Athame

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Name	athame
Appearance	athame
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

Athames are almost completely identical to daggers, even using the dagger weapon skill. However, athames are exceptionally suited for engraving with. Any non-cursed athame will not dull from engraving, and will engrave at up to 19 letters per turn rather than 1 letter per turn (or 9 letters instantaneously). (Although any athame that has an enchantment of -3 or lower is too dull to engrave with, regardless of blessed/uncursed/cursed status.) They are useful for writing messages and, if your version has it compiled in, engraving "Elbereth."

You should formally identify your athame's BUC status as soon as possible so that the game will show when it gets cursed, e.g. by a spellcasting monster.

Beware: an athame found in bones or dropped by a lich might be cursed. If it is, attempting to engrave Elbereth in a dangerous situation will immobilize you for a few turns and probably kill you. If you can't spare identify to check, you could dip it in a potion of holy water to make sure it's at least uncursed, or try engraving a single letter with it--if you get "Your athame gets dull. You finish engraving.", be sure to uncurse it before you use it any more!

Athames are rarer than daggers, as they are never randomly generated. However, the first gift that a wizard receives from his/her god is always Magicbane, a co-aligned artifact athame. Master liches and arch liches have a chance of being generated with an athame. For master liches, the chance is 6/91 (about 6.6%); for arch liches it is 2/9 (about 22.2%). In addition, there's a 1/260 chance of an arch-lich-dropped athame being the Magicbane. Newt, prisoner in the wizard quest end, often carries one. Finally, prior to 3.3.0, wizards started out with athames.

See also

• Magicbane, the artifact athame
• Engraving Elbereth and its effects
• Daggers