Sceptre of Torment
| An accursed golden sceptre, created by some unknown hellish power. When used in combat, it causes agonising pain in all those unfortunate enough to gaze upon it. |
the +7 Sceptre of Torment
+7 staff
Forces Symbol of Torment
Evil
Torment triggers on 50% of attacks
Desirability
The Sceptre of Torment is a poor base weapon with a decent enchantment value and an absolutely staggering special ability - it passively inflicts torment on everything in your line of sight (including you) with a 50% chance every time you engage in melee while wielding it. When facing anything that isn't torment immune, this is an extremely effective weapon for quickly cutting everything on-screen down to size, though only if you happen to be undead, lichform, or torment resistant yourself. The living will take enough self-damage wielding this that they'd be placing themselves in serious danger every fight (though rN+++ followers of Kiku, gargoyles, and Statue Form-users might be able to trim the damage down enough to make it tempting). For torment-immune enemies, it's a very poor weapon choice, so bring a backup for demons and the undead.
As with the scroll, torment will act through plants/bushes/statues, but will not have an effect through transparent walls or grates.
Tips & Tricks
Since the artefact only triggers on melee, a potential way of tormenting enemies at a distance would be by casting Summon Butterflies (or a similar spell) and then attacking those friendly summons [using the Control-key plus directional key to attack your ally]. Equally, if a bush or plant is near, the player could attack those.
History
Prior to 0.20, the Sceptre of Torment also had a very small chance of activating each turn when you weren't attacking with it.
In 0.17, the Sceptre of Torment became a staff instead of a mace.
Prior to 0.15, the Sceptre of Torment was a +7, +6 weapon.
