Obsidian axe

Version 0.23: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

An axe with a powerful curse placed on it by one of the lords of Pandemonium, so that unsuspecting adventurers would unleash demons into this world. Beware, for it has ways of taking its wielder under its command...

the +14 obsidian axe

+14 broad axe

Vorpal brand
Cursed, recurses itself on equip
Allow flight
See Invisible
Evil
Mesmerizes user if any hostile monster present
10% chance of summoning a friendly common demon (60% chance of Tier-4; 40%, Tier-3) per attack.

Desirability

Using the obsidian axe can be more than a little irritating, but its excellent stats may make up for it. If you are wielding this broad axe and a monster is visible, you will be mesmerized and restricted from moving any farther away from the monster: "Visions of slaying the [monster] flood into your mind." If there are multiple monsters, you will fixate on the closest one. When mesmerized by the axe, you lose any current confusion and gain temporary clarity (suggesting a possible emergency use, if you lack potions of curing). Unwielding the axe (only by reading a scroll of remove curse; Tukima's Dance won't work) dispels all forms of mesmerization, even if sirens or merfolk avatars are involved.

The mesmerization property of this weapon can potentially be very dangerous, for instance if it forces you to run headlong into a group of strong melee monsters instead of retreating into a corridor to fight them. For this reason, if you are going to use this weapon, you should always keep some escape option open and ready to use: a scroll of teleportation or remove curse is highly advisable. Be aware that in the more dangerous areas of the dungeon, this may cause you rapidly burn through such items. Many players may simply choose to go for a good two-handed axe anyway, which will provide superior damage output with none of the downsides of this weapon.

Summoning also works with plants hits. A maximum of 3 demons may be present at the same time.

History

Prior to 0.19, it had a +3 Strength bonus

Prior to 0.15, this was a +12, +15 weapon.

The obsidian axe was added in 0.8.