Scroll of brand weapon

Version 0.34: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

Type	Scroll
Name	Scroll of brand weapon
Icon

A scroll that imbues a weapon with a random brand. Any existing brand will be replaced with a different one, and any brand forbidden by your current god will not be chosen. Artefacts cannot be branded in this way.

Upon reading a scroll of brand weapon, you will be asked to choose a non-artefact weapon from your inventory to receive a permanent, randomly-selected brand. This will also replace any brand currently on the targeted weapon, if any.

If you have already identified the scroll, you may cancel the process by pressing Esc without consuming it.

Melee and ranged weapons have different sets of possible brands:

Brand Likelihood

Melee Weapons

• Common: 11.76%
  • Flaming
  • Freezing
  • Heavy
  • Venom
  • Protection
  • Weapon type specific brand (devious, valour, concussion, sundering, entangling, or rebuke, depending on weapon)

• Rare: 5.88%
  • Draining
  • Electrocution
  • Spectral
  • Vampiric
  • Chaos

Ranged Weapons

• Common: 21.4%
  • Flaming
  • Freezing
  • Heavy
  • Draining
• Rare: 7.1%
  • Electrocution
  • Chaos

The selected brand will be automatically rerolled in two cases:

• the new brand is identical to the weapon's former brand;
• your god disapproves of the selected brand.

Note that the scroll cannot give the antimagic, holy wrath, pain, or speed brands to weapons. Additionally, ranged weapons can't get the penetration brand from this scroll.

History

• Prior to 0.34, the weapon type specific brands did not exist.
• Prior to 0.30, the heavy brand did not exist; it replaced the vorpal brand. Also, ranged weapons could get venom instead of draining.
• In 0.28, brand likelihood was changed to be more uniform.
• Prior to 0.26, the spectral brand did not exist.
• Prior to 0.15, rebranding a distortion weapon would trigger a distortion unwield effect. Also, the scroll would automatically affect your wielded weapon, rather than letting you choose a target.
• Prior to 0.14, you could control which brand you received to some extent: any temporary brand your wielded weapon held upon reading would be made permanent. Additionally, any time you gave your weapon one of the following brands, you would receive the following effect:
  • Flame/Flaming: Inner Flame explosion centered on the reader
  • Frost/Freezing: Ozocubu's Refrigeration
  • Draining/Vampiricism: Moderate draining to the reader
  • Venom: Olgreb's Toxic Radiance
  • Electrocution: Orb of Electrocution centered on the reader
  • Chaos: Chaos-branded explosion

  The following temporary brands could not be affixed this way, and attempting to do so was punished as follows:

  • Pain: Torment
  • Distortion: A random Translocations miscast effect (possibly including banishment)
  • Antimagic: Drains all your MP
• The scroll of brand weapon was added in 0.13, replacing the scroll of vorpalise weapon.