Vlad the Impaler
V Vlad the Impaler 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 32 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 2d10, bite 1d12 drain life |
| Base level | 28 |
| Base experience | 1087 |
| Speed | 26 |
| Base AC | -6 |
| Base MR | 80 |
| Alignment | -10 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Unique |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 400 (human corpse) |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | Sleep, poison |
| Resistances conveyed |
None |
|
Vlad the Impaler:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line1869 |
Vlad the Impaler, V, is a monster that appears in NetHack. He is a unique vampire that guards the Candelabrum of Invocation.
Vlad has a weapon attack and a life-draining bite. Like his vampire brethren, Vlad the Impaler possesses the abilities of flight, unbreathing, and enhanced regeneration along with a weakness to silver; he can also shift to the same forms as vampire lords, although those forms are not covetous, and he will not do so while carrying the Candelabrum of Invocation.
Contents
Generation
Vlad the Impaler resides on a throne in the center of the top floor of his tower, which is situated within Gehennom. He never leaves a corpse when killed.
Along with the Candelabrum, Vlad the Impaler has a 79% chance of generating with any one of the following weapon sets: a two-handed sword, a long sword, a lucern hammer, a battle-axe, or a bow and 3-14 arrows.[1] As Vlad is an overlord to his kind, any weapons he generates with will be at least +1.
Strategy
Vlad is the second fastest monster in the game at 26 speed, far faster than a player with speed boots. He hits hard and often, and is capable of sneaking in several warp-and-bites and retreating to the stairs/ladder before you get a chance to retaliate. Unlike other covetous monsters, if you are standing on the ladder yourself, he will warp away a few steps when hurt instead of staying next to the ladder - if you take the bait and follow, he may then reach the ladder and escape down. Above all else, he deals double damage during the midnight hour (0:00-0:59 server time) due to being undead, and he is also immune to sleep and death rays (e.g. from a wand of death).
Combined with his high 130 base HP, Vlad can be quite frustrating to fight, especially for low-damage characters. The quickest way to deal with him is to use a footrice corpse or a potion of paralysis. If neither is available, you will need solid AC and a reliable source of high damage, typically a well-enchanted silver weapon, to take him down quickly. A weapon that gives drain resistance can also prevent the worst of his bite's effects, though they can still be heavily damaging, and the weapon may not deal much damage itself unless significantly enchanted - such a weapon can also be paired with powerful ranged attack such as the spell of magic missile or daggerstorms. If all else fails, you can let him escape the tower into the main area of Gehennom and stand on an upstair to fight him.
Be careful not to confuse Vlad: if he then levelports by reading a scroll of teleportation, you get to look for him in his Tower, all of Gehennom above it, and the entire Dungeons of Doom, which is very annoying; this also makes Magicbane an impractical choice. If you suspect Vlad of generating with such a scroll, a source of fire damage (e.g. Fire Brand or a fireball spell) can burn it out of his inventory.
While Vlad the Impaler is technically not immune to the spell or wand of polymorph, you must have protection from shape changers (usually from the ring) for it to have any effect at all while he is holding the Candelabrum, and his MR score of 80 will make the task far more difficult.[2][3] If you do not have protection from shape changers but manage to get the Candelabrum from Vlad without killing him, polymorphing him will shapeshift him into one of his other forms as normal.
Taming Vlad
Since Vlad the Impaler is not covetous in his other forms, it is possible to tame him. For those players with enough time, resources and daring to pursue this optional goal, stoning Vlad and then unstoning him via stone to flesh is the most reliable method, since the Candelabrum cannot be contained within a statue and will drop to the floor; it may be useful to blind yourself or hide in a closet if you are trying to get him to shapeshift for this purpose after liberating the Candelabrum from him. Once tamed, you can feed him meatballs or other food items to increase his tameness to its maximum, then use protection from shape changers to force him back to vampire form and give him equipment; reading the Book of the Dead as a chaotic character can also increase his tameness. Vlad's high speed, strong attacks, and ability to use items and wield weapons can make him a powerful pet for the difficulty involved in successfully taming him.
However, significant care is required to ensure his survival and maintain his tameness - an untamed Vlad with a suite of gifted armor and weapons is a very dangerous Vlad. On top of dedicating a ring slot to preventing him from shapeshifting again, Vlad must be kept safe from the handful of threats that can still reliably kill him - he cannot be revived if he is killed normally in his base form, and his covetous behavior makes it difficult to keep him from hitting certain traps or attacking dangerous monsters, such as monsters that can digest him or possess highly dangerous passive attacks. On the Elemental Planes, Vlad must be healed frequently due to the amount of heavily-damaging monsters you will likely have to fight through, even with his intrinsic regeneration - plain potions of healing are sufficient for this purpose: thrown potions of any "healing" type will fully heal a monster that they hit, regardless of how much they would heal when quaffed.
