Dagger

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Name	Dagger
Skill	Short Blades
Damage	4
Accuracy	+6
Base delay (%)	10 (100%)
Min delay	5 at skill 10
Hands	1H
Size	Little
Ranged?	No

A double-edged fighting knife with a sharp point.

This weapon falls into the 'Short Blades' category. It is a one handed weapon.

The dagger is the smallest short blade. While daggers are one of the weakest weapons, they receive a large stabbing bonus, higher than all other weapons. See the Stabbing page for more details.

Strategy

Daggers are weak if you aren't stabbing. If you have nothing else, a dagger is at least better than a club or Unarmed Combat. However, a short sword will be better at everything but stab damage. On the other hand, "stabber" characters (namely Enchanters and other users of Hexes) greatly benefit from the dagger boost. A skilled stabber with a good dagger can one-shot sleeping dragons and giants with ease.

For other characters, a dagger (or short sword) with a "flat" damage brand, namely venom or electrocution, is a strong early game weapon. A dagger of venom can take you to Lair with 0 skill investment. This isn't because daggers are good, but because the venom brand is so powerful in the early Dungeon.

Note that quick blades are better for every stab except sleep stabs, assuming you've reached mindelay with both weapons. While daggers may get bonus damage, quick blades make twice as many stabs. Since the dagger bonus is always less than twice the damage, quick blades are just better. Sleeping enemies are the sole exception: since sleeping enemies wake up after the first stab, the stronger first hit off a dagger is better.

	Image
Mundane
Magical
Artifact
	Unrandarts
Spriggan's Knife