Brigand

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

A Brigand is a shady character who is especially good at killing, using daggers or darts. They start with a dagger, a robe and cloak, poisoned darts, and a few deadly and rare curare darts.

Brigands are operatives who specialize in stealth and the killing of unsuspecting victims. They start with the tools to silently and quickly take down the living.

Preferred Species

Troll, Demonspawn, Spriggan, Vine Stalker, and Vampire are the recommended races if you pick a Brigand background.

Racial restrictions

Felids are forbidden from becoming Brigands because they cannot throw darts. A Felid Brigand would start with the same items as a Monk.

Starting Equipment

Some species may receive different items based on their unique restrictions.

• +2 dagger
• +0 robe
• +0 cloak
• 9 poisoned darts
• 3 curare darts

Starting Skills and Stats

These are adjusted by your species' aptitudes.

• Fighting: 2
• Short Blades: 2
• Throwing: 2
• Dodging: 1
• Stealth: 4

Choosing Brigand adds 3 to your starting Strength, 3 to your starting Intelligence and 6 to your starting Dexterity.

Strategy

Brigands are a good general starting background for stealthy types; the enchanted dagger handles early-game monsters fairly well, while the curare and poisoned darts are excellent for taking down tougher targets.

Don't underestimate the power of curare. Curare deals a fair amount of damage (on impact), then slows the enemy. Almost all early-game threats up to Lair will be greatly weakened by these darts. Of course, this assumes that you hit the dart. A few points into Throwing skill will increase your accuracy.

Since you only start with 3 curare darts, and there's a 1 in 6 chance that they mulch after fired, you'll have 18 shots on average. You can kite enemies in order to conserve it. Throw the curare dart, then back away and throw regular poisoned darts afterward, slowly whittling their HP down.

History

• In 0.29, most backgrounds were buffed; Brigands gained an extra poison and curare dart.
• Prior to 0.26, Brigands were called Assassins.
• Prior to 0.24, Assassins began with a blowgun and their respective needles of poison and curare.
• Prior to 0.15, the starting dagger had an enchantment of +2, +2.
• Prior to 0.14, Assassins began with potions of poison identified, and had 50 gold.