Angband/Enemy Abilities

A monster ability may either be an innate ability (such as a breath attack) or a spell.

Shriek
A shriek will awaken and alert any monsters within 40 tiles. In addition, monsters within line-of-sight of the player will be hasted.

Arrow
An arrow will either inflict 1d6, 3d6, 5d6 or 7d6 damage, depending on the strength of the monster.

Boulder
A hard hitting attack; inflicts 1d12 damage, plus an additional 1d12 damage for every seven monster levels (starting at level 8).

Breath
A breath attack is a ranged attack from some monsters. Breath attacks are normally based on the current health of the monsters, and may also have special effects.

Most breath attacks inflicts a fraction of the monster's HP, up to a certain maximum for the breath type. The most common breaths, Acid, Electricity, Fire and Cold, can inflict a maximum of 1600 damage; more than enough to instantly kill any character.

Spells
A spell is a magical attack. Like the player, monsters can fail to cast spells - the rate of failure is 25% for the earliest monsters, to 0% for the deepest enemy. As with the player's spells, they can either inflict damage, improve the monster's condition, or inflict status conditions. Some of the effects can be resisted by a saving throw, or through other means of resistance.

The power of spells is based on the monster's level - thus a novice mage being level 2 won't cast the same spell powerfully as the deeper monsters.