Grimtooth
) Grimtooth 
| |
|---|---|
| Base item | orcish dagger |
| Damage vs. small | 1d3 +1d6 |
| Damage vs. large | 1d3 +1d6 |
| To-hit bonus | +1d2 |
| Bonus versus | (any) |
| Weapon skill | dagger |
| Size | one-handed |
| Affiliation | |
| When carried |
(none) |
| When wielded |
|
| When invoked |
(none) |
| Base price | 300 zm |
| Weight | 10 |
| Material | iron |
Grimtooth is an artifact weapon that appears in NetHack. It is chaotic-aligned, and its base item is an orcish dagger.
Contents
Generation
A randomly generated orcish dagger has a 1⁄20 chance of being Grimtooth. The weapon is also a potential sacrifice gift for chaotic, non-elven characters.
Player monster rogues on the Astral Plane have a have a 25% chance of starting with an orcish dagger in place of their initial primary weapon—like all player monsters on the Plane, there is a 50% chance it will be made into an artifact weapon of the same base item.[1] Grimtooth is the only artifact orcish dagger, resulting in a 12.5% chance that a Rogue will be carrying it on the Planes.
Effects
Grimtooth has +d2 to hit and a +d6 damage against all monsters. It provides warning against elves, glowing red when any elves are present on the level.[2]
Despite not having a specific damage bonus against elves, Grimtooth is still considered to "attack" them. As such, elven characters (including those those polymorphed into elven monsters) cannot wield Grimtooth, and attempting to do so will damage them in addition to the usual chance for artifact blasting.
Strategy
Grimtooth's weak base item means that even with its damage bonuses to all monsters, it is effectively on par with a normal long sword - most chaotic non-elven players will only consider Grimtooth as an obstacle to receiving Stormbringer through sacrifice. However, it averages the same damage as a crysknife, without the crysknife's danger of reverting to a worm tooth or the requirement of a scroll of enchant weapon to create.
Despite its relatively low damage in comparison to other artifacts, orcish Rangers and Rogues are likely to make good use of it until they acquire Stormbringer or one of the Brands.
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 | Damage |
|---|---|
| +0 Grimtooth | 
|
| +7 Grimtooth | 
|
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, Grimtooth gives a flat +6 damage bonus as opposed to 1d6, but is still outshined by the many better artifacts present, particularly for chaotic players. It might be a decent choice for twoweaponing, which is allowed for artifacts in SLASH'EM.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, Grimtooth is permanently poisoned and deals +d6 damage against non-poison resistant monsters, with a 10% chance of killing them instantly - this makes it markedly more useful. Grimtooth is also the first sacrifice gift for Rogues.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, Grimtooth has +d5 to-hit, doubled damage, and warning against elves, humans and minions. It can be created by naming an orcish dagger, and can be twoweaponed as a secondary weapon.
xNetHack
In xNetHack, Grimtooth is permanently poisoned - however, the removal of poison instadeath makes it less powerful than in UnNetHack. Its base price is raised from 300 to 1000.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, Grimtooth has a disease-incuding attack in lieu of poison that also has a 1⁄6 chance to inflict sickness on the target. Grimtooth also deals extra damage to elves and has a chance to instakill any elf it hits (including an elven player). Additionally, it can also be forged together with Stormbringer to create Shadowblade, an artifact athame.
The sickness inflicted by the disease attack can be used to dispose of otherwise-hard-to-hit targets, such as powerful player monsters, that do not have an immunity or a means of curing it. You still take credit and gain experience for monsters that die of terminal illness this way.
References
This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.0. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-360}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.
