Hellfire
Hellfire is an artifact that appears in SLASH'EM, dNetHack and SlashTHEM. It is chaotic-aligned, and its base item-type is a crossbow; it is one of two missile-launching artifacts added to SLASH'EM, with the other being Plague (which also appears in the same variants). In all variants, Hellfire grants fire resistance when wielded.
Description
) Hellfire | |
---|---|
Base item | crossbow |
Damage vs. small | 1d2 +7 (+2d6) |
Damage vs. large | 1d2 +7 (+2d6) |
To-hit bonus | +5 |
Bonus versus | (any) |
Weapon skill | crossbow |
Size | one-handed |
Affiliation | |
When carried |
(none) |
When wielded | |
When invoked |
(none) |
Base price | 4000 zm |
Weight | 50 |
Material | wood |
SLASH'EM is the first variant that Hellfire appears in. It can be rarely created through random generation, or given as a sacrifice gift; as crossbows are relatively abundant, it is not uncommon to come across Hellfire lying about in the dungeon or in a weapon or armor shop.
Hellfire has a flat +5 to-hit bonus and +7 damage; crossbow bolts fired from it cause fiery explosions in a 3x3 square centered on any target they hit, doing an additional 2d6 damage.[1][2][3][4]This also applies to monsters shooting bolts from Hellfire, with the bolt being destroyed on impact.[5][6][7][8]
Strategy
In theory, Hellfire is great for a character who wants to do a lot of ranged fighting, as it turns ordinary crossbow bolts into potent weapons. However, several caveats apply:
Due to the range of the explosions, you should avoid firing Hellfire at a target that is either point-blank range or adjacent to anything you don't want to hit, such as pets, aligned priests, and shopkeepers. In addition, crossbows are two-handed weapons in SLASH'EM and its variants, making shields of any kind an obstruction; SLASH'EM's increased blasting damage also means that cross-aligned players should avoid Hellfire in particular, as re-wielding the weapon each time you switch from melee to ranged combat will cause too much damage. Finally, the presence of rapid-fire heavy machine guns and other firearms make Hellfire less powerful than some mundane alternatives for most roles.
With all of this in mind, Rogues and Rangers are likely to benefit the most from discovering Hellfire - they can reach expert in crossbow skill, making Hellfire a viable alternative to firearms for them.) Hellfire | |
---|---|
Base item | crossbow |
Damage vs. small | 1d2 +7 (+2d6) |
Damage vs. large | 1d2 +7 (+2d6) |
To-hit bonus | +5 |
Bonus versus | (any) |
Weapon skill | crossbow |
Size | one-handed |
Affiliation | |
When carried |
(none) |
When wielded | |
When invoked |
(none) |
Base price | 4000 zm |
Weight | 50 |
Material | wood |
In SlashTHEM, Hellfire is statistically unchanged from its appearance in SLASH'EM, but is now one of the many artifacts that can only be created at The Forge.[9]
References
- ↑ dothrow.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1536
- ↑ explode.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 154
- ↑ SlashTHEM 0.9.6 dothrow.c, line 1651
- ↑ SlashTHEM 0.9.6 explode.c, line 154
- ↑ mthrowu.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 146
- ↑ explode.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 156
- ↑ SlashTHEM 0.9.6 mthrowu.c, line 175
- ↑ SlashTHEM 0.9.6 explode.c, line 156
- ↑ SlashTHEM 0.9.6 smith.c, line 61