Cognitogaunt

Useful Info

Cognitogaunts are psychic starborne ghouls found in the Crypt and the Abyss, mostly threatening for mages and undrinking characters both. They have an extremely high cast rate for Brain Bite, spending 38% of their actions dealing irresistable half-smites of damage and draining your mp heavily. In melee, their branded melee attacks both confuse and check rN- their pain-branded touch can deal up to 28 AC-ignoring damage to those without any negative energy resistance.

Tips & Tricks

• While they've got much less rapid capacity to drain magic compared to ghost moths, they're frequent enough that one can expect to randomly lose some MP fighting through the Crypt, leaving one with little magic to cast e.g. Dispel Undead. Ally spells and long-range high-level Conjurations can kill them fast enough to still preserve some mp.
• Frailer characters or characters with high AC and low EV intending to melee them can wear at least one source of rN to avoid their additional AC-ignoring pain damage.

History

• Cognitogaunts were added in 0.34.