Beheading and bisection
Beheading is a ability that appears in NetHack as well as its variants, where it is an object property (sometimes referred to as "vorpal"). In vanilla, the trait is associated exclusively with Vorpal Blade, and is retained in variants.
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Description
When a monster (including you) is hit with Vorpal Blade, if the monster has a head and is not unsolid, there is a 5% chance that Vorpal Blade will behead the victim, instakilling them. This chance does not change if the monster has a headless or unsolid form, though the sword will instead either "miss foo wildly" or slice harmlessly through its neck, dealing no damage. If Vorpal Blade hits a jabberwock, it will always behead them.
How many heads the monster has (e.g. ettin and their zombie/mummy forms) is entirely irrelevant - so long as it meets the above conditions, Vorpal Blade can instakill it.
Despite its name, the unused monster vorpal jabberwock does not have any beheading attacks and is simply a tougher jabberwock, although it is given this ability in many variants. Variants that implement the monster will also make it so that Vorpal Blade always decapitates it, with the exception of SLASH'EM.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, the potion of invulnerability does not protect you from beheading, since it only prevents HP loss.
Slash'EM Extended
In Slash'EM Extended, the Zyborg quest artifact is the Verbal Blade, which can behead monsters like the similarly-named Vorpal Blade. A complete helmet protects against beheading attacks when worn.
UnNetHack
UnNetHack also makes use of the vorpal jabberwock, though the chance of its claw attacks decapitating targets is halved to 2.5%.
GruntHack
GruntHack has the vorpal object property, which can only occur with bladed weapons: Single-handed weapons with the vorpal property function the same as Vorpal Blade, beheading solid non-headless targets with a 5% chance and always beheading jabberwocks. A two-handed vorpal weapon will instead bisect enemies as with The Tsurugi of Muramasa, having a 5% chance to instakill small creatures and cutt deeply into large creatures.
GruntHack also implements the vorpal jabberwock and gives this property to its two claw attacks.
DynaHack and FIQHack
In DynaHack, the vorpal property functions the same as in GruntHack, except that it no longer occurs randomly. The same is true in FIQHack.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, the vorpal jabberwock behaves very similarly to GruntHack's version. Cerberus is also made immune to instadeath in this manner, as he will instantly grow a new head in its place before the other two can be removed.
dNetHack
dNetHack also has the vorpal object property, though it functions differently: the vorpal type is chosen based on the object's damage types, and vorpal weapons that are both slashing and piercing will decapitate the target. The chance to do so is 5%, as in vanilla NetHack.
In addition, dNetHack introduces several new artifacts capable of decapitation:
- Release from Care and Crescent Blade can behead its target, with the same chance as Vorpal Blade.
- The Lifehunt Scythe will only behead targets while sneak attacking with it, with the normal 5% chance per hit.
- The Dragon's Heart-Stone can behead monsters that are not aware of your location.
- Snickersnee and The Kusanagi no Tsurugi are capable of beheading monsters.
- Levistus's Shadowlock can behead its target.
References
