Dagger

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Name	dagger
Appearance	dagger
Damage vs. small	1d4
Damage vs. large	1d3
To-hit bonus	+2
Weapon skill	dagger
Size	one-handed
Base price	4 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	10
Material	iron

Daggers are one of the most popular weapons for any adventurer. They are cheap, plentiful, and do not disappear, unlike arrows, crossbow bolts, and darts.

Types of dagger

The ordinary dagger is the most common type of dagger, but there are others.

Orcish dagger

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Name	orcish dagger
Appearance	crude dagger
Damage vs. small	1d3
Damage vs. large	1d3
To-hit bonus	+2
Weapon skill	orcish dagger
Size	one-handed
Base price	4 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	10
Material	iron

These daggers are generated in the inventories of some orcs (including your starting inventory, if you are an orc and your class starts with daggers). They are easy to identify ("crude dagger") and their description is accurate: they are less effective all round, doing d3 damage against small monsters rather than d4.

Being made of iron, they are susceptible to rust and corrosion, like ordinary daggers.

Elven dagger

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Name	elven dagger
Appearance	runed dagger
Damage vs. small	1d5
Damage vs. large	1d3
To-hit bonus	+2
Weapon skill	elven dagger
Size	one-handed
Base price	4 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	10
Material	wood

These daggers are generated in the inventories of some orcs (including your starting inventory, if you are an orc and your class starts with daggers). They are superior to ordinary daggers against small monsters (d5 vs d3 damage). More importantly, they are made of wood, so they are immune to corrosion and rusting. This is important when fighting acidic monsters, rust monsters, or doing anything that involves going into the water.

Naming an elven dagger "Sting" turns it into the artifact, Sting.

Silver dagger

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Name	silver dagger
Appearance	silver dagger
Damage vs. small	1d4+(1d20)
Damage vs. large	1d3+(1d20)
To-hit bonus	+2
Weapon skill	silver dagger
Size	one-handed
Base price	40 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	12
Material	silver

These daggers are exceptionally rare. They are equivalent to ordinary daggers in terms of accuracy and damage, but when used against silver-hating creatures (e.g. most undead), an extra 1d20 damage is dealt! If you even manage to find or wish for enough to make a large stack, and enchant it highly, these are amongst the deadliest weapons in the game.

Additionally, silver is immune to all forms of erosion.

Strategy

Mastering the use of daggers is vital. Killing monsters at a distance means they won't even get a chance to hit you, and even if they survive a ranged volley, you will have softened them up. All classes except Monks and Priests can attain at least basic in dagger skill, and should.

See also

• Athame, a non-dagger which uses the dagger skill.
• Grimtooth, an artifact orcish dagger.

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