapped in the body of a frog]], although you only discover this after killing him, which [[NoOntologicalInertia reverts his body back to its original form]].
432** The wand of polymorph allows you to inflict this on enemies (or them on you, if you're unlucky). If you target an enemy, the game will generate three possible target forms for them, one of which will be chosen randomly if the polymorph succeeds. This is particularly good for depriving humanoids of the weapons and magic that make them dangerous, although it is possible to create a much worse threat than the original if you're not careful.
433* ForgedByTheGods: Some of the gods give you gifts, which are normally highly enchanted or artifact weapons. Occasionally subverted, as the gifts aren't always special in any way. Xom, God of Chaos, particularly enjoys giving you useless items, and the few times they aren't useless, there are other tricks, like giving you items that would be useful under different circumstances (armor when you're focusing on magic, boots when your feet have been mutated into talons, etc). Sometimes Xom will even give you an item, then immediately animate it and have it try to kill you. [[JerkassGods Xom is kind of a jerk]].
434* FragileSpeedster:
435** Spriggans can move much faster than any other characters, but they only get about half the already low amount of HP other characters can get. However, they can also gain Evocations skill (ability to use magic items) insanely quickly, and a Spriggan with some legendary decks of summoning gifted by Nemelex Xobeh is one of the most powerful character builds in the late game.
436** Felids have even fewer hit points than spriggans and wear no armour at all, but also run slightly faster than most enemies.
437** Kobolds (and Halflings before their removal) don't run faster than standard characters, but they do have reduced hit points, very good dodging aptitudes, and are encouraged to use the weapon school with the smallest attack delay.
438* FriendToAllLivingThings: Followers of Elyvilon get the ability to pacify monsters, turning them neutral (which, for some reason, doesn't ''actually'' turn them friendly, just neutral; they'll still attack if you're in their way). They'll also attack hostile monsters, which you can sometimes exploit.
439* FrogMen: Barachim, which were added in version 0.20. They move slowly, but can swim through deep water and can hop short distances, which can help them escape from danger or reposition themselves.
440* FuelMeterOfPower: With no way to replenish it, Ignis's piety meter serves as this. Once you've used up the last of Ignis's power, it's gone for good, leaving only a last vestigial rank of fire resistance.
441[[/folder]]
442
443[[folder:G-K]]
444* TheGambler: Followers of Nemelex Xobeh gain several powerful [[CardsOfPower card-related abilities]].
445* GameplayAutomation: As a part of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup's design philosophy, the game features several examples of automating tedious actions:
446** Auto-explore: A dedicated button makes your character auto-explore the level, picking up interesting items along the way. In previous versions when food was a mechanic, the game would even automatically butcher and eat corpses so that you didn't have to worry about feeding yourself.
447** Auto-rest: By pressing the rest button, the game will wait until your character has regained their health and mana, or will just wait until a short time has passed. No need to specify an exact length of time.
448** Auto-travel to dungeon branches, shops, altars or player-set waypoints - just tell the game where you want to go, and your character will start travelling there by the fastest route. You can even just search for an item and the game will tell you exactly where you saw it, and will automatically take you there.
449** Automated travel exclusions and level annotations to remind the player of possibly dangerous or important things.
450** Auto-fight: in the same manner as auto-explore, this simply instructs your character to attack the nearest monster, moving toward them if necessary. There's also an option for repeating the last action you took.
451* GardenGarment: The Robe of Vines is a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin robe made from living vines]] which bonds symbiotically with the wearer, giving them regenerative powers similar to those of a Vine Stalker (but also giving them the same weakness of being unable to gain healing from potions).
452* GardenOfEvil: Oklob plants form these. They are large plants that spit acid at the player with stunning accuracy; staying in one's range for too long is going to hurt both the player character and their precious equipment. Worshippers of Fehdas Madash can even grow said Oklob plants.
453* GenderInclusiveWriting: Crawl [[FeaturelessProtagonist doesn't assign the player character a gender]], though you can generally pick between a male or female VirtualPaperDoll if you're playing tiles.
454* GenieInABottle:
455** An efreet, actually. It doesn't give you wishes. [[EverythingTryingToKillYou And it might kill you]]. Still comes in handy if you need something to deal with hydras.
456** The randomly-found Genie card in some of the magical decks of cards is a somewhat straighter example. Half the time, drawing said card will grant you a special item from a choice of several categories. The rest of the time, it'll reduce your stats.
457* GeniusBruiser:
458** Ogre magi are ogres which, unlike most ogres which only know how to hit people with heavy weapons, are intelligent enough to use magic. Player ogres are somewhere between standard ogres and ogre magi - they are moderate at both hitting and casting.
459** Any character with a martial background can become a Genius Bruiser by training magic and increasing their intelligence.
460* TheGhost: Zot is arguably the most significant entity in the game -- your entire quest is to retrieve the Orb of Zot, and Zot itself will constantly pursue you through the Dungeon and most of its branches. However, Zot never once appears in game, is never described or depicted, and even the game's manual doesn't give any information on what Zot is. All that anyone knows is that Zot is sentient, and that you most definitely [[NonStandardGameOver don't want it to find you]].
461* GiantEyeOfDoom: ''Crawl'' has an assortment of various eyeball monsters. They tend not to have actual ''attacks'' (only [[EyeBeams eyes of devastation]] and [[DisintegratorRay great orbs of eyes]] can actually hurt you), but their gazes can cause an array of nasty effects, weakening you or leaving you open to other, less subtle monsters. Eyeballs fall under Jiyva's domain, so they'll largely ignore worshippers of the slime god.
462* GlamourFailure: Shapeshifters don't try very hard to blend in before transforming, with no equipment prepared beforehand, no guaranteed allies for forms that travel in groups, and no real care for which branch they're in. As such, experience can distinguish them before they ever start shapeshifting — a siren in the Vaults, for example, misses all three criteria. Shapeshifters instead rely on luck as they leap up and down hit dice criteria, as the form of a moth of wrath or dragon can work fine enough.
463* GlassCannon: Many player characters are these, but the specifics vary:
464** Tengu are a species of BirdPeople that have excellent aptitudes for combat skills but very low hit points.
465** Spellcasters are typically these -- many spells are extremely powerful, but spellcasters themselves tend to have lower hit points than melee characters and (due to spell failure chance) [[ArmorAndMagicDontMix rarely wear much armor]].
466** Ogres, both [=NPCs=] and player characters. They hit hard and have some natural protection, but can't wear most armor and aren't very good at dodging due to their size, rendering them very vulnerable against stronger enemies.
467** Hydra Form plays with this. The player gains a great boost in unarmed combat damage and can hit multiple adjacent enemies, but they also lose most of their AC and their evasion is heavily penalized. To offset this, the player also gains 30% more HP, poison resistance, and they can devour slain, edible monsters to heal.
468* GodsNeedPrayerBadly: The gods in Crawl only exist as long as people believe in them. For most gods, this isn't a problem — they have plenty of followers. However, there are two exceptions:
469** Jiyva is special in that most of its followers are slimes, which are unintelligent and thus their belief isn't worth much. Its only major intelligent follower is the Royal Jelly, which is an enemy in the game and which can be killed. If the Royal Jelly is killed and the player is not a follower of Jiyva, then nobody is left to believe in Jiyva and the god stops existing.
470** Ignis is a god who has no remaining followers. If you choose to worship it (either by starting as a Cinder Acolyte or by lucking across an altar) and then abandon it later, Ignis will spend the last of its strength attempting to [[TakingYouWithMe take you with it]] before finally flickering out.
471* GodOfEvil: Some of the gods are described by the game as evil. Whether the gods themselves agree is unknown.
472** The god Yredelemnul in particular seems to enjoy being cast as an inverse to the Gods of Good. Like the three good gods, Yredelemnul has a long list of deprecated acts; in fact, Yredelemnul is the only non-good god who has a condition for instant excommunication. Yredelemnul also creates [[FallenAngel Fallen Angels]] and will even grant you some of them as servants.
473* GodOfGood: There's three of them, and each of them represents a different aspect of goodness. The Shining One represents the righteous struggle against evil, Zin represents discipline and the rule of law, and Elyvilon represents healing and compassion.
474** There is a gameplay factor to this. The good gods are very lenient about punishment; even if you upset them (through deprecated acts or abandonment), they still only place you into "penance", which just means you need to perform appreciated acts to get back in their good graces. They will ''only'' seek retribution if you [[FaceHeelTurn start following an evil god later]]. You even retain some of your divine favor if you switch from one good god to another.
475* GoldColoredSuperiority: There are many types of dragons, but golden dragons are most powerful ones. Furthermore, their golden scales are the toughest (and heaviest) body armour can gather from dragon monsters.
476* GoodNewsBadNews: The bad news comes first, and the good news is hardly comforting:
477--> You feel nature experimenting on you. Don't worry, failures die fast.
478* GottaCatchThemAll: The runes of Zot are type 2: "Important." There are 15 total, and you need 3 of them to enter the Realm of Zot and search for the Orb. Collecting the other 12 is optional and adds to your score at the end of the game.
479* GradualRegeneration:
480** Various items and spells, like an amulet of regeneration, troll leather armor, will increase how quickly you regenerate health.
481** Drinking a potion of ambrosia causes strong regeneration of health and magic, but it also makes you confused while this effect is active.
482* GravityMaster: Warpers (wizards specializing in Translocation magic) have some aspects of this. They can manipulate gravity to compress groups of enemies together, and some of their spells bend and warp space for various effects. The Singularity spell that was briefly present in the game (version 0.16) was the culmination of this -- a level 9 spell that basically made a temporary black hole that would draw in and crush any enemies that got near it.
483* TheGrimReaper:
484** There are two gods of death, though the devil is quite literally in the details. Yredelemnul is the god of death and undeath and the foe of good itself, and more directly represents this trope. Kikubaaqudgha is the god of necromancy and pain, and is especially a patron of necromancers.
485** There are also the reaper enemies, which invoke the grim reaper motif by being skeletal beings that wield [[SinisterScythe scythes]] (though they're actually a type of demon instead of a personification of death).
486* GreenThumb: Worshippers of Fedhas, god of plants, can move past plants and cause plants to grow.
487* {{Hammerspace}}:
488** ''Crawl'' has the typical Roguelike variety: the player can carry anything they find up until they fill all 52 item slots. Because each stack of items takes only one item slot, 20 javelins take just as much room as a single dart.
489** Prior to version 0.15, items also had weight, giving flimsier characters an extra limit on their carrying capacity.
490* {{Halfling}}: Halflings used to be playable until 0.27. They leveled up quickly, were sneaky, excellent with slings, and surprisingly sturdy for a small species.
491* HealerGod: Elyvilon is the god of healing.
492* HealingFactor: Trolls, Vine Stalkers, and "living" Vampires heal extremely fast, as does anyone with troll leather armor, an amulet of regeneration, or the (now removed) Regeneration spell. Before the removal of the hunger system, many of these had the drawback of significantly speeding up one's metabolism.
493* HealingPotion: ''Crawl'' uses two kinds of healing potion. Potions of curing heal only a small amount of HP, but will cure you of several negative status effects. The other type, potions of heal wounds, offer a much larger chunk of pure hit-point healing. The latter used to also be available in the form of a wand of heal wounds, which has since been removed; wands used to be favored a bit more than the potion version before item destruction was removed.
494* {{Hell}}: There are three hell branches, each more terrifying than the last. The majority of the Runes of Zot can be found in these places, though it's entirely possible to get the Orb without visiting any of them.
495** The Abyss is this crossed with HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace. The realm of Lugonu the Unformed is a series of seven endless, constantly-shifting planes that serve as a garbage dump for banished creatures and a native home for {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. There's one rune to be found there, though its location is ever-changing until you find it.
496** Hell proper is a domain consisting of the Vestibule of Hell and four sub-branches; each branch is seven levels deep and contains a rune at the bottom. It's a very barren place with little loot, no monsters that leave edible corpses, and a mystical force similar to divine retribution that constantly batters at adventurers travelling there. Travelers are advised to get to the bottom, get the rune from the Archdemon guarding it, and get out.
497** Pandemonium is another infinite realm, where each level is different and you can never revisit a level. It's the home of the greatest demons, and ''each level'' is guarded by a mighty demon lord; while there's infinite experience and loot to be found here, it's one of the most dangerous areas in the game and grinding here really isn't worth it. There are five runes here. Paradoxically, this is also the home realm of the Shining One, and one level is dedicated to its holy fortress. ([[HolyIsNotSafe It's still not a safe place to be.]])
498* {{Hellfire}}: Used to be available to some demons and demonspawn - a sort of super-nasty fire that wasn't affected by fire resistance (or just about any other kind of resistance, for that matter). Later versions changed it to "Damnation" instead, rebranding it as a sort of dark, unholy energy rather than a type of super-fire.
499* HilarityEnsues: The motivation for most of Xom's divine interventions. Followers of Xom can actually hear him snickering occasionally.
500* HitFlash: If the player's health is reduced by damage below a certain threshold, the screen will flash red whenever they take damage as a warning that they're close to death.
501* HolyBurnsEvil: Weapons of holy wrath deal increased damage to undead and demonic entities, and there are a few sources of holy damage (such as the BreathWeapon of a pearl dragon or The Shining One's [[HolyHandGrenade Cleansing Flame]]) that do the same, but also inflict greater harm on evil creatures that aren't demons or undead (such as necromancers or followers of evil gods). Undead or demonspawn characters are prevented from even wielding weapons of holy wrath, while characters that [[OurLichesAreDifferent temporarily become undead with Necromutation]] will be forced to drop a holy weapon if they happen to be holding one.
502* HolyHalo:
503** The Shining One's followers eventually receive one. It serves several purposes: monsters inside the halo are easier to hit, invisible creatures turn visible, and your stealth is crippled (which isn't that bad, given that The Shining One forbids stealth attacks anyway). Holy [=NPCs=] such as angels have similar halos.
504** [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] with [[FallenAngel Profane Servitors]]. Their dark aura hides other monsters from you, though you can cancel it out with your own halo.
505** Dithmenos, [[DarkIsEvil God of Shadows]] grants their followers an anti-halo much like Profane Servitors.
506* HolyHandGrenade:
507** The Holy Word spell can be granted by scroll or by some of the powers of Zin and The Shining One, two of the good gods. It damages, slows, and scares all unholy monsters in sight.
508** Devout followers of the Shining One can use Cleansing Flame, which causes an explosion of holy energy centred on the caster. While it can deal damage on any non-holy monster, it's more effective against unholy ones.
509* HolyIsNotSafe: The Shining One's Fortress is as deadly as any other location in Pandemonium, and the angels there make no distinction between the Shining One's followers and anyone else.
510** Prior to version 0.15, holy monsters ''might'' spare you from attack if you were a pious worshipper of a good god, but this protection was not guaranteed. In later versions, they don't even make that distinction and will attempt to destroy any player character on sight regardless of which god they worship. At least The Shining One no longer smites you when you kill holy creatures.
511* HornetHole: The Hive was a side level consisting of a giant, two-floor beehive filled with killer bees. It was removed as of 0.10, though you can still find the occasional bee-filled chamber.
512* HorseArcher: A variant: Centaurs (both player characters and the monstrous ones you fight) are quite good with bows. So, you essentially have archers who are part horse.
513* HumansAreAverage: Mostly played straight; humans get no special abilities and have average aptitudes, but they're tied with [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent kobolds]] and {{halfling}}s for fastest level gain in the game. Thanks to the game's AntiGrinding philosophy, this means they're able to avoid CantCatchUp.
514* HumanSacrifice: Several temples dedicated to evil gods feature these. And, of course, the gods who like corpse sacrifices aren't averse to human corpses.
515* HumanShield: If under ranged attack, you can try to use another enemy as cover. Of course, this only works if your attacker actually cares about collateral damage; dragons will happily incinerate weak allies to get to you.
