Sceptre of Asmodeus

Version 0.30: 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 may call forth fiery demons from their infernal home to do the wielder's bidding.

the +13 sceptre of Asmodeus

+13 eveningstar

10% chance to summon a fire-themed demon on hit
Evil

Mechanics

The sceptre of Asmodeus may summon the following demons:

• 2 Balrug: 50%
• 2 Hellion: 33.3%
• 1 Brimstone fiend: 16.7%

Note that the demon-summoning melee effect works only for the player. Neither Asmodeus nor your orc friends get the summons when attacking with this weapon.

Desirability

The sceptre of Asmodeus is a special eveningstar that can only be obtained by killing Asmodeus, lord of Gehenna. As an evil item, the good gods frown its use.

It's a moderately good weapon. But, by the time you kill Asmodeus, you'll usually have other options available. A +9 eveningstar of flaming / freezing will be more consistent against non-resistant enemies. An eveningstar of holy wrath (or sacred scourge) will almost certainly perform better - at least for those who can wield holy wrath.

Hellions and brimstone fiends have damnation, a strong 3x3 explosion, but they are summoned by melee strikes. As they'll often try to avoid hurting you with damnation, they won't fire at enemies in your melee range - a clear anti-synergy. Also, brimstone fiends have some chance to torment you, which can be very dangerous at the wrong time.

History

• Prior to 0.30, the sceptre was a +7 staff that had an Ability to summon demons, with a chance to fail based on Evocations. The demons were durably summoned, and would eventually become hostile.
• Prior to 0.28, the sceptre could be activated from the evoke menu instead of the abilities menu. Also, the player needed slightly more Evocations to pass a skill check when summoning demons.
• 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.