Devastator

Version 0.23: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

A wooden cudgel, loaded with more than just lead.

the +6 shillelagh "Devastator"

+6 shillelagh (modified club; 8 base damage)
Causes an explosion (similar to an exploding tomahawk) when damage is dealt

Desirability

Devastator is basically a well-enchanted club with upgraded base stats and unavoidable splash damage to everything adjacent to your target when used in melee.

Despite everything constantly blowing up in your face, it actually does very little backlash damage even if you have 0 AC. It's especially useful for quickly clearing out swarms of fragile enemies like bats or killer bees, but it deals with single enemies in the early- and mid-game just fine. Devastator's explosions are very loud, though, so expect to deal with swarms of enemies considerably more often.

Devastator's explosion damage will not affect monsters that are insubstantial, invisible to you, or submerged.

History

Prior to 0.15, Devastator had a +4, +8 enchantment level.

Devastator was added in 0.10.