Caveman/SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, the Caveman or Cavewoman, sometimes referred to as the Caveperson, is one of the roles from NetHack that is available to the hero.

Cavepeople can be of lawful or neutral alignment, and can be humans, dwarves, gnomes, or doppelgangers.

Starting equipment

Each Caveperson starts with the following equipment:

• a +1 club (wielded)
• a +2 sling (alternate weapon)
• 10-22 flint stones
• 18-33 uncursed rocks
• +0 leather armor

The Caveperson's default starting pet is a little dog called Slasher.

Intrinsics

Cavepeople gain the following intrinsic properties upon reaching the given experience levels:

• Level 7: speed
• Level 15: warning

Attributes

The Caveperson's starting attributes are distributed as follows:

Attributes	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma	Remaining
Minimum attributes	10	7	8	7	7	6	30
Distribution percentages	30%	20%	30%	6%	7%	7%
Mean w/ standard deviation	18/01.61±2.48	13.19±2.16	16.43±1.76	8.90±1.40	9.21±1.49	7.90±1.40

Skills

Cavepeople have the following skills available to them:

Barbarian skills
Max	Skills
Basic	Weapons: dagger, pick-axe, morning star, unicorn horn Spells: enchantment spells
Skilled	Weapons: knife, axe, flail, hammer, polearms, javelin, trident, sling Spells: matter spells
Expert	Weapons: club, paddle, mace, quarterstaff, spear, bow, boomerang
Master	Combat: bare hands

Cavepeople start with Basic skill in clubs, slings and bare-handed combat. They use the intelligence stat to cast spells, and their special spell is dig.

Techniques

Cavepeople can learn the disarm technique by reaching Skilled in any weapon, and also gain the following techniques at the listed experience levels:

Level	Technique
1	Primal roar

Special rules

Cavepeople have a 2-square vision radius.

Cavepeople do not suffer any penalty for cannibalism, including the aggravate monster property given from eating domestic canine or feline corpses, and additionally gain a +1 bonus to alignment record each time they consume a corpse or tin of their race.

Cavepeople never get nausea from eating tripe rations.

Rank titles

The status line displays one of the following ranks for the corresponding experience levels:

• XL 1-2: Troglodyte
• XL 3-5: Aborigine
• XL 6-9: Wanderer
• XL 10-13: Vagrant
• XL 14-17: Wayfarer
• XL 18-21: Roamer
• XL 22-25: Nomad
• XL 26-29: Rover
• XL 30: Pioneer

Quest

The Caveperson's quest sees them fighting the Chromatic Dragon for The Sceptre of Might, an artifact mace. It has +3 to-hit and deals +5 against monsters of a different alignment from the artifact, and grants magic resistance while carried. Invoking The Sceptre of Might toggles hungerless conflict on or off, and conflict caused by the artifact ends once it leaves the main inventory.

Gods

The Caveman pantheon is based on the mythology of Mesopotamia (sometimes known as Babylon). Their first sacrifice gift is Skullcrusher.

• Lawful: Anu
• Neutral: Ishtar
• Chaotic: Anshar

Strategy

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Cavepeople have a handful of additional benefits compared to their NetHack counterparts. Their natural 2-square vision range makes corridors and dark areas like the Gnomish Mines substantially safer to explore even without infravision. The primal roar technique causes all nearby pets to temporarily grow up (e.g. a kitten becomes a housecat, a dog becomes a large dog, etc.), making it life-saving in the early game and a powerful option later on. Unfortunately, Cavepeople do not possess a multishot bonus for thrown spears due to SLASH'EM being a variant of NetHack 3.4.3, since the multishot bonus is added in a later version of NetHack—the Sceptre of Might is also much weaker as a long-term main weapon candidate, though it does not need to be wielded for magic resistance and invoking it for conflict is still quite useful.

The starting flint stones can be upgraded into luckstones or healthstones, which has the effect of making gnomish Cavepeople far less disadvantageous to play as: once they secure a source of reliable permafood, they can use the race's tinker technique in order to upgrade their flint stones. Cavepeople should try to obtain their first gift Skullcrusher as soon as possible: it has +3 to-hit and deals +10 damage to all monsters, and can hold its own well into the late game. The primal roar technique is also especially strong for enterprising Cavepeople that manage to obtain rare pets such as gnolls or liches.