Staff of Olgreb

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Version 0.25: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.
Type Magical staves
Name staff of Olgreb
Icon Staff of olgreb.png
A staff which was once wielded by the mighty wizard Olgreb. It increases the power of its wielder's poison magic, grants immunity to poison, and can be evoked to activate its own venomous spells with strength depending on Evocations skill. If the wielder is skilled in Evocations, they can inflict poison damage on those struck by it, even piercing through poison resistance.

The +9 staff of Olgreb is an artefact magical staff which aids in the casting of Poison Magic, much like a staff of poison does. Any poison spell cast while wielding the staff of Olgreb will gain a boost to spell power, usually causing it to deal more damage and/or last longer (the specific impact of this, if any, depends on the spell).

Additionally, the wielder is rendered immune to poisons while holding the staff. This is one of the few ways one can obtain poison immunity, besides casting Necromutation or starting as an undead or Gargoyle.

The staff can be used in melee combat, functioning as a +9 staff. You can improve your combat performance with this weapon by training Fighting and Staves. It has a chance to deal resistance-piercing poison damage based on Evocations:

Activation Rate: Evocations × 10%
Extra Damage: 1d(Evocations × 1.875} - 1
30% of this damage is irresistible.
The target will be poisoned. This effect ignores poison resistance.

You can also evoke it to cast Olgreb's Toxic Radiance.

OTR Success Rate: (1 + Evocations) × 16.6% (100% at 5 Evocations)
Spell Power: (1 + Evocations) × 5
Cost: 4 MP, 50 food

Desirability

If you plan on using lots of Poison Magic, this is an excellent item to find. Not only will it enhance your poisonous spells, the extra damage and high chance to poison can come in handy for fighting some of the nastier poison-resistant enemies. It's far superior to a plain staff of poison.

Even if you don't want to use poison magic much, you may still wish to train a little Evocations to take advantage of the evocable ability. While ineffective against anything poison-resistant, it is be extremely useful against large groups of enemies, especially swarms of insects or spiders. Additionally, the poison immunity granted by the staff can be extremely helpful in surviving places like the Spider's Nest or Snake Pit.

The staff will occasionally spawn in a special vault full of assorted poisonous enemies (ants, bees, 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.

History

  • Prior to 0.25, the Staff of Olgreb had a chance to cast Venom Bolt as well as OTR when evoked, and only had a resistance-piercing chance to poison.
  • 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.