Banshee

Banshees are Slayer monsters that require level 15 Slayer to kill.

Locations

 * Slayer Tower
 * Desert Slayer Dungeon

Strengths and weaknesses
Players must use earmuffs or some type of earmuff composite such as masked earmuffs item when fighting these or their stats will be dangerously reduced. This includes Hitpoints, so not wearing earmuffs is actually deadly, not just inconvenient. They also can't be killed without earmuffs either. 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

 * Charm
 * 13, 26, 34, 35, or 36 Coins
 * Level 1 Clue scroll (un-common)

Runes

 * 13 Pure essence (noted) very common - about 250 essence for 100 banshees)
 * 3 Air runes
 * 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 (rare)

Other

 * 7, 15 or 30 Fishing bait (common)
 * Eye of newt
 * Iron ore
 * Uncut Ruby
 * Uncut sapphire
 * Uncut Emerald
 * Uncut Diamond
 * Grimy Herbs (dwarf weed and below)
 * Gold charm
 * Green charm (Most common)
 * Crimson charm
 * Blue charm
 * Tooth half of a key
 * Loop half of a key
 * Clue scroll (Level 1)

Other Information
Because they drop so much Pure essence, many players choose to kill the Banshees (because they are such easy monsters) rather than pay a higher price for the Pure essence from players. Some would say that you can train your Runecrafting solely on the essence obtained from the Banshees. And since not many people are ever killing banshees, except for the occasional Slayer task, there are plenty to go around.

They are also 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.