Staff of earth

Version 0.32: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

Type	Magical staves
Name	staff of earth
Icon

A staff that increases the power of earth spells cast by its wielder. If the wielder is skilled in Evocations and Earth magic, they can fracture the ground beneath those struck by it, dealing substantial damage - though much less to creatures which fly.

A staff of earth is a magical staff. It gives a spell enhancer to Earth Magic, but no resistance.

The staff can also be used in combat, functioning as a +0 staff that deals additional physical damage. Flying monsters only take 33% of this damage:

Shrapnel Damage: A random amount ranging from 0 to 1.5×(Evocations/2 + Earth Magic)
Chance to Activate on a Hit: (Evocations + Earth Magic/2)×6.66% per hit

In addition, the Staves and Fighting skills will increase the damage done by the staff itself.

History

• Prior to 0.31, staves of Earth had higher base bonus damage (1.67×(Evocations/2 + Earth Magic)), and it didn't do less to flying targets. However, this damage was impacted ×3 as much by AC.
• Prior to 0.26, staves of earth had lower extra damage, but it was reduced by AC only once. The old melee effect was given to staves of conjuration.
• Prior to 0.19, enhancer staves would penalize casting spells of the opposite school.
• Prior to 0.8, the chance of a staff of earth auto-identifying when wielded depended on the Earth Magic skill of the wielder.