Dodging

Version 0.13: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

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

Number crunching

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

 (7 + Dodging × ev_Dex) / (20 - size)

"Size" is a factor of your species's body size, which varies from 4 (tiny, such as a Spriggan); to -8 (huge, such as being in Dragon Form). See Evasion for more details.

ev_Dex is a stepped down value of your Dex. If Dex is greater than 24, it is reduced according to this formula: ev_Dex = 14 + 10 * log2(1 + (dex - 14)/10). (Condensed: ev_Dex = Dex < 24 ? Dex : 14 + 10 * log2(1 + (dex - 14)/10) )

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

(body_armour_encumbrance_rating*size_factor - 3)×10/STR

This penalty cannot be negative, so it is not applied when wearing robes or animal skins. Size_factor is 0.75 for large species: Troll, Ogre, Centaur, and Naga; 1 for normal species; 1.25 for small species: Kobold and Halfling; and 1.5 for tiny species: Spriggan (Felids can't wear armour).

For a normal-sized character, the amount of dodging required to start increasing his evasion is:

(body_armour_encumbrance_rating-3)×200/(Str*ev_Dex) - 7/ev_Dex

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

Tricks and tips

Adventurers should train first and foremost in order to deliver damage. Since Dodging does not help you in killing your opponents faster and offers slight returns at first, it is 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 aptitudes

From Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup 0.13 in-game documentation:

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

The average dodging aptitude of all species, excluding coloured draconian, is -0.038.

See also

• Evasion

History

Prior to 0.6, characters could only train Dodging when wearing light armour and would train Armour only when wearing heavy armour.