Spell staff

A spell staff (plural spell staves) is a type of item that appears in some NetHack variants. The spell staves are a set of magical items that are all two-handed weapons using the quarterstaff skill: each spell staff corresponds to a different school of spellcasting, and a hero wielding a spell staff will be given a significant bonus to casting spells in that spell school—this makes it possible for some roles and character builds to gain more access to casting that they may have lacked previously.

Description

Spell staves are present in SporkHack, EvilHack and Hack'EM. The implementation of spell staves as items vary widely depending on the variant, though all of them notably tend to exclude a spell staff for enchantment spells.

SporkHack

In SporkHack, there are six types of spell staff:

• staff of divination, for divination spells
• staff of healing, for healing spells
• staff of holiness, for clerical spells
• staff of matter, for matter spells
• staff of escape, for escape spells
• staff of battle, for attack spells

All spell staves are made of wood, and they each appear as a "staff" when unidentified (as does the regular quarterstaff). They have the same damage dice and weight of 40 aum as the quarterstaff, and each share a base cost of 400zm.

Each type of spell staff makes up ¹⁄₂₀₀ (0.5%) of all weapons randomly generated on the ground, in general shops or as death drops. Used armor dealerships and antique weapons outlets can also stock spell staves.

A hero wielding a spell staff gains a 50% boost to the success rates of any spells they cast that match the staff's spell school—this is a flat bonus applied after all other checks besides the check for metallic body armor. For details specific to each staff, see the respective articles linked above.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, there are seven types of spell staff. In contrast to SporkHack, each spell staff in EvilHack has a different non-randomized appearance, a set object material and sometimes a different glyph color, all of which are listed below:

• staff of divination () wood, "wormwood staff"), for divination spells
• staff of healing () wood, "twisted staff"), for healing spells
• staff of holiness () bone, "bone-carved staff"), for clerical spells
• staff of matter () adamantine, "etched staff"), for matter spells
• staff of escape () wood, "darkwood staff"), for escape spells
• staff of war () iron, "ironshod staff"), for attack spells
• staff of evocation () wood, "gnarled staff"), for evocation spells

The staff of matter's weight is changed to 30 aum, while the staff of war's weight is changed to 50 aum—all other spell staves weigh 40 aum as they do in SporkHack. The staff of matter also has its base cost increased to 450 zm, while the staff of war is 425 zm, and all other spell staves remain 400zm. The staff of war has a +2 to-hit bonus as well (partly reflecting its focus on offense), while the staff of evocation has a +1 to-hit bonus.

As in SporkHack, each type of spell staff makes up ¹⁄₂₀₀ (0.5%) of all weapons randomly generated on the ground, in general shops or as death drops. Used armor dealerships and antique weapons outlets can also stock spell staves. Additionally, wood golems and iron golems can potentially leave behind spell staves of their respective materials as part of their special death drop in lieu of a corpse.

Heroes in certain roles, usually ones that are designated as "primary spellcasters", have a varying chance of being given a spell staff as a 'mundane' sacrifice gift—those roles are the Druid, the Healer, the Infidel, the Monk, the Priest, and the Wizard.

The Staff of the Archmagi is an artifact ashwood staff that behaves as a sort of "omni-spell staff": it provides a 50% reduction in spellcasting failure rates for all spells cast by the hero wielding it, but it is an intelligent artifact attuned to Wizards, so an artifact blast will occur each time a hero of another role invokes or touches it (though it will not evade their grasp).

Hack'EM

In Hack'EM, there are six types of spell staff, most of which have their non-randomized appearance, set object material and glyph color retained from earlier versions of EvilHack:

• staff of divination () wood, "wormwood staff"), for divination spells
• staff of healing () wood, "twisted staff"), for healing spells
• staff of necromancy () bone, "bone-carved staff"), for necromancy spells
• staff of matter () mithril, "etched staff"), for matter spells
• staff of escape () wood, "darkwood staff"), for escape spells
• staff of war () iron, "ironshod staff"), for attack spells

These spell staves have slight differences when compared with later versions of EvilHack, i.e. the material for the staff of matter and the absence of the staff of evocation (as evocation spells do not exist in Hack'EM). Additionally, spell schools in Hack'EM are changed to be somewhat based on those of SLASH'EM: in particular, clerical spells are split across the other schools, body spells are moved to escape spells, and the necromancy spell school replaces the clerical spell school, as reflected by the staff of necromancy being introduced to replace the staff of holiness (while retaining both its material and appearance).

Like in EvilHack, each type of spell staff makes up ¹⁄₂₀₀ (0.5%) of all weapons randomly generated on the ground, in general shops or as death drops. Used armor dealerships and antique weapons outlets can also stock spell staves. Additionally, wood golems and iron golems can potentially leave behind spell staves of their respective materials as part of their special death drop in lieu of a corpse.

Upgrading a spell staff successfully will produce another type of spell staff, with each of them paired off accordingly: upgrading a staff of escape will produce a staff of matter and vice versa; upgrading a staff of war will produce a staff of divination and vice versa; and upgrading a staff of healing will produce a staff of necromancy and vice versa.

Hack'EM also uses some of the spell staves as base items for some artifacts:

• The Staff of Rot is a staff of necromancy that deals withering damage actively and passively.
• Firewall is a staff of divination that grants fire resistance while wielded and deals fire damage in melee.
• Circe's Witchstaff is a staff of matter that can turn enemies into pigs.
• The Drowsing Rod is a staff of healing that can put enemies to sleep with its sleeping gas attack.
• Origin is a staff of escape that grants teleport control and spellcasting bonuses.