Box of beasts

A box of beasts is a miscellaneous magic item which can summon an irregular, albeit friendly, monster, classified generally as a mutant beast. The box of beasts becomes empty after one use; it can be recharged by gaining experience.

It is mutually exclusive with the sack of spiders.

Mutant Beast

A mutant beast usually combines two random traits/facets:

• Bat: flying, fast, batty.
• Sting: reach/poison, rPois.
• Fire: fire breath, rF.
• Weird: constrict, sInv.
• Shock: rElec, blinkbolt.
• Ox: trample, rC, +5 AC.

Each beast also has one of five tiers, corresponding to HD and melee attack damage.

• Larval (HD 3) (12 damage)
• Juvenile (HD 9) (19 damage)
• Mature (HD 15) (26 damage)
• Elder (HD 21) (33 damage)
• Primal (HD 27) (40 damage)

HD of mutant beasts is roughly (Evocations skill + 1d7 - 1d7), rounded up to the nearest tier & capped at 27.

History

• Prior to 0.26, boxes of beasts had a 1/3 chance to fall apart after every use and didn't recharge with XP.
• Prior to 0.19, boxes of beasts didn't stack.
• Prior to 0.17, a box of beasts would instead summon a chimera.
• In 0.16, box of beasts became considerably stronger than before.
• Prior to 0.13 this item summoned individual (non-chimera) monsters.
• Prior to 0.9, it appeared as a small ebony casket while unidentified.