The Sword of Balance

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)   Sword of Balance   Silver short sword.png
Base item silver short sword
Damage vs. small 1d6 +5 +(1d20)
Damage vs. large 1d8 +5 +(1d20)
To-hit bonus +2
Bonus versus non-neutral
Weapon skill short sword
Size one-handed
Affiliation
When carried

(none)

When wielded

(none)

When invoked

(none)

Base price 5000 zm
Weight 30
Material silver

The Sword of Balance is an artifact silver short sword that appears in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM. It is neutral-aligned, and has +2 to hit and +5 to damage against cross-aligned monsters.

Strategy

The Sword of Balance is relatively weak, with only a modest damage bonus against non-neutral monsters, and proves quite unimpressive against the various always-hostile neutral monsters. It can prove a handy weapon for the much tougher werecreatures present in SLASH'EM and its variants - as werefoo are always chaotic and the silver will inflict extra damage - but is thoroughly outclassed by Werebane in this regard.

The Sword of Balance is a viable artifact for #twoweaponing, as the silver damage is quite useful in Gehennom, and its damage bonus makes it preferable to an ordinary silver saber. However, characters with access to artifacts like Skullcrusher or Doomblade will much prefer them as their offhand weapon.

History

In previous versions of SLASH'EM, this weapon could be #named in the manner of Sting or Orcrist. This was changed to no longer be possible in the latest stable release.[1]

References