Staff of Olgreb

Version 0.27: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

A staff which was once wielded by the mighty wizard Olgreb. If the wielder is skilled in Evocations, they can envenom those struck by it, dealing poison damage which bypasses armour.

the +9 staff of Olgreb

+9 staff

Enhances Poison Magic
Provides immunity to poison
May deal poison damage and poison in melee; damage partially pierces resistance
Can be evoked to cast Olgreb's Toxic Radiance

Mechanics

When striking an enemy, the staff of Olgreb has a chance to deal resistance-piercing poison damage based on Evocations:

Activation Rate: Evocations × 10%
Extra Damage: 1d(Evocations × 1.875) - 1
30% of this damage is irresistible.
The target will be poisoned. This effect ignores poison resistance.

You can also eVoke it to cast Olgreb's Toxic Radiance:

OTR Success Rate: (1 + Evocations) × 16.6% (100% at 5 Evocations)
Spell Power: (1 + Evocations) × 5
Cost: 4 MP

Desirability

If you plan on using lots of Poison Magic, The staff of Olgreb is an excellent find. Not only will it enhance your poisonous spells, the extra damage and high chance to poison can come in handy for fighting some of the nastier poison-resistant enemies. It's far superior to a plain staff of poison. Training Fighting, Staves, and Evocations will help improve your combat performance with the staff of Olgreb.

Even if you don't want to use poison magic much, you may still wish to train a little Evocations to take advantage of the evocable ability. While ineffective against anything poison-resistant, Olgreb's Toxic Radiance is extremely useful against large groups of enemies, especially swarms of insects or spiders. Additionally, the poison immunity granted by the staff can be extremely helpful in surviving places like the Spider's Nest or Snake Pit.

The staff will occasionally spawn in a special vault full of assorted poisonous enemies (bees, spiders, and snakes). This can be an excellent find early on, though attempting to reach the staff at the end without already having a source of poison resistance can be risky. Frozen Ramparts is quite effective here, since it ignores the high evasion such creatures tend to share, nothing in the vault resists cold (and it will slow the cold-blooded snakes), and the tight quarters will force multiple enemies to take damage each turn.

History

• Prior to 0.25, the staff of Olgreb had a chance to cast Venom Bolt as well as Olgreb's Toxic Radiance when evoked, and only had a resistance-piercing chance to inflict poison instead of dealing additional poison damage.
• Prior to 0.19, its enchantment level was based on your skill with Poison Magic (Poison Magic/3).
• Prior to 0.14, it only granted poison resistance instead of complete immunity.