Sceptre of Asmodeus

Version 0.29: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

A bright ruby sceptre, carrying some of the powers of the arch-fiend Asmodeus. It can be used to summon fiery demons from their infernal home to do the wielder's bidding, although their true loyalty lies only with Asmodeus himself.

the +7 sceptre of Asmodeus

+7 staff

Provides an ability to summon a fire-themed demon
Evil

Mechanics

The sceptre of Asmodeus has an ability to durably summon one of the following demons with an Evocations / 30 success rate and no summon cap. The summoned demon is initially friendly, but will eventually turn hostile.

• 2 Balrug: 50%
• 2 Hellion: 33%
• 1 Brimstone fiend: 17%

Desirability

The sceptre of Asmodeus is a powerful artefact staff which commands the fiery legions of Hell. It can only be acquired by slaying Asmodeus, the lord of Gehenna. It is considered an evil item, so the good gods frown on its use.

A method of summoning allies (some of which can be quite powerful) without using any MP is quite handy. You can use them to block dangerous foes or to support you in combat, though be forewarned that hellions and brimstone fiends will use damnation against their targets regardless of your position. Also, every demon you summon with the sceptre is durably summoned (meaning it will never time out) and will invariably turn hostile after a couple dozen turns or so; you'll probably have to end up killing or running from anything you call in.

Of course, in order to get this weapon, you've already killed one of the lords of Hell. Chances are you have plenty of ways of dealing with powerful foes that don't involve a staff with only mediocre potential as a bludgeoning weapon that creates deadly allies of dubious (and temporary) loyalty.

History

• Prior to 0.28, the sceptre could be activated from the evoke menu instead of the abilities menu.
• Prior to 0.27, the sceptre could summon sun demons and efreets.
• Prior to 0.10, this sceptre would fire random Conjurations and summoned hostile demons when it failed to evoke properly.