Auxiliary attack

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

Auxiliary attacks (aux attacks) are additional attacks that you can perform in melee combat.

Useful Info

Whenever you make a melee attack, you have a chance to perform an auxiliary attack, taking no time in the process. If your character has multiple valid attacks, each has a separate chance to trigger.

Aux attacks have a base damage dependent on the aux attack and its relevant mutations; e.g. higher levels of Talons increases kick damage. They are affected by strength, slaying and the Might effect as normal. They do not scale with weapon damage (though swinging faster means you perform aux attacks more often). Other than the "offhand punch" or equivalent, Unarmed Combat skill has no influence on them.

Reaching weapons don't make aux attacks when attacking from a distance. When cleaving, you only make aux attacks on the main target. Gyre and Gimble only make 1 round of auxiliary attacks per action (despite "swinging" twice).

Chance to Trigger

In order to make an auxiliary attack, you must succeed 2 separate chances at the same time:

1. A chance based on XL; specifically, the chance that 31 + XL > 1d60. This is equal to to 51.6% at XL 1, and 95% at XL 27. A few attacks ignore this check:

• Constriction completely ignores this check.
• The off-hand punch replaces it with chance = (3 + UC_skill) / 60 . That's 5% at 0 skill, and 50% at 27 skill.

2. A % chance based on the auxiliary attack itself. For example, Bite has a 40% chance to pass only if the XL-based check above succeeds. See below for a list of attacks and their chances of success.

In addition, the body part related to the attack must be free. You must have your offhand free (no shield or two-handed weapon) to make an offhand punch, you cannot be wearing boots to kick with Talons, and so on.

List of Auxiliary Attacks

Condition	Damage	Chance	Special
Offhand Punch	5 + UC/2	100%	Wielding a shield / two-handed weapon negates this.
Offhand Punch w/ Claws	{Punch} +1d3 × (Claws ranks)	100%	Negated by Blade Hands or by wearing gloves
Offhand Punch w/ Blade Hands	{Punch} +6	100%	Negates claws
Headbutt	5 + 3 × (Horns ranks)	66%	Minotaurs occasionally counter enemy attacks that miss with this.
Peck	6	66%	-
Kick w/ Hooves	5 + (5/3) × (Hooves ranks)	100%
Kick w/ Talons	6 + (Talons ranks)	100%	Wearing boots negates this
Tail Slap	6	50%	Grey draconians in deep water can push back their enemies
Tail Slap w/ Stinger	(Stinger ranks) - 1	50%	Venom
Bite w/ Fangs	2 × (Fangs ranks) +1	40%	Bloodless vampires have a vampiric bite
Bite w/ Acidic Bite	{Bite} + 2d4 acid splash	40%	Corrosion
Bite w/ Antimagic Bite	{Bite} + XL/3	100%	Antimagic, Vine Stalker only
Pseudopods	4 × (Pseudopods rank)	66%	-
Tentacle spike	5 + (Tentacle Spike rank)	100%	-
Tentacle Slap	5 + UC/2	100%	Octopodes' equivalent to the offhand punch Can be done even if offhand is occupied
Tentacles (squeeze)	12	66%	-
Constriction	0	100%	Constriction

History

• Prior to 0.28, aux attacks other than the offhand punch required an initial pass of 1 + str + dex > 1d50, and the offhand punch required to pass all three of UC >= 1d20, 2 >= 1dAdjusted Body Armour Penalty, and a 33% chance. Octopodes also had an extra chance to do an offhand tentacle slap. Also, Bite had an extra +1 damage for every 5 STR beyond 10.
• Prior to 0.17, headbutts had a chance to stun, hooves partially bypassed AC, and claws caused bleeding.
• In earlier versions of Crawl, all auxiliary attacks were more effective if you had a high Unarmed Combat skill, making it a valuable skill for any character designed for melee combat.