Rod of striking

Type	Rod
Name	Rod of striking
Icon

This rod allows its wielder to strike foes from afar with force bolts.

A rod of striking is an evokable item which can damage opponents at a distance. When wielded and evoked, it casts Striking against a single target, dealing up to 1d18 physical damage. Increasing your Evocation skill will increase the spell's accuracy and damage. It can also be used as a melee weapon equivalent to a club, but without the Stabbing bonus. Higher recharge rates will increase its damage and accuracy, but even at +9, it's still a terrible melee weapon.

Like all rods, it uses its own MP for casting spells, and recharges automatically at a rate based on its enchantment and your Evocations skill.

Strategy

This rod basically functions as a reusable, non-elemental wand of frost or wand of flame. Its damage output is quite mediocre, rendering it ineffective against opponents with significant AC, and the rod becomes obsolete for most purposes beyond Lair. Few players will find much use for this item, although one could conceivably use it to shoot down fleeing monsters or kill jellies in safety.

It is rare to find this rod on its own, but enemy deep dwarf artificers occasionally carry one. While its damage output is fairly nonthreatening, when combined with the damage that other deep dwarves in the group may be putting out, it may be a problem for low-AC characters.

History

Prior to 0.10, this rod could be chosen as starting equipment for artificers, but was much weaker (dealing only up to 1d8 damage, the same as magic dart).

Prior to 0.9, this rod was useful for training your Evocation skill early on without having to waste wand charges and scrolls of recharging, or significant amounts of food. With the death of the victory dance, the rod became almost entirely useless.