516* HyperactiveMetabolism: In previous versions, metabolism tended to correlate with player size - larger creatures needed to eat more frequently. Trolls in particular had ridiculously fast metabolisms; in order to stay full, they needed to be chopping up and eating basically everything they killed. Ghouls, too, could eat more or less continuously (which they needed to, in order to repair their decaying bodies). Since version 0.26, however, food has been completely removed and metabolism is no longer a thing for any species. (Ghouls now heal whenever they kill things).
517* HypnoRay: The wand of charming tries to turn any susceptible monster into your willing slave, who you can then [[SquadControls give a small set of commands]]. One useful command is 'Wait here', since if the monster happens to be a dangerous one, you probably don't want to be around when the enchantment wears off... There was also an Enslavement spell available to players before its removal in version 0.17.
518* HypocriticalHumor: Trog, the god of berserkers, considers spellcasting a sin. However, when facing his wrath, there's a chance of him casting a fireball spell on you.
519* IAmAHumanitarian:
520** Prior to the removal of food mechanics, if you managed to find and kill a human enemy (for example, many of the uniques), there was nothing stopping you from chopping them up and chowing down. Non-human characters could often find their own species to cannibalize wandering around the dungeon. Incidentally, cannibalism was a really good way to piss off all three of the good gods as well as the Orc God, Beogh.
521** Felids had the dubious honor of being the only species with the ability to self-cannibalize. Their [[OneUp extra lives]] revive them elsewhere on the level when they die, and if you went back to where you were killed, you could find your own corpse. And then eat it.
522* IceMagicIsWater: Subverted. The player does not have access to water magic, only ice magic (which merfolk get a slight bonus with); this may lead one to believe this trope is in effect. Then you visit the Shoals and discover water magic ''does'' exist, but only in the hands of hostile merfolk...
523* AnIcePerson: Courtesy of the Ice Magic school, naturally. Spells of this school tend to reward good positioning, are described as "diffuse and subtle", and include the following spells:
524** Freeze: An AlwaysAccurateAttack that ignores armor and deals respectable early damage, but it's restricted to melee range, a rather dangerous prospect for the SquishyWizard types.
525** Ensorcelled Hibernation: Attempts to put a target to sleep by cooling down their metabolism. It can help set up a BackStab or simply help someone [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere escape a dangerous situation]].
526** Frozen Ramparts: Temporarily covers the walls around you with ice, which hurts monsters standing next to them. It can't miss and can cover a wide area, but doesn't work at all if you aren't near walls, enemies can just walk around the frozen area if you're not in a corridor, and the spell ends immediately if you move (or ''are'' moved by something trampling you, etc).
527** Ozocubu's Armour: Envelops you in a suit of armor made from ice for some time. It offers a sizable boost to AC, but you'll lose it if you move, and of course, it won't last long against fire attacks. It's also more effective the less armor you're wearing -- lightly armored wizards or shapeshifting transmuters will reap the full benefits, but heavily armored battlemages won't get much of a bonus.
528** Hailstorm: Drops hail on all squares 2-3 tiles away from you... but not the tiles directly adjacent, so it's best to keep your distance and kite your opponents, or bottleneck a crowd in the entrance to a corridor so they're forced to stand in range. Thanks to its physical bludgeoning component, even cold-resistant monsters are not totally immune.
529** Ice Form: Turns you into an ice beast, which is basically immune to cold and poison and great in unarmed combat, but is vulnerable to fire. [[MundaneUtility Also handy for crossing water!]]
530** Summon Ice Beast: Summons an ice beast, granting you a fairly durable ally with a moderately powerful freezing attack that also happens to be immune to any other cold-based magic you might be slinging around.
531** Freezing Cloud: Creates a zone of freezing vapors. Can do great damage if you can get enemies to run through it, and is also handy for neutralizing fire-breathing monsters.
532** Metabolic Englaciation: Slows down all enemies in the vicinity by lowering their metabolic rate. Cold-blooded creatures are much more strongly affected than warm-blooded ones, but cold-resistant creatures are immune.
533** Simulacrum: Temporarily freezes a monster's soul -- should it die while under this effect, its corpse will split into one or more icy replicas. These replicas are somewhat short-lived and [[GlassCannon are quite fragile, but can do great damage]], especially if they came from a monster that hits really hard and/or can attack multiple times in one turn.
534** Ozocubu's Refrigeration: Chills all targets in your line of sight, especially cold-blooded creatures. It can even hit invisible enemies! However, it's less effective if the targets are bunched together.
535** Polar Vortex: Conjures a tornado of ice around you! It's freezing cold and tosses enemies about, but as you'd probably expect, it doesn't do so well in enclosed areas.
536* ImmunityDisability: There are a few cases of this:
537** Mummies do not become hungry and thus cannot eat. This also prevents them from drinking healing potions. Has since become just a Disability now that food has been removed.
538** Formicids have permanent stasis. While they can't speed themselves up or teleport (two of the most reliable escape methods), they also can't be slowed down, paralyzed, or teleported against their will.
539* ImpossiblyCoolWeapon: [[CoolSword Double and triple swords]], weapons stated to be forged by a master smith at the joking suggestion of a knight. Version 0.14 replaced them with the more sensible (but less awesome) bastard sword and claymore, but they were brought back in version 0.16.
540* ImprovisedGolem:
541** ''Toenail'' golems are made of... toenails.
542-->A huge animated statue made entirely from toenail clippings. Some people just have too much time on their hands.
543** The Desolation of Salt side area features saltlings, constructs made from the most plentiful resource present in the Desolation.
544* IndyEscape: Can occur if you run into a [[RollingAttack boulder beetle]] in a narrow hallway where sidestepping it isn't an option.
545* InfiniteStockForSale: Averted: every shop has a limited number of items, usually 6-8, in lettered slots. Every slot holds just one item (or a set that must be bought all at once), and once an item is bought it's gone forever, so if you should run into a food shop, it's plausible it holds merely eight bread rations and will never, ever restock. Combined with the rarity of nonperishable food outside shops and a pretty harsh hunger system, this was intentionally done to [[AntiGrinding discourage players from boring level grind strategies]].
546* InfinityPlusOneSword: Largely averted, thanks to randomly generated artifact weapons. Even among the non-random artifacts, weapons tend to be very well balanced with the "best" weapons being largely a matter of your own play style, the current situation, and the type of character you're playing.
547* InformedAttribute: A few of the unique enemies have little bits in their descriptions which are interesting but don't come up in dialogue or combat. The fact that it's only informed is often justified, as there's not much opportunity to witness these traits while in combat.
548** Edmund is a human unique stated to have a canny head for money. This is supposedly reflected in the fact that he always spawns with a highly enchanted flail, but there are no other signs of it. (He doesn't drop much money, for example.)
549** Edmund's brother Sigmund is stated to have "delusions of greatness" which never come up in his dialogue. This is actually a reference to his holding MemeticBadass status despite being one of the earliest (and therefore weakest) uniques.[[invoked]]
550** Grinder the shadow imp is described as having the InformedFlaw of being inefficient. There's little inefficient about her, however — her battle strategy of "paralyze enemy, then spam pain spells until they die" is very efficient and effective indeed.
551** Maud's description states: "Countless have been the admirers who, thinking about Maud, forgot everything else." This is a reference to ''VideoGame/NetHack'', as well as Creator/AlfredLordTennyson, but this characteristic has no gameplay effect at all.
552** Urug the orc mercenary has a supposed hatred of harpies as a harpy took out one of her eyes, and according to her description she attacks the player after mistaking the player for a harpy. This is not reflected in her dialogue at all.
553** An odd example: Ilsuiw the mermaid water witch is described as using her beauty to lure enemies to a watery grave. Normal mermaids ''do'' have this as an ability: they can entrance the player, making it impossible to move away and also having a chance of making the player walk toward them, possibly into the water. Ilsuiw, however, does ''not'' have this ability, making this a case of InformedAbility. Later versions fixed this discrepancy by removing the reference to her beauty.
554* InventoryManagementPuzzle: Downplayed but still present. You can can carry up to fifty-two items; consumables like potions, scrolls, or ammuntion can stack, and as of version 0.15, there's no weight limit. Your equipment counts towards this limit, though, so it's not quite as generous as it seems (most species will spend about 10 or so slots on all their weapons, armor, and jewellery -- more if they want to have alternate weapons or spare jewellery for different situations). However, since the game has permanent levels and monsters don't destroy or move items, you can always leave stashes of extra equipment on cleared levels.
555* InvisibleMonsters: Unseen horrors are naturally invisible (and horrible). Several spellcasters can ''turn'' invisible temporarily, but you could walk right into an unseen horror while it is asleep without seeing it. Fortunately, there are ways to see invisible creatures -- certain species can see invisible on their own (Felids, Nagas, Spriggans, and Vampires), and others can use a ring, enchanted hat, or random artifact (though such equipment is often quite rare). Alternatively, you can use a divine halo, force them to move into something that would be displaced (like fog or water), or just set them on fire. Even if you lack all of these powers, invisible monsters can sometimes be discerned by the disturbances in the air they make, indicated by a humanoid outline. If you have a rough idea where they are, you can drop an area-effect spell or ability on them, and if you're fighting one in a one-tile wide corridor, that means you can just keep swinging in a single direction, shoot down the corridor or use beam spells, items, and abilities - you're bound to hit it at least some of the time.
556* ItAmusedMe: The modus operandi of Xom, God of Chaos. Xom sees worshipers as toys; indeed, Toy is one of the official titles that can be given to a Xom worshiper, along with Plaything and Teddy Bear. One moment Xom might give you super strength, and the next moment Xom will summon a bunch of monsters to kill you.
557* JackOfAllStats: Playable gnolls are forced to train all their skills simultaneously; to compensate for this, they have ''immense'' aptitudes. While they might never be able to use the level 9 spells or heavy weapons, they have immense flexibility and can quickly adapt to almost anything they find.
558* JavelinThrower: Javelins are stronger throwing weapons that fly through [[OneHitPolykill multiple enemies at once]].
559* JerkassGods:
560** Xom is usually randomly doing good and bad things. Once Xom gets bored, forget about the good part. Unfortunately, Xom's interests range from "watching player use random and potentially dangerous item in difficult combat" to "watching player's flesh rot off". Xom is almost always amused with followers dying.
561** Contrary to what the term "evil" might imply, the dark gods generally avert this - so long as you don't go apostate, they'll [[BenevolentBoss shower you with gifts]].
562** However, many gods will do some nasty things once you die. For example, Fedhas, the god of plants, will be pleased by your "contribution" to the ecosystem (as a corpse), Gozag will turn your corpse into a pile of gold like they did to enemies, and Yredelemnul will "resurrect" you as a mindless undead slave.
563* JingleTheCoins: If you worship the god of greed Gozag Ym Sagoz, it is possible to bribe the monsters in a level with gold, so they turn neutral, or even fight on your side. If you succeed, each bribed monster "looks satisfied, and jangles a coin purse".
564* JokeCharacter:
565** A literal example: for the week following 2013's April Fool's Day, the developers introduced a new class into the playable beta version of the next release. Jesters spawned in with a jester cap, quarterstaff of chaos, and a stack of cream pies that could either be eaten or be [[PieInTheFace thrown at foes to blind them.]] Of course, several people promptly [[LethalJokeCharacter beat the game with Jesters]]. Some of them even managed to [[OneHundredPercentCompletion get all 15 runes]] while doing so.
566** 2022's April Fool's Day temporarily introduced a joke species, mayflytaurs, which despite the name, were closer to deep dwarves. They had amazing aptitudes, extra HP, the ability to passively map areas, and DamageReduction, and at later levels, they got better MP and HP regen and negative energy resistance... and they'd need all these perks, because the Zot clock ran ''ten'' times faster for them. As with jesters, some people [[LethalJokeCharacter beat the game with them]], and one player actually managed to break a score record.
567** Chaos Knights begin the game sworn to Xom, MadGod of chaos and ItAmusedMe. Xom is as likely to screw you over as he is to help you, and a Chaos Knight gets no benefits aside from a potentially dangerous weapon of chaos and being Xom's plaything.
568* KatanasAreJustBetter:
569** Autumn Katana is the only katana in this game, and it's quite powerful. When you slash an enemy with it, the sword sometimes casts Manifold Assault, so you will be able to attack [[HerdHittingAttack multiple enemies at once]] for awhile.
570** Prior to 0.9, regular katanas were existed as the second-best one-handed long blades in the game, just under demon swords.
571* KillerRabbit: Sometimes, you can encounter a winding passage containing the skeletons of dead humans. If you follow the passageway to the end, you eventually find a single frilled lizard, one of the weakest enemies in the game, implying that this tiny lizard somehow overpowered and slaughtered several adventurers.
572* KillItWithFire:
573** Recommended if you're going to try to fight a hydra with a bladed weapon, as a FlamingSword will stop the hydra from [[HydraProblem growing more heads]]. Also a good way to kill ice- or plant-based monsters.
574** Almost every spell in the Fire Magic school is an offensive conjuration spell, except for one spell (Conjure Flame) that is intended to be used defensively, and even then you can still use it to deal heavy amounts of damage. So basically, if you're using Fire Magic, you don't have many options besides using it to kill stuff.
575* KillItWithIce: On the flip side of using fire. Ice tends to be useful against fiery opponents; cold damage has the added advantage of slowing down cold-blooded foes, which includes most reptilian creatures.
576* KnightTemplar: Holy monsters in general. Granted, you are kind of murdering your way through everything in your path, but they'll still attack you on sight. As of version 0.15, they'll do so even if you're an extremely pious follower of one of the good gods, and thus ostensibly on their side. In past versions, The Shining One took personal offense whenever a holy monster was killed, often smiting the killer with [[BoltOfDivineRetribution Cleansing Flame]]. The concept of the killing being done in self defense ([[HolyIsNotSafe which it often was]]) was irrelevant.
577* {{Knockback}}: This is generally absent from combat, with a few significant exceptions:
578** A few enemies have the ability to trample and knock you backwards; probably the earliest example is the elephants in the Lair of Beasts. Trampling can be one of the more troublesome abilities in the game as it prevents you from reliably holding a strategic position, can push you into danger, or can even knock you off of staircases, preventing you from escaping that way.
579** The spell Force Lance, available to some enemies (and, in versions before 0.25, to the player), can shove enemies back to prevent them from reaching you.
580** The spell Iskenderun's Mystic Blast is able to ''simultaneously'' knock back all enemies in range.
581* KungFuJesus: The Hill Orc Priest of Beogh (and by extension the unique enemy Saint Roka) is an obvious messianic figure complete with ability to walk on water, and also it kicks total ass. Subverted in that the Hill Orc Priest [[DarkMessiah doesn't exactly live up to Jesus' "kind" and "patient" characteristics]].
582* KungFuWizard: Any magic-using character can take levels in unarmed combat, but Transmuters are particularly good at it. They start with levels in unarmed combat, letting them use their [[ShapeshifterWeapon shape-shifting combat forms]] more effectively. In most non-humanoid forms, unarmed combat is the only type of physical combat possible.
583[[/folder]]
584
585[[folder:L-O]]
586* LargeHam: The Singing Sword is a sword that loves to sing (read: blast everything in LOS with irresistible sonic damage), and it adjusts the power of its song based on how dangerous its wielder's current situation is. At lower levels, it will hum, crack bad jokes, or comment on the weather. At high tension, it changes its name to the Screaming Sword and starts [[ChewingTheScenery chewing the dungeon walls]].
587-->'''I AM IRON GIVEN PURPOSE!!!'''
588-->'''I AM THE BRINGER OF WAR!!!'''
589-->'''DON'T YOU DIE ON ME!!!'''
590* LaserGuidedAmnesia: The scroll of amnesia is a precision tool that allows you to forget one arbitrary memorized spell. The same effect is offered by the wizard god Sif Muna.
