Melee weapon
Melee weapons refer to any weapons which are only capable of attacking opponents adjacent to you (with the exception of polearms; see below). While they lack the obvious range advantage of ranged weapons, they do not require ammunition, and they tend to be more powerful overall. Melee weapons are divided into several categories, each of which has its own associated skill and its own particular advantages.
Contents
Weapon attributes
The following is a table of all melee weapons in Crawl. Below is a short explanation of each field:
Name | The name of the item as it appears in Crawl. |
---|---|
Damage | The base amount of damage the weapon does, before various bonuses and adjustments. |
Hit | To hit modifier for the weapon, before any other adjustments. |
Speed | This is actually the attack delay, which is multiplied by 10 to get the "percentages" you see in-game. (That is, attack delay 10 shows as 100%.) Every 2 levels of weapon skill lowers the delay by 1 unit. A weapon's minimum delay is half of its base delay (rounded down) or 7 (5 for rapiers; 10 for hand crossbows, arbalests, and triple crossbows), whichever is lower. Speed brand and haste reduce the delay by one third (round randomly up or down). These effects stack, after the base cap, but there's an absolute cap of 2 for attack delay. |
One-handed min. size | Minimum size required to be able to use the weapon with one hand. The order is little, small, medium, large, big. |
Two-handed min. size | Minimum size required to be able to use the weapon with two hands. When the player's size is equal or greater than 'Two-handed min. size', but less than 'One-handed min. size', the weapon cannot be used with a shield. |
Dam Type | What category of damage does the weapon deal? |
Prob | A larger number indicates higher probability of acquiring through scrolls of acquirement. |
Short Blades
Attacks with short blades[1] tend to deal less damage than larger weapons do, but are significantly faster. They also deal very high damage when used to make stab attacks.
Name | Dmg | Hit | Speed | One-handed min. size | Two-handed min. size | Dam Type | Prob | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dagger | 4 | +6 | 10 | Little | Little | Piercing | 10 | |
Quick blade | 5 | +6 | 7 | Little | Little | Piercing | 2 | Cannot receive speed brand |
Short sword | 6 | +4 | 11 | Little | Little | Piercing | 10 | |
Rapier | 8 | +4 | 12 | Little | Little | Piercing | 10 | Min delay is 5 |
Long Blades
Long blades[2] can riposte on successfully evading a blow. They deal moderate damage when used to make stab attacks and cross train with short blades. Their skill cost is lower than that of polearms and axes, but higher than maces and staves.
Name | Dam | Hit | Speed | One-handed min. size | Two-hande min. size | Dam Type | Prob | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Falchion | 7 | +2 | 13 | Little | Little | Slicing | 10 | |
Long sword | 9 | +1 | 14 | Little | Little | Slicing | 10 | |
Scimitar | 11 | 0 | 14 | Little | Little | Slicing | 10 | |
Demon blade | 12 | -1 | 13 | Little | Little | Slicing | 2 | |
Eudemon blade | 13 | -2 | 12 | Little | Little | Slicing | - | A demon blade blessed by The Shining One |
Double sword | 14 | -1 | 15 | Medium | Little | Slicing | 2 | |
Great sword | 15 | -3 | 17 | - | Medium | Slicing | 10 | |
Triple sword | 17 | -4 | 19 | - | Medium | Slicing | 2 |
Axes
Axes[3] are unique among weapons in that they can perform cleaving attacks, striking multiple foes in a single strike.
Name | Dam | Hit | Speed | One-handed min. size | Two-handed min. size | Dam Type | Prob | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hand axe | 7 | +3 | 13 | Little | Little | Chopping | 10 | |
War axe | 11 | 0 | 15 | Little | Little | Chopping | 10 | |
Broad axe | 13 | -2 | 16 | Medium | Little | Chopping | 10 | |
Battleaxe | 15 | -4 | 17 | - | Medium | Chopping | 10 | |
Executioner's axe | 18 | -6 | 20 | - | Medium | Chopping | 2 |
Maces & Flails
Maces & flails[4] have no particular unique traits, but have significantly lower skill costs. Married to the fact that the most powerful weapons are pretty common in the dungeon, they're a popular choice both for one handed and two handed combat. Ogres and trolls have access to giant clubs and giant spiked clubs, the two most powerful weapon types in the game. However, these are generally not recommended for either race.
