crawlSS_052_books.txt: Book properties Based on Crawl Stone Soup 0.5.2 Last change: 2010-01-10 by E. Grasland (use a fixed-width font like Courier to display the tables correctly) Book types ~~~~~~~~~~ There are 3 types of books you may find in the Dungeon: Spellbooks (about 99% the books you'll find), Manuals and the Tome of Destruction. Books can not be destroyed by fire like scrolls (except Spellbooks by Trog's granted ability 'Burn Spellbook'). Manuals ======= Manuals are associated with a given skill, which is unknown until you read it once or identify it. Reading a manual put all experience in your skill experience pool into the skill of the manual. You can use a manual this way 1d15 + 2 times before it crumble to dust. Tome of Destruction =================== An unidentified Tome of Destruction is displayed as an "ancient heavily glowing book". Reading a Tome of Destruction will ask for confirmation ("The book opens to a page covered in [coloured text]"); the displayed colour is not related to the Tome's effect. You can't read it if you're silenced. Trying to read it with the Blurry vision mutation has a 25% chance of failure per level of mutation. If you confirm reading, one of the following effects will happen: 14% A cloud of harmless smoke centered on you is created. 4% A cloud of poison centered on you is created. 5% A cloud of cold centered on you is created. 7% You are engulfed into a fire explosion. The Tome of Destruction has a 20% chance to be destroyed. 3% A hostile small abomination is summoned. 67% You cast a random spell. If you cast a spell, it is chosen by rolling 1d23 + 1d(Evocation/3): 2: Magic Dart 3: Throw Frost 4: Throw Flame 5: Mephitic Cloud 6: Polymorph Other 7: Cigotuvi's Degeneration 8: Teleport Self 9: Sticky Dlame 10: Bolt of Inaccuracy 11: Bolt of Draining 12: Venom Bolt 13-18: Fireball 19-20: Lightning Bolt 21-23: Bolt of Cold 24-26: Bolt of Fire 27+: Lehudib's Crystal Spear The power of the spell (used mainly to determine accuracy and damage) is equal to 5 + Evocation + 5d(Evocation), where Evocation is your Evocation skill. Spellbooks ========== Reading a spellbook will identify it most of the time, revealing the spells it contains. A few spellbooks may be "beyond your level of understanding", preventing you from identifying it and trying to memorize spells from it: - The book of Annihilations requires either level 6 in Spellcasting and level 10 in Conjurations, or to be a follower of Vehumet; - The book of Demonology requires either level 6 in Spellcasting and level 10 in Summonings, or to be a follower of Vehumet; - The Necronomicon requires either level 6 in Spellcasting and level 10 in Necromancy, or to be a follower of Kikubaaqudgha. Reading a spellbook will decrease the piety you gain from burning it for followers of Trog. Spell memorisation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Memorising a spell allows you to cast it later on. You need to have the spellbook you're trying to memorise from in your inventory and press 'M' to do so. Memorisation restrictions ========================= You need at least 1 level in a magic skill (Spellcasting or any magic school skill) to be able to memorise a spell. You can't memorise more than 20 spells. Selective Amnesia may still be learned if you already know 20 spells. You can only memorise a total of (xlevel-1 + 2*Spellcasting) levels of spells, where xlevel is your experience level and Spellcasting your Spellcasting skill. A spell may be "forgotten" to free levels through the "Selective Amnesia" spell or through Sif Muna's "Forget Spell" ability. Knowing both Delayed Fireball (level 7 spell) and Fireball (level 6 spell) only requires 7 spell levels. You can't memorise a spell whose level is higher than your experience level. In addition, a few species have restrictions on the spells they can memorise: - Deep Dwarves cannot memorise Regeneration. - Ghouls cannot memorise Alter Self, Berserker Rage, Blade Hands, Borgnjor's Revivification, Cure Poison, Death's Door, Dragon Form, Ice Form, Necromutation, Resist Poison, Spider Form, Statue Form, Stoneskin, Symbol of Torment, Tame Beasts. - Mummies cannot memorise Alter Self, Berserker Rage, Blade Hands, Borgnjor's Revivification, Cure Poison, Death's Door, Dragon Form, Ice Form, Necromutation, Resist Poison, Spider Form, Statue Form, Stoneskin, Symbol of Torment, Tame Beasts, Intoxicate, Passwall, Regeneration, Summon Horrible Things. - Vampires cannot memorise Borgnjor's Revivification, Death's Door, Necromutation. Trying to memorise a spell with the Blurry vision mutation has a 25% chance of failure per level of mutation. You cannot memorise while confused or berserking. Memorizing a spell needs as many turns as its level to be completed. If you are hit or otherwise interrupted while memorizing, you'll have to start all over. Memorisation success chance =========================== Memorising a spell has a chance of success related to your chance to cast the same spell (calculation is not exactly the same, but close). You can guess the chance you have to memorise a spell by looking at the warning message you get: +---------------------------------------------+------------------+ |Warning message |Chance of success | +---------------------------------------------+------------------+ |This spell is very difficult to memorise | <= 15% | |This spell is quite difficult to memorise | 15 - 48% | |This spell is rather difficult to memorise | 48 - 75% | |This spell is somewhat difficult to memorise | 75 - 92% | |This spell is not that difficult to memorise | > 92% | +---------------------------------------------+------------------+ ("difficult" may be replaced by "tricky" or "challenging"; "memorise" may be replaced by "commit to memory", "learn" or "absorb"; those changes are only flavour) Failing to memorise a spell has no effect, except from a Book of Annihilations, a Book of Demonology or a Necronomicon. In this case, you'll suffer a (likely high level) miscast effect respectively from Conjuration, Summonings or Necromancy. Acknowledgments ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thanks to garron for his corrections.