Vampire
V vampire 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 12 |
| Attacks |
Claw 1d6 physical, bite 1d6 drain life |
| Base level | 10 |
| Base experience | 327 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 1 |
| Base MR | 25 |
| Alignment | -8 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 400 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | sleep resistance, poison resistance |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
|
A vampire:
| |
| Reference | NetHack 3.6.7 - src/monst.c, line 1845 |
- This article is about the individual monster type. For the monster class, see Vampire (monster class).
- For the starting race in multiple variants, see Vampire (starting race).
- For other instances of the term, see Vampire (disambiguation).
A vampire, V, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The vampire is a form of intelligent human undead and the most basic type of vampire: they are breathless, capable of flight, have enhanced regeneration, and can follow a hero to other levels if they are adjacent. A hero standing on an altar will scare vampires, similar to standing on Elbereth or a scroll of scare monster.[1]
Vampires are shapeshifters that can polymorph at will into vampire bats or fog clouds, and will disguise themselves as the former when outside of the player's sight, while often shifting into the latter to flow under locked or inaccessible doors—a vampire that is "killed" in either form (including stoning but not disintegration) will revert to their base form.
A vampire in their base form has a claw attack and a life-draining bite attack. Vampires possess sleep resistance and poison resistance like other undead, along with drain resistance and death resistance, and are vulnerable to silver—these vampiric traits are carried across all of their forms.
A hero polymorphed into a vampire is warned of humans and elves (@). Polymorphing while in vampire form or using the #monster extended command will cause the hero to become a vampire bat—they can decline to do so if they have polymorph control. Heroes that become vampire bats this way cannot revert back to vampire form using the command.
A vampire is poisonous to consume, which primarily comes up if they are digested by another monster in their base form—a shapeshifted vampire that is digested and 'killed' by it will escape and return to base form as normal.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.
Per commit a27ca52b, a hero polymorphed into a vampire that shifts into bat or fog cloud form can use #monster while in those forms to shapeshift again.Contents
Generation
Randomly generated vampires are always created hostile. A vampire can grow up into a vampire lord.
Vampires can be generated in graveyards at level creation if the level difficulty is appropriately high.[2]
At least five vampires are generated in Orcus-town during level creation: two are placed near Orcus himself, and the other three are randomly placed across the town.
Vampires can appear among the servants of Vlad the Impaler resting atop the chests at the top of his tower.
The Wizard of Yendor may create a clone of himself in the guise of a vampire via the Double Trouble monster spell.[3]
A vampire is considered corpseless, instead leaving behind a tainted human corpse if it drops a corpse upon death.[4][5][6]
A human hero killed by a vampire or any other vampiric monster will arise as a vampire instead of a ghost if a bones file is created.[7]
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.
Per commit 0c3b9642, vampires will grow up into vampire leaders of the appropriate gender, rather than always becoming male vampire lords.
Per commit 9b74ea0b, the mausoleum themed room may hold a vampire within the 3×3 subroom in the center.
Per commit 3c421da7, a hero turned into a vampire in a bones file will have the same intrinsics as the former hero.Strategy
Vampires often make for annoying fights due to their ability to rob you of experience levels unless you have drain resistance, e.g. from wielding an artifact weapon like Excalibur—MC3 is the next best option in the event you lack this resistance. A vampire can wear armor to bolster their base AC of 1, though this usually occurs more often with bones files where a hero has turned into one: most vampires will approach you as a vampire bat or be found in fog cloud form, which forces them to shed any armor they would find.
Vampires that shapeshift roughly retain their HP between forms, making it possible to bring them to low health and wait for them to assume their humanoid forms before finishing them off. A silver weapon with decent enchantment and/or skill level can bring them low in a few hits, and the silver damage applies regardless of their current form.
Vampires of deceased heroes found on bones levels can be formidable opponents: their natural AC of 1 will combine with the dead character's full set of armor, resulting in a monster that can be very difficult to hit. While they are thankfully unable to wield the late player's weapons, they will use any attack wands left behind, and tricking them into shapeshifting may be a saving grace for a savvy hero.
As pets
Vampires are decently strong as pets, and only require two levels to grow up into vampire lords. However, pet vampires will shapeshift as normal unless you are wearing a ring of protection from shape changers—in their other forms, they are weak fighters that cannot wear armor, and will not shapeshift back to humanoid form unless killed or forced back to normal by the ring. Players planning to keep vampire pets should identify this ring as soon as possible.
Though their hit dice in humanoid form are somewhat mediocre, it remains the vampire's strongest form by far: its good base AC, draining capabilities and access to all non-silver armor gives them the potential for high survivability. However, their silver weakness and lack of elemental resistances can easily work against them.
