Wand of random effects

Version 0.21: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Type	Wand
Name	Wand of random effects
Icon

A magical device which can produce a variety of effects. “[The principle of selection] is the magician’s wand, by means of which he may summon into life whatever form and mould he pleases.” -William Youatt, _Sheep: their breeds, management, and diseases; to which is added the Mountain Shepherd's Manual_, ch. III. 1837.

Wand effect	Probability
throw flame
fireball
throw frost
iceblast
bolt of draining
venom bolt
Total damaging effects	6/13
paralyze
confuse
slow
malmutate
Total harmful effects	4/13
haste
invisibility
Total buff effects	2/13
teleportation
Total neutral	1/13

A wand of random effects creates an unpredictable effect when zapped. There is a high probability of yielding a damaging or at least harmful effect, but its use in combat is risky. Although you might wind up blasting an enemy for heavy damage, you must decide if it's worth the risk of hasting or rendering invisible your opponent instead. Each of the effects has an equal chance of being selected.

Tips & Tricks

• Using a wand of random effects may risk penance, depending on your god's restrictions: all of the good gods punish draining, Zin punishes mutating, Cheibriados punishes haste.

History

In 0.21, mutation and poison were added to the random effects to discourage using the wand as a source of haste in the late game.

Completely reworked in 0.20 to the present list of effects, minus malmutate and venom bolt.

Some wands were removed in 0.18, though the wand of random effects kept a few of the removed ones. As a result the chance to deal direct damage with a wand of random effects dropped by about 11%. Digging was also removed at this time.

Prior to 0.14, gods would forgive the player for disliked effects produced by evoking an already identified wand of random effects.