Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.angband (
More info?)
Paul & Victoria Heisner wrote:
> Greetings All,
>
> Just IDed a weapon @ lvl 7:
>
> Whip of Venom (1d3) (+4,+6) (a)
>
> um...what all does it do? What is the "(a)" for?
> This is how it IDed on screen.
It's a melee weapon. It does damage. Since it's "of venom", it actually
acts like it's (3d3) (+4,+6) versus non-poison-resistant monsters.
The "(a)" is the inventory slot or equipment slot where it was when you
id'd it. It looks like it must have pseudo'd as excellent, been wielded,
and then was id'd, since it's unlikely to have gotten inventory slot a
-- there's normally some scrolls and other consumables in one's
inventory that always get sorted above weapons.
> Oh, yeah, was using a dagger (+2,+7) for multiple attacks, is this a
> better weapon for that?
Depends how many attacks you get with it. Against monsters that don't
resist poison it's 3d3 + 6 or around 12 average damage per blow. The
dagger was 9 and a half, or barely more than 3/4 that. But if the foe
resists poison, the dagger still does 9 and a half and the whip only 8
on average.
Upshot: you might be better off selling the whip. Enchanting the dagger
and whip to +0 you'd get 11 and a half from the dagger against all foes,
but only 11 from the whip against some foes (though 15 for some). If you
get more blows with the whip keep it. If you value a handful more damage
against some foes keep it. If you value lots of gold, sell it.
> Also, I found a small sword of Slay Dragon,
> and a hammer of Slay Undead....at what lvl will these start being of
> use? I want to keep them at my house until needed to save space.
Probably never. I'd sell such items at this point. By the time slay
undead and slay dragon are really significant, you want a weapon with
big dice like an executioner's sword (4d5) or even a blade of chaos
(6d5), and weapons like that will be starting to crop up. More likely
you'll be using an artifact weapon, and may be choosing these partly on
the basis of slays.
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