Broad axe

Version 0.17: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Name	Broad axe
Skill	Axes
Damage	13
Accuracy	-2
Base delay (%)	16 (160%)
Min delay	7 at skill 18
Hands	1H
Size	Medium
Ranged?	No

A war axe improved with langets, spikes, a lengthed haft and a single-bladed crescent head. "Weapon, shapely, naked, wan! Head from the mother's bowels drawn! Wooded flesh and metal bone! limb only one, and lip only one! Gray-blue leaf by red-heat grown! helve produced from a little seed sown! Resting the grass amid and upon To be lean'd, and to lean on." -Walt Whitman, _Song of the Broad-Axe_, l. 1-6. 1867

This weapon falls into the Axes category. It is a one-handed weapon, and it is better for the strong.

Broad axes are the most powerful axes you can wield that allow shields, but also the slowest, requiring a significant skill investment to reach min delay. As most axe-wielders prefer to use two-handed weapons, they aren't terribly popular, but they still deal enough damage to make them a viable choice throughout the game if you find a particularly nice artefact.

Like all axes, this weapon allows the player to cleave, which helps compensate somewhat for its relatively mediocre base damage and speed.

	Image
Mundane
Magical
Artifact

	Unrandart Broad Axes
"Arga"
Obsidian Axe

History

Prior to 0.12, broad axes had 14 base damage and no cleaving.