591* LeakingCanOfEvil: Although not evil, Ashenzari is in a [[ExaggeratedTrope VERY]] leaky can. Ashenzari was purposely and permanently bound to the sky by an unknown force in ancient times, yet despite this the god is still capable of receiving followers and granting powers. In fact, this seems to be [[CursedWithAwesome almost more of a blessing]], since it has made Ashenzari practically omniscient; being nailed to the sky means the god can see everything that happens on the entire planet.
592* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Ijyb is a weakling goblin unique who claims dominion over whatever dungeon level she appears on. While it is technically accurate to refer to the dungeon floors as "levels", it can also be interpreted in the context of video game levels.
593-->'''Ijyb:''' "Level is mine! All mine!"
594* LethalLavaLand: The Volcano is a fiery dimension that can be entered from a time-limited portal, and it's filled with magma and fire-based enemies.
595* LetsFightLikeGentlemen:
596** The Shining One demands this of its followers. In practice, this means that the character worshiping The Shining One is forbidden from using {{Back Stab}}s and punished for using [[BlackMagic necromancy]]. Older versions also included poison in the list of disapproved tactics.
597** Okawaru is the god of duel, and worshippers can never use summoning spells or any methods to create allies.
598* LevelDrain:
599** Draining, an attack type used by various kinds of undead as well as certain types of BlackMagic, used to work this way. In version 0.13, instead of draining your experience, draining was changed to a temporary skill reduction, making you weaker. You could get your skill points back by gaining more experience, though.
600** Version 0.26 changed draining to a temporary MaximumHPReduction, replacing the old rot mechanic.
601** Under the old system, if you somehow got drained below level 1 (which was very hard to do without getting killed first), the result was instant death.
602** [[MacroGame The ghosts of your mature Draconian characters]] used to come equipped with a blast of negative energy instead of the BreathWeapon they had in life. They could spam this, which made them even more dangerous than player ghosts usually are. Fortunately, this aspect was removed.
603* LifeDrain: The level 3 spell Vampiric Draining does this - it drains life from enemies and adds it to your health. Yredelemnul offers a full-screen variant to its followers. Weapons can also be vampiric, dealing no additional damage but healing the wielder when they hit living targets.
604* LifeMeter:
605** Nicely shows just how much damage that last hit did.
606** In earlier versions, zombies and skeletons didn't have life meters because damage done to them always subtracted from their maximum HP. It made it harder to tell [[CriticalExistenceFailure how much more punishment they could take]], but it did mean they couldn't heal, making them vulnerable to DeathOfAThousandCuts. Later versions changed this so they lose health normally but just don't regenerate.
607** Rakshasas used to lack life meters thanks to their skill with illusions, allowing them to mask their physical condition and making it harder to tell which one was real when they [[DoppelgangerSpin started spawning copies]] of themselves.
608* LightIsNotGood:
609** Holy beings such as angels are just as bloodthirsty as demons. Even if you're believing in the good gods, they'll still attack you on sight with intent to kill and, given how powerful they tend to be, they'll probably succeed at that goal. You can't sneak past them either, thanks to their glowing halo which will illuminate you and make you easy to spot. Prior to 0.15, the good god worshipping players were able to make them non-hostile, but in case of their death (even when you killed them in self-defense), the shining one would smite you.
610** Vehumet is titled "the Radiant". The light in this case is from [[StuffBlowingUp destructive magic]]. Vehumet doesn't care what you destroy so long as you do it.
611* LimitedUseMagicalDevice: All wands are these - each carries a limited number of charges of a specific spell. If you collect a wand of a kind you already have, it adds its charge to the current wand.
612* {{Lockdown}}: Vault wardens can magically seal doors and staircases, preventing egress for anyone other than their allies.
613* TheLostWoods: The Lair of Beasts sometimes has small forests, and they tend to have spriggans and other fey creatures.
614* LovecraftianSuperpower: Jiyva's gifts to the player are various mutations, most of them beneficial. But they take such forms as [[EyesDoNotBelongThere eyeballs covering the PC's body]] or the PC [[CombatTentacles growing pseudopods]].
615* LuckBasedMission:
616** It is true that almost all deaths can be avoided by a sufficiently skilled and cautious player, but to a novice may deaths will seem unavoidable, such as if you run into a centaur in the open. Especially good items can be luck-based, especially early on, but aren't necessary to win.
617** That said, for a more light-hearted version of a luck-based mission: play a character who worships [[MadGod Xom]], [[ItAmusedMe God of Chaos]]. It's not an issue of ''if'' Xom will get bored and kill you, but ''when''.
618* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: Shields provide no armour boost, but give the player a chance of completely blocking a hit, which increases as they increase their Shields skill. Certain magical shields or amulets can even let you [[AttackReflector reflect oncoming projectiles]] back at your foes!
619* LuckManipulationMechanic: Nemelex Xobeh's divine abilities are all based around manipulating decks of magical cards to get the draw that you want.
620* LudicrousGibs: Killing the unique vampire Jory causes him to explode into a huge cloud of blood.
621* MacabreMothMotif: The rare and feared moth of wrath is an unusual take on this, being rather colourful and not very dangerous by itself. The death and transformation motifs are still invoked by its capability to turn its allies berserk, which is particularly lethal due to its placement in the same locales as giant spiders, dragons, and [[LightningBruiser Orb Guardians]].
622* MacGuffin: The Orb of Zot! It's apparently so valuable that it's held deep underground in a realm you can't even enter without three [[PlotCoupon magic runes]], and it's guarded by hundreds of monsters, including actual demon lords... but nobody knows what it actually does, or what its powers are. In fact, carrying it has only negative effects on your character until you escape the dungeon with it.
623* MacGyvering: Many items and spells can be exploited beyond their obvious uses. One of the best examples is Conjure Flame - while the obvious use is blocking corridors with flames that hurt anything that dares to cross them, it can also be used for [[SmokeOut creating lots of steam to break enemies' line-of-sight]], clearing forests, manipulating the spread of "flood-fill" cloud attacks such as Freezing Cloud, and, of course, [[KillItWithFire killing stuff with fire]].
624* MacroGame: The player may encounter ghosts of previous characters in the Dungeon. Ghosts have similar strengths and weaknesses as they had while alive, which includes any really nice equipment they were using when they died. This can make for some really nasty surprises for future characters, though player ghosts are always sealed away in special vaults and [[OptionalBoss can therefore be skipped]].
625* MadGod: Xom again. The god of chaos doesn't have piety levels because loyalty has no meaning to Xom, only entertainment value, and even the most entertaining follower will sometimes have bad things done to them [[ItAmusedMe just because Xom thinks it's funny]]. It does work in reverse too, though. Boring followers will still occasionally get nice things just because, and of course Xom is always willing to forgive anything you do if you start being entertaining again.
626* MageKiller:
627** Berserkers and other servants of Trog. Trog despises magic, and will not only reward slaying magic-users, but will also gift followers with AntiMagic perks and weapons. In previous versions, Trog also provided a nifty ability to turn spellbooks on the ground into fiery landmines and would "roar with delight" whenever you used this ability.
628** Weapons of antimagic are useful tools for mage killers, as each hit gives an enemy caster an increasing chance to flub their spells. The artifact weapon Spellbinder is even better for this, as it also grants you resistance to hostile enchantments and causes your foes to experience [[MagicMisfire spell miscasts]].
629* MageMarksman: The Hexslinger (Arcane Marksman in previous versions) background is all about this, starting you with a ranged weapon and a book of various hexes for making it easier to kill foes from a distance. The Portal Projectile spell in particular fits this aesthetic, allowing you to teleport your missiles straight into your targets.
630* MagicKnight:
631** Some backgrounds are designed to fight with both melee attacks and spells, at least for a while.
632*** Transmuters frequently shapeshift and beat monsters down with their newfound [[ShapeshifterWeapon natural weapons]].
633*** Enchanters can debilitate their enemies with the spells like Ensorcelled Hibernation or Confusing Touch, before [[BackStab stabbing with their dagger for extra damage]].
634*** Warpers can fight, but they've also got an array of Translocations with which to escape sticky situations and control the battlefield.
635*** Reavers start with decent Fighting and weapon skills, and powerful but situational spells like Kiss of Death or Momentum Strike.
636** Melee-centric characters can utilize the powers of a god to become like a magic knight, without having to worry about spell failure from heavy armor. For example, worshipping Makhleb allows throwing around destructive blasts of power and summoning demons, not unlike mages.
637* MagicPants: Clothing and other incompatible equipment merges into a shapeshifted player's new form. This is convenient as it means you don't have to worry about undressing or destroying your clothes, but it also has an unexpected drawback that can catch players out: you can't benefit from your armor's bonuses or resistances while it's merged with you.
638* MagicMisfire: When you miscast a spell, something bad (getting self-damage or debuffs, or summoning hostile monsters) can happen, depending on the type and strength of the spell. Additionally, "magic contamination" builds up as you miscast, and having lots of it will give you nasty effects like bad mutations or [[SuperPowerMeltdown deadly explosions]].
639* MagicStaff: There are several varieties of magical staves, each of which [[AmplifierArtifact boost the power of spells]] in specific schools. Several rarer, more powerful artifact staves also exist.
640* MagicWand: Subverted. ''Crawl'' does feature a number of "magic wands", but [[BoomStick they work like ranged weapons]] with limited uses rather than the devices specifically made for spellcasters.
641* MagikarpPower:
642** Nagas have a very weak start; they're slower than almost everything else, any armor they equip gets the base AC values halved due to their oddly-shaped body, and they don't have any special abilities aside from poison resistance, see invisible (nearly useless early on), and the ability to spit poison, which takes several turns to recharge and can miss. Give them a few levels, however, and they develop stealth bonuses on par with spriggans, hefty innate AC boosts, auxilary constriction attacks, a boosted HP pool, above-average willpower, access to naga bardings, bonuses to shield usage, and still have innate poison resistance and see invisible.
643** Mummies can also qualify. They can't eat or drink, which renders potions completely useless to them and knocks out a lot of very useful survival tools, especially in the early game. They also gain stat increases on level ups every 5th level (the slowest possible), have one level of innate fire vulnerability, and have bad aptitudes in nearly every skill. However, they gain spell enhancers to necromantic magic every 13 levels and have the standard undead resistances without the odd mechanics of Ghouls or Vampires, and before hunger was removed, their lack of a food clock meant they could use abilities that only cost hunger (such as channeling MP from a staff) with no penalty.
644** Worshipping Cheibriados immediately makes the game much harder since most enemies can now outrun you, and its stat bonuses start out quite small. Once you build up enough piety, though, Cheibriados gives you huge stat bonuses (greatly boosting the Dodging and Shields skills in addition to your melee and spellcasting), an extremely powerful full-screen attack, and several nice emergency abilities. And piety recharges quite quickly once you have a lot.
645** Transmuters eventually get access to forms which let them deal massive damage in melee and often grant resistances or extra health. It takes a long time to get those spells, however, and in the meantime they suffer a lot of drawbacks compared to other classes - they can't easily wear heavy armor (it interferes with spellcasting), yet they still have to engage in melee; they are often fighting unarmed, so they can't benefit from the extra damage or brands a weapon can provide; they have to split their skill points between combat and spellcasting in order to access the higher level spells; and even if they do manage to pick up some decent lightweight armor, they cannot benefit from it when transformed as it will merge with their body until they change back.
646* ManaDrain:
647** The eye of draining can drain your mana from a distance, which heals it.
648** This is the basis of antimagic weaponry -- getting hit with an antimagic weapon saps your MP, and using one yourself reduces your maximum MP to about a third of its normal value.
649** Vine Stalkers can inflict ManaDrain with their bite, which not only applies antimagic to their target, but also restores their MP, which comes in handy with their innate ManaShield.
650* ManaMeter: Present, letting you see how much magic you have left for blasting stuff.
651* ManaShield: Guardian spirits (present in amulets and some pieces of magical armor) link your magic reserves to your health; whenever you take damage, you take it proportionally from both HP and MP (i.e. if someone had 90 HP and 10 MP and took 10 damage, they would lose 9 HP and 1 MP). The Vine Stalker species have an intrinsic ManaShield which ties in well with their [[ManaDrain magic-draining]] bite, and some demonspawn eventually develop a mana shield along with increased mana regeneration to fuel it.
652* ManOnFire:
653** Crawl has the Sticky Flame spell, which covers an enemy in sticky, burning liquid. The (now-removed) mottled dragon (and mottled draconian, which you could be if you were lucky with draconian maturation) could also breathe sticky flames.
654** In old versions, Sticky Flame used to spread between sheep because lanolin is highly flammable. Xom (of course) found this hilarious.
655** Before their removal, flaming corpses were literal men on fire; more precisely, they were the reanimated remains of people who burned to death. They existed only to set other things ablaze -- namely you. And they ran faster than you unless you were playing a fast species like a centaur or a spriggan. 0.28 added searing wretches as a sort of spiritual successor to flaming corpses; they're slower, but have the ability to temporarily strip fire resistance from their targets.
656* MartialArtsStaff: Quarterstaves are weapons that use Staves skill. They are good for low-level characters who want to specialize in Staves, but the scarcity of staves means that your weapon upgrade opportunities will be limited if you choose to specialize in them.
657* MassiveRaceSelection: The latest version has 27 playable species, most with odd natural abilities/disadvantages (the large species, for example, cannot wear most of the armour in the game).
658* MasterOfNone: Player gnolls are this; it's intrinsically impossible for them specialize in anything by design.
659* MasterPoisoner:
660** Alchemists, a playable class that focuses on Alchemy Magic. It starts with several spells that poison the opponents.
661** Olgreb, a legendary mage who is referenced by some spells and artifacts named after him. Said spells and artifacts are potent enough to be able to overcome poison resistance in monsters.
662* MaximumHPReduction:
663** [[LifeDrain Draining]] was changed to work this way in 0.26 in lieu of the old rot and skill drain systems. When players are drained (most commonly through various types of BlackMagic), their maximum HP is temporarily reduced. Gaining more experience will gradually restore the lost HP.
664** The spell Borgnjor's Revivification fully heals you at the cost of ''permanently'' reducing your maximum HP.
665** ''Crawl'' also used to have Maximum MP Damage, though only deep dwarves and mummies had to worry about it. Deep dwarves had an emergency ability that could instantly heal them much like drinking a potion of heal wounds, but it has a chance of permanently removing one of your maximum MP. Mummies had an ability that could restore their stats and some rotted HP (normally a job for potions, which they can't drink) at the cost of one point of maximum MP.
666** Before its removal, rot reduced your character's maximum HP instead of their current HP. You could repair rot by drinking healing potions, but rot was always healed before your actual HP, so heavy rotting could easily become a liability if you need to heal. Ghouls could also restore rotted HP by [[HyperactiveMetabolism eating raw meat]], which helped offset the innate decay they suffered from.
667*** Even older versions required you to drink healing potions while at full HP, which would fix small amounts of rotted HP.
668* TheMaze: In older versions, there was an optional branch called Labyrinth in place of Gauntlet. It featured tight corridors that cannot be permanently mapped and that also occasionally shift. There were no enemies save for rare occurrances of hungry ghosts, spiders, and the minotaur who guards the exit. The real challenge was finding the way out before starving to death, but successful players were rewarded with a bunch of reasonably good items. As a ShoutOut to the Greek myth, Minotaur characters used to be able to map out more of a Labyrinth than any other species.
669* MedievalUniversalLiteracy: All characters are capable of memorizing spells from spellbooks, studying manuals, and reading scrolls. Certain in-game situations (stat zero; a mutation; insufficient spell levels; silence) can interfere with the ability to read or memorize, but this is generally temporary and everyone is literate by default.
670* MercyRewarded: Elyvilon likes it when you pacify monsters instead of slaughtering them, although the player isn't punished for fighting. (Unless you kill something while praying for divine protection, which could be justified as it makes you kind of a hypocrite.)
