Rapier

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Name	Rapier
Skill	Short Blades
Damage	8
Accuracy	+4
Base delay (%)	12 (120%)
Min delay	5 at skill 14
Hands	1H
Size	Medium
Ranged?	No

A slender, sharply pointed sword, with an uncommonly elegant design.

The rapier is the short blade with the highest base damage. It is a desirable choice for stabbing and actual melee combat, at least if you have some skill with Short Blades.

Strategy

Rapiers are fairly uncommon, but some early- and mid-game monsters wield them (such as the unique summoner Eustachio, the deadly scientist Nikola, and the deep elves of the Elven Halls). Coupled with a flat-damage brand such as electrocution, pain, or distortion, a rapier can be a devastating weapon.

A quick blade is usually stronger, especially when stacked with flat-damage bonuses (like slaying, auxiliary attacks, and flat damage bonuses like elec or distortion). However, quick blades are much rarer to find.

Note that rapiers are special-cased to have a minimum delay of 5, even though all other weapons with a base delay of 12 have a min delay of 6.

	Common
Mundane
Magical
Artifact
	Unrandart
Captain's cutlass
Arc blade

History

• Prior to 0.19, rapiers had a base damage of 7.
• Rapiers were added in 0.16, replacing cutlasses.