Firefighter

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The Firefighter is a role in the variants Slash'EM Extended and SLASHTHEM.

The Firefighter first appeared in an early version of SLASH'EM (NetHack-- 3.0.10) but was dropped from the code at the time the quest branch was ported into that variant. The role was later revived and given a quest in Slash'EM Extended.

Skills

NetHack-- 3.0.10 was based on NetHack 3.0.10, which predated the skill system, so Firefighters could use any weapons.

The current Slash'EM Extended version of the role is essentially unrestricted in all skills:

Firefighter skills
Max Skills
Expert

SLASHTHEM adjusts some of the Firefighter's weapon skills (notably restricting long sword, dagger, and knife) and restricts some of the spell skills:

Firefighter skills
Max Skills
Basic
Skilled
Expert

The Firefighter's special spell is teleport away. Spell success is determined by intelligence.

  • Slash'EM Extended u_init.c line 2706
  • SLASHTHEM u_init.c line 1288 in v. 0.8

Intrinsics

Starting equipment

Firefighters start with a pet little dog.

Rank titles

In Slash'EM Extended, the status line shows you to be one of the following ranks when you reach the specified experience level:

  • XL 1-2: Hazard Trainee
  • XL 3-5: Brigade Runner
  • XL 6-9: Watercannon User
  • XL 10-13: Extinguisher
  • XL 14-17: Forest Fire Specialist
  • XL 18-21: Anti-Flame Fighter
  • XL 22-25: Fire Leader
  • XL 26-29: Flash Fire Deleter
  • XL 30: Eternal Firefighter

SLASHTHEM has a different set of rank titles:

  • XL 1-2: Water Boy/Girl
  • XL 3-5: Fire Cadet
  • XL 6-9: Rookie
  • XL 10-13: Extinguisher
  • XL 14-17: Smokeeater
  • XL 18-21: Fire Captain
  • XL 22-25: Platoon Chief
  • XL 26-29: Division Commander
  • XL 30: Fire Chief

Slash'EM Extended role.c line 988

SLASHTHEM role.c line 511

Quest

The quest sees the Firefighter fighting Eddie the Pyro for the Fire-Brigade Reel, a lawful rubber hose which grants half spell damage and half physical damage while carried, deals additional cold damage when used as a weapon, and can be invoked to summon a tame water elemental.

SLASHTHEM gives the Firefighter a new quest artifact, the Fire Chief Helmet, a lawful fire helmet, which grants half spell damage and half physical damage while carried, and protection and warning while worn. It also can be invoked to summon a tame (greater) water elemental.

  • Slash'EM Extended artilist.h line 450
  • SLASHTHEM artilist.h line 621

Gods

The Firefighter's gods all relate to fire:

  • Lawful: Prometheus
  • Neutral: Thor
  • Chaotic: Arson

History

The Firefighter's first appearance was in SLASH'EM precursor NetHack-- 3.0.10, as one of nine new roles in addition to the twelve in the contemporary version of NetHack. The discussion thread in which the authors first announced the variant suggests that some of the new roles were taken from a list proposing a role for every letter of the alphabet. See here for the relevant post.

After the release of NetHack 3.1.3 in 1993, NetHack-- was updated to NetHack-- 3.1.3 by porting some of the changes from NetHack-- 3.0.10 into a patch for the newest version. Due to some changes in the vanilla code, however, some content was removed to improve compatibility with NetHack. Most significantly, NetHack 3.1 had seen the addition of the Quest branch. To avoid the challenge of fitting full-length quests for the roles that had been added in NetHack-- 3.0.10 into the patch code, those roles were simply left out of the patch.

There is some evidence that the developer(s) of SLASH may have wanted to bring back some of the roles, including the Firefighter, as the DAT folder for SLASH 6 contains unused maps for quest levels for this and other roles that are not actually present in the version. The quest leader would have been "Chief", the nemesis a unique elemental named Fire, and the quest artifact a fire helmet called the Fire Chief Helmet. The code for the maps indicates that the quest would feature numerous salamanders and efreeti.

The Firefighter role, along with the other eight new roles in NetHack-- 3.0.10, made its reappearance in the variant Slash'EM Extended. It was also carried over, with some tweaks, into SLASHTHEM, a variant of Slash'EM Extended v75.

References

  • NetHack-- 3.0.10 attrib.c line 58
  • NetHack-- 3.0.10 u_init.c line 222