671* MessianicArchetype: Playing as a Hill Orc priest of Beogh, a.k.a "Orc Jesus". However, you're far from being an AllLovingHero; the methods of a priest of Beogh are [[DarkMessiah suitably Orcish]].
672* MidasTouch: Granted by Gozag Ym Sagoz, god of gold. The bodies of any creatures its followers slay are turned into gold instead of leaving corpses.
673* MightyGlacier:
674** Cheibriados is the god of this. Following it reduces your movement speed to the point where moving in combat is extremely dangerous (as everything attacking you will get in several free hits), but your stats are greatly enhanced and you gain some extremely powerful abilities. Since your stats govern your dodging and shield abilities, this also makes you quite tanky.
675** Nagas move slower than most enemies in a game where movement speed is very important, but get bonus hit points, bonus AC as they level, an innate constriction attack, and free poison resistance. So they'll probably survive all those fights they should've been running from much better than the same class of human would have.
676** Barachim move as slowly as nagas, but compensate with the ability to swim, hop over creatures, and relatively good aptitudes across the board.
677** Among enemies, this is the norm for anything slower than average.
678* TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody: The Wereblood spell confers temporary lycanthropy on the caster, causing them to become increasingly monstrous and bloodthirsty the more they kill - and also makes them howl uncontrollably from the thrill of battle.
679* MirrorBoss:
680** Mara, the unique rakshasa, has the ability to create an exact copy of anything within his line of sight; most of the time, that'll be you. Fortunately, he can only create one such copy of a given creature at a time.
681** You can enforce this on monsters through use of a phantom mirror, an evocable item that creates a (short-lived, slightly weaker) copy of a nearby monster that fights on your side.
682** Occasionally, the game will try to generate a player ghost, but won't have any previous dead characters to pull from. If that happens, it generates a ghost version of your character.
683* MoneySpider: Averted for the most part, as killing monsters doesn't normally drop gold (though some intelligent monsters will pick up gold if they find it, leaving you free to take it off their bodies). If you worship Gozag, however, this is played straight up to eleven as [[MidasTouch all corpses are converted to piles of gold]].
684* MonsterClown: The [[Film/KillerKlownsFromOuterSpace Killer Klowns]] in the Realm of Zot are relatively understated for this trope, aside from their obvious unusual placement in a high-fantasy context and [[EverythingTryingToKillYou expected aggression as enemies]]. Still, their attacks goofily described as strangle-hugs or tickling inexplicably consume targets in random elemental agony, and the occasional dialogue line indicates they're not exactly human:
685-->The killer klown grows four more heads, takes them off and juggles!
686* MonstrousHumanoid: The Wereblood spell can temporarily turn the caster into one by transforming their blood into that of a were-beast. Outwardly, they still look normal, but they become increasingly monstrous and bloodthirsty in nature with each kill.
687* MookChivalry: Averted. Smarter monsters will make room for their mates so they can more easily gang up on you, and will also move out of the way of any allies with ranged attacks. If you enforce this by luring them into a narrow corridor, they will try to round a corner to get at you.
688* MookMedic: Groups of orcs will often have an orc priest with them who can provide healing support. Gnoll boudas fulfill a similar role in gnoll packs.
689* MotherNature: Fedhas Madash, god of plants and nature, is a rare example of a plant-based nature god who is NOT overtly feminine, though this is due in large part to the intentional gender-neutral status of Crawl deities.
690* MothMenace: Ghost moths are permanently invisible, can drain the player's magic from a distance, and have a poisonous, stat-draining sting. Slightly less threatening are moths of wrath, which can cause nearby enemies to go berserk, and sun moths, which glow and [[PowerOfTheSun blast things with rays of light]].
691* MultiMeleeMaster: Crawl's skill system allows you to train and gain experience with any weapon, so it's possible to master several weapons at once. Further, crosstraining lets players use weapons of a similar type (i.e. Short blades compared to Long blades) as if they had a fraction of the experience from the main weapon type, giving characters even more flexibility.
692* MultiMookMelee: The last floor of the Vaults forces the player to fight against a giant army of enemies, at once. Every single staircase down from the previous level leads to the very center of the floor, where you are immediately ambushed by a giant circle of ''24'' Vault Guards, accompanied by various other generated monsters. Furthermore, there is open space in every direction, meaning that reinforcements will come running immediately. There are also Vault Wardens, who can [[AntiEscapeMechanism block access to the stairs]], leaving you completely surrounded by a mob of enemy monsters with no escape.
693* MultiRangedMaster: The Ranged Weapons skill governs your ability to use anything from slings to bows to crossbows.
694* MundaneUtility:
695** In addition to being one of the classic tricks of necromancy, the spell Animate Skeleton also used to be a neat hands-free way of butchering meat, which used to be a way to get around the problem of being unable to butcher corpses while one's hands were bound by a cursed blunt weapon. In fact, Ashenzari's altars typically had a spellbook with Animate Skeleton near them precisely to allow bound servants to butcher corpses.
696** Transforming oneself into a giant ice beast is very effective when fighting monsters not resistant to cold. However, transmuters can also use the spell to cross ponds of water with ease, and its innate poison resistance makes it useful for fighting poisonous creatures.
697** The wand of disintegration is generally intended for reducing an opponent to a pile of LudicrousGibs, assuming you can overcome their magical resistance. It also came in handy for digging through rock walls, iron gratings, or trees, one space at a time, though this feature was later removed.
698* MushroomMan: There are two types of mushroom creatures, wandering mushrooms and deathcaps. Wandering mushrooms can confuse opponents by melee attacking, while deathcaps drain energy from the living. They don't roam in the dungeon anymore, but an end-game enemy called Curse Toe can summon them to gang up you.
699* NatureIsNotNice: The dungeon is filled with hostile animals, like wolves, bears, spiders, lizards, frogs, eels, snails, and so on. Branches like the Lair of Beasts, [[CobwebJungle Spider's Nest]], or [[BubblegloopSwamp Swamp]] are especially filled with animal monsters.
700* {{Nerf}}ing: This tends to happen between versions. Prior to 0.28, one of the most obvious nerfs was for Summoners; the rule was that any monster killed by a player's summon is worth only half the experience it would be otherwise. In particular, the devs like to nerf anything that's considered obviously better than any other choice and ends up being used regardless of your play style. The halving of extra damage done by vorpal weapons and removal of the "Detect Creatures" spell fall into this category, as did the removal of the "Tomb of Doroklohe" spell in the first Stone Soup versions.
701* NearlyNormalAnimal: Felids are similar to normal cats, but they are sapient and greatly skilled with some schools of magic. They lack both humanoid body structure and hands, making them unique among playable characters in being unable to use weapons, thrown items, or even equipment like ''robes'' and ''hats'' which otherwise fit everyone. In older versions, they were even unable to use wands or draw cards from decks.
702* TheNeedless:
703** Before the removal of hunger, Mummies were one of the very few species that didn't need to eat at all ([[ImmunityDisability though this also prevented them from drinking potions]], making them very difficult to play).
704** For high-level necromancers, the Necromutation spell could be used to transform oneself into an undead lich, which also negated the need for food.
705* NemeanSkinning:
706** In older versions, you could obtain animal skins by butchering creatures like sheep and yaks, and some higher-level enemies like trolls and dragons would yield hides that could be enchanted into armor. This has since been greatly simplified and streamlined: you can't skin creatures anymore, and trolls and dragons simply drop a ready-made set of armor without requiring any preparation or enchantment.
707** Played straight with the ratskin cloak, whose description specifically mentions that it was created by an enchantress with too much time on her hands.
708* NitroBoost: The Haste effect, which can be applied with a potion. There was a spell available to players, but it has since been removed.
709* NominalImportance:
710** The unique enemies have names; when you see one, you know you're in for a more difficult battle than normal. As of 0.15, they even have [[RedBaron their own titles]], such as "[[EnemySummoner Eustachio the Magnificent]]" or "[[TheBerserker Snorg]] [[BigEater the Insatiable]]".
711** The randomly generated artifacts are a slight aversion of this, since they have real-looking names, but are not guaranteed to be important, or even worth having at all. It's not uncommon to find artifacts with abysmal stats or negative attributes, and many are cursed.
712** As a hill orc of Beogh, your orcish followers will gain names if they survive and kill for long enough. They can still die like any other orc, but it is fuel for VideoGameCaringPotential.
713* NonElemental: Pure magic attacks such as Magic Dart can be more straightforward and effective than elemental spells, which - although they may do more damage - require two spell schools and can be resisted by many monsters, especially later in the game. Earth magic at least is treated as pure physical damage.
714* NonHumanUndead:
715** It's actually quite unusual to see a human zombie, since the game allows undead of pretty much any species, and humans aren't very common enemies.
716** Despite the ability to make undead out of pretty much anything and everything (even creatures with no solid physical form can be raised as spectral things), there are still a few varieties that are more out-there than most, such as the AnimateBodyParts like flying skulls or curse toes, or profane servitors (essentially [[FallenAngel zombie angels]]), or death cobs (undead ''ears of corn'').
717* NonStandardGameOver: The standard way to get a GameOver is by having your health points reduced to zero. However, you can also be killed if you spend too long in one location without exploring; the entity known as Zot will find you and end your life.
718** You can also simply go up the stairs on the top dungeon floor and leave the dungeon; this automatically ends the game, and is the way that you win, provided you have retrieved the Orb of Zot first. If you don't have the Orb of Zot, the game just ends.
719* NoOntologicalInertia:
720** Many effects inflicted by enemies will cease as soon as the enemy is killed. This is generally an intentional design feature, in keeping with Crawl's philosophy of minimizing frustration where possible. Even when effects do persist beyond the death of their instigator, they are still generally temporary -- even things that seem like they shouldn't be, such as corrosion.
721** Summoned enemies will vanish as soon as you kill whatever summoned them.
722* OddJobGods:
723** Ashenzari is the God of Divination, but also of ''being cursed'', and is happiest with you when you're covered with [[ClingyCostume Clingy]] [[ArtifactOfDoom Artifacts of Doom]].
724** Cheibriados is ostensibly the God of Time, but really just wants followers to take it easy and enjoy every single second. Trying to speed up insults Cheibriados, since you obviously don't appreciate things if you are moving as fast as you can.
725** Jiyva, the God of Slime doesn't really do a lot as a god. They just sort of squish about and eat stuff, and they only have one sentient follower (two if the player character converts at an altar).
726** Nemelex Xobeh is the god of {{Collectible Card Game}}s. The god has some aspects of a Lady Luck-style fortune deity, but these are all overshadowed by the playing card elements.
727* OneSizeFitsAll: Averted in this game.
728** Most armour like ring mail or chain mail are only fit average or small sized species. While some armour like robes or dragon scales fit most species, some species like octopode or felids are just unable to wear any type of body armour.
729** Weapons exist in various sizes. Smaller species are unable to use larger weapons like triple swords or great maces, and Sprrigans are so tiny, they need use both hands to wield most one-handed weapons. Furthermore, the weapons like giant clubs are so robust, only large species and formicids (with their [[MultiArmedAndDangerous all four arms]]) can equip.
730* OneHandedZweihander:
731** Inverted with the smaller species - they may need two hands to hold a weapon which the larger species can hold with just one.
732** Played straight with Formicids, who can wield two-handed weapons as if they were one-handed thanks to having four arms and being StrongAnts. They're even strong enough to swing ogre-sized giant clubs, though they need all four arms to do it and can't quite manage to fling large rocks.
733* OneHitKill:
734** Maxwell's Capacitive Coupling, a level 8 air spell instakills any enemy closest to you once the charge is released. It's unblockable, undodgeable, and irresistible, but requires the player to wait (as in do nothing at all) for 3-7 turns while it charges, and makes extremely loud noise so ''will'' wake up almost everything else on the level and send them running for you.
735** There was a level 9 ice spell called Absolute Zero, which worked similarly like the aforementioned spell. However, it didn't need any wait time to instakill an enemy, so Absolute Zero was even more strong.
736** The Axe of Woe, which is only available in the [[ArrangeMode Dungeon Sprint]] map "Arena of Blood" (aka Meatsprint). It gives you +∞ to both accuracy and damage; this, combined with the cleaving ability of axes, means that each swing instantly kills every enemy next to you. Somehow the map still manages to be a challenge in spite of this — [[NintendoHard it is still]] ''[[NintendoHard Crawl]],'' [[NintendoHard after all]].
737* OneStatToRuleThemAll: Intelligence for any characters that desire any magical capabilities. The other two basic stats have little to no point unless you're a transmuter or your character is totally magic-free, though you still want to have enough points in them so they can't easily be dropped to zero or below (generally 8 is enough to survive most stat-draining situations).
738** Downplayed as of more recent versions. Strength is important for most melee weapons and is especially necessary if you want to be wearing anything but the lightest armor. Dexterity, meanwhile, is helpful for stealth, dodging, using a shield, and wielding blades or ranged weapons. If you're primarily relying on magic, you'll still want as much intelligence as you can get, but the other two aren't the same {{Dump Stat}}s they used to be.
739* OrphanedSeries: Linley Henzell, the game's original creator, started out with regular updates but quickly got tired of the game and let it go. In Linley's own words:
740--> [[http://quote-un-quote.tumblr.com/post/2178789666/interview-with-shmup-legend-linley-henzell "I released it under the same version of the General Public Licence as Nethack 3.1.3, thinking that as Hack turned into Nethack, maybe after I’d stopped working on Crawl someone else would take it over and keep it alive. Happily this did happen, and the Stone Soup dev team are doing great things with Crawl despite the nightmare tangle of spaghetti code I left behind."]]
741* OurAngelsAreDifferent: Angels are present as monsters that are typically quite tough to deal with - especially if one is undead and[=/=]or relies on BlackMagic to kill stuff. Angels and their tougher cousins Daevas are also [[HolyIsNotSafe very aggressive]], even if the player is a very zealous follower of a good god and ostensibly on their side. Prior to 0.15, they would occasionally recognize followers of the good gods, but this would only make them "indifferent", not "friendly"; you also often got [[BoltOfDivineRetribution smitten by the Shining One]] for killing them, even in self-defense.
742* OurCentaursAreDifferent:
743** Centaurs were playable until version 0.26. They were fast and deadly archers, but body armor didn't protect them well, and they had poor aptitudes for skills that didn't involve ranged weaponry. Enemy centaurs are still around, though, and very much retain their speed and prowess with bows.
744** Regular centaurs may no longer be playable, but they've been replaced with species that share a body plan. For a few versions, you could play as palentongas, scaled, pangolin-esque creatures that could [[RollingAttack roll into opponents]] and curl up defensively when attacked. 0.30 then replaced them in turn with armataurs, sturdy, armadillo-man hybrids with excellent defensive aptitudes and inherent rampaging (flavored as rolling towards their opponents).
745** In the deeper parts of the Dungeon, you'll start to find ''yak''taurs -- yak-man hybrids. They only move at average speed, but they're even better marksmen, in part due to using the more powerful and accurate crossbows instead of bows.
746* OurDemonsAreDifferent:
747** [[MassiveRaceSelection And playable!]] Demonspawn are a JackOfAllStats species not unlike humans; they gain sets of special mutations as they level up, but are incapable of worshiping the three good gods.
748** In addition to playable demonspawn, there are dozens and dozens of demonic monsters ranging from minor imps to huge demon lords with [[TheUnpronounceable unpronounceable]] names.
749* OurDragonsAreDifferent:
750** Many types of dragons appear as monsters. They often possess a distinct [[BreathWeapon breath attack]], like steam dragons breath a ball of steam, acid dragons spit acid, swamp dragons breath noxious gas, and so on. Many of them also have chances to drop dragon scales, which can be worn as body armour.
