Vorpal Blade
) Vorpal Blade (No tile) | |
---|---|
Base item | long sword |
Damage vs. small | 1d8 +1 (2-9) |
Damage vs. large | 1d12 +1 (2-13) |
To-hit bonus | +1d5 |
Bonus versus | (any) |
Weapon skill | long sword |
Size | one-handed |
Affiliation | |
When carried |
(none) |
When wielded |
|
When invoked |
(none) |
Base price | 4000 zm |
Weight | 40 |
Material | iron |
The Vorpal Blade is a very useful artifact weapon. It is a neutral long sword, and has a 5% chance of instantaneously killing monsters by beheading. It is shunned by some players because it only does +1 damage and d5 to-hit, but others find the insta-kill to be quite useful. The beheading only works on monsters with heads.
Neutral players other than Wizards and Monks can easily obtain Vorpal Blade by being crowned.
The Vorpal Blade originally appears in the poem Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll. In the poem, an unnamed adventurer "took his vorpal sword" in hand and sought the dangerous Jabberwock:
- "One, two! One, two! And through and through
- The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
- He left it dead, and with its head
- He went galumphing back."
The implication is that the vorpal blade beheaded the Jabberwock. Because of the origin of this weapon, in NetHack it has a 100% chance to behead Jabberwocks.
Instakill probability table
The following table summarizes the damage done by the Vorpal Blade. For example, after you hit a monster ten times, there is a 40% chance that you have beheaded it. You have also done an average of 55 points of physical damage to it. The odds of beheading a monster rise above 50% after 14 hits, at which point you have damaged the monster for approximately 77 points anyway.
Hits | Cumulated instakill probability | Physical damage to small monsters (avg) | Physical damage to large monsters (avg) |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 5% | 2–9 (6) | 2–13 (8) |
2 | 9.75% | 4–18 (11) | 4–26 (15) |
3 | 14.26% | 6–27 (17) | 6–39 (23) |
4 | 18% | 8–36 (22) | 8–52 (30) |
5 | 22.6% | 10–45 (28) | 10–65 (38) |
10 | 40% | 20–90 (55) | 20–130 (75) |
15 | 53.7% | 30–135 (83) | 30–195 (113) |
45 | 90% | 90–405 (248) | 90–585 (338) |
Monsters wielding Vorpal Blade
Vorpal Blade is a very dangerous weapon in the hands of a monster, since a monster with Vorpal Blade will have a 5% chance of beheading you with each attack. Therefore, you should never leave Vorpal Blade in a place where a monster can pick it up. The safest place to store Vorpal Blade is inside a container on top of a permanent engraving of Elbereth. If you simply want to get dispose of Vorpal Blade, either forget it in some chest, repeatedly loot a cursed bag of holding, or drop it into a pit you then fill with a boulder. For yourself, it wasn't a good weapon, anyway.
If Vorpal Blade has not already been created in your game, the player character monsters in the Astral Plane have a small chance of being randomly generated with Vorpal Blade in their possession. Melee combat with these monsters is very dangerous. However, it is overpreparation to obtain Vorpal Blade just to rule out this possibility. If you have entered the Astral Plane and don't know where Vorpal Blade is, an amulet of life saving is highly recommended.
Usually, it is best to attack a monster wielding Vorpal Blade from a distance. In dire situations, it may be necessary disarm it with a bullwhip. Remember to pick up (and dispose of) the blade.
Messages
- "Vorpal Blade decapitates the <monster>!"
- The monster has been instantly killed from the special beheading attack.
- "Vorpal Blade beheads it!"
- An monster you cannot see has been instantly killed.
- "Somehow, you miss the <monster> wildly."
- Your hit would normally have beheaded the monster, but it was lacking a head and thus had no effect. Note that no damage is applied to the monster either.