Magical staff

A magical staff is a device which enhances your spells in one of a variety of different ways. It occupies your weapon slot and can be used as a +0, +0 staff in combat if need be. Unlike normal weapons, they cannot be enchanted in any way (and neither can they be corroded). Instead, some magical staves deal additional elemental damage based on your skill in Evocations and the corresponding school of magic, or provide other effects.

All magical staves auto-identify when wielded, but be aware that they can be cursed.

Enhancer Staves

The following staves all serve as spell power multipliers for spells of their respective spell school, while penalizing spells of their opposing school (if any). Some may also add elemental damage or other effects when used in melee:

Damage Dealt: 0 to 1.25×(School+Evocations/2)
Chance to Activate: (Evocations+School/2)×6.66% per hit

• Staff of fire: Fire damage, 1 rank of fire resistance, opposes cold.
• Staff of cold: Cold damage, 1 rank of cold resistance, opposes fire.
• Staff of earth: Physical damage, opposes air.
• Staff of air: Electricity damage, electricity resistance, opposes earth, has to pass an additional check: (Damage Done + Air Magic)/20.
• Staff of poison: (50+Poison Magic×12.5)% chance to poison the target (can even affect poison-resistant living targets, but has to pass a Poison/16 chance), poison resistance.
• Staff of death: (12.5+Necromancy×12.5)% chance of negative energy damage (does not affect targets with life protection), 1 rank of life protection.
• Staff of conjuration: No bonus.
• Staff of enchantment: Gain 9 + (3 × Charms or Hexes) magic resistance (uses the larger skill).
• Staff of summoning: 1 rank of warding; if the defender is a summoned monster, casts Abjuration against it at spell power equal to the damage other staves would deal.

Other Staves

The following staves have effects independent of spell schools:

• Staff of wizardry: Much like a ring of wizardry, it improves your spell success rate.
• Staff of energy: Reduces spell hunger by 2/3.
• Staff of power: +13 max MP.
• Staff of channeling: May be evoked to gain MP, with a success rate based on Evocations. Costs 50 nutrition. Although this restores less MP per use than Sif Muna's channeling ability, it is much more efficient food-wise.

None of the above staves grant any melee bonuses.

There are also a number of artefact staves, but they are technically classified as weapons rather than magical staves. Click here for more details.

Images

History

Prior to 0.8, the chance of a magical staff auto-identifying when wielded depended on the skill of the wielder in its corresponding school (or Spellcasting if none applied).

See Also

• Staves
• Rods and List of rods
• Evocable staves
• Unrandart staves