Equipment

You can wear and wield what you carry:

• a helm on your head and an amulet around your neck;
• armor on your body and a cloak over it;
• a weapon in your main hand, and a shield or a light weapon in your off hand;
• gloves, a ring on each hand, and boots (an aristocrat wears three more rings besides);
• a missile weapon with its missiles ready;
• a tool.

What you wield and wear decides how you fight (see Combat). The weapon in your hand does its damage, a bow shoots, body armour and a shield add to your Defence, and a quarterstaff parries. Nothing you wear slows you down by itself, though a great sword or an axe swings more slowly than a dagger. Magic items work while you wear or wield them (see Magic items). Putting things on and taking them off takes time, and what you wear still counts toward your weight.

The equipment screen

Press i. The screen lists every slot with its letter and what is in it, or — when it is empty. An aristocrat alone has three more ring slots, Extra ring 1 to 3, right after the right ring, so their later slots have later letters (their Tool slot is p). A ring worn there works just as one on either hand. Below the slots it shows what you carry and what it weighs, as the inventory does:

“What goes there” lists every object in the game that fits the slot. The last column is how long it takes to put one on there, or take it off, at a normal pace.

• Press a slot’s letter, or move the > with the arrow keys and press Enter, to choose what goes there. On this screen every letter names a slot, even e, i, k, l, and m.
• Press a slot’s letter in upper case (A to M, an aristocrat’s to P) to look at what is in it (see Magic items).
• The next screen lists what you carry that fits the slot (see Lists of objects). Press its letter, or Enter on the > row, to put it on.
• If the slot already holds something, it is taken off first: the two swap places. Choose what is already in the slot (the > starts on it) to take it off.
• Esc goes back to the equipment screen, and Esc there back to the game.

What you choose happens at once, and the equipment screen stays open to show what changed, so you can carry on dressing. Each change takes its time, and the game goes on around you while you do it: creatures act in the meantime, just as when you wait. Only looking at the screens takes no time.

Numbers

Every list of things you carry or could pick up shows, after each item’s name, what it gives. That includes the inventory, the equipment screen and its choices, and the lists for picking up, dropping, selling, and throwing. Looking at a pile shows it too.

• Weapons show their to-hit and damage: “a long sword (+0 hit, 1d9)”. The to-hit is added to your 2d12 attack roll, and the damage is rolled on every hit. Both come before what your Strength, weapon skill, fighting style, and stance add. The character screen shows your attacks with all of that counted. Extra dice and elemental damage follow: “(+0 hit, 1d8+1d4 +1d6 fire)”. Missile weapons and throwing weapons also show their range in cells: “a short bow (+0 hit, 1d6, range 10)”. A shot does the bow’s damage, not the arrow’s.
• Missiles show what they add to a shot, but only when they add something: “12 flaming arrows (+1d4 fire)”, “12 Glinting arrows (+1 hit)”, “12 Sharp arrows (+2 damage)”.
• Other things you wear that add to every attack, such as an Accurate helm or a Vicious ring, show it once identified: “an Accurate iron helm (+1 hit, Dv +0, Pv 1)”.
• Armour shows the Defence (Dv) and Protection (Pv) it gives, even when both are 0: “a chain mail shirt (Dv +2, Pv 3)”. A shield gives Defence only: “a small shield (Dv +1)”. So does a weapon that parries, “a quarterstaff (+0 hit, 1d6, Dv +1)”, and a ring or amulet of Dodge or Deflection once identified.

The numbers are the item’s own. They come from its base item, what it is made of, and its affixes once it is identified. An unidentified magic item shows only its base item’s numbers, but its magic works all the same (see Magic items).

Defence bonuses of the same kind do not add up. Of your armour pieces, only the best Armour counts; of shields, only the best; and so on (see Combat). Protection does add up. The equipment screen shows your totals under the slots, “Defence (Dv) 14 · Protection (Pv) 4”. These are the same numbers as on the character screen, and they count everything you wear, unidentified magic included.

