User:Ion frigate/SLASHEM role difficulty - Revision history

Ion frigate at 07:49, 6 March 2025

2025-03-06T07:49:40Z

Ion frigate at 07:48, 6 March 2025

2025-03-06T07:48:13Z

Ion frigate: finish this out, but hold off putting it in the article for now

2025-03-06T07:47:54Z

finish this out, but hold off putting it in the article for now

Ion frigate: few more

2025-03-02T21:08:42Z

few more

Ion frigate: i really hate mediawiki's table format

2025-03-02T08:42:45Z

i really hate mediawiki's table format

Ion frigate: first half of this

2025-03-02T08:42:24Z

first half of this

New page

Working space to redo the table on [[Role difficulty/Variants]] to be more like the dNetHack one; replacing Quest Difficulty with Midgame Difficulty because quests in SLASH'EM aren't particularly harder than vanilla.

{|class="wikitable"
!Role
!Starting Difficulty
!Midgame Difficulty
!Ascension Difficulty
!Notes
!Ascension Rate
|-
|Valkyrie
|Easy. Starts with a +1 spear rather than a +1 long sword, but still incredibly powerful. Start with 5 +0 daggers, giving them a reasonable early ranged option
|Easy. Mjollnir is far more powerful. Lawful Valkyries seeking Excalibur will have to find a long sword, usually in a shop, but that is rarely difficult.
|Easy. Can two-weapon artifacts, one of which is usually Mjollnir. Can enchant gauntlets of power to +7 (required to throw Mjollnir).
|Don't forget that you can use weapon practice.
|24%
|-
|Samurai
|Easy. Start with speed and a powerful weapon. Charged 2x in shops so will have to be judicious with gold.
|Easy. Snickersnee + Excalibur readily available endgame-quality weapon combo.
|Easy. Aforementioned combo more than sufficient for anything in the endgame.
|The addition of enchantment resistance makes the Samurai's abilities in barehanded combat useless later on, but this doesn't make the role harder.
|13%
|-
|Knight
|Easy. Start with plate mail, +1 long sword, usually 18/** strength. Early access to Excalibur.
|Easy. Will want to sacrifice for a second artifact to dual-wield.
|Easy. Standard high-damage melee character with at least one guaranteed high-damage artifact.
|Much weaker spellcasters than in vanilla, but improved starting equipment makes the role easier overall.
|10%
|-
|Monk
|Easy. Solid damage output, dexterity AC bonus + natural AC bonus makes them hardier than in vanilla. Protection spell useful early on.
|Easy. First sacrifice gift provides half physical damage. Techniques can be used to defeat tough monsters.
|Easy. Techniques (particularly Chained Blitz) can often wipe out covetous monsters before they can warp away.
|AC penalties for non-robe body armor mean that most Monks will want to wear a robe, but thankfully there are solid options. No longer gain most resists by leveling up, but many more vegan corpses available to gain them from.
|6%
|-
|Yeoman
|Normal. Excellent starting gear but slow until XL7, making them about average fighters.
|Easy. Guaranteed access to Excalibur, Sword of Justice, and Reaper, three excellent artifacts. Intrinsic speed largely mitigates slowness.
|Easy. Standard high-damage melee character, with Excalibur + Sword of Justice being a guaranteed solid endgame choice. Quest artifact provides half spell damage.
|Can gain skill in firearms, but likely don't need to.
|N/A
|-
|Barbarian
|Easy. Starting gear and stats just as good as in vanilla. Charged 3x as much in shops, making them difficult to take advantage of early on, but overall still an easy early game.
|Easy. Cleaver is more powerful than in vanilla and an excellent midgame choice, albeit still not endgame quality.
|Normal. Can two-weapon artifacts, but no guaranteed high-damage ones, so often stuck with subpar damage output. Heart of Ahriman just as weak as in vanilla.
|Non-humans have an even harder time getting useful one-handed artifact weapons because of Deathsword.
|N/A
|-
|Rogue
|Normal. Poor melee fighters with powerful but limited ranged options. If you start with daggers, poison them immediately.
|Easy. Bat from Hell, the most powerful artifact weapon in the game, is their guaranteed first sacrifice gift.
|Easy. Standard high-damage melee character, with guaranteed high-damage weapon.
|Quest is the same as in vanilla, requiring you to get through an undiggable wall. Early midgame generally revolves around sacrificing for the Bat from Hell.
|4%
|-
|Caveman
|Normal. Passable melee fighter; ranged options are low-damage, but still useful for monsters like floating eyes.
|Easy. Guaranteed first sacrifice gift, Skullcrusher, is an excellent weapon with a flat +10 damage. Natural radius 2 vision useful in dark levels.
|Hard. Skullcrusher is a good weapon, but their inability to #twoweapon, greatly weakened Sceptre of Might, and lack of spellcasting options make them weak fighters in the end.
|Lawfuls might consider exploiting minions to make up for their poor hitting power later on.
|N/A
|-
|Wizard
|Hard. Half of wizards will start with Sleep rather than Force Bolt, and both starts will often run out of magic.
|Normal. Magicbane is a decent artifact, and second sacrifice gift Deluder is a luck item, but still a lot of randomness based on what spells they find.
|Easy. Magic missile cuts through crowds of monsters (very common in SLASH'EM) extremely well. Spells such as Acid Stream useful for rare magic resistant monsters.
|Starts with more but lower-level spells. Can easily maximize luck at an altar thanks to Deluder, useful if a spellbook of magic missile doesn't generate in a timely manner.
|5%
|-
|Undead Slayer
|Hard. Slowness coupled with poor damage output makes them quite a challenge early on. Their starting resistances (sickness, level drain) are rarely relevant at this point.
|Normal. Guaranteed speed at XL7 helps a lot, but no guaranteed sacrifice gifts. Lawfuls can use Excalibur.
|Normal. Unable to #twoweapon and poor spellcasters, but their innate resistances are helpful, and give them flexibility in assembling an ascension kit.
|Silver dagger start is probably the best.
|N/A
|-
|Ranger
|Normal. Incredibly powerful ranged option right from the start, but poor melee fighters.
|Normal. Will want to be judicious about using ammo and maximize their luck. No guaranteed sacrifice gifts.
|Hard. Bows being two-handed limits their options and poses some increased dangers. Unable to #twoweapon, and no guarantee they will find a high-damage artifact.
|SLASH'EM has a lot more water and lava than vanilla—be careful where you fire.
|1%
|Flame Mage
|Easy. Can burn Elbereth right from the start, while still attacking with flame spheres. Chaotics can wipe out shopkeepers by standing outside around a corner while using Power Surge to send in flame spheres.
|Normal. Guaranteed sacrifice gift is low-damage athame, and Fireball takes a while to get online, causing them to have poor damage output at this point.
|Easy. Can twoweapon, making them an excellent melee-magic hybrid. No guaranteed high-damage artifacts, but guaranteed spells make up for this.
|Far stronger as a hybrid than a pure mage.
|N/A
|}