Good items to give to a tamed Vlad the Impaler include a non-cursed unicorn horn, an amulet of reflection, a cloak of magic resistance or protection, and any other highly-enchanted armor. If you are committed to keeping Vlad as a pet, it may be worthwhile to genocide monsters with digestion attacks such as purple worms, and keep well and clear of level teleport traps where at all possible; magic resistance protects Vlad from polymorph traps and offers a defense against the magic missile attacks of Angels, and reflection is enough to protect him from dragon breath, particularly that of black dragons. One method of avoiding trouble with level teleportation is to park his shapeshifted form on a shallow level, then return to re-tame him during the ascension run.
History
Vlad the Impaler first appears in NetHack 3.0.0. From this version to NetHack 3.6.1, Vlad used to be significantly slower, weaker and would not teleport away. He was widely regarded as being quite a feeble enemy for the stage of the game he is faced in, as he was not significantly stronger than the vampire lords which appear as normal enemies.
Particularly during the era of NetHack 3.4.3, jokes abounded of fighting him with food rations, magic markers, thoroughly rusty thoroughly corroded tin openers or orcish daggers, not moving every second turn while fighting him, or a variety of other absurd scenarios which would normally result in YASD, and still easily defeating Vlad. The items used for such exploits had become known as Vladsbanes, Vladbanes or Vladsmashers, which parodies the naming scheme of [[the Banes]) - these items were often #named so in tribute, with one such list of items available here. The danger of Vlad reading a scroll of teleportation while confused even gave you a legitimate reason to use a Vladbane-type weapon instead of Magicbane. A variety of patches were written before 3.6.1 to address this issue by altering Vlad in some way - one of the better known ones was the aptly-named Vlad Balance patch.
Dudley's dungeon
The Dudley's dungeon strip for 30 November 2006 (via Wayback Machine) features several humorous attempts to remake Vlad; see also the comments for the 30 November and 1 December strips.
Origin
Vlad is a major vampire based mostly on the fictional Count Dracula, who is in turn based on the non-fictional Vlad Drăculea, a 15th-century Romanian prince.
Variants
Some variants that feature Vlad adjust his placement in the dungeon, and many employ their own methods to make him significantly stronger and more challenging.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, Vlad the Impaler's basic stats and properties are mostly unchanged from his appearance in NetHack 3.4.3 - he is carnivorous and additionally needs a +3 or better weapon to hit while hitting as a +3 weapon himself, making him invulnerable to Vladsbanes and similar junk weapons.
There is also the distinct Count Dracula, whom acts as the Undead Slayer quest nemesis and is also derived from the non-fictional Vlad Drăculea.
SporkHack
In SporkHack he's been beefed up significantly, most notably by arming him with an artifact two-handed sword named Lifestealer that has similar properties to Stormbringer.
GruntHack
GruntHack enhances many of Vlad's vital statistics. His base level is raised to 28, his base speed is raised 24, and he has four attacks: two 6d6 weapon attacks that can stun and confuse you, a 1d10 level-draining bite, and a 2d6 stunning gaze attack. Vlad is always generated with a thirsty spetum and a stack of cursed scrolls of teleportation, requiring that you burn them up or otherwise eliminate them before seeking to take him out.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, Vlad's stats from NetHack 3.4.3 are used as a baseline for the alterations to his stats and attacks - for example, he has an additional seducing gaze attack. In addition, he resides at the top of the Windowless Tower with his three wives, and the Tower is available as soon as you can reach the Gnomish Mines. However, none of them are particularly threatening by the time a prepared player reaches his level, especially if they have acquired an engagement ring.
Encyclopedia entry
Vlad Dracula the Impaler was a 15th-Century monarch of the Birgau region of the Carpathian Mountains, in what is now Romania. In Romanian history he is best known for two things. One was his skilled handling of the Ottoman Turks, which kept them from making further inroads into Christian Europe. The other was the ruthless manner in which he ran his fiefdom. He dealt with perceived challengers to his rule by impaling them upright on wooden stakes. Visiting dignitaries who failed to doff their hats had them nailed to their head.
