Serpent's Tongue

)   Serpent's Tongue
Base item	dagger
Damage vs. small	1d4 x2 + (special)
Damage vs. large	1d3 x2 + (special)
To-hit bonus	+2
Bonus versus	(any)
Weapon skill	dagger
Size	one-handed
Affiliation	chaotic (Necromancer)
When carried	(none)
When wielded	(none)
When invoked	(none)
Base price	400 zm
Weight	10
Material	iron

Serpent's Tongue is the guaranteed first sacrifice gift for necromancers in SLASH'EM. It also exists in SpliceHack, where it is not affiliated with any role.

It does double damage to all monsters, and even more to non-poison-resistant enemies:

• 40% chance of 2 + d6 damage
• 30% chance of 4 + 2d6 damage
• 20% chance of 6 + 3d6 damage
• 10% chance of poison instadeath

Comparison with other artifacts

Despite its being a weak base item type and comparing unfavorably with many other artifacts at +0, a fully-enchanted Serpent's Tongue is among the best weapons in SLASH'EM from an average expected damage perspective. A +7 Serpent's Tongue will, in the best case scenario, do an average of:

• 5 base damage vs. small and 4 base damage vs. large foes
• plus 2 x 7 = 14 from the doubled enchantment
• plus 90% chance of an additional ~10 average damage and 10% chance of instakill vs. non-poison resistant foes
• plus any applicable strength and skill bonuses (Rogue, Ranger, Tourist, Valkyrie, Wizard can all reach expert in dagger)

This gives it a total damage of 29 vs. small and 28 vs. large non-poison resistant foes with a 10% chance of instakill, plus any applicable strength, skill, and blessed damage bonuses.

Compare this with an average of 31.5 / 30.5 for the Bat from Hell (club skill), 32.5 / 34.5 for Reaper (polearm skill), and 34.5 / 34.5 for Mjollnir (hammer skill), none of which can instakill, and of which Reaper is two-handed and Mjollnir's damage bonus doesn't apply to to shock-resistant foes. For these reasons, Serpent's Tongue is an excellent end-game choice for non-lawfuls either as a primary weapon, or as a secondary weapon for #twoweaponing. Note that lawfuls should avoid Serpent's Tongue as they will receive an alignment penalty for using poison.

Miscellaneous

Note that this artifact does not provide poison-resistance. Also, for lawful characters and Samurai, using it does not incur the usual alignment penalty for using a poisoned weapon.

Its low base cost makes it one of the few artifacts it is feasible to simply buy (rather than steal) from a shop. Note that you will have to pay 1600zm for it, as the usual 4x artifact surcharge still applies.

Encyclopedia

No entry.