751** Draconians are [[MassiveRaceSelection playable]] [[DraconicHumanoid humanoid dragons]]. They get a [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience random color]] (including associated traits and BreathWeapon) when they mature at level 7.
752* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame:
753** Deep Dwarves were playable up until version 0.29, and they were not like your average dwarves. They had the innate ability to reduce damage they received, but lacked natural regeneration. They were also skilled necromancers, earth mages, and priests.
754** Mountain Dwarves and Hill Dwarves were playable in much earlier versions, and they resembled the traditional Tolkeinian dwarves.
755* OurElvesAreDifferent:
756** [[MassiveRaceSelection And playable!]] Deep Elves are cave-dwelling {{Squishy Wizard}}s with incredible magic power but laughable resilience.
757** Like dwarves, there used to be more varieties of elves, such as the standard Tolkien-esque warrior-mage High Elves or the swamp-dwelling KungFuWizard Sludge Elves. Most of them were removed because they overlapped too much with other species.
758* OurFairiesAreDifferent: [[MassiveRaceSelection And playable!]] Spriggans are tricky little blighters with a distinct FairFolk flavor; they're one of the most popular species, since they're very fast and skilled with the subtler forms of magic. But, they're [[FragileSpeedster painfully frail]] and aren't particularly good at straightforward combat, so if they run into something big and strong that's largely immune to trickery... Prior to the hunger removal in 0.26, spriggans were also notable for their very slow metabolism, which was balanced by being herbivores in a game where meat is the main source of food.
759* OurGargoylesRock: [[MassiveRaceSelection And are playable!]] They're decent with melee combat and earth magic and have a host of natural abilities including natural armor, immunity to poison and [[TakenForGranite petrification]], resistance to electricity and negative energies, and no need to breathe. On the flip side, [[ArmoredButFrail they gain much less hit points per level]] then other species and are ''horribly'' vulnerable to the Lee's Rapid Deconstruction spell found on some late-game monsters.
760* OurGeniesAreDifferent: [[MassiveRaceSelection And playable!]] Their original iteration was added and removed between updates, but djinn are now in the game properly as of 0.27. The current djinni species have FogFeet like the genie from ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' (though ''Crawl's'' djinn are red, not blue). They are also highly resistant to fire, weak to cold, and immune to poison. Their most notable traits, however, are that [[CastFromHitPoints their spells cost HP]] instead of MP (which they don't have); they do not learn spells from spellbooks -- instead, they naturally learn one random spell every other level; and they only apply their Spellcasting skill when using magic (ignoring the other magic skills entirely).
761* OurGhostsAreDifferent: A player character who dies may leave a ghost that carries on most of the deceased player's abilities and weaknesses as well as a [[GhostlyGoals fair share of hatred]] towards anyone attempting to complete the Orb quest - that is, [[MacroGame new player characters]]. There's also a fair number of different ghostly enemies with varying abilities.
762* OurGhoulsAreCreepier: [[MassiveRaceSelection And playable!]] They have claws, high strength, the full set of undead resistances/immunities, and heal when they kill things, but also have [[DumbMuscle the lowest base intelligence in the game]] and do not regenerate naturally when monsters are nearby.
763* OurGoblinsAreDifferent: Goblins and hobgoblins are present as early-game enemies, and they are some of the weakest humanoid enemies in ''Crawl''.
764* OurKoboldsAreDifferent: [[MassiveRaceSelection And playable!]] They are acceptable mages and are rally good at stealth and short blades, especially since they naturally see less of the dungeon than normal.
765* OurLichesAreDifferent:
766** The player can learn the Necromutation spell, which will result in a temporary transformation into a lich. As a result, the player gains improved stats, a fairly potent draining touch, and the various resistances and vulnerabilities associated with being undead. There are downsides, though: you can't drink potions anymore, and if you worship one of the good gods and cast the spell, you're instantly excommunicated (though you'd already be in hot water with your god for spending so much time learning Necromancy to begin with).
767** Liches are also present as dangerous spellcasting foes in the lower portions of the dungeon. Even farther down, you'll start running into ancient liches and dread liches, which are even stronger.
768* OurManticoresAreSpinier: They can fly and use their tails to flick volleys of spikes at you, which become lodged in your body and make moving painful. However, they are not venomous.
769* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: [[MassiveRaceSelection And playable!]] They're of the "tails transform into legs" type, and are as capable on land as any other species. They get major bonuses to speed and evasion in water, and they have ''the'' best polearms aptitude of any species. They're also not bad with [[CoolSword long blades]], which complement their nimble builds.
770* OurMinotaursAreDifferent: [[MassiveRaceSelection And playa-bull!]] Minotaurs have good aptitudes for all forms of physical combat and can CounterAttack with their horns, but [[MagicallyIneptFighter suck at using magic]]. Meanwhile, enemy minotaurs occasionally appear as heavily-armed and -armored opponents in the deeper parts of the Dungeon, and though [[TheMaze The Labyrinth]] has since been reworked into the less-thematic Gauntlet, a minotaur is always found guarding the exit and the largest pile of loot.
771* OurOrcsAreDifferent: [[MassiveRaceSelection And playable!]] They're big, brutal, and possess great XP gain. They're also looking for their messiah; orcs following Beogh can become what has been nicknamed "[[MessianicArchetype Orc Jesus]]," complete with walking on water. Of course, [[DarkMessiah a lot of killing is needed to earn that title]].
772* OurOgresAreHungrier:
773** Ogres appear as monsters in ''Crawl''. Weaker ones just [[SmashMook smash you]] with their signature giant clubs, but there are the ogres who can [[MagicKnight unleash deadly spells and hit hard]] at the same time, like the ogre mages and [[ShockAndAwe ironbound thunderhulks]].
774** Prior to 0.31, Ogre was one of the playable species. Ogres were {{Glass Cannon}}s due to their combination of massive strength and inability to wear many kinds of armor. They were capable of wielding the largest weapons in the game, and made surprisingly [[GeniusBruiser competent mages]] as well, with only slight penalties to learning and using magic.
775* OurTrollsAreDifferent: [[MassiveRaceSelection And playable!]] They're big, strong, and [[HealingFactor have incredibly fast regeneration]], but [[UnskilledButStrong most of their aptitudes are ''very'' poor]]. Prior to the hunger system removal in 0.26, they also had [[BigEater an incredibly fast metabolism]] -- their ability to eat almost anything was balanced out by their need to eat almost everything.
776* OurVampiresAreDifferent: [[MassiveRaceSelection And playable!]] Crawl's vampires can voluntarily switch between being alive and undead, by either shedding or replenishing all their blood. A "living" vampire has enhanced healing, but otherwise has the same vulnerabilities as any living creature in addition to weaknesses to [[HolyBurnsEvil holy weapons and magic]]. An undead vampire is frail and doesn't heal very well, but is incredibly stealthy, resists many things that would harm a living creature, and can transform into a bat if they need a quick escape.
777* OurWightsAreDifferent: Wights are undead warriors, and they roam in groups in the early Dungeon. They are most notable for often carrying high-quality weapons and having draining-branded attacks.
778* OxymoronicBeing: Spriggans can choose to be hunters by class, effectively being herbivorous hunters.
779[[/folder]]
780
781[[folder:P-S]]
782* PaintingTheMedium:
783** Your standing with your god is indicated by a bar of 1 to 6 asterisks. While there is very little you can do to influence MadGod Xom's mood, the piety meter still serves to indicate how well-disposed Xom feels towards you at the moment (and therefore how likely Xom is to be helpful). Followers of Gozag, meanwhile, have their piety meter replaced with how much gold they're carrying (as gold is all that Gozag cares for).
784** In the tiles version, some of the highest-level spells have icons that break the borders most other spell icons fit into. Some examples: [[http://crawl.chaosforge.org/File:Singularity.png Singularity]], [[http://crawl.chaosforge.org/File:Shatter.png Shatter]], [[http://crawl.chaosforge.org/File:Dragon%27s_call.png Dragon's Call]]
785* ThePaladin: Devoted followers of the Shining One fight like paladins in ''Crawl''. They can strengthen their defense with Holy Shield, crush unholy opponents with [[HolyHandGrenade Cleansing Flame]], and summon holy fighters like angels or daevas.
786* PaletteSwap:
787** Stone Soup introduces an odd variation of this: Weaker versions of an enemy are always dark ASCII colors. Stronger, but otherwise similar, enemies are a lighter shade of the same color. Also appears from time to time in the graphical "tiles" version, most notably with the different kinds of snakes.
788** The tiles version has [[ArtEvolution gradually been attempting to move away from this]]; there are still examples of PaletteSwap enemies (some of the canines, for example), but many previous examples (including the aforementioned snakes) don't fit anymore.
789* PartialTransformation: The Blade Hands and Beastly Appendage spells; the former turns the caster's hands into scythe-like blades, while the latter gives them temporary auxiliary {{Shapeshifter Weapon}}s -- horns on their heads and talons on their feet.
790* PercentDamageAttack: The Agony spell, which knocks off half the target's health; there's also Symbol of Torment, which halves the health of ''everything'' in sight (including the caster). Both can be fully resisted by monsters, but most players can only resist part of them (and will lose incrementally smaller fractions of health depending on how much resistance they have).
791* PieInTheFace:
792** The 2013 April Fool's update briefly introduced Jesters as a playable class; one of their selling points was starting with a stack of cream pies they could use to blind enemies.
793** As of version 0.23, the [[MonsterClown Killer Klowns]] in the [[VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Realm of Zot]] can throw pies, which deal surprisingly heavy damage for confectionery as well as inflicting one of several nasty status effects.
794* PlantPeople: The Vine Stalker species, which are masses of parasitic vines that have infested humanoid bodies. They are frail and cannot heal using potions, but some of the damage they take [[ManaShield gets rerouted to their MP]] and they eventually gain a HealingFactor that rivals even Trolls'. They also have a [[ManaDrain magic-draining bite]] for restoring their magical reserves mid-battle (as well as applying [[PowerNullifier antimagic]] to any spellcasters they might be fighting).
795* PlotCoupon: You need at least 3 [[{{MacGuffin}} Runes]] to enter the [[VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Realm Of Zot]], and [[BonusDungeon Ziggurats]] require at least 2 Runes for entry.
796* PoisonedWeapons:
797** Weapons with the venom brand have a chance to poison enemies that they hit.
798** There are several types of throwing darts, and all of them are poisoned in some way.
799** In older versions, the spell Poison Weapon temporarily applied this brand to your current weapon.
800* PoisonIsEvil: In previous versions, The Shining One, god of goodness and paladins, included using poison against enemies in its long list of "thou shalt nots". That said, the Shining One didn't consider it to be nearly as bad as, say, [[BlackMagic necromancy]] and would allow the use of poison against unintelligent creatures like animals and bugs, as well as against evil creatures. (Though, to be fair, the list of evil creatures is mostly undead and demons, almost all of which are immune to poison anyway.)
801* PoisonMushroom:
802** The potion of degeneration reduces all your stats, which will be restored as you gain more experience. Since all potions are initially unidentified, this makes it a hazard for players in the early game, who might drink it accidentally or in desperation when trying to taste-test potions. If the player is lucky, they might be able to magically identify it or buy it from a shop (which auto-identifies it). Fortunately, this is the only completely negative potion in the game - all other potions are useful to some degree (although some still carry some risks):
803** The potion of lignification turns the player into a tree, rooting them to the ground. This is obviously a disadvantage if you're trying to escape, but being a tree comes with the perks of increased durability, resistance to poison, and complete immunity to [[PercentDamageAttack Torment]].
804** The potion of mutation inflicts random mutations on you, which can be good; however, there's nothing stopping you from also getting a bunch of bad mutations.
805** The potion of attraction will temporarily pull monsters close to you. While this can be helpful for fighting opponents with potent ranged attacks or for stabbing sleeping monsters without waking them up, you can't choose ''not'' to attract monsters, even if they're ones you would really rather not be standing next to.
806** There used to be more potions that inflicted deleterious status effects such as confusion, poison, decay, etc., but these were phased out. Even these used to be useful thanks to the spell Evaporate, which flash-boiled a potion to create an improvised hand-grenade and would apply any effects of a negative potion to the resulting steam cloud. (For example, potions of decay would create clouds of miasma instead of normal steam.) When Evaporate was removed in 0.12, there was no longer any worthwhile reason to use these potions, so they've been gradually phased out.
807* PostVictoryCollapse: Once a berserker rage wears off, you are slowed and exhausted for a while. In previous versions, you could even pass out for a couple turns. If you timed your berserk poorly, this period of vulnerability may take place mid-battle instead of after you've killed everything.
808* PowerAtAPrice: This is the entire modus operandi of Ru, god of sacrifices. If you worship Ru, it will watch you as you fight through the dungeon, and will periodically give you a choice of sacrifices to make. These are always fundamental aspects of your being without which you are weaker; for example, you might sacrifice your natural resistance to the elements, making you vulnerable to fire and cold. The bigger the personal sacrifice, the more Ru will reward you with divine powers.
809* PowerFloats:
810** Tengu, a species of BirdPeople; they don't have wings, but they get the ability to magically fly anyway upon reaching level 5.
811** There are various ways to take flight for species that can't do so naturally, such as with a potion, enchanted boots, or magical equipment.
812* PowerNullifier:
813** Some weapons have the antimagic brand, which is able to prevent monsters from casting spells. The scroll of vulnerability makes everything nearby more vulnerable to enchantments (including the reader), potions of cancellation cancel all magical effects on you, and the spell Yara's Violent Unravelling turns magical effects on the target into a violent, mutagenic explosion.
814** The Silence spell prevents sounds from occurring within an area for a limited time, so while it doesn't actually nullify magical power, it nullifies the ability to ''use'' most magical powers, since spell words can't be spoken and scrolls can't be read. It's no good for stealth, because the unnatural silence helps warn enemies that you're there, and certain natural abilities (like a dragon's BreathWeapon) or spells cast by demons will still function under Silence.
815** Moths of suppression, which have since been removed from the game, emitted an aura that negated any sort of magical enchantment on your items. That amazing magic FlamingSword that let you fly and gave you resistance to electricity was just a sharp piece of metal while within said aura.
816* PowersViaWeapon: The main reason artifact weapons are desirable, aside from their typically high enchantments, is that they grant additional abilities and resistances when wielded.
817* PowerUpgradingDeformation:
818** A lot of the mutations you can get in the game are quite useful. A lot of them are [[TransformationHorror quite disturbing]] to have on your body. These two groups are not mutually exclusive.
819** Jiyva the Slime God particularly enjoys using this trope. See the entry for LovecraftianSuperpower, above.
820* PrecisionGuidedBoomerang: Boomerangs are a throwing weapon which, as expected, return to the thrower, allowing you to reuse them without having to go pick them up. Previous versions had weapons of returning, which were specifically enchanted to return when thrown.
821* PsychoElectricEel: Electric eels fire very painful bolts of lightning at anyone in their line of sight. Fortunately, they're much less common than they used to be.
822* PunnyName: The Airstrike spell literally causes the air around a creature to come alive and physically strike them.
823* QuirkyBard: For a brief time (during the April Fool's of 2013), there existed a Jester class. It began with some unique equipment (including [[PieInTheFace a stack of pies]]), worshipping Nemelex Xobeh (which is DifficultButAwesome), and under permanent penance from Xom (which is bad).
824* RandomNumberGod:
825** InUniverse, Xom is a god of Chaos that grants you rewards and punishments that are largely random. Xom is also possibly the only deity in anything that literally [[LampshadeHanging calls itself the Random Number God]]. (Some of the time, at least -- Xom can be referred to by several different titles, one of which is periodically chosen, appropriately enough, at random.)
826** Draconians start off as brown-scaled juveniles without a breath weapon, then randomly mature into one of eight colours on reaching level seven and gain their breath weapon. As some of these are extremely useful and some are borderline useless, many players RageQuit if they don't get one of the desirable colours. The dev team have repeatedly refused to allow players to choose the colour they get despite many requests, saying the random result is one of the species' core elements.
