Brand
Armour brands are also called egos. See the ego page for armour brands.
A brand is a special enhancement that a weapon can have, affecting its damage output, giving it a particular damage type, or causing effects. Weapons can have at most one brand, and randarts are guaranteed a brand, although some unrandarts do not have one. Brands are auto-identified when a weapon is wielded. Missile brands are known on sight. If you use branded ammo with a branded launcher, only the ammo brand will take effect. Exceptions include launchers with the vorpal or speed brands, which stack with their ammo's brands, and launchers of flaming and missiles of frost (or vice versa) will cancel each other out, resulting in an unbranded missile.
Aside from the permanently-branded weapons found in the dungeon, two spells provide temporary brands to weapons: Warp Weapon (distortion) and Excruciating Wounds (pain). The Blade card likewise provides a (random) temporary brand. Each of these will override a weapon's current brand (if any).
There are two ways to create weapons with a permanent brand. Firstly, a scroll of brand weapon will apply a brand to one of the non-artefact weapons you are carrying, overwriting the previous brand, if any. The second means of creating a branded weapon is through the act of a god. The Shining One, Lugonu, and Kikubaaqudgha will grant especially pious worshipers permanent holy wrath, distortion, and pain brands, respectively. Divine branding will replace any previous brand the weapon held. Note that this still does not work on artefacts. As for the chaos brand, Xom may randomly place that on an unbranded weapon, most often one in a monster's inventory.
Contents
Types of Brands
There are different types of brands, some add a special effect type Electrocution, Draining, Distortion for example. Others add a percentage of damage to the attack. Flaming, Vorpal, and Freezing for example. And others add special qualities just by holding them like Protection. Some even have multiple effect types, such as draining, which can increase damage and drain HD.
Brands that add damage to the attack do this after all other effects (such as weapon pluses, weapon skill bonus, ac reduction etc). So high weapon skill, high weapon base damage and high damage pluses add to the damage. In most cases this means getting a higher base damage weapon is better. (Flaming Executioner's axes are better than flaming daggers).
Brands that add special effects Distortion, or bonus damage (such as Electrocution)), have a chance of triggering each time the weapon hits. In this case hitting more ofter (lower base delay is more important). Choose branded weapons accordingly.
All added brand damage is calculated after AC reduction, and does not get further reduced by AC.
List of Brands
Melee Weapons
- Antimagic
- Chaos (Xom's special brand)
- Disruption (found only on the artifact great mace Undeadhunter)
- Distortion (Lugonu's special brand)
- Dragon slaying (found only on the artifact lance Wyrmbane)
- Draining
- Electrocution
- Flaming
- Freezing
- Holy wrath (The Shining One's special brand)
- Pain (Kikubaaqudgha's special brand)
- Protection
- Reaping (found only on the artefacts the Spear of the Botono and the Sword of Zonguldrok)
- Speed (short blades, staves, and artifacts only)
- Vampiricism
- Venom
- Vorpal (named differently depending on weapon; see Vorpal for details)
Launchers
- Electrocution
- Evasion
- Flame
- Frost
- Penetration
- Speed
- Venom
- Vorpal ("Velocity")
- Chaos
Crossbows can have flame, frost, evasion, chaos and vorpal. Artifact crossbows can also have penetration, electrocution, venom and speed.
Bows, longbows and slings can have flame, frost, evasion and vorpal. Speed and venom are possible on artifacts (the Bow of Krishna "Sharnga" has the speed brand).
Blowguns can only be generated with evasion. Artifact blowguns can have speed.
Missiles
Flame, frost, and poisoned can all be found on arrows and crossbow bolts. Poisoned javelins are also possible. Silver and steel can be found on crossbow bolts, sling bullets, tomahawks, and javelins. Dispersal can be found on arrows and tomahawks. Exploding can be found only on sling bullets. Penetration can be found on crossbow bolts or javelins. Returning can be found on tomahawks and javelins. Stones, large rocks, and nets are never generated with a brand, though branded large rocks may occasionally be found in ammo shops. (Exception: one of the Dungeon Sprint maps offers a large rock of returning. Naturally, it's being used against you.).
Needles
Needles have their own brand selection; most often poisoned, but they can instead bear one of the following unique brands:
Needle brands
All needle types except "poisoned" were introduced in version 0.6. There's a saving throw for monsters: if 1 + 1d(4 + your throwing skill + your blowgun’s enchantment) is greater than the monster’s hit dice, the effect will be applied. You also have a straight 2% chance of succeeding for monsters with a hit dice of 14 or below.
Some statistics: with no skill you’re still at 100% to succeed on HD1 or HD2 (gnoll, D1 monsters), 75% on HD3 (Sigmund), 50% on HD4 (Duvessa), and 25% on HD5 (ogre). With 4 skill as an early Assassin, you’re up to 56% on an Ogre, or 33% on a Yak.
Notes
As of 0.10 all Polearms have Reaching.
| Brands | |
|---|---|
| Melee weapons | Antimagic • Chaos • Distortion • Draining • Electrocution • Flaming • Freezing • Heavy • Holy wrath • Pain • Protection • Reaching • Spectral • Speed • Vampiric • Venom Disruption • Dragon slaying • Reaping • Silver |
| Launchers | Antimagic • Draining • Electrocution • Flaming • Freezing • Heavy • Penetration • Speed |
| Throwing weapons | Atropa • Curare • Datura • Dispersal • Poisoned • Silver |
