Handedness

Version 0.29: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Each weapon has a particular handedness, which determines how well you can wield it based on your size, and whether or not you can use a shield.

Weapon Handedness

Weapon Type	One handed weapons	One handed weapons (Two handed for small species)	Two handed weapons	Large species only
Short Blades	Dagger Quick blade Short sword Rapier
Long blades	Falchion Long sword Scimitar Demon blade Eudemon blade	Double sword	Great sword Triple sword
Axes	Hand axe War axe	Broad axe	Battleaxe Executioner's axe
Maces and Flails	Club Mace Flail Morningstar Demon whip Sacred scourge Eveningstar		Dire flail Great mace	Giant club Giant spiked club
Polearms	Spear	Trident Demon trident Trishula	Halberd Scythe Glaive Bardiche
Staves		Magical staves	Quarterstaff* Lajatang*
Throwing	Dart Throwing net Stone Boomerang		Javelin	Large rock
Slings	Hunting sling Fustibalus
Bows			Shortbow* Longbow
Crossbows	Hand crossbow		Arbalest* Triple crossbow**
Entries with * can be wielded as two handed weapons by Spriggans and Kobolds. Entries with ** can be wielded as two handed weapons by only Kobolds.

• Felids lack opposable thumbs and cannot wield weapons, throw items, or evoke magical staves.
• Spriggans are little and Kobolds are small; their weapon restrictions are listed in the table above.
• Ogres and Trolls are large species.
• All other races are medium species.
  • Nagas and Palentongas have large bodies with medium torsos, so don't get any special access to weapons.
  • Formicids are medium, though they can wield giant clubs and giant spiked clubs, but not large rocks.

Shields

Shields can be worn while wielding one handed weapons. Shields provide SH, in exchange for a penalty to EV, attack speed, and spellcasting. They also disable the offhand punch auxiliary attack.

With the exception of Felid, anyone can wear a shield, though with varying extents. Formicids have four strong arms, so (except for both giant clubs) can wield a two-handed weapon and a shield. Everyone else (including the 8-tentacled Octopode) is limited to one-handers.

• Spriggans and Kobolds are more encumbered by a shield, and can not wear tower shields. Spriggans can't use kite shields, either.
• Ogres and Trolls find bucklers too small for them, though have reduced shield penalties.
• Nagas, Palentongas, and Formicids have no shield restrictions, but also find shields easier to wield.

History

• In 0.18 throwing delays followed the throwing skill dependency improvements like other weapons. Before this thrown missiles used the unarmed combat skill and were not impacted by wearing a shield.
• In the 0.14.2 bug fix release transformations no longer allow the character to wield too-large weapons.
• Prior to 0.12, there were two additional types of handedness: 1.5-handed (which could be used with a shield but suffered larger-than-normal penalties) and double-handed (which had even worse penalties, plus cut the weapon's base damage in half).