827** Djinn don't use spell books; instead, they are gifted a random new spell every few levels. While they can use all schools of magic equally well, you're not guaranteed to wind up with spells you want or that your god would approve of (or even ones that are particularly useful).
828* RandomlyGeneratedLevels:
829** Like most {{Roguelike}}s, Crawl features these. Levels are created using several different templates and are often spiced up with hand-crafted rooms with special features or monster vaults, making them even more varied than in most Roguelikes.
830* RandomlyGeneratedLoot: The game has a flexible loot generation system which is capable of producing items with higher stats and magical brands. It can also generate artifacts, which are items that have a unique name and appearance, and confer a number of different powers (or weaknesses) to the bearer.
831* RareCandy:
832** Potions of Experience, which make you go up a level and give you a big chunk of skill points for you to distribute as you see fit.
833** Potions of Gain <Stat> used to be in the game, but they were replaced by Potions of Beneficial Mutation in 0.13, which were in turn folded into general Potions of Mutation in 0.20.
834** There used to be an Experience card in the various magical decks, but it was removed in 0.15.
835* RealTimeWeaponChange:
836** It takes time to switch weapons, but fortunately, it's a pretty fast switch. Changing your equipment, though, takes a lot longer -- you can still switch rings pretty quickly, but taking off or putting on armor or an amulet takes 5 turns. This wasn't always true -- amulets used to be a quick switch as well, and armor took an amount of time to change based on its evasion penalty. In the old system, a common YetAnotherStupidDeath was to [[RandomlyDrops find a gold dragon armour]] (the strongest and heaviest armor in the game), neglect to retreat to someplace safe to put it on, and get [[CherryTapping picked to death 1 HP at a time]] by a goblin that was hiding around the corner [[InTheBack before you could finish putting it on]] and actually get the AC bonus.
837* TheRedMage:
838** Hedge Wizards trade the advantages of specializing in a single school of magic for having an array of useful spells available right off the bat.
839** In practice, player gnolls gravitate towards this type of gameplay. They learn all skills equally while leveling up but cannot specialize; this allows them to easily make use of any kind of light weapon or lower-level spell, but heavy weapons or high-level spells are generally too unwieldly for them to use.
840* ReducedDowntimeFeatures: This game has auto-exploration and auto-rest. Auto-exploration lets your character explore the dungeon automatically, stopping only when monsters or certain kinds of loot come into view. Auto-rest lets you rest in one place automatically, stopping when your HP or MP is fully regenerated, when your status effects dissipate, or when a monster approaches. These features reduce downtime from the player's point of view, but not from the character's: you don't take fewer turns, you just take many uneventful turns instantaneously.
841* RegeneratingHealth: While most playable characters have natural regeneration and will gradually heal from almost all wounds, this aspect is downplayed for Ghouls and bloodless Vampires. They can only regenerate when there are no enemies around.
842* ReligionIsMagic: The game has a conventional spellcasting system with spellbooks and magical schools. However, for those who don't want to invest effort into learning spellcasting, they can obtain magic powers via a different route - by worshipping one of the game's gods, who will grant them a set of religious powers to use.
843** Religious powers have a few significant benefits over traditional spellcasting. Since spells require hand gestures, wizards have to dress lightly or risk an increased chance of spell failure. This makes them vulnerable to physical attack. Divine abilities, on the other hand, can be invoked verbally and have no such problem, which makes them accessible to players who are wearing heavy armor. Training your religious powers also usually only requires you to invest in a single skill - Invocations - which is easier than the complex multi-school system used by traditional magic. Additionally, many gods grant permanent passive powers, such as The Shining One's divine halo, while traditional magical effects are always temporary and must be recast.
844** There are, however, also a few downsides to religious magic. You have to earn your powers by pleasing your god, which can take time and often involves restrictions on your actions (wielding evil weapons, for example, will anger a good god). Religious powers are limited to whatever your god grants you, so you generally don't have the flexibility and range of options that a true wizard would have. In most cases, you also can't switch to a different god without incurring their divine wrath, so once you've made your choice you're either stuck with it or will have a bad time getting rid of it.
845** Three of the gods - Kikubaaqudgha, Sif Muna, and Vehumet - actually support your use of conventional magic, and will try to help out and educate aspiring wizards, which allows for a hybrid religious/magical approach:
846*** Kikubaaqudgha approves of Necromancy and will protect the player from the dangers of miscasting necromantic spells, send them cadavers to use in their magic, and occasionally offer them new spells to learn.
847*** Sif Muna is the god of magic in general, and will help the player to learn and cast new spells, bolster their mana, and even offer some spells from their own divine collection.
848*** Vehumet is the god of destructive magic, and will assist you in learning and using spells as long as said spells involve blowing stuff up.
849* ReligionOfEvil: Some gods are tagged as evil by the game. In general, their followers don't act much differently from most other gods (most gods don't care from whom the blood comes so long as it flows), but the triumvirate of Good hate these gods above all others, and will especially punish you if you defect from worshipping one of the triumvirate to one of the evil gods.
850** Yredelemnul is the standout example. The god of death and undeath, it also corrupts holy beings and rewards their destruction. It appears to particularly model itself as an EvilCounterpart to the good gods.
851** Kikubaaqudgha is the god of pain, torment, and necromancers.
852** Beogh is the god of orcish war, bloodshed, and a [[DarkMessiah messianic crusade]] to bring the world under orcish domination. Notably, it acts very much like a Good deity... ''toward faithful orcs''. Everyone else (including any orcs who ''haven't'' embraced the cause) is fair game to be killed.
853** Lugonu is the [[ChaoticEvil Chaotic and Evil]] Formless God of the Abyss, spreading death and corruption across the world. [[invoked]]
854** Makhleb is a ChaoticEvil god of destruction, bloodshed, and demons, one of the many seeking the world's destruction. [[invoked]]
855** Dithmenos is the god of darkness and seeks to return reality to the shadows. It shrouds followers in an umbra (essentially an anti-halo) and grants them various shadowy powers.
856* RequiredSecondaryPower: In earlier versions, if you were invisible but couldn't see invisible, you were penalized for not seeing what you're doing (for example, it was harder to hit things). This made invisibility rather less useful than some players would like.
857* ResurrectionSickness: Every time a felid loses a life, they respawn elsewhere on the same floor, but their level goes down by one. While this doesn't affect your skills, it does leave you with less HP and MP than you had before, and as felids are already incredibly frail...
858* {{Retirony}}: According to his flavor text, the unique mercenary Harold is planning to retire with his family after pulling one last hit. Unfortunately for him, [[EverythingTryingToKillYou his target is you]], meaning he's probably going to get mowed down with everything else in your path. [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential You monster.]]
859* RevivingEnemy:
860** The unique lich Boris can never be actually killed. After you "kill" him, he respawns somewhere else in the dungeon. He can even show up when you're running to the exit with the Orb of Zot!
861** Natasha is an unique felid, and she has three lives. Unlike Boris, she only respawns on the same floor you found her on. Interestingly, Natasha is implied to be Boris's long-lost familiar, which makes the two one of ''Crawl'''s [[WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle sneakier references]].
862** Bennu revive instantly upon death; this can only happen once, but it generates a burst of unholy flames.
863** Old versions had phoenixes as similar monsters. To prevent them from self-reviving, you had to destroy the corpse by butchery or necromancy spells.
864** Felid characters can be this to your enemies; they gain [[VideoGameLives extra lives]] as they level up, which allow you to come back from death and quite possibly kill whatever got you.
865* RewardingInactivity: Before version 0.10, the three good gods used to grant piety slowly over time, in contrast to other gods who required activity for increasing and preserving piety.
866* RoadRunnerPC:
867** Tengu, spriggans, and felids are faster than ordinary enemies, but at a price. Tengu are fairly frail and move at average speed until they start flying at level 5. Spriggans cannot wear many types of armor (including gloves, boots, and any form of body armor that isn't a OneSizeFitsAll like robes or dragon scales) and are [[FragileSpeedster painfully fragile]]. Felids, meanwhile, can't use ''any'' weapons or armor and are ''even more'' fragile, though at least they get [[VideoGameLives extra lives]] to compensate.
868** Merfolk are faster than average, but only in water. On land (i.e. most of the game), they move at normal speed, and quite a few things that live in watery areas are ''also'' faster in water.
869** Before their removal, centaurs fell under this category; unlike spriggans and felids, they were actually fairly robust and could make use of most forms of equipment (save for boots; they required the much-less-common barding instead), but they had poor aptitudes for melee, defensive, and magical skills.
870* RodentOfUnusualSize:
871** Comes in several varieties: the brown dungeon rat, the rodent-like marsupial [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quokka quokka]], the sewer-dwelling river rat, and the [[LevelDrain negative energy]]-infused hell rat.
872** A special vault that used to be in the game had several varieties of mutated rats created by a nearby MadScientist Wizard. There also used to be grey rats, but they were merged with quokkas.
873* RollingAttack:
874** Boulder beetles can curl into a ball and roll at you at high speeds, dealing heavy damage if they land a hit. They can also leap away, letting them perform the technique all over again. In old versions, the beetle lost all control of their movement while rolling, so you could dodge it by taking a couple steps to one side.
875** Palentongas were a removed playable specie, and they could make rolling attacks at enemies within 4 tiles, bypassing hazardous terrain and hitting with increased power and accuracy.
876* RuleOfPerception: The Airstrike spell does bonus damage depending on how many squares of empty space are around the target - but only if your character can see those squares. If they can't, they don't get the empty space bonus even if it turns out that the square did in fact contain empty space.
877* ScaledUp:
878** The Dragon Form spell, which the player can obtain and use at high levels of transmutation magic, turns the player into a fire-breathing dragon. [[DraconicHumanoid Draconians]] will retain their various innate traits instead of turning into the generic fire-breather.
879** The unique enemy Bai Suzhen is a special draconian who [[TurnsRed transforms into a storm dragon surrounded by lightning clouds]] when she is around half health.
880** From versions 0.16 to 0.27, the Hydra Form spell existed; [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin casting it turned you into a hydra]]. While short-lived, the form gave you phenomenal offensive power and allowed your attacks to go in all directions simultaneously.
881* ScaryStingingSwarm: Swarms of killer bees can be found in the game; they are extremely fast and their stings can quickly inject lethal amounts of poison. Sometimes, you can find a beehive, which contains a great many bees as well as a queen bee, which can send the other bees berserk. Farther down the dungeon, you can start running into meliai, which are bee-person priestesses that add smiting and an axe into the mix. When fighting [[WhenTreesAttack shambling mangroves]] in the [[BubblegloopSwamp Swamp]], sometimes you'll wind up agitating hives of paralytic hornets living in their branches.
882* SchizophrenicDifficulty: The AI director vacillates between being a MontyHaul and (much more frequently) KillerGameMaster with the consistency of a manic ten year old on pixi stix. Sometimes you get a dragon hide on the first floor, sometimes you get a ''dragon'' on the first floor. (This is thankfully ''extremely'' rare, but an out-of-depth dragon is still possible. More likely and almost as bad, you might run into a slightly out-of-depth water moccasin, which can run you down with its high speed and poison you with its bite.) Some days its all rings and randarts, sometimes the AI just decides to spawn [[BlobMonster fifty jellies]]. Players learn to laugh about it, or cry.
883* ScreamingWarrior: Characters who use the Wereblood spell to boost their combat effectiveness will find themselves howling uncontrollably due to the [[BloodKnight blood frenzy]] [[TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody it inflicts]].
884* SeverelySpecializedStore:
885** As a joke, you can sometimes find a "Specific Store" next to a General Store, which sells exactly one item.
886** There's sometimes a special store called "Zin's Purification Station" situated near an altar to Zin -- it always sells a single potion of curing.
887* SetAMookToKillAMook: The wand of charming allows you to temporarily mind-control enemies to fight for you.
888* ShapeshifterModeLock:
889** Vampires can change into bats, giving them increased dexterity. If, however, they have their dexterity drained while in bat form, it's possible to end up such that turning back into a vampire would leave them with zero or less, which would kill them. Therefore they're stuck in bat form until they can regain it.
890** If you get polymorphed, you'll be Mode Locked into that form until it wears off, even if you know the spell that lets you [[VoluntaryShapeshifting assume that form at will]].
891** Inverted with the "glowing shapeshifter" enemy. Rather than being locked into, or out of, a specific form, the glowing shapeshifter has instead lost control over its abilities and [[PerpetuallyProtean randomly switches forms every few turns or so]].
892* ShapeshifterWeapon: This is the [[KungFuWizard Transmuter's]] specialty. They start with the Beastly Appendage spell, which allows them to sprout talons and horns to make them more dangerous in melee. Later on, they can learn a spell to turn their hands into scythe-like blades.
893* ShiftingSandLand: The Desolation of Salt is a desert-like dimension that can be entered from a time-limited portal. The ground of this realm is entirely salt and only few ruins remain, and the clouds of salt often obstructs the view.
894* ShockAndAwe: Courtesy of the Air Magic school. In addition to various ways to zap enemies with electricity (Zap, Static Discharge, Lightning Bolt, Maxwell's Capacitive Coupling, Chain Lightning), the school also includes spells for summoning a tower that shoots out lightning, transforming into a storm cloud, and conjuring balls of lightning that [[ActionBomb lock onto targets and explode.]]
895* ShootTheBullet: One way to stop enemy Orbs of Destruction from reaching you is to fire your own Orb of Destruction at it; the two orbs will collide and explode.
896* ShotgunsAreJustBetter:
897** The Iron Rod (now removed) was a magical rod that acted basically like a self-recharging shotgun. The description even quoted the ''ComicBook/{{Doom}}'' comic book!
898** The wand of scattershot replaced the Iron Rod and fired "powerful blasts of metallic shrapnel" in a spreading cone. This was also later removed.
899* ShoutOut: There are tons of shout outs scattered throughout the game. In addition to everything taken from mythology and other dungeon-crawling games, the developers threw in plenty of references to pop culture. Various item and enemy descriptions will also have passages from famous works ranging from Shakespeare to The Lord of the Rings. A few noteworthy examples:
900** The (removed in version 0.10) spell Maxwell's Silver Hammer, which used to make blunt weapons more deadly, is a direct reference to Music/TheBeatles' song of the same name about a man who murders people with a hammer.
901** ''The Young Poisoner's Handbook'', the starting spellbook for venom mages, is also the name of a 1995 film about a real life poisoner.
902** The sprite for [[http://crawl.chaosforge.org/index.php?title=Hungry_ghost Hungry Ghosts]] looks rather like Slimer from ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}''.
903** As stated above, the unique enemy Nikola is named after the famous inventor [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla Nikola Tesla]].
904** Quite a number to VideoGame/{{Doom}}. In fact, a few developers once actively tried [[https://github.com/crawl/crawl/commit/e473d029e917 to cram as many Doom references into the game as possible.]]
905*** Orb spiders are creepy crawlies that fire [[EnergyBall Orbs of Destruction]], similar to arachnotrons.
906*** Hell knights are powerful warriors adept in both melee and fire magic, just like Doom's.
907*** Flying skulls are swift and nimble undead creatures that like to swarm the player, like Doom's Lost Souls.
908* SiblingRivalry: Edmund is jealous of his older brother Sigmund, and for good reason: Sigmund is a notorious killer of junior adventurers while Edmund is more like an average brute with an expensive flail and a [[InformedAbility good ability with sums]].
909* {{Sidequest}}:
910** Crawl has lots of dungeon branches and you're not required to enter all of them. Most have a rune at the bottom, but you only need three to enter the Realm of Zot and get the Orb of Zot. A common SelfImposedChallenge is to [[OneHundredPercentCompletion get all the runes]] and escape.
