Dark maul

Version 0.29: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

A large, iron-shod maul specialised for dealing massively powerful blows. Such power comes at a price: the maul's head is so heavy it takes a great length of time to lift it up for another swing. “This caliber should be appropriate.” -prince Dajmiech, “Kajko and Kokosz: The Battle with Dajmiech”, Janusz Christa

the +10 dark maul

+10 maul (modified great mace: 52 base damage, -2 base accuracy, 30 base delay)
Vorpal brand

Desirability

A single swing from the dark maul will crush through virtually any monster's armour for heavy damage, but even at maximum Maces & Flails skill, it will still take you 16 or 17 auts to attack - 2.5x the mindelay of the slowest normal weapons. Every swing will practically leave you paralysed for 1-2 turns. On the plus side, it also has 2.5x the base damage of even giant clubs, which most characters can't use.

Is this trade-off actually worth it? High M&F skill is practically essential. It'll reduce the attack delay to a tolerable level, but accuracy is also an issue - each miss is much more punishing than with most weapons, and even with +10 enchantment you may miss often enough that it’s a problem. Compared to a well-enchanted demon whip, the dark maul scales better with skill or strength and checks AC much less, but it takes the offhand slot and always risks an enemy double turn. Basically, the maul is not a weapon to switch focus to - have high strength and skill to make full use of the maul, and watch out for the delay.

It’s also important to know when to use the maul and when to put it away for something faster. Try to avoid using the dark maul in open areas or when facing multiple opponents at once, because the high delay makes it impossible to respond quickly to unexpected damage spikes or new enemies entering line of sight.

Okawaru is a great god for the dark maul. Finesse can halve the delay of any weapon, making the maul a lot less risky to use, and Heroism helps boost skill levels. Manifold Assault can make the delay much more managable, as you're swinging from a distance.

History

• Prior to 0.16, the dark maul had only 44 base damage and a meager +6 enchantment level.
• The dark maul was added in 0.14.