Blade talisman

Trunk-only: This article pertains to a feature of Crawl which is being tested. It will likely change before the next release, and may even be removed entirely.

For the spell present in 0.30, see Blade Hands.

A blade talisman is a talisman that gives you Blade Hands, increasing your damage in Unarmed Combat.

Useful Info

When eVoked, a blade talisman grants Blade Hands, which lasts until you end the form. Entering or exiting a form takes 5 turns.

Blade Hands has the following effects:

Combat Bonuses

• Unarmed Combat: 18 base damage.
• Your off-hand punch gains +6 damage.
• Reduces base AC of body armour by a factor of Shapeshifting / 20, where AC is rounded down (50% AC at 10 Shapeshifting).
  • Does not impact enchantment, and AC gained from Armour skill is still calculated with the armour's full base AC. Stacks multiplicatively with Deformed / Pseudopods.

Restrictions

• Melded Gear: Weapon, shield, and gloves. Claws are also melded.
• You cannot throw items.
• Makes spells harder to cast (increases raw spell failure rate by +20%).

Other

• Cuts hydra heads.

Blade Hands does not block mutations (other than claws), does not change your size, and gives no innate bonus to HP / AC.

It has a minimum Shapeshifting skill of 9, below which you get an HP penalty. It has a maximum skill of 20, where skill has no further impact.

Strategy

Blade Hands is essentially two-handed Unarmed Combat. Even at 0 Unarmed Combat skill, you'll hit as hard as the heaviest two-handed weapons, while keeping the off-hand punch and swinging faster. It's certainly strong, but melds the shield slot and reduces AC (until max skill).

History

• Introduced in 0.31 in the transformation overhaul. Previously implemented as a spell, Blade Hands.

The previous spell had 22 base damage, and didn't have an AC penalty. (However, since it was a spell, heavy armour made it harder to cast).