Dancing weapon

Version 0.25: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

dancing weapon (
HP	9-20
HD	15
XP	885
Speed	12 - 18
AC	11
EV	18
Will	Immune
Attack1	26 (hit: plain)
Resistances	rF++ rC++ rElec+++ rPois+++ rDrown rMiasma rN+++ rTorm
Vulnerabilities	None
Habitat	Land
Intelligence	Brainless
Uses	Uses nothing
Holiness	Non-living
Size	Small
Type	dancing weapon, dancing weapon
Flags	Fighter Flying Unbreathing Ghost demon

A mace with a short chain connecting the head to the haft. “Even after forcing their way, with great effort and loss, through this double defense, [the Germans] still found themselves at a disadvantage; for their armor scarce enabled them to contend on equal terms with the uncouth but formidable weapons of their adversaries. The Bohemians were armed with long iron flails, which they swung with prodigious force. They seldom failed to hit, and when they did so, the flail crashed through brazen helmet, skull and all.” -James A. Wylie, _The History of Protestantism_, vol. I, book 3, ch. 15 “Jon Huss and the Hussite Wars”. 1878.

Useful Info

Dancing weapons are weapons animated into life and capable of attacking on their own. They are fast and hit relatively hard, and their high EV, wide array of resistances, and immunity to many spells makes up for their minimal HP. Be aware that their stats vary based on the weapon type (dancing daggers are much less of a threat than dancing giant spiked clubs, for instance), and that dancing branded weapons will have especially potent attacks.

Instead of leaving corpses, dancing weapons simply become their base weapons when killed (unless they were summoned, in which case they disappear). These weapons may be enchanted or branded.

Friendly weapons can appear via:

• Tukima's Dance
• Xom action

Hostile weapons can appear via:

• Wandering the Elven Halls (especially in the Hall of Blades on Elf:2)
• Xom action
• Beogh's wrath
• Wu Jian's wrath

Tips & Tricks

• Spells that deal non-elemental damage, such as Airstrike, Stone Arrow, or Iskenderun's Mystic Blast, are very effective against dancing weapons (Airstrike especially so, since it's being applied to a flying target).
• Dancing weapons also lack see invisible, so stabbing specialists with access to invisibility should have an easy time with them.
• In console, dancing weapons are distinguishable at a glance from normal melee weapons since they are "reversed": dancing weapons are represented by (, while normal weapons are represented by ).