Some minor spoiler requests

[collapsinghrung]

What exactly does a Sword of Devastation do? All of its flags are positive, but wielding one sets my HP to 1. There was some mention in another thread of using a 'devastator' while having high regeneration... does it do a certain amount of (non-lethal) damage per turn? Does it just set your HP to 1, and the 50% life bonus is a joke? Since none of the item's flags describe this functionality, I assume it's hardcoded into the tval, which is not 23. Does the Swords skill work with Swords of Devastation? Do they even count as weapons? The Bless Weapon ability doesn't work on a non-magical Sword of Devastation...

On an unrelated note, the formulas help file goes into a lot of detail about how damage is calculated (which is great). However, it fails to mention slay effects. How do they work?

[Variaz]

Ok, the true story behind the sword of devastation is that in early versions of NewAngband, there was a Dark Lord class who could use these cursed swords, and he was the only one who could.

Now, the class is gone, but I've had some fun keeping the swords around. They are very strong, but sets your hp to 1. So they're not too good. Well, they do make excellent throwing weapons though!

As for the slay brands, they do x6 damages most of the time. Slay Evil does x4, and the KILL_DRAGON flag does x10 against dragons. Yes, they are powerful against their respective enemies.