Dark maul

Version 0.33: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

A large, iron-shod maul specialised for dealing massively powerful blows. Such power comes at a price: the maul's head is so heavy it takes a great length of time to lift it up for another swing. “This caliber should be appropriate.” -prince Dajmiech, “Kajko and Kokosz: The Battle with Dajmiech”, Janusz Christa

the +10 dark maul

+10 maul (modified great mace: 37 base damage, -2 base accuracy, 24 base delay)
Heavy brand

Desirability

A single swing from the dark maul will crush through virtually any monster's armour for ultra-heavy damage, but even at maximum Maces & Flails skill, it will still take you 15 or 16 auts to attack - over 2x the mindelay of the slowest normal weapons. In practice, every swing (at max skill) gives a 57.5% to pass your next turn. On the plus side, it has over 2.5x the base damage of giant clubs, which most characters can't use.

Is this trade-off actually worth it? High M&F skill is nearly essential. It reduces the attack delay to a tolerable level, and it also helps with accuracy. Each miss is much more punishing than a standard weapon; even with a +10 enchantment, you may miss often enough that it's a problem. Compared to a well-enchanted great mace, the dark maul checks AC much less, but always risks an enemy double turn, and procs fewer auxiliary attacks. Basically, the maul is not a weapon to suddenly switch to Maces & Flails for - have high skill to make full use of the maul, and watch out for the delay.

It’s important to know when to use the maul and when to put it away for something faster. Try to avoid using the dark maul in open areas or when facing multiple opponents at once, because the high delay makes it impossible to respond quickly to unexpected damage spikes or new enemies entering line of sight.

Okawaru is a great god for the dark maul. Finesse can halve the delay of any weapon, making the maul a lot less risky to use, and Heroism helps boost skill levels. Manifold Assault can make the delay much more manageable, as you're swinging from a distance, striking with perfect accuracy, and potentially pasting multiple targets per swing.

History

• Prior to 0.30, the dark maul had the vorpal brand, 52 base damage, and 30 base delay. It was changed to accommodate the heavy brand.
• Prior to 0.16, the dark maul had only 44 base damage and a meager +6 enchantment level.
• The dark maul was added in 0.14.