Sand devil
Mutiple attack abilities, including a command of many offensive spells, make the sand devil a most dangerous adversary. Its name comes from the appearance of its leathery, yellowish, reptilian head crowned with two long, upright, black horns. The sand devil swirls in and out of areas, constantly rotating to keep the wind and dust whipping around it. This allows its sharp claws to remain hidden, emerging suddenly from the sandstorm to slash at surprised foes.
Hunting strategies
When a sand devil moves into a new room, it takes approximately one round (around 5 seconds) to make a movement, which then automatically casts the spell Sandstorm. This sandstorm takes about two rounds to form, in which time the sand devil may attack or cast spells on itself.
Popular hunting styles include utilizing sandstorm nullifying spells such as Elemental Dispel, or disabling/stunning the sand devil before it can make a move, as the sandstorm does not form until the sand devil makes an action movement. Also, PEERing into other rooms can show you if sandstorms have developed already, so you can avoid those rooms until the sand devil leaves the room, in which case the sandstorm dissipates.
Only one sand storm will be in the room regardless of the amount of sand devils. Killing the sand devil that started the sandstorm will make that sandstorm dissipate. Other sand devils in that room must begin a new sandstorm at that point.
Sorcerers
Sorcerer's can handle these with ease. Dark Catalyst (719) generally gets them with one cast. If it doesn't, finish them with Mana Disruption (702).
Other information
Sand devils have multitudinous offensive and defensive capabilities (see creature attributes for a listing). They will also occasionally spawn with a wand (silver, aquamarine, golden, slender blue) in hand that they wave at their target. When all charges are expended they will consume the empty wand which increases their spinning rate to some unknown advantage. The wands can be looted either by removing the right arm or killing the sand devil.
Spawning with wand
You see a fairly typical sand devil. It appears to be in good shape. It has a silver wand, some tattered ochre robes (worn) and a giant clamshell shield.
Looting
>loot You search the sand devil. It had a silver wand.
Consuming empty wand
The sand devil hastily consumes its silver wand in its powerful jaws and seems to be spinning faster.
Near-level creatures - edit | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|