Vampire mage (SLASH'EM)
V vampire mage 
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|---|---|
| Difficulty | unknown |
| Attacks |
claw drain life 2d8, bite drain life 1d8, spellcasting 2d6 |
| Base level | 20 |
| Base experience | unknown |
| Speed | 14 |
| Base AC | -4 |
| Base MR | 20 |
| Alignment | -9 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Very Rare |
| Genocidable | yes |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 400 (human corpse) |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | sleep, poison |
| Resistances conveyed |
None |
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A vampire mage:
| |
A vampire mage is a new monster in SLASH'EM (and also a deferred feature in nethack). It is considerably stronger than a vampire lord, as well as being able to cast spells. Note that it requires at least a +3 weapon to hit them.
Strategy
Vampire mages are excellent at wreaking havoc in the later levels of SLASH'EM. Since they are not covetous, they will not warp to the up staircase when hit, but instead will simply flee. As long as they have you in their sight, though, they will continue to summon nasties, and the ring of monsters they will create around you can make it nearly impossible to reach them, particularly on open, no-teleport levels such as Juiblex's swamp or Moloch's Sanctum. It is not uncommon for them to have filled half the level with nasties in such places before you can destroy them. They should therefore be destroyed with extreme prejudice, even in preference to arch-liches, since the latter will flee to the up staircase and (likely) out of sight of you when hit even a little bit. They are an excellent target for uncursed genocide.
