Trident

Version 0.12: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Name	Trident
Skill	Polearms
Damage	9
Accuracy	+1
Base delay (%)	13 (130%)
Min delay	6 (14)
Hands	1H
Size	medium
Ranged?	No

A fishing spear improved with a longer shaft and a three-pronged metal head. It can be wielded with one or two hands, but due to the added weight it cannot be thrown effectively. "Without noticing the occupations of an intervening day or two, which, as they consisted of the ordinary sylvan amusements of shooting and coursing, have nothing sufficiently interesting to detain the reader, we pass to one in some degree peculiar to Scotland, which may be called a sort of salmon-hunting. This chase, in which the fish is pursued and struck with barbed spears, or a sort of long shafted trident, called a waster, is much practised at the mouth of the Esk, and in the other salmon rivers of Scotland." -Sir Walter Scott, _Guy Mannering_, ch. XXVI. 1815.

This weapon falls into the Polearms category. It can be used with one hand, or more effectively with two (i.e. when not using a shield), and it is better for the dexterous.

The trident is a significant upgrade over the spear, though it can't be thrown. It is among the best starting weapons and the most broadly useful of the common polearms; halberds, scythes and glaives are all usually inferior due to their high delay, while bardiches and especially demon tridents are quite rare.

History

Like most polearms, tridents had their base damage lowered by one to compensate for the introduction of reaching on all polearms in 0.10. In addition, its accuracy was lowered to +1 in 0.12, and they became one-handed.

	Common	Orcish
Mundane
Magical
Artifact		N/A

	Unrandart tridents
Trident of the Octopus King