Potion of brilliance

Version 0.32: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Type	Potion
Name	Potion of brilliance
Icon

For the unrand, see Brilliance (artefact).

A magic potion which increases the power of the drinker's spells and halves their magic cost (rounding up).

Quaffing a potion of brilliance gives the Brilliance status, with the following temporary bonuses:

• Halves the MP cost of spells (rounded up)
• An increase to spell power (1 spell enhancer; equal to wearing an item of Archmagi)

These effects last for 35-74 (more) turns. The duration can stack, but you can only store up to 80 turns at a time.

The robe of Folly gives a permanent Brilliance effect - the potion and this robe do not stack.

Strategy

Brilliance is a useful consumable for casters, akin to a potion of might. It is best for long, "sustained" encounters, where you'd otherwise run out of MP, and should ideally be used early in a fight.

Monster Version

Monsters can get the Brilliance effect by using the spell Aura of Brilliance. Also, Boris gains Brilliance if you're holding the Orb of Zot.

Instead of the above effects, Brilliance grants monsters an effective +5 HD when casting "wizardly" spells, and makes it more likely for them to cast said spells.

History

• Prior to 0.26, brilliance halved spell hunger instead of MP cost.
• Prior to 0.25, brilliance gave +5 intelligence, and reduced the raw spell failure rate by 1/3 (with another bonus of -6% raw failure). Also, brilliance gave a spell power boost equal to 3 levels of a skill, instead of acting like a spell enhancer. It did not reduce spell hunger or MP cost.