@@ Line 125: / Line 125: @@
 |Normal. First sacrifice gift is speed boots + luckstone, but finding a reliable source of damage is difficult, especially as they are always neutral.
 |Easy. Firearms&mdash;they can reliably and easily get 1000+ bullets on their quest, enough to handle major threats even if melee damage output remains poor.
 |N/A
 |-
@@ Line 131: / Line 132: @@
 |Hard. Nearly-useless first sacrifice gift ensures their damage output remains terrible.
 |Hard. Cannot two-weapon or use firearms, and very rarely get a good sacrifice gift.  Offensive spells&mdash;i.e. playing as a weak wizard&mdash; may be the best option.
 |N/A
 |-
 |}

@@ Line 120: / Line 120: @@
 |Despite some buffs&mdash;including improved spellcasting&mdash;this remains a difficult role.
 |N/A
 |Tourist
 |Normal. Will have to rely on darts to kill monsters, but magic mapping lets them rapidly fill out gear via shops.

@@ Line 102: / Line 102: @@
 |Priest
 |Hard. Mace is nerfed to +0, leaving them with extremely poor melee damage. Few options for dealing with tough monsters.
-|Normal. Inherent BUC sense lets the use equipment earlier, but first sacrifice gift is extremely situation. Lawfuls can try for Excalibur.
+|Normal. Inherent BUC sense lets them use equipment earlier, but first sacrifice gift, Disrupter, is extremely situational. Lawfuls can try for Excalibur.
 |Normal. Spellcasting aptitudes mean they should be played as a caster, but still noticeably inferior to Wizards.
 |All priests are able to train long swords to skilled. Blessing technique can help save holy water.
@@ Line 112: / Line 112: @@
 |Normal. Mediocre melee damage, can be supplemented by magic missile but otherwise poor spellcasters.  Drain and sickness resistance are excellent late-game.
 |Play best as a melee fighter early on and a blaster caster/hybrid later.
 |N/A
 |-
 |}

@@ Line 92: / Line 92: @@
 |Far stronger as a hybrid than a pure mage.
 |N/A
 |}

@@ Line 85: / Line 85: @@
 |SLASH'EM has a lot more water and lava than vanilla&mdash;be careful where you fire.
 |1%
 |Flame Mage
 |Easy. Can burn Elbereth right from the start, while still attacking with flame spheres.  Chaotics can wipe out shopkeepers by standing outside around a corner while using Power Surge to send in flame spheres.