# The Staff of Aesculapius

)   The Staff of Aesculapius   

Base item

quarterstaff

Damage vs. small

1d6 ×2 +1d8

Damage vs. large

1d6 ×2 +1d8

To-hit bonus

+0

Bonus versus

not drain resistant

Weapon skill

quarterstaff

Size

two-handed

Affiliation

neutralHealerintelligent

When carried

(none)

When wielded

hungerless regenerationdrain resistance

When invoked

heals HPcures sickness,sliming, and blindness

Base price

5000 zm

Weight

40

Material

wood

The Staff of Aesculapius is the Healer quest artifact. It is the prize for completing the Healer quest, and is neutral for wishing purposes. Its base item type is a quarterstaff.

Contents

1 Effects
2 Strategy

2.1 Average damage calculation

3 History
4 Origin
5 Variants

5.1 SLASH'EM
5.2 dNetHack
5.3 SlashTHEM

6 Encyclopedia entry
7 References

Effects
The Staff of Aesculapius gives hungerless regeneration and drain resistance while wielded, and deals double damage to all monsters without drain resistance and drains levels from them - the life-draining itself applies a further +1d8 damage to the target's current and maximum HP, and restores half of that damage to the wielder's current HP. This bonus damage is not doubled, and does not apply against monsters with drain resistance.
When #invoked, it heals you by half of the HP needed to return to full health and cures sickness, blindness (unless it was caused by gunk, as from a cream pie) and sliming.[1]

Strategy
See also: Invoke § Optimum invocation schedule
For Healers, the Staff when wielded by the Cyclops ensures that you will want to avoid melee range if at all possible, or else be able to dispatch him quickly; failing that, they can exploit his lack of magic resistance or MR score using the wands and spells at their disposal.
Like all staves, The Staff of Aesculapius is two-handed, and the danger of a curse staff and an abundance of drain-resistant hostiles in Gehennom makes it a somewhat unpopular late-game weapon. However, as an intelligent artifact the Staff resists 80% of all curses - half spell damage and/or magic resistance can reduce the odds of it being cursed even further. The #tip extended command also ensures that you can still get to any bagged holy water or remove curse scrolls with a cursed Staff in your hands.
The Staff of Aesculapius is the only neutral artifact that provides drain resistance, making it a tempting (though ultimately optional) wish candidate for other neutral characters.

Average damage calculation
The average damage calculations in the following table do not include bonuses from weapon skills, strength, or from using a blessed weapon against undead or demons.

Weapon

Drain resistant

Not drain resistant

+0 Staff of Aesculapius

+7 Staff of Aesculapius

History
The Staff of Aesculapius is introduced along with most of the other quest artifacts in NetHack 3.1.0.
In NetHack 3.4.3 and earlier versions, the #tip command did not exist, making it perilous if the Staff's resistance fails to prevent it from becoming cursed. The Staff of Aesculapius was also occasionally used in drain for gain strategies.

Origin

Wikipedia has an article about:
Staff of Aesculapius

In ancient Greek mythology, the Staff of Aesculapius - primarily known as the Rod of Asclepius, and also known as the "asklepian" - is a serpent-entwined rod, ⚕. The Caduceus of Hermes, ☤, is a similar symbol of commerce with two snakes around it, and both staves were gifted to each deity by Apollo - as a result, the caduceus often occurs in similar contexts due to being confused with the Rod, and is likely the reason Hermes serves as the neutral god of the Healer pantheon. 
Aesculapius (or Asclepius) is one of the sons of Apollo and a deity associated with the healing aspect of medicine - the snake and staff are separate symbols of Asclepius that may represent the dual natures of medical practice and drugs as capable of either inducing sickness and death, or bringing health and extending life. Snakes were also considered sacred beings of wisdom, health and resurrection by ancient Greeks, partly by virtue of regularly shedding their skin, while the staff is interpreted as a walking stick, and thus a symbol of support and growth. One of Asclepius's more famous temples was located on the island of Kos, where the legendary "father of medicine" Hippocrates is said to have begun his career - the Oath attributed to him (as seen in the encyclopedia entry for the Healer) swears by "Apollo the physician, and Aesculapius, and Health, and All-heal", the latter two of which refers to Asclepius's daughters, Hygieia and Panacea.
As a mortal, Asclepius was educated by Apollo and more formally by the centaur Chiron in the arts of medicine. Some stories assert that Asclepius was his original name, while others suggest that he was originally named Hepius and received his new name from curing a ruler named Ascles, who suffered a seemingly-incurable eye ailment. Asclepius eventually became so proficient as a healer that he could cheat death and bring others back to life - this led to Zeus killing him with a thunderbolt when either Hades began accusing Asclepius of stealing his subjects, or Zeus himself became afraid that Asclepius would teach the art of resurrection to others. Apollo retaliated by killing the Cyclopes who made Zeus's thunderbolts, leading to his temporary banishment from Olympus; Asclepius's body was placed among the stars as the constellation Ophiuchus. Zeus later resurrected Asclepius as a god upon Apollo's request and gave him a place on Olympus. In NetHack, the player character kills the Cyclops to retrieve the Staff of Aesculapius and curses Zeus upon obtaining it, suggesting that this myth is the basis for their quest.

Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, The Staff of Aesculapius no longer protects against life drain, although the encyclopedia entry describing the artifact is unchanged.[2] Fortunately, there are more sources in SLASH'EM, such as the amulet of drain resistance. Finding a source of drain resistance also makes facing the Cyclops as a Healer much less perilous, leaving his strong weapon attacks to contend with.
In addition, the #tip command does not exist here, so players using The Staff of Aesculapius should keep at least one means of uncursing it in open inventory - the 4⁄5 chance of resisting curses still works in The Staff's favor, as does having magic resistance and/or half spell damage.

dNetHack
In dNetHack, The Staff of Aesculapius is a silver-shod quarterstaff, and appears as a serpent-entwined staff when unidentified. The silver grants it more utility as an offensive weapon for Healers in Gehennom, and dNetHack additionally has the #tip command, as well as various other sources of curse resistance and removal.

SlashTHEM
SlashTHEM both adds the #tip command from later versions of NetHack and restores the Staff's drain resistance.

Encyclopedia entry

This staff is considered sacred to all healers, as it truly
holds the powers of life and death.  When wielded, it
protects its user from all life draining attacks, and
additionally gives the wielder the power of regeneration.
When invoked it performs healing magic.

 

References

↑ src/artifact.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 1455: code for HEALING effect

↑ artilist.h in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 350: The Staff has NO_DFNS in place of the vanilla DRLI(0, 0)