911** Occasionally, you'll come across a portal to a bonus level that is not necessary to complete the game at all, like an entrance to the sewers, the gauntlet, or a famous wizard's laboratory. These can provide you with some extra experience and loot, if you can make it through alive.
912** Treasure troves set up {{Fetch Quest}}s in exchange for unguarded loot.
913* SinisterMinister:
914** Evil priests are a common enemy class for a variety of monster species. They tend to know how to invoke their god's fervour to smite their targets for an unavoidable and irresistible chunk of damage; orc priests are infamously lethal with such smiting due to showing up before players have accumulated much health.
915** The demonspawn monsters of Pandemonium, which all serve as {{Evil Counterpart}}s to players worshipping a variety of gods with correlating shared divine titles and twists on their invocations. Naturally, they've focused on deities of war, death, distortion, and chaos. The sole exception to general title correlations are [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast blood saints]], who prefer destruction. [[note]]The title is unique to player demonspawn, and is received for maximizing Invocations skill under evil gods.[[/note]]
916* SirensAreMermaids: There are sirens who mesmerize you in the Shoals, and they are merfolks too.
917* SituationalSword: Disabling spells (most of them belong to the Hex spell school) can be very useful all throughout the game, but many of them are often situational. Most hex spells don't work well against targets with higher Willpower, and some spells demand specific conditions (for example, Yara's Violent Unravelling only works against enemies with magical buffs or debuffs) to work.
918* SkippableBoss: All of them. The recommended strategy on almost every unique is "Run away unless you KNOW they can't ruin your day, and come back when you're ten levels higher." The uniques considered most deadly are the ones who are ''hard to run away from'', either by being fast, having ranged attacks, or casting debilitating status effects. [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs Or all three at once.]]
919* SleazyPolitician: According to the player's title, they become one when they maximize their [[BackStab short blades skill]].
920* SpectralWeaponCopy:
921** There are the weapons with the spectral brand, which spontaneously generate a copy of your weapon when you hit things with it.
922** Previous versions of the game had a spell called Spectral Weapon, which allowed MagicKnight players to summon a spectral copy of their weapon for a limited time.
923* SpottingTheThread:
924** Shapeshifters can perfectly mimic any enemy, but an experienced player can sometimes spot them by noting what seems out of place - for example, if you see a queen bee wandering around by itself, this is almost certainly a shapeshifter, as real queen bees always have a swarm to defend them.
925** Followers of Zin (who abhors chaotic creatures) are informed if any enemy is a shapeshifter.
926* SquadControls: Any allies you have can be given simple commands with the '''t'''alk button, like 'follow me', 'wait here', 'attack target', etc. In previous versions, you could also control what kinds of items your intelligent allies would pick up, like whether you wanted them to pick up anything they found or just the stuff that you dropped for them (mindless allies like the undead still wouldn't pick up anything).
927* SquishyWizard: Played mostly straight: wizards tend to be squishy, and so do most of the species who can focus hardest on magic. Enemy exceptions include ogres and nagas (whose best casters are at least as strong as their tanks), a few demons, and the unique enemy Louise, a heavily armored human mage with a tendency to banish you to [[HyperspaceIsScary the Abyss]].
928* StationaryEnemy: Some enemies cannot move from their spot, but are by no means helpless; in fact, these enemies tend to be some of the more dangerous ones. The game will typically mark their vicinity as dangerous as soon as you encounter one, so that you don't accidentally wander back into their range. Fortunately, as with most enemies in ''Crawl'', fighting them is not mandatory; you can always come back to them later.
929** Statues are typically resistant or immune to most elemental attacks, and what they lack in movement they make up for in spells that can seriously ruin your day.
930** Oklob plants spit highly corrosive and damaging acid at you, making it very risky to stay near one for long.
931* StatusBuff: Zin's Vitalisation skill buffs all three of your stats. You can also get various other buffs from spells, potions, and abilities; common ones include [[NitroBoost haste]], might, brilliance, [[TheBerserker berserk]], etc.
932* StatDeath: No longer present. In earlier versions, if any of your stats ever dropped to zero, you'd have a short period of time to fix it before you keeled over (and in even earlier versions, it was an instakill). Nowadays, you'll get a stat-zero condition, which, while still extremely unpleasant, is less immediately lethal.
933* StatGrinding: Almost none - the game deliberately tries to avoid this. You simply select which skills you want to train, then kill stuff and the experience is applied towards those skills.
934* StrongAnts: The Formicids, a species of ant people. Their four arms combined with insect-style strength allow them to wield [[OneHandedZweihander two-handed weapons]] and a shield simultaneously; they can also use ogre-sized weapons, but need all four arms to do it.
935* SuckingInLines: Unlike most spells which hit the enemy instantly, the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Orb of Destruction]] spends its first turn hovering stationary in front of the caster. On turn two it takes off, rapidly gaining speed and power before enveloping the target in a tender [[LudicrousGibs 9d21 embrace]].[[note]]For the lay person, 9d21 can potentially translate to 150+ damage. ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill, indeed.[[/note]]
936* SufferTheSlings: Slings are early-game ranged weapons that doesn't require much Ranged Weapons skill. Unlike many ranged weapons, slings are one-handed, so you can equip a shield or orb on your offhand.
937* SuicidalOverconfidence: In ''Crawl'', no enemies will flee, even when they are heavily injured, or facing much stronger opponents. The only monster "fleeing" you'll ever see is when the player specifically ''inflicts'' fear (such as by reading a scroll of fear or with the Cause Fear spell).
938* SuperDrowningSkills:
939** Unless you're one of the four species specifically adapted to life in water (merfolk, octopode, grey draconian, barachi), you can't enter deep water, even if you're undead (and thus ostensibly don't need to breathe). If you're confused, the game will still stop you from entering deep water and just waste your turn instead. Flying players won't drown if their flight wears off over open water, but they will suffer constant [[MaximumHPReduction health drain]] until they can make it back to shore.
940** Prior to version 0.19, falling into deep water or lava (whether because your flight ran out or if you stumbled into it while confused) was instant death; fortunately, you would always receive warnings if you risked drowning.
941*** Before version 0.15, if you fell into deep water somehow, it was possible to scramble free if you weren't carrying too much stuff. It was also possible to scramble free of lava, but such a dip included very lethal fire damage.
942* SuperWeaponAverageJoe:
943** Even a mere kobold with a dagger of distortion can banish the player to the Abyss.
944** Many of the unique enemies like to play this trope straight. Notably...
945*** Ijyb actually has this as her gimmick. Ijyb is a named goblin who spawns early on in the game with only moderately better stats than any other goblin, except that she is the sole exception to the "weak enemies can't spawn with high-tier wands" rule - she can spawn with any damaging wand in the game, up to and including a Wand of Disintegration. HilarityEnsues. (Also, death.)
946*** Crazy Yiuf, a named gnoll. So dangerous that he's not even allowed to wander the dungeon -- he lives in a special pre-designed area behind a runed door that you have to choose to open. Why is he so dangerous? He always spawns with a quarterstaff of chaos, an unpredictable weapon that could heal you, turn you invisible, or (far more likely) electrocute you for enough damage to one-shot most low-level characters.
947*** Sonja the kobold assassin probably wouldn't be nearly as deadly if not for her curare darts and the fact that the dagger she spawns with has a brand randomly selected from venom, draining, or, worst of all, distortion.
948*** Edmund, a remarkably average human fighter with no magical abilities at all, but he always spawns with a highly enchanted flail or dire flail.
949*** A few uniques even have a small chance of spawning with one of the non-random artefacts - Nikola with the arc blade, Arachne with the staff of Olgreb, and both Maggie and Margery with the Wyrmbane lance.
950*** Agnes the spriggan is made significantly more dangerous by her lajatang, which is usually seriously enchanted. This is a lesser example of the trope, however, as she still has her sprigganly speed and decent stats.
951*** A downplayed example: Ignacio the demon executioner. Sure he has the same super speed all executioner demons have, but his heavily enchanted executioner's axe takes his power to a whole new level.
952* SuperpowerLottery:
953** The [[PlanetOfHats Demonspawn's racial hat]]. While all of their mutations are ''theoretically'' useful, developing a power like hollow bones or magic mapping has led to a practice affectionately known as [[PressXToDie "gnoll time"]].
954** Alternatively, the practice of "mutation roulette" which some players like to employ. It involves gathering up a bunch of potions of mutation and then chugging them all to see what happens.
955* SuperpowerMeltdown: Have a high enough level of [[TheCorruption magical contamination]], and there's a chance you might [[StuffBlowingUp spontaneously explode]]. It's not implausible to survive the (proportionate) damage, but there's a decent chance such explosions also bring debilitating mutations.
956* SuperScream: The Singing Sword occasionally produces waves of sonic energy which blast every enemy in range.
957* SwordAndSorcerer: The elf twins. Duvessa has the Sword, Dowan is the Sorcerer.
958* SwordBeam: The Sword of Power unique artifact was reworked in version 0.26; when striking an enemy, it has a chance (based on your current HP -- the more, the better) of firing a powerful but inaccurate ray in your target's direction.
959* SymmetricEffect: Torment, Vulnerability, and Silence all affect everyone within sight, including the player or monster creating the effect. Player immunity is very rare, but at least in the case of Torment, every monster that can cast it is Torment-immune.
960[[/folder]]
961
962[[folder:T-Z]]
963* TacticalDoorUse: A surprisingly viable tactic. Anything without hands (namely, most animal-like monsters and dragons) can't open doors, so you can safely escape by closing the door between you and them. However, jellies [[ExtremeOmnivore can devour doors]], the unique dragon Xtahua can [[BarrierBustingBlow smash through doors]], and any monster who opened the door has a chance to also destroy the door.
964* TakenForGranite:
965** There's a Petrify spell which turns enemies to stone for a short time; certain enemies, like basilisks or catoblepi, have special abilities that will petrify creatures.
966** This is the backstory for the unique enemy Roxanne, a mage whose experiments with earth magic [[GoneHorriblyWrong Went Horribly Wrong]]. She might be stuck as a statue, but that doesn't stop her from casting spells...
967* TakeThatAudience: If you try to close a door while you're obstructing it, the game will tell you "There's a thick-headed creature in the doorway!"
968* TalkingWeapon:
969** ''Crawl'' has an artifact sword called The Singing Sword. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin It sings]]. In tense battles, it starts ''screaming'' instead, which actually hurts enemies (as well as making a huge racket). If you cast Silence, it changes its name to "The Sulking Sword".
970** Random artefact weapons can (very rarely) be generated with a "noisy" attribute, causing them to be chatty when wielded just like The Singing Sword.
971* TarotMotifs: The decks of cards are very similar to Tarot cards, and can be used to evoke various powers.
972* TeleportSpam:
973** A natural tactic of some enemies, most notably blink frogs. The unique blink frog Prince Ribbit takes it a step further - in addition to blinking all over the place, he will attempt to escape via long-range teleport when he's close to death.
974** Phantoms blink often, but as of version 0.27, they carry whatever they're fighting along for the ride.
975** Xom often likes doing this to his own followers, sending them on a confusing teleportation journey through the dungeon before they finally end up somewhere else.
976* TeleportInterdiction:
977** The stasis effect (gained by being a Formicid, though previous versions also had a magic amulet) will prevent players from teleporting. This is a NecessaryDrawback, as stasis also prevents you from being paralyzed or slowed down, both of which can be very dangerous.
978** Both the unique spriggan The Enchantress as well as Draconian Shifters in the Realm of Zot can lock down your ability to teleport.
979** A downplayed example exists as a result of the Orb of Zot's influence; the entirety of the Realm of Zot contains an effect that slows teleports and prevents the formation of temporary portals with Passage of Golubria. Once you pick up the Orb, the field will continue to affect you all the way to the exit.
980** [[MagicMisfire Miscasting]] translocation spells may temporarily lock you in place, preventing all forms of movement (including walking).
981** Players used to be able to control their teleports and pick roughly where on the level they wanted to end up. Certain areas (usually at the ends of particularly magical or demonic branches) would have a floor-wide effect that prevented the use of controlled teleports. As of version 0.17, however, controlled teleportation is a thing of the past.
982* ThemeTwinNaming: Dowan and Duvessa.
983* ThinkingUpPortals: The Passage of Golubria spell, which creates two temporary portals linked to each other. While blinking is quicker and more efficient, Passages of Golubria allow for more precise travel and can still be used by characters under [[TeleportInterdiction stasis]].
984* TimedMission:
985** Sometimes levels will randomly contain "portal vaults" -- these are mini-levels that can only be accessed from the main level via a special entrance, and are only open for a brief window of time before the entrance is sealed forever. If you want to get in, you have to start hunting down the entrance as soon as you arrive on the level.
986** The entire game could be considered a timed mission to reach the Orb of Zot. You start with a limited amount of turns to reach the next branch of the dungeon, which gets extended each time you descend a level. If you run out of turns, Zot drains a lot of your life, then you get a few more turns before you get drained again. This ''will'' end up killing you, so loitering around for long periods of time or repeatedly going back and forth between two locations isn't the smartest idea.
987*** Most species get plenty of time to fully explore the dungeon's levels and move on to the next. However, the celestial nature of Meteorae makes them easy prey for Zot; they only get 1/10th of the time other species receive before Zot finds them, meaning they'll have to keep moving forward almost constantly to stay alive and have little time to backtrack between levels.
988* TooAwesomeToUse: Curare needles are ''devastating'' against anything that doesn't resist poison, dealing hefty poison damage, slowing them, and asphyxiating them - which has the nice bonus of shutting down many hostile casters (since you can't chant spells if you can't breathe). They are also fairly rare and come in very small stacks.
989* TookALevelInBadass:
990** Draconians are fairly lousy to begin with; they're quite strong, but their bodies are the wrong shape for wearing armour and their dexterity is subpar. Then they advance to experience level 7, mature into their adult form, and suddenly they have a breath weapon that's only limited by the few turns it takes to recharge it.
991** Sometimes happens to enemies and items between updates. For example, the giant mosquitoes of [[BubblegloopSwamp the Swamp]] got an undead upgrade and LifeDrain capabilities as [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampire mosquitoes]] in 0.8.
992** The 0.13 update turned the laughably weak [[JokeItem joke armor]] Lear's Chainmail into Lear's ''Hauberk'', a chain mail that has a ridiculously high enchantment, but also covers your head, hands, and feet; this means you get a pretty impressive defense boost, but you miss out on the benefits of any magical headgear, gloves, or boots that you find.
993* TheTopicOfCancer: Ancient Zymes are a form of sentient cancer inhabiting the Abyss.
994* ToughBeetles: The assorted beetle monsters that have been present throughout ''Crawl'''s history tended to be physically strong and durable, though most have since been removed due to also being [[MightyGlacier very slow]] opponents with no ranged capabilities. One beetle still in the game, the boulder beetle, continues to play this trope straight, but moves at normal speed and can even [[RollingAttack roll at foes]]. (Death scarabs are also present in late-game areas, but they're more of a "scuttling swarm" threat instead.)
995* TransformationRay: The Polymorph spell (most often encountered in wands of polymorph) can transform an enemy into a different enemy. This can be situationally useful if the enemy is one that you're not well-equipped to fight - however, it's also risky because you can't be completely sure what the enemy will turn into. The game will tell you everything that the enemy ''could'' become, but you have no control over the end result, and often one of the options is even worse than the original.
996* TrickArrow: Until 0.8, this was the style of Arcane Marksmen. (They now use hexes to debilitate foes instead.) You can still get shades of this if you use the right spells and equipment. Aside from the magic bows that turn arrows into bolts of [[KillItWithFire fire]] or [[KillItWithIce ice]], there's the spell Portal Projectile, which [[TeleFrag teleports your arrow right into your target]].
