Staff of Olgreb

Version 0.31: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

A staff which was once wielded by the great alchemist Olgreb.

the +9 staff of Olgreb

+9 staff

Enhances Alchemy
Provides immunity to poison
May deal poison damage and poison in melee; damage partially pierces resistance
Provides an ability to cast Olgreb's Toxic Radiance

Mechanics

When striking an enemy, the staff of Olgreb has a chance to deal resistance-piecing poison damage, based on Evocations (but not Alchemy):

Activation Rate: Evocations × 10%
Extra Damage: 1d(Evocations × 1.875) - 1
30% of this damage is irresistible.
Target also receives the poison status - this ignores poison resistance

You can also use an ability to cast Olgreb's Toxic Radiance:

OTR Success Rate: 100%
Spell Power: (1 + Evocations) × 5
Cost: 4 MP

Desirability

If you plan on using lots of Alchemy magic, the staff of Olgreb is an excellent find. Not only does it enhance these spells, but the melee damage can be decent if you train some Staves and Evocations.

For those who never plan on using Alchemy, this staff can still be quite useful:

• It can evoke Olgreb's Toxic Radiance, even with 0 skill training. OTR is a devastatingly strong AOE spell in the early-game (Dungeon, Lair, Orc, and Spider's Nest). While the staff takes up the weapon slot, you can always swap it in or out.
• It is one of the few sources of poison immunity. In addition to all the benefits of rPois, it prevents the paralytic poison of hornets and jorogumo 100% of the time. When tackling Spider or Snake, some form of poison resistance/immunity is nice to have.

The staff will occasionally spawn in a special vault full of assorted poisonous enemies (bees, spiders, and snakes). This can be an excellent find early on, though attempting to reach the staff at the end without already having a source of poison resistance can be risky. Frozen Ramparts is quite effective here, since it ignores the high evasion such creatures tend to share, nothing in the vault resists cold (and it will slow the cold-blooded snakes), and the tight quarters will force multiple enemies to take damage each turn.

History

• Prior to 0.31, the staff boosted Poison Magic instead of Alchemy.
• Prior to 0.28, the staff had a fail check for evoking Olgreb's Toxic Radiance (but only 5 Evocations skill was required to get 100% success rate). Also, OTR could be activated from the v menu, instead of being an ability.
• Prior to 0.25, the staff of Olgreb had a chance to cast Venom Bolt as well as Olgreb's Toxic Radiance when evoked, and only had a resistance-piercing chance to inflict poison instead of dealing additional poison damage.
• Prior to 0.19, its enchantment level was based on your skill with Poison Magic (Poison Magic/3).
• Prior to 0.14, it only granted poison resistance instead of complete immunity.