What fits where

• Rings fit either ring slot. Choosing a ring for the right hand while it is on your left moves it over.
• Light weapons (listed below) fit either hand. One in your off hand beside a weapon in your main hand means fighting with two weapons (see Fighting styles). Nothing else but a shield goes in the off hand.
• Shields fit either hand too. A shield goes to your off hand first. A second one in your main hand means fighting with two shields (see Fighting styles).
• Two-handed weapons, such as the quarterstaff and the great sword, take both hands. The screen shows them in the main hand and the off hand as “(both hands)”. Wielding one puts away whatever your hands held, and putting a shield in your off hand puts a two-handed weapon away.
• Missile weapons and missiles have slots of their own. Each missile weapon shoots one kind of missile: a bow shoots arrows (“shoots arrows” in the table above). You can ready any missiles, matching or not, but only matching ones can be shot (see Ranged combat). The Missile weapon slot also takes any weapon and rocks, and t throws what is readied there.
• Tools go in the Tool slot. A pick-axe or a mattock ready there is what you dig with (u; see Digging and walls). Other tools, such as keys, rope, and candles, do not fit anywhere yet.
• Clothing is everyday dress, such as a tunic, a kirtle, or a robe, and shoes, clogs, or sandals. It goes in the Body and Feet slots, where body armour and boots go. It gives no Defence and no Protection: it is what a new character is dressed in (see Starting kit). It is never magic, and it is no body armour: whatever asks for none, such as the wizard’s Mage armour, still works in a robe.
• Things that are not equipment (potions, food, coins) fit nowhere.

The light weapons are the dagger, the hand axe, the knife, the short sword, and the stiletto.

Barred and opened slots

Some profane gifts change which slots your body has:

• A barred slot cannot be used at all. Horns bar the Head slot, hooves the Feet, and claws the Hands. The equipment screen shows the slot as — (horns). Trying to put something there says why (“Your horns are in the way.”) and takes no time. What you wore there when the gift took falls to the floor at your feet: “Your iron helm no longer fits, and falls to the floor.”
• An opened slot is one that only a class has, now yours too. A sixth finger opens Extra ring 1, the aristocrat’s first extra ring slot, whatever your class. It shows and works just as the aristocrat’s does. If you ever lose the gift, the ring there falls to the floor, unless the slot is your class’s own.

Hands, missile weapons, missiles, and tools are never barred: a body changes, a grip does not.

How long it takes

The balor’s attacks cost 700 each.

The drow blademaster’s attacks cost 600 each.

The marilith’s attacks cost 500 each.

The two-headed troll’s attacks cost 700 each.

Every thing you put on or take off takes its slot’s time from the table:

• A swap takes both: taking off a leather jerkin and strapping on a chain mail shirt takes 36 seconds.
• Wielding a quarterstaff while you hold a sword and a shield takes three times as long as wielding it with empty hands.
• Taking something off takes as long as putting it on.
• Something that does not fit, or an empty slot to take off from, takes no time at all.

Your pack

What you wear and wield stays in your pack, and the inventory marks it: “(being worn)”, “(wielded)”, “(in off hand)”, “(on left hand)”, “(on right hand)”, “(readied)”, “(quivered)”, “(in use)” for a tool, and “(wielded in both hands)” for a two-handed weapon. It still counts toward the weight you carry, and so toward your burden.

Dropping something you wear or wield takes it off first (“You take off a leather jerkin.”) and then drops it, which takes the time of both. Everything else you wear stays on.

Creatures

Creatures wear and wield some of what they carry, and you can see it. Look mode tells you: “A kobold (hostile, unhurt), wielding a spear, on stone floor.”, “A kobold shaman (hostile, unhurt), wearing a bone amulet, …”, “A kobold archer (hostile, unhurt), with a short bow and 20 arrows ready, …”. You cannot see anything else they carry. They fight with their gear as you do, and keep what they start with until they die. Then all of it falls where they stood.

See also: Objects and your pack, Combat, and Magic items.