Vampire mage (SLASH'EM)

V vampire mage
Difficulty	28
Attacks	Claw 2d8 drain life, Bite 1d8 drain life, Spell-casting 2d6

V vampire mage
Difficulty	28
Attacks	Claw 2d8 drain life, Bite 1d8 drain life, Spell-casting 2d6
Base level	20
Base experience	806
Speed	14
Base AC	-4
Base MR	50
Alignment	-9 (chaotic)
Frequency (by normal means)	1 (Very rare)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	1450
Nutritional value	400
Size	Medium
Resistances	sleep, poison, level drain
Resistances conveyed	None
A vampire mage: can fly. does not breathe. has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso. regenerates HP quickly. is poisonous to eat. is carnivorous. is undead. is a lord to its kind. is male. is normally generated hostile. can follow you to other levels. is nasty. is strong. can pick up magical items. can be seen through infravision. can leave an old human corpse. requires a +3 weapon to hit. is a vampire. may turn against you when tame.
Reference	SLASH'EM_0.0.7E7F2/monst.c#line3241

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, and is able to cast spells. A +3 (or higher) weapon is needed to damage this monster.

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.

Vampires are usually generated with opera cloaks, which can potentially be a cloak of magic resistance; this would imperil spellcasters since magic missile, the main spell of wizards, is completely ineffective against them, in addition to several other spells.

As pets

Vampire lords will grow up into vampire mages at level 20. This makes taming a vampire much more attractive in SLASH'EM, as a relatively weak vampire will quickly grow into a level 30 terror. Vampire mages are nearly immune to monster attacks, due to regeneration, healing spells, low base AC plus the ability to wear armor, and requiring a +3 weapon to take any damage at all, making them excellent pets as long as they have not been genocided. In addition, vampires in SLASH'EM can drain corpses; this will increase their tameness, making it far easier to prevent them from going feral. They also will never become hungry; they simply drain any corpse they find. Unfortunately, vampire mages are capable of spontaneously rebelling, particularly if you are much weaker than them and/or you abuse them.

Note that if you want to give your vampire mage armor, you will need to make sure it is not blessed. They will avoid blessed items as most pets will avoid cursed items.