Movanic deva (SLASH'EM)

A movanic deva
Difficulty	21
Attacks	Weapon 3d4 fire, weapon 3d4 fire, Claw 3d4 physical, Spellcasting 2d6 clerical

A movanic deva
Difficulty	21
Attacks	Weapon 3d4 fire, weapon 3d4 fire, Claw 3d4 physical, Spellcasting 2d6 clerical
Base level	12
Base experience	422
Speed	18
Base AC	−5
Base MR	90
Alignment	15 (lawful)
Frequency (by normal means)	1 (Very rare)
Genocidable	No
Weight	1450
Nutritional value	400
Size	Medium
Resistances	death magic
Resistances conveyed	None
A movanic deva: can fly. has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso. can see invisible creatures. does not eat. (*) is not a valid polymorphable form. can follow you to other levels. is nasty. is strong. has infravision. can be seen through infravision. does not appear in Gehennom. never leaves a corpse. requires a +1 weapon to hit.
Reference	SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2/monst.c#line1945

A movanic deva, A, is a type of monster that appears in SLASH'EM, SpliceHack and SlashTHEM. The movanic deva is a humanoid angelic being that is the lowest-ranked of the three devas, and likely to be the first a hero will encounter. Movanic devas are strong, capable of flight, have infravision, can see invisible, can be seen via infravision, and can follow a hero to other levels if they are adjacent.

A movanic deva has two weapon attacks that inflict fire damage and can burn or destroy items in the target's inventory, a claw attack, and the ability to cast one clerical monster spell during each of their turns. Movanic devas possess death resistance, require a +1 weapon or better to be hit and implicitly hit as +1 weapons.

Generation

Randomly generated movanic devas may be created as peaceful towards lawful heroes with a non-negative alignment record, and will not appear in Gehennom. They are not a valid form for polymorph. In SpliceHack, movanic devas are additionally only generated on the Elemental Planes, and a movanic deva can grow up into a monadic deva.

Hostile movanic devas can be generated as minions of an angry lawful god, and tame movanic devas can be given to lawful heroes by their god via prayer or sacrifice from experience levels 7 to 13.

Movanic devas are always generated with a blessed erodeproof long sword that has an enchantment ranging from +0 to +3, and has a ¹⁄₂₀ chance of being made into either Demonbane or Sunsword (with an equal probability of each if neither artifact has been generated). They are also always generated with an uncursed erodeproof +0 shield, which is a shield of reflection ¹⁄₄ of the time and a large shield otherwise.

A movanic deva never leaves a corpse upon death.

Strategy

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In SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM, though movanic devas are the weakest devas and rare to encounter in general, hostile ones are still formidable opponents for any hero that lacks fire resistance—non-lawful heroes can convert lawful altars at lower experience levels to avoid generating them and other strong minion, and doing so below experience level 4, reliably prevents hostile minions from generating. at all Conversely, lawful heroes that maintain their alignment record and do not anger their god have very little to fear from a monadic deva generating.

At minimum, movanic devas can boost their already-high speed of 18 with haste self and cast cure self, curse items and summon insects as well, which can prove especially irritating and even deadly for a hero unable to bring them down before they are either overwhelmed or else have their inventory heavily cursed. While none of the devas are guaranteed to have shields of reflection and they do not resist any elements other than instant death magic, the movanic deva's high MR score of 90 and base AC of -5 make them well-defended targets that can resist wands of sleep, striking, and magic missile even without reflection.

In addition to highly-enchanted and/or artifact weapons, wands of draining and fireball work well against movanic devas, since they cannot be resisted or rebounded by reflection; a means of stoning can immediately dispatch of a movanic deva if the hero has one. If all else fails, have escape items such as wands or scrolls of teleportation ready to put some distance between you and them.

As pets

Movanic devas can make very strong pets, especially for lawful heroes that can receive them via prayer or sacrifice at altars (the latter of which does not increase prayer timeout). Their stellar speed, AC and healing abilities give them high survival odds, and they do not require feeding; additionally, unlike their stronger kin in the Archons, Planetars and Solars, they can wear torso armor if they are not gifted as minions, including a source of magic resistance to protect against polymorph traps and complement a shield or other source of reflection. Even movanic deva minions can be useful in spite of not using additional equipment, since sacrifice makes it possible to obtain several of them and keep them close with a magic whistle, though pet devas of either type will require conflict or potions of gain level to actively target the stronger monsters of the late game.

Origin

Devas are derived from Dungeons & Dragons, where they debut in the AD&D Monster Manual II for the 1st Edition and were previewed in issue #63 of Dragon Magazine. These devas are named for the heavenly deities or deity-like figures of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, which were later adopted as nature spirits in New Age belief: though they share some traits of all three types, they also draw on common portrayals of angels from Western tradition and Abrahamic religions. The word deva (masculine, feminine form devi) is from Sanskrit, and is translated as "deity", "god", "exalted one", or "shining one".

The devas of Dungeons & Dragons, are human-like beings of extraordinary beauty with two magnificent feathered wings emerging from their backs. From their debut up to the 3rd edition, there are three orders of deva, with the movanic deva being the weakest and most numerous order that oversees the Prime Material Plane, the Negative Energy Plane and the Positive Energy Plane; the devas of the 5th edition are not tied to any particular order. Movanic devas have agile and very lithe frames with milky white skin and silvery hair and eyes, and stand around 72 to 78 inches (1.8-1.98 meters) tall, with particularly mighty ones growing to much larger size. Like other devas, they are averse to clothing and don simple loincloths or other coverings in humanoid form, and are also skilled with many different weapons: each one carries a flaming two-handed sword that has a long and slender blade, wielding with enough skill to deflect missiles, projectiles, rays, and spells that target them alone (though this requires them to be aware of the attack, and they cannot deflect two simultaneous strikes). Movanic devas possess all the powers, protections and traits common to devas and other angels, along with many more of their own.

Movanic devas travel to the Material Plane at will to aid prominent followers of the gods of good in times of great need, and while they more often appeared disguised as humanoids or animals, they could manifest in their winged angelic form if it suited their needs. Movanic devas fight as infantry in battles against the forces of darkness, and do so with pride (though not to the extent of their stronger kin); they usually work alone, but can also operate in pairs, trios, or squads of up to six members. Strong-willed and fearless, some movanic devas see themselves as more worldly than their astral and monadic kin, and non-lawful ones sometimes dealt with neutral beings—no deva of any kind knowingly dealt peacefully with evil beings.

Encyclopedia entry

Devas are the descendants of plane-touched aasimon. They have
feathery wings that may be vestigial or functional.
Movanic devas are the most frequently seen by mortals. Their
milky skin and slender build distinguishes them from the
dark and muscular monadic devas. The latter are rarely encountered
except in the inner planes. It is said they are able to breathe
elements other than air.
[ adapted from Aasimar, by David Roberts and Brynn ]