Hood of the Assassin

Version 0.32: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

A soft hood, enchanted by members of the Assassin's Guild to allow the wearer to sense potential victims nearby, and to easily spot vulnerabilities after closing in on them.

the +2 hood of the Assassin

+2 hat
+100 Stealth
Any melee weapon counts as a short blade for purposes of determining stabbing bonuses
Detect Monsters (similar to the Ashenzari ability or Antennae 3 mutation)

Desirability

The hood of the Assassin is a definite boon to stabbers, as the monster detection and massive stealth boost make it even easier to reach sleeping opponents and land that lethal hit. It is also amazingly useful for other melee characters so long as you have some means of generating stabbing opportunities: Short Blade-tier stabbing damage multipliers can be massive, and the much-higher base damage of heavier weapons can lead to extremely potent blows. A reliable source of invisibility or confusion, the Dazzling Flash spell, or distracting allies are all excellent ways to land stabs even if you're wearing noisy armour, though raising your Stealth skill will still significantly improve your stabbing performance.

Casters and ranged fighters certainly don't suffer for wearing this hat, but they may find a hat or helm of intelligence, willpower, or see invisible more useful.

History

• The hood of the Assassin was introduced in 0.25, replacing the old boots of the Assassin.