Scythe of Curses

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

A scythe surrounded by an ominous aura of dread. It carries a terrible and ancient curse, which it busily inflicts on both the wielder and their enemies.

the +13 Scythe of Curses

+13 scythe (base damage: 14, base delay: 20)

Draining brand
Drains user when unequipped
Inflicts a mild death curse on the user when wielded (severity = 0)
Inflicts death curses on monsters of natural or plant holiness when attacking them (severity increases with damage dealt).
Evil

Desirability

The scythe of Curses will often drain monsters, in addition to inflicting mummy death curses, which run the gamut from negative energy damage, slow, further draining, and single-target torment. These effects coupled with the weapon's excellent enchantment bonuses can devastate living opponents. Unfortunately, the scythe of Curses is of limited use against undead, demonic, or nonliving foes, and has a terrible base delay. Only consider it if you already have very high skill in Polearms and are regularly facing opponents which will actually be affected by the death curses.

History

• In 0.29, base scythes lost their unique stats. This weapon retains those stats, except that it gained +1 accuracy between versions.
• Prior to 0.28, the scythe couldn't inflict death curses on plants.
• Prior to 0.27, the scythe of Curses would curse on equip rather than drain the user on unequip.
• Prior to 0.25, the scythe of Curses inflicted Necromancy miscast effects when striking monsters and would periodically curse random pieces of equipment in the wielder's inventory.