997* TricksterGod: Possibly Xom, who uses its powers to amuse itself... in game, however, this title is given to Nemelex Xobeh, a god who appreciates trickery and gambling and gives their followers [[CardsOfPower magical decks of cards]] to use.
998* TurnUndead:
999** Dispel Undead spell deals massive damage against undead monsters. However it's a Necromancy spell, meaning that any characters who believe in the good gods are forbidden from using it.
1000** Zin's divine ability, "Recite" works against undead monsters very well, in addition to demons and chaotic monsters. While the player is preaching, any undead being in the sight would get hefty armour-ignoring damage, or instantly destroyed by [[TakenForGranite turning into a statue of salt]].
1001* TwinTelepathy: The elf twins Dowan and Duvessa have a psychic link, and either one of them knows instantly when the other is killed or banished.
1002* TurnsRed:
1003** Kill one of the elf twins (Dowan and Duvessa) and the other will become more dangerous (Duvessa goes berserk, while Dowan gets hasted and starts using stronger spells).
1004** {{Bears|AreBadNews}} go berserk when their health gets low or if you try to scare them.
1005** The unique draconian Bai Suzhen [[ScaledUp turns into a dragon]] when she hits half health.
1006* UndergroundMonkey:
1007** While there are a variety of derivations from the standard, the majority of dragons fly, trample, breathe a piercing elemental bolt, and can drop specialized armour when killed. A unique dragon, the Serpent of Hell, amplifies this with separate forms for each Hell it can spawn in, down to the different components of its triple-shot element breath.
1008** Crabs are odd versions of this, with an absence of any particular claw, armour, or water themes and instead a focus on elementally-tuned bubble breath. The fire crabs late in the Dungeon breathe fire clouds, the ghost crabs of the Swamp breathe ghost-spawning spectral mist, and the [[NamesToRunAwayFromVeryFast apocalypse crabs]] of the Abyss breathe dangerously-debilitating seething chaos.
1009* UndignifiedDeath: Up to version 0.12, if the player lost too much of an attribute (strength, intelligence or dexterity) they would eventually [[StatDeath die in an unceremonious fashion]]:
1010** Zero strength resulted in the character collapsing under their own weight.
1011** Zero intelligence resulted in the character forgetting to breathe (making them literally TooDumbToLive) - if the player character doesn't need to breathe, [[DevelopersForesight the death message is changed so the character forgets to exist at all]].
1012** Zero dexterity caused the character to die in a BananaPeel accident.
1013* UnexplainedRecovery: The Felid species can gain "extra lives" which revive them somewhere (theoretically) safe if they die.
1014* UnidentifiedItems:
1015** Potions and scrolls have randomized appearances each time you play. Wands, rings, and amulets do too, but the game tells you what they are when you pick them up.
1016** The game has identifier scrolls you can use to identify items. They're rather costly to buy from a shop (80 gp if it's identified), but luckily they are one of the most common scrolls in the game, and you can often guess which type of scroll they are by checking to see which kind you have the most of.
1017** Ashenzari, the god of Divination, will identify its worshippers' items.
1018** In previous versions, many more items were unidentified even after you picked them up; things like armor or jewellery generally needed to be worn to identify them without a scroll. In particularly old versions, you could sometimes even have partially-identified items -- you'd know you're holding a FlamingSword because it caught fire when you pulled it out, but you wouldn't know how ''good'' it was unless you were particularly good at using swords and swung it around at enemies for a bit.
1019* UniversalPoison: Played straight. There is only one poison status, and a potion of curing will cure it. However, there are a few kinds of poison which add more effects on top of being poisoned. Curare-tipped darts, for example, will also slow you down and start suffocating you. There's also some spells and a weapon (Sting, Poison Arrow, Eringya's Noxious Bog, and the Staff of Olgreb) with poisons which can't be fully resisted by living creatures.
1020* TheUnpronounceable:
1021** Crawl is notorious for featuring gods and monsters with names that are hard to spell correctly and often equally hard to pronounce: Kikubaaqudgha, Yredelemnul, Neqoxec, Ynoxinul, Ilsuiw... According to the devs, the name of one kind of demon, the sixfirhy, was actually produced by a cat walking on a keyboard (though the original string of characters[[note]]sxFR:?)hyyyyyyyy--[[/note]] had to be cleaned up a bit).
1022** Random Pandemonium Lords have names that are procedurally generated according to an algorithm, often resulting in this.
1023** Present with the names of unidentified scrolls (which are randomly generated gibberish) and some randomly generated artifact weapons, which may also have gibberish names.
1024** The Tzitzimitl, a reflavor of shadow fiends, actually subverts this — the name actually corresponds to titles for obscure Aztec gods, and thus can be pronounced with guides to Nahuatl. [[note]]Tsee-tsee-mee-tl, with tl pronounced like t with the tongue held in a position for l)[[/note]]
1025* UnskilledButStrong: Some species, such as trolls and demigods, have poor skill aptitudes but compensate by having good stats and other attributes to begin with.
1026* UnstoppableRage: The Berserk status gives significant bonuses (increased speed, enhanced damage, temporary extra HP) with a period of fatigue and a risk of passing out afterwards. Put it this way: a Felid is a sentient housecat. A Felid Berserker of Trog (whose powers support your rage) can rip apart a herd of elephants with its claws and teeth.
1027* UnusableEnemyEquipment: Crawl averts this - you can pick up and use any equipment dropped by an enemy that you're capable of wielding or wearing, and this is one of the most common ways to improve your loadout (particularly since the enemy will likely have obligingly demonstrated the equipment's capabilities while attacking you).
1028* VagueHitPoints: The game gives a rough indication of how wounded an enemy is, but you aren't told how much damage you're doing to them. Possibly because the designers didn't want the player to be distracted by math.
1029* VaguenessIsComing: The game ominously warns you that "Zot will find you" if you stay in one place for too long... but it never actually explains what Zot is or what the consequence of Zot finding you would be. If you wait long enough to find out, [[spoiler:you simply die.]]
1030* VampiricDraining: The name of a level 3 spell which does exactly this. See the example for LifeDrain.
1031* VideoGameCaringPotential: Pikel is always accompanied by a group of lemures - damned souls who were bound into servitude to him and who have to fight alongside him. If you manage to kill Pikel without killing them, the bond is broken and they thank you for releasing them.
1032* VideoGameCrueltyPotential:
1033** Aside from the AgonyBeam spells Pain and Agony, a creative player can revel in Ignite Poison's uses. Poison a monster, and then boil the poison to deal massive fire damage. Monsters with naturally poisonous corpses (like kobolds or nagas)? ''Boil them in their own blood and viscera''. Got Mephitic Cloud? Use it to confuse a cluster of monsters, and then ignite the vapors so they stumble through the flames. Got Poisonous Cloud? Fill up a room with gas, let the poison whittle down the monsters within, and then turn it into a sea of raging flames.
1034** With the wand of charming, you can force Duvessa to murder her own twin brother (or vice versa). [[DevelopersForesight Doing so causes the surviving twin to scream in horror at what they have done]]. For even more cruelty, you can then kill them while they're still under your control and unable to fight back.
1035* VideogameCrueltyPunishment: Elyvilon, god of healing, has a neat punishment for overly sadistic players; being a god of pacifism, Elyvilon ''blunts your weapons''.
1036* VideoGameLives: Felids get an extra life every few levels, which is rare in modern games and even rarer in roguelikes. It even says 'Extra life!'
1037* VillainForgotToLevelGrind: The reason why DungeonBypass works (sometimes). If you can't kill Sigmund the first time you meet, come back after you've levelled up (or else found something which will make it easier to kill him).
1038** As a convenience, Crawl allows you to place exclusions on any part of the map that you think is dangerous, which will prevent your character from wandering in range of something before you're ready to face it.
1039* VoluntaryShapeshifting: There's a school of magic which specializes in this, and vampires can change into bats. Merfolk transform their legs into a mermaid-style tail when in water and back into feet when on land.
1040* WakeUpCallBoss:
1041** The first unique you meet; at this point in the game, you probably haven't identified potions of healing or scrolls of teleportation. It's teaching you probably the most important lesson of Dungeon Crawl: pick your fights (especially if it's out of depth) and have an escape plan (scrolls of teleportation should not be a first choice for escape). It also teaches the second lesson: don't be afraid to fight. You’ll probably have to face them eventually, and if you just run through levels not fighting anything, you’ll eventually meet something faster and stronger than you.
1042** Sigmund, particularly, is a major wake up call to new players, especially in terms of teaching them to fear spellcasters. New players might be used to the concept of the SquishyWizard who can be easily pummeled by tougher fighters, especially if they just met Jessica and beat her to death. Not so with Sigmund. His first move is almost always to go invisible, then hit you with confusion, flames, and magic darts until you die. Think you can tank him with your melee fighter? Even with armor, Sigmund's scythe can cut most novice fighters to ribbons.
1043* WalkOnWater: An ability given only to the most faithful worshippers of Beogh.
1044* WallCrawl: Until version 0.25, some monsters (mostly small reptiles and arachnids) had the ability to cling to walls, allowing them to pass over obstacles like deep water. Until 0.15, casting the Spider Form spell or wearing the Boots of the Spider let you do this, too.
1045* WarmUpBoss: Most second-floor uniques that are not Sigmund fall into this category:
1046** Jessica is an apprentice caster who is so frail that all but the squishiest mages can easily beat her to death.
1047** Terence is somewhat beefier than Jessica, but he's still only dangerous if he spawns with a good weapon or attack wand.
1048** Ijyb is only dangerous if she's got a good wand.
1049** Natasha is a felid who is pretty easy to take down; she does come back from death a couple of times, but most likely she'll be even easier to defeat the next times you face her.
1050** Robin comes with a horde of goblins and hobgoblins and can be a nuisance; however, as long as you [[FishingForMooks carefully pick off her support]], she's easy to kill.
1051* WarriorMonk:
1052** Monk is a playable class; monk characters begin the game with an amount of latent piety that will improve their religious standing when they eventually find a god to worship.
1053** Wu Jian council is the congregation composed with the monks who [[DeityOfHumanOrigin ascended to divinity]]. Worshippers of them gain powerful martial attack techniques like WallJump or [[FlashStep Serpent's Lash]].
1054* WeakButSkilled: In a way, this is a Dungeon Crawler's normal mode of operation - there is rarely a point where you're powerful enough to be 'safe' from attack. It's especially true at the very start of the game, where a couple of hits from even the lowest-level monsters can finish off a character.
1055* WeaponOfXSlaying:
1056** Weapons with the holy wrath brand (blessed by The Shining One, god of not-liking-unholy-stuff) deal extra damage against undead and demons.
1057** There's the very rare artifact Undeadhunter, which is a [[CarryABigStick great mace]] with a special "disrupt undead" brand. Said brand is less versatile than the holy wrath brand because it does no extra damage to demonic creatures, but it does even more damage to undead than holy wrath.
1058** The Wyrmbane lance deals extra damage against dragons and [[DraconicHumanoid draconians]]. Additionally, [[EvolvingWeapon it gains even more power]] by killing strong draconic creatures.
1059* WeatherManipulation: In older versions, worshippers of the god Fedhas Madash could gain the power to create sunlight (to dry up water and and illuminate nearby monsters), and eventually to cause rain which could create floods and make plants grow.
1060* WhenTreesAttack:
1061** Shambling mangroves are big threats in the Swamp. Their heavy blows are tempered by slower-than-average movement, though they have quite a few abilities to compensate: unimpeded movement through the bog water that can slow down players, entangling roots that slow movement down even further, and the occasional nest of paralytic hornets that is easily aggravated by outside assaults.
1062** Spriggan druids (also largely found in the Swamp) and dryads (summonable with a spell) can awaken the trees around them. While the awakened trees can't actually move, they'll still attack for considerable damage as long as enemies are standing next to them.
1063** Players may drink potions of lignification to turn into animate trees. You can't move and can barely dodge, but squishier characters can get a much-needed defense boost along with resistance to poison and complete immunity to [[PercentDamageAttack Torment]]. You also can't ''be'' moved, which can come in handy when fighting enemies that can shove or blink you around.
1064* WhyAmITicking: You can force this on enemies with the Inner Flame spell, which makes them explode violently into clouds of fire and [[LudicrousGibs gore]] when they die. It's great for [[HerdHittingAttack killing off big clumps of monsters simultaneously]] or for blocking off passages. [[YetAnotherStupidDeath Just try not to stand right next to an enchanted enemy when you kill it]].
1065* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: Louise the Corrupted apparently started out as an adventurer just like you, but became trapped in the chaotic Abyss for almost a decade. Years of surviving the abyssal horrors made her quite powerful, but she is also completely insane.
1066* WizardNeedsFoodBadly:
1067** Hunger used to be the main driving force pushing players deeper into the dungeon (referred to as the "food clock"). However, as of version 0.26, food and hunger mechanics have been completely removed from the game, replaced instead by the "Zot clock", which is how long you have before the mysterious entity known only as Zot finds and [[NonstandardGameOver ends you]].
1068** Hunger was worse for magic users, as [[CastFromCalories casting most forms of magic burned nutrition]]. The staff of energy (which eliminates spell hunger) was a prized possession for such characters.
1069* WombLevel: One of the [[BonusDungeon Wizard Laboratories]], Cigotuvi's Fleshworks, is the lair of a master flesh mage. It's a ginormous organic compound with a layout that resembles intestines; the walls are strangely fleshy and have eyes and mouths on them, the doors appear to be sphincters, and transparent membranes replace the transparent rock walls you find everywhere else. It's also filled with [[BodyHorror the horrible results of Cigotuvi's experiments]].
1070* WrongContextMagic: Prior to 0.30, followers of Lugonu could teleport by bending space around them, which bypassesed effects that would normally prevent translocation.
1071* YetAnotherStupidDeath: Unlike most roguelikes, in ''Crawl'', most of the time you can't even rage at the RandomNumberGod -- deaths are almost always the player's fault in some capacity.
1072* YouNoTakeCandle: The unique goblin Ijyb speaks in this manner.
1073* YourHeadAsplode: The wand of mindburst unleashes a psychic attack which, if not resisted, literally explodes the victim's brain.
1074* ZergRush:
1075** Necromancy spell Animate Dead creates zombies from your kill, so if you kill lots of weaker enemies while the spell is active, you'll get a giant army composed of weaker zombies.
1076** In older versions, Summoning spells allowed the player to have many allies because summoning limits of most spells used to be quite generous. Some spells like Summon Small Mammal were used almost exclusively for this purpose.
1077** Happens sometimes with the normal enemies in the dungeon; there are enemies that wouldn't be particularly strong on their own, but they tend to travel in packs. A few examples...
1078*** Gnolls; on their own, they're not much more dangerous than the average hobgoblin, but they always spawn in packs (though they may split up later). What's more, their favorite weapons are polearms, which they can use to reach over their friends' shoulders to strike you, allowing even more of them to get at you at once. Gnolls have been the death of many a newbie dungeon crawler for this reason.
1079*** Shortly after gnolls, the player will run into orcs, which use the same strategy while also adding priests and wizards to their warbands, greatly increasing their "deadly to newbies" factor.
1080*** Killer bees qualify. They can tear a low-level player to shreds even through poison resistance, but without poison resistance even mid-level players will have trouble. This is increased further if there is a queen bee in their ranks thanks to her ability to induce the berserk rage status in members of the swarm.
1081*** [[BlobMonster Slime Creatures]], which can combine together like a reverse AsteroidsMonster. Due to the way armor works, a single heavy attack is much harder to withstand than several lighter attacks; a large, very large, or titanic slime creature is far more of a threat than its constituent parts.
1082** The orcs' tactic can be used by players who worship Beogh (only possible if you're an orc yourself), giving you the ability to recruit and summon a battalion of orcs. The kicker is that two of the kinds of orcs you can recruit are {{Enemy Summoner}}s, squaring the whole zerg rushing potential.
1083[[/folder]]

Top