Bolty's Note: P(IG) had requested the help of various DSF'ers in finding him Civerb's Cudgels for a short time before this classic post.  He was collecting them without saying why.

I'm the loony who collects them =) thanks for the offer Assin, but i've decided that i can't rip you off with a clear conscience, so here's the real reason why i collect them. So here's one for all those who have found cudgels, those who will find cudgels, and those who laughed at me for keeping the danged things (hehe Sunset_Warrior you there?)

the stats for the cudgel are:
unique mace
1-8 damage, 32/32 durability
-5 dex, -2 magic
+200% damage to demons

now why the hell would anyone want something like that? it's quite simple really. the +200% does not only apply to the 1-8 damage on the mace, it applies to all the melee damage your character does. ie if your warrior does 100 base, the mace will show 101-108 on the screen, but do 303-324 damage to demons! 

so what does this mean? my warrior Trie(IG) takes a mere 2 hits to kill a soulburner in hell/hell. P(IG) can stone curse 2 soulburners and kill them in the time it takes for the spell to wear off. he now does soulburner lvls without a golem. my rogue can clear a melee lvl as fast as any warrior using a cudgel/SS combo

what is a demon? just about any monster in hell.

problems?

1)the lack of a to-hit modifier means you miss a little more often, but in general i have no problems hitting mobs.

Bolty's Note: this was of course due to the high-AC wraparound of hell/hell monsters bug that existed before Diablo version 1.07. 

2)the "to demons" means that application is limited, only useful for ppl attempting hell. 

3)it doesn't work on some monsters. for some reason the cudgel is ineffective against hellspawn, maelstrom, stormriders and lava maws. note that these are also the monsters that blunt weapons do not work well against, which could be the reason since this is a mace. this is not a problem for mage since he only uses it on soulburners and advocates. the monsters are easily killed with chain or fireball by a rogue, so the only one who has to worry is a warrior

Bolty's Note: this made it quite clear that those monsters were animals, and not demons.  Hell Spawn were changed to demons in a later Diablo patch.

4)no haste, so you can't stunlock mage type monsters ok, 1 big advantage and lots of disadvantages, maybe we should just throw it away after all? well actually, most of the  disadvantages only apply to a warrior anyway, the mace is great for mages on lvl15-16 hell/hell

as for warriors, what you do is have another weapon(preferably some haste sword) for the lvls with monsters that the cudgel doesn't work against. another alternative is to co-op with  another warrior using a sword, and split the monsters.

this may seem like a whole lot of trouble for an insignificant bit of extra damage, but trust me, the lvls really fly by when you can kill everything in 2 hits(sometimes less). civerb's  cudgel is not a good general purpose weapon, but it's still useful for all 3 classes, and a good addition to any well-equipped character. most people i know who have tried it, like it. so to those with a cudgel, go out and give it a shot. it takes awhile to get used to but it really rocks

note: it may suck the first time you try it, it did for me. but stick to it and the advantages become obvious

P(IG) - PR for Civerb

ps. unlike TheOne and his manashield, people have actually seen me using the cudgel, so i'm not talking crap

Bolty's Note: even now, years later, the Civerb's Cudgel is still referred to by DSF'ers as "P(IG)'s Cudgel" to honor his discovery.