As a polyform
Vampires are a decent polyself form for heroes: they are strong with 12 base speed, can utilize all non-silver armor and weapons, and have enhanced regeneration, flight, and breathlessness, all without needing to eat to survive. While you can easily compensate for the lack of elemental resistances, the silver weakness is just as much a danger to you in this form as it is to other vampires, and you will need to avoid engaging certain monsters such as cockatrices in melee, lest your bite attack lead to YASD. Additionally, most heroes capable of controlled polymorph will usually opt for vampire lords, which are strictly better in all aspects.
History
The vampire first appears Hack 1.21 and Hack for PDP-11, which are both based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial bestiary for Hack 1.0.
The vampire's shapeshifting abilities are introduced in NetHack 3.6.0. Some players may prefer them as pets in previous versions and variants based on those versions, where they will not shapeshift out of any armor they are given.
Messages
Chatting to vampires in their humanoid form will produce various responses from them depending on the time of day, the monster's peacefulness and the hero's current form.
Variants
Many variants add the vampire as a playable race of hero and make some related changes to the vampire monster.
SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM adds the vampire as a playable race and make vampires invalid polymorph forms, though other members of the vampire monster class are still valid forms to polymorph into. Vampires themselves are subject to several changes when compared with earlier versions of NetHack, and will not shapeshift as they do in versions beyond NetHack 3.4.3.
GruntHack
In GruntHack, vampires are among the racial monsters that can be generated as one of several races, and can grow up into vampire lords of the same race.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, randomly generated vampires are often created with opera cloaks and potions of blood or vampire blood, similar to SLASH'EM. UnNetHack also adds the vampire as a playable race, and the same food conditions for hero and polyself vampires apply as in SLASH'EM.
Potions of vampire blood quaffed by non-vampire heroes will polymorph them depending on beatitude: an uncursed potion will turn them into a vampire, and the same conditions and penalties apply as with quaffing vampire blood of any beatitude in SLASH'EM.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, vampires may appear in the court of a throne room ruled by a vampire lord or vampire lady. Vampires also appear in the Chaos Temple variant of the Chaos Quest, where 9⁄20 of the randomly generated monsters on the Earth Temple level will be vampires.
dNetHack and its derivatives also add vampires as a starting race, with similar food conditions to SLASH'EM applied for vampire heroes and polyself vampires (as well as other vampiric monsters), though there are some important differences:
- Potions of blood can be made from tinning the corpse of a monster that has blood.
- Quaffing potions of a monster's blood has the same effect as eating that monster's corpse does.
- Pet vampires can drain corpses for nutrition as a vampire hero does.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, vampires are renamed to vampire sovereigns, with "vampire baron" and "vampire baroness" used as specific gendered terms—this is done to accommodate the placeholder monster for the playable vampire race, which has very similar attributes but lacks both flight and enhanced regeneration, and has the standard base 10 AC as opposed to the usual 1 AC of vampire sovereigns. EvilHack also increases the speed of both monsters to 15.
Vampire heroes and other heroes polymorphed into vampires have similar dietary restrictions as in SLASH'EM, with EvilHack adding potions of blood and vampire blood and granting vampires the ability to bite monsters and drain corpses for sustenance.
Vampires cannot be subjected to genocide while Vlad the Impaler is alive.
Vampire sovereigns have a 1⁄2 chance each of being generated in their base form or a shapeshifted form. They also have a 1⁄2 chance of generating with blood-red potions that will be normal blood with a 3⁄4 chance and will otherwise be vampire blood.
Tame vampire sovereigns will not shapeshift on their own, making them more viable as pets since they will keep non-silver armor worn.
Encyclopedia entry
He can transform himself to wolf, as we gather from the ship
arrival in Whitby, when he tear open the dog; he can be as
bat, as Madam Mina saw him on the window at Whitby, and as
friend John saw him fly from this so near house, and as my
friend Quincey saw him at the window of Miss Lucy. He can come
in mist which he create--that noble ship's captain proved him
of this; but, from what we know, the distance he can make this
mist is limited, and it can only be round himself. He come on
moonlight rays as elemental dust--as again Jonathan saw those
sisters in the castle of Dracula. He become so small--we
ourselves saw Miss Lucy, ere she was at peace, slip through a
hairbreadth space at the tomb door.
[ Dracula, by Bram Stoker ]
The Oxford English Dictionary is quite unequivocal:
_vampire_ - "a preternatural being of a malignant nature (in
the original and usual form of the belief, a reanimated
corpse), supposed to seek nourishment, or do harm, by sucking
the blood of sleeping persons. ..."
References
- ↑ src/monmove.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 154
- ↑ src/mkroom.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 475
- ↑ src/wizard.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 50
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 147: undead_to_corpse() maps undead to corpses of their living counterparts
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 171: undead_to_corpse() case for vampires
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 351: Undead corpses and their ages are handled with other "special" death drops
- ↑ src/end.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 517
