Dodging

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

The Dodging skill will affect your chance of dodging an attack, be it melee, ranged or magical. Certain types of attack cannot be dodged, however, such as enchantments (which must be resisted) and explosions.

The Dodging skill determines how well your character can avoid blows, beams and missiles fired by monsters.

Aptitudes

At	Ba	Co	DE	Dg	Ds	Dj	Dr	Fe	Fo	Gr	Gh	Gn	Hu	Ko	Mf	Mi	MD	Mu	Na	Op	On	Sp	Te	Tr	Vp	VS
-3	1	-1	2	-1	-1	1	-1	3	-1	-2	-1	8	0	2	3	1	-3	-2	-2	0	-1	3	1	-2	1	-2

Number crunching

In addition to base EV, (10 + Size), Dodging skill provides an EV bonus calculated as follows:

 (8 + Dodging × Dex × 0.8) / (20 - size)

• Size is a factor of your species's body size. Humans are 0, Spriggans are +4, Dragon Form is -8. See Evasion for more details.

The Dodging bonus is penalized by wearing heavy armour. The penalty from armour is:

armor_penalty = unadjusted_armor_encumberance - 3
if armor_penalty < 0:
    modifier = 1
if armor_penalty > 0:
    if armor_penalty >= Str:
        modifier = Str / (armor_penalty * 2)
    if armor_penalty < Str:
        modifier = 1 - armor_penalty / (Str * 2)
final_dodge_bonus = dodge_bonus * modifier

This means that if your strength is less than the encumbrance value of the armor you're using, you will be facing pretty steep dodging penalties... but you'll always be able to gain SOME benefit from increasing your Dodging skill, because the penalties are a percent of the total. And, once Str > Encumbrance - 3, doubling your strength will reduce those penalties by half.

If you are paralysed, your Dodging skill is completely ineffective. The only thing that contributes to EV in this case is the repulsion field mutation.

Strategy

The usual advice in Crawl is to "train your killing skills first, then train your defenses". An extra turn of dodging won't help if you have to use a consumable for every other fight. It's perfectly reasonable to turn Dodging off at the start, then turn it back on later on when you feel skilled enough at killing stuff.

Dodging is more effective when you have higher dexterity and you are wearing lighter armour. Still, even a brute in crystal plate armour can train a few levels of Dodging, since it's so cheap.

See also

• Evasion

History

• Prior to 0.27, there was a stepdown on dexterity: if dex >= 24, adj_dex = 14 + 10 * log2(1 + (dex - 14)/10). This reduced the impact of dexterity at high DEX values. Also, there was a separate stepdown if EV >= 30, documented in Evasion.
• Prior to 0.6, characters could only train Dodging when wearing light armour and would train Armour only when wearing heavy armour.