Maybe there should be an option to get rid of the status effect to spill a potion without activating its effect. Moving around to suppress it faster is a solution for irritated crawl wiki readers mostky, imho. It works with water, why wouldn’t it work with potions?
It may be implemented in a form of a dialog window, when character has the status, trying to drink a potion brings up the dialog with options to drink it or to spill the potion to reduce / remove the status effect.
Do you mean to say that this knowledge is only available to those that read the wiki? It is in multiple places in-game!
In-game tells
xving a bombardier beetle
A bombardier beetle.
An unassuming beetle filled with an incredible amount of hypergolic fluid. The sticky spray it fires is capable of igniting predators and unwary adventurers alike, though more experienced ones know to keep moving if they wish to avoid a fiery grave.
examining their spell
Pyre Arrow
Launches a glob of liquid fire that clings to a targeted creature, dealing armour-ignoring fire damage over multiple turns. The victim can put the fire out much more quickly by moving.
reading about the status effect when you get it
Fire
You are covered with sticky fire, which causes damage over a moderate duration. Moving will quell the fire much more rapidly, and entering water will extinguish it immediately.
On to your main point, I think that crawl avoids this sort of niche item interaction. Potions have a simple function: you drink them! Throwing potions or dipping your weapons in potions is actually listed on the won’t do list. I feel like this suggestion might work well in other games but isn’t right for crawl.
I agree. On the second thought the feature would be excessive. Maybe the information about statuses should be more accessible. A chapter in the manual or a separate entry in the help menu list (?) I have some experience with the game and I found the lookup description feature only after you’ve mentioned the feature in your comment. It’s very useful and very disguised, imho).