Banshee

Banshees are Slayer monsters that require level 15 Slayer to kill. They frequently drop 13 noted pure essence, making them an alternative source of essence for low leveled players. Additionally, Banshees tend to drop lots of herbs.

Locations

 * Slayer Tower
 * Desert Slayer Dungeon (Mighty banshee)

Strengths and weaknesses
Players must use earmuffs or some type of earmuff composite such as masked earmuffs item when fighting Banshees, or your character's combat statistics will be dangerously reduced. This reduction also includes Hitpoints, so not wearing earmuffs is actually deadly, not just inconvenient.They have few Hitpoints and do not hit particularly hard. A Salve amulet works on them.

Banshees use a magic-based melee attack. Their attack can also hit from a distance if players aren't wearing earmuffs. Protect from Melee prayer will work against them, but as far as armour goes players are better off using something with a high magic defence bonus such as dragonhide armour.

Superior versions of Banshees exist in the Desert Slayer Dungeon, also called Mighty banshees.

Drops

 * 13, 26, 34, 35, or 36 Coins
 * Level 1 Clue scroll (uncommon)

Runes

 * 13 Pure essence (noted) very common - about 250 essence for 100 banshees
 * 3 Air runes
 * 6, or 7 Fire runes
 * 2 Cosmic runes
 * 3, 6 or 7 Chaos runes
 * Nature Talisman (rare) (About 1 in 500)



Weapons and Armour

 * Iron dagger
 * Iron mace
 * Iron kiteshield
 * 5 Rune javelins
 * Mystic gloves (white(very rare) and black(uncommon))
 * Rune Spear (rare)
 * Dragon Spear (extremely rare)

Charms

 * Green Charms (most common)
 * Gold Charms
 * Crimson Charms
 * Blue Charms (rare)

Other

 * 7, 15 or 30 Fishing bait (most common)
 * Eye of newt
 * Iron ore
 * Uncut Ruby
 * Uncut sapphire
 * Uncut Emerald
 * Uncut Diamond
 * Tooth half of a key (rare)
 * Loop half of a key (rare)
 * Grimy Kwuarm
 * Grimy Ranarr
 * Grimy Avantoe
 * Grimy Tarromin
 * Grimy Guam
 * Grimy Marrentill
 * Grimy Irit
 * Grimy Dwarf weed

Other Information
They are popular for their tendency to drop high level herbs. Aside from banking distance they are a reasonable alternative to the popular chaos druids.

Banshees have a very high restore rate. They will restore a hitpoint between attacks with a fast weapon and two between slower weapons. They are popular for casting spells such as Weaken on because they'll restore the lowered stats extremely quickly, so it can be recast. Crumble Undead also works on Banshees.



Trivia
With the release of the quest Smoking Kills on the fifth of June 2008, the Banshee's appearance was updated.