Elemental Staff

Version 0.15: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

This powerful staff used to belong to the leader of the Guild of Five Elements.

A black staff

+3 staff

Inflicts bonus damage as though it were a randomly selected elemental staff with each hit.
+5 AC
rF++
rC++
rElec
+80 magic resistance

Damage type is selected randomly with an equal probability from fire, cold, electricity and earth. The actual chances of dealing extra damage are evoc/27² + (1- evoc/27²)*evoc/27² which results in only 7.2 percent at skill level 27. The actual damage doesn't depend on evocations skill at all and is 10-24 which is irresistible for earth.

Desirability

The elemental staff offers an unbelievable array of defensive bonuses, giving the wielder significantly more freedom when it comes to armour and jewellery slots. With a modest skill investment in Staves (12 for min speed) and significant training in Evocations, it also serves as a fairly powerful, moderately fast one-handed melee weapon, though not having control over the element you evoke is unfortunate.

For casters, coupling this with a robe of the Archmagi and possibly other spellpower enhancers can leave you with a well-rounded defense and an overwhelming offense. For melee characters, particularly ones who can fill their suddenly-available equipment slots with slaying bonuses, it's an excellent way to gain exceptional amounts of durability while still being a force to reckon with. Don't expect it to be of much use in melee with monsters resistant to all elemental damage, however.

Even at very high levels of evocations the staff is activated very seldom so you shouldn't count on its extra damage and thus shouldn't be used in important fights.

History

Prior to 0.14, the elemental staff was a +3, +1 quarterstaff making it a marginally better source of physical damage. However, it lacked any elemental brand effects, offered no rElec, made noise while wielded, and significantly increased your hunger.