Solar
A Solar, A, is a type of monster that appears in SLASH'EM, SpliceHack, SlashTHEM, and Hack'EM. The Solar is a large humanoid angelic being that is the strongest of its monster class in terms of monster level and difficulty, and is a lord to their kind—it also has the highest level and difficulty of any randomly generated monster in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM.
Like Planetars, Solars are lawful and possess several abilities that are shared with the Archon of NetHack (which also appears in some of the listed variants): they are strong and capable of flight, regeneration, can see invisible, have infravision, can be seen via infravision, will pick up weapons, armor and magical items that they come across, and can follow a hero to other levels if they are adjacent.
A Solar has two strong weapon attacks, a strong blinding gaze attack that also stuns the target if it blinds them, a powerful claw attack, and the ability to cast one strong mage monster spell per round of combat. Solars require a +4 or better weapon to hit, and implicitly hit as +4 weapons themselves. Solars possess death resistance, fire resistance, cold resistance, shock resistance, sleep resistance, and poison resistance.
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Generation
Randomly generated Solars are created peaceful towards lawful heroes with positive alignment record, and will not be created in Gehennom, though they can generate in external branches such as Vlad's Tower. They are not a valid target for polymorph or genocide.
A hostile Solar can be generated as the minion of an angry lawful god, and tame Solars can be given to lawful heroes by their god via prayer or sacrifice: in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM, they are available from a minimum of experience level 25.[1][2]
Solars are always generated with a blessed erodeproof long sword, whose enchantment is selected from the higher between its naturally generated enchantment and a rolled enchantment from +0 to +3 (with an equal probability of each):[3][4] the long sword will also be made into Sunsword or Demonbane respectively if the selected artifact has not yet been generated.[5] They are also always generated with a non-cursed erosion-proofed +0 shield of reflection.[6]
A Solar never leaves a corpse upon death.
Strategy
Solars boast a base speed of 16, a stellar AC of -10, a high MR score of 80, and access to every mage monster spell available from powerful psi bolts to the touch of death, along with nearly two and a half times the damage output of Archons and still more damage than even a Planetar. They are also so notably rare that you are incredibly unlikely to see one before Gehennom, and will typically not see one at all until the ascension run begins upon obtaining the Amulet of Yendor.
The Solar is one of the major advantages of playing a lawful hero, particularly in SLASH'EM: they can obtain Solars as minions and will almost always encounter them as peaceful. For other heroes, hostile Solars are not a factor to be concerned about until the ascension run as mentioned previously, and are better off avoided in those cases even by the most ascension-ready character builds—the best tools are a source of very fast speed (usually speed boots) combined with either flying or levitation in the event they get a chance to cast the create pool spell at you, and a wand of teleportation to get them out of your path.
Heroes looking to fight a hostile Solar for bragging rights will want to either utilize a footrice corpse or egg, or heavily maximize their fighting capabilities (e.g. a +7 artifact weapon with Expert in the relevant skill and an AC of around -45). They are immune to many types of damage save for acid, life drain, stoning, and disintegration; they can resist death rays and most other spells that are non-elemental; and their guaranteed shield of reflection blocks rays. Even heroes that can exploit their few vulnerabilities should not take that ability for granted, as they will remain formidable opponents regardless. A hero fighting a Solar should use the disarm technique or a bullwhip to rob them of their weapon as soon as possible, and employing the drain life spell or the wand of draining can also be useful against them.
All these qualities also make Solars truly formidable pets and the wish of choice for a pacifist conduct hero or any character seeking the strongest possible pets: Solars that are not gifted as tame minions can wear all non-torso armor and be given an amulet of drain resistance to cover one of their few weaknesses. Pet Solars can quickly reach level 49 and will not go feral—gifted Solars are guaranteed Sunsword or Demonbane if they have not already been generated; in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM this applies even when they are generated from a figurine, and can be used to obtain artifacts without making any artifact wishes.
Origin
The Solar is based on the new age devas of Dungeons & Dragons, spirits that contribute to the functions of nature and represent the sun.
Encyclopedia entry
Solars are near to powers in status, and their children like
demipowers. Their hair and skin is metallic. Solars stay aloof
from mortals, but may command them with an irresistable voice.
[ adapted from Aasimar, by David Roberts and Brynn ]
References
- Jump up ↑ pray.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1167
- Jump up ↑ pray.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1203
- Jump up ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 660
- Jump up ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 667
- Jump up ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 664
- Jump up ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 673
