Staff of Wucad Mu

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

A crystal staff overflowing with magical energies, which can be channeled by a skilled wielder to allow them to cast spells without exhausting any of their own magical energies — at the risk of damaging the user's mind. It occasionally powers its wielder's spells, but with a chance of causing confusion or draining the wielder's intelligence. It becomes more likely to activate and less likely to backfire with increased Evocations skill.

the +9 staff of Wucad Mu

+9 staff

Channels MP (may refund the MP of spells cast by the wielder)

Mechanics

When casting a spell while wielding the staff of Wucad Mu, you have an Evocations / 54 chance of regaining the MP used in the spell (50% chance at 27 Evocations). Each time this happens, you have a 1 / (Evocations - MP cost) chance of either being confused for 1 + 1d4 turns or losing 1-5 intelligence.

Djinn do not use MP and cannot activate the staff of Wucad Mu.

Desirability

The staff of Wucad Mu is most useful for characters that have invested heavily in both Evocations and magic. Without high Evocations, you have little chance of refunding your MP and run the risk of incurring deleterious intelligence penalties; without significant training in Spellcasting and magical skills, you have nothing worth spending large amounts of MP on (or indeed much MP to work with).

Still, the ability to cast your most powerful spells even a few more times can make a difference between victory and running dry mid-fight. The extra Evocations training will also come in handy for any wands or other evocable items you might want to use.

Keep in mind that successfully activating the staff refunds the cost of spells you cost instead of providing the MP for the spells up-front -- the staff of Wucad Mu does little to help those who have run out of MP entirely.

While a normal magical staff both increases your spellpower and generally makes a better bludgeoning tool than even a +9 mundane staff, the staff of Wucad Mu can still be used to finish off weakened, lightly armoured opponents.

History

• In 0.28, sources of channeling will be stackable, and the staff of Wucad Mu will count as two such sources.
• Prior to 0.27, the staff of Wucad Mu could be evoked to restore MP, but had a chance of backfiring when used in this manner.
• Prior to 0.26, the staff of Wucad Mu provided channeling like the now-defunct staff of energy.
• Prior to 0.20, the staff's negative effects were based on Divinations miscast effects.
• Prior to 0.12, the enchantments on this weapon depended on intelligence and were capable of reaching up to +22/+13.
• Prior to 0.11, this item appeared as an ephemeral quarterstaff when unidentified.
• Prior to 0.8, this staff would occasionally cause miscast effects simply by attacking with it.