Wand of striking
| / | |
|---|---|
| Name | striking |
| Appearance | random |
| Base price | 150 zm |
| Weight | 7 |
| Type | beam |
| Maximum charges | 8 |
| Monster use | Will not be used by monsters. |
A wand of striking works exactly like a spell of force bolt; it causes 2d12 damage to any monsters in its path as well as destroying boulders, doors, statues, drawbridges, and other similar items. In addition, it will break fragile items including potions. Therefore, it is to be used with caution.
A wand of striking will normally have no effect on items carried by monsters. However, if the zap kills a monster, it will also strike the items that the monster drops. This makes zapping nymphs dangerous, because they are weak enough to be killed by a single zap, and tend to carry mirrors that give a -2 luck penalty when broken.
Engraving with a wand of striking will give the message that the wand "unsuccessfully fights your attempt to write". You have to know that this message corresponds to the wand of striking, because the game does not auto-identify the wand.
Strategy
- Despite the fact that the spell of magic missile is better in almost all ways, for most levels, the wand of striking is clearly superior to the wand of magic missile. It does not reflect, meaning it cannot be used to try and strike twice with one zap, and it may destroy objects, but for most offensive purposes, a wand of striking is just better.
- If possible, at least one charge of some form of striking or force bolt should be available as one descends to the Castle level. The safest and most convenient way to enter is to just blast the drawbridge to bits. For classes restricted in the attack spell, lacking the spellbook, or those simply avoiding spells with a class not adept with them, this is the way to get striking.
Generation
Wands comprise 4% of all randomly-generated items in the main dungeon, 6% in containers, 5% on the Rogue level, and 8% in Gehennom. There is a 7.5% chance that a randomly-generated wand will be a wand of striking.