Name | Dam | Hit | Speed | One-handed min. size | Two-handed min. size | Dam Type | Prob | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Whip | 6 | +2 | 11 | Little | Little | Slashing | 0 | |
Club | 5 | +3 | 13 | Little | Little | Crushing | 0 | |
Mace | 8 | +3 | 14 | Little | Little | Crushing | 10 | |
Flail | 10 | 0 | 14 | Little | Little | Crushing | 10 | |
Morningstar | 13 | -2 | 15 | Little | Little | Crushing (Piercing) | 10 | |
Demon whip | 11 | +1 | 11 | Little | Little | Slashing | 2 | |
Sacred scourge | 12 | 0 | 11 | Little | Little | Slashing | - | A blessed demon whip |
Dire flail | 13 | -3 | 13 | - | Medium | Crushing (Piercing) | 10 | |
Eveningstar | 15 | -1 | 15 | Little | Little | Crushing (Piercing) | 2 | |
Great mace | 17 | -4 | 17 | - | Medium | Crushing | 10 | |
Giant club | 20 | -6 | 16 | - | Large | Crushing | 10 | |
Giant spiked club | 22 | -7 | 18 | - | Large | Crushing (Piercing) | 10 |
Polearms
Polearms[5] are unique among melee weapons in that they can make reaching attacks, striking foes up to two tiles away.
Name | Dam | Hit | Speed | One-handed min. size | Two-handed min. size | Dam Type | Prob | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Spear | 6 | +4 | 11 | Little | Little | Piercing | 10 | |
Trident | 9 | +1 | 13 | Medium | Little | Piercing | 10 | |
Halberd | 13 | -3 | 15 | - | Medium | Chopping (Piercing) | 10 | |
Scythe | 14 | -4 | 20 | - | Medium | Slicing | 10 | |
Demon trident | 12 | +1 | 13 | Medium | Little | Piercing | 2 | |
Trishula | 13 | 0 | 13 | Medium | Little | Piercing | - | A blessed demon trident |
Glaive | 15 | -3 | 17 | - | Medium | Chopping | 10 | |
Bardiche | 18 | -6 | 20 | - | Medium | Chopping | 2 |
Staves
The Staves[6] skill is used both to fight with physical combat staves (quarterstaves and lajatangs) and magical staves. Physical combat staves are powerful two-handed weapons that require surprisingly little skill to use effectively, but unlike other weapon classes, there is no ultra-powerful, high-skill option available.
Note that magical staves fight like +0 staves, though some offer extra damage or other effects.
Name | Dam | Hit | Speed | One-handed min. size | Two-handed min. size | Dam Type | Prob | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Staff | 5 | +5 | 12 | Medium | Little | Crushing | - | Not available in game. Used only as a base type for magical staves. |
Quarterstaff | 10 | +3 | 13 | - | Little | Crushing | 10 | |
Lajatang | 16 | -3 | 14 | - | Little | Slicing | 2 |
Magical Staves
Magical staves are magical devices which are wielded like one-handed weapons. While a spellcaster wields one, it grants a variety of useful benefits, such as enhancing the spellpower of certain schools of magic or negating the hunger costs associated with powerful spells. Although normally very weak when used as melee weapons (they use the staff as a template for their stats), some magical staves inflict additional elemental effects when used by a skilled practitioner. See the magical staff page for more details.
Retired Weapons
Over the years, several weapons have been removed from the Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup arsenal, either due to redundancy with existing weapons or simply due to flavor issues.
- Knife
- Sabre
- Cutlass
- Katana
- Bastard sword
- Claymore
- Ankus
- Spiked flail
- Staff
- Hammer
- The blessed versions of several long blades.
- Rods
History
- Prior to 0.19 or perhaps 0.15, dire flails and great maces were one-handed weapons for trolls and ogres.
- Prior to 0.18, each weapon had a strength weight percentage that determined how the weapon would benefit from your strength and dexterity.
References
- ↑ item-prop.cc:447 (0.23.0)
- ↑ item-prop.cc:481 (0.23.0)
- ↑ item-prop.cc:527 (0.23.0)
- ↑ item-prop.cc:361 (0.23.0)
- ↑ item-prop.cc:544 (0.23.0)
- ↑ item-prop.cc:580 (0.23.0)