Dancing weapon

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

dancing weapon (
HP	9-20
HD	15
XP	756
Speed	13 - 20
AC	11
EV	18
Will	∞
Attack1	30 (hit: plain)
Resistances	rF++ rC++ rElec+++ rPois+++ rDrown rMiasma rN+++ rTorm
Vulnerabilities	None
Habitat	Land
Intelligence	Brainless
Uses	Uses nothing
Holiness	Non-living
Size	Small
Type	dancing weapon, dancing weapon
Flags	Fighter Flying Unbreathing Ghost demon Unblindable Don't melee

A pole with a large, heavy blade on one end. It has been enchanted to dance through the air and attack under its own power. “To know the perfect length of your ſhort ſtaffe, or half Pike, Forreſt bil, Partiſan or Gleue, or ſuch like weapons of vantage and perfect lengths, you ſhall ſtand vpright, holding the ſtaffe vpright cloſe by your body, with your left hãd, reaching with your right hand your ſtaffe as high as you can, and then allow to that length a ſpace to ſet both your hands, when you come to fight, wherein you may conueniently ſtrike, thruſt and ward, & that is the iuſt length according to you ſtature. And this note, that theſe lengths will commonly fall out to be eight or nine foot long, and will fit, although not iuſt, the ſtatures of all men, without any hindrance at all vnto them in their fight, becauſe in any weapon wherin the hands may be remoued, and at libertie, to make the weapon lõger or ſhorter in fight at his pleaſure, a foot of the ſtaffe behind the backmoſt hand doth no harme.” -George Silver,_Paradoxes of Defence_.1599.

Useful Info

Dancing weapons are weapons animated into life and capable of attacking on their own. They are fast and hit relatively hard, and their high EV, wide array of resistances, and immunity to many spells makes up for their minimal HP. Be aware that their stats vary based on the weapon type; dancing daggers are much less of a threat than dancing giant spiked clubs. Dancing weapons can have enchantment and brands, which work as normal.

Instead of leaving corpses, dancing weapons simply become their base weapons when killed (unless they were summoned). Unless the weapon was animated by Tukima's Dance, Gozag turns these weapons into gold.

Friendly weapons can appear via:

• Tukima's Dance
• Xom action

Hostile weapons can appear via:

• Wandering the Elven Halls (especially in the Hall of Blades on Elf:2)
• Zenata's Sheza's Dance spell
• In Tukima's Studio
• Xom action
• Beogh's and Wu Jian's wrath.

Tips & Tricks

• Spells that deal non-elemental damage, such as Airstrike, Stone Arrow, or Iskenderun's Mystic Blast, are very effective against dancing weapons.
• Dancing weapons also lack see invisible, so stabbing specialists with access to invisibility should have an easy time with them.
• In console, dancing weapons are distinguishable at a glance from normal melee weapons since they are "reversed": dancing weapons are represented by (, while normal weapons are represented by ).

History

• In 0.27, ranged dancing weapons were added.