Demonbane
) Demonbane 
| |
|---|---|
| Base item | long sword |
| Damage vs. small | 1d8 x2 |
| Damage vs. large | 1d12 x2 |
| To-hit bonus | +1d5 |
| Bonus versus | demons |
| Weapon skill | long sword |
| Size | one-handed |
| Affiliation | |
| When carried |
(none) |
| When wielded |
prevents demon gating |
| When invoked |
(none) |
| Base price | 2500 zm |
| Weight | 40 |
| Material | iron |
Demonbane is a lawful artifact long sword that appears in NetHack. It has +1d5 to hit and deals double damage against all major demons—this means all & except the Riders, djinn, the mail daemon, and sandestins. It also blocks demon gating while wielded. However, unlike a silver saber or other silver weapons, Demonbane does not deal additional damage against minor demons.[1][2]
Contents
Generation
If Demonbane has not yet been created, an Archon has a 50% chance of being given Demonbane.[3]
Strategy
Demonbane is slightly less useless than most of the other monster-specific weapons, since demons are actually reasonably common in the late game and could use an extra dose of damage. However, there are plenty of other weapons that do extra damage to demons, such as Grayswandir, Frost Brand, or even a regular silver saber, on which your scrolls of enchant weapon are certainly better spent. Therefore, Demonbane is rarely used.
If you have no other particularly good artifacts, it may make a good weapon for an intelligent pet. especially since Archons are often generated with it.
History
Demonbane's ability to block demon gating was first added in SporkHack, and much later added to 3.6.1.
Variants
dNetHack
In dNetHack, Demonbane is a lawful silver saber that blocks demons' passive summoning abilities, even when wielded in the offhand. Its double damage and warning are preserved.
FIQHack
In FIQHack, Demonbane is a silver saber. Its damage bonus is changed from double damage to +1d20. It still prevents demon gating.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, Demonbane grants warning versus demons.
SporkHack
) Demonbane 
| |
|---|---|
| Base item | silver mace |
| Damage vs. small | 1d6+1 x2 |
| Damage vs. large | 1d6 x2 |
| To-hit bonus | +1d5 |
| Bonus versus | demons |
| Weapon skill | silver mace |
| Size | one-handed |
| Affiliation | |
| When carried |
|
| When wielded |
|
| When invoked |
(none) |
| Base price | 2500 zm |
| Weight | 40 |
| Material | iron |
In SporkHack, Demonbane has been significantly overhauled. It is now a silver mace, and like all revised SporkHack artifacts, it gets +1d5 bonus to hit; it does double damage to demons, provides warning versus demons and prevents demons from summoning in your presence. It is the first sacrifice gift for priests.
Generation
Because silver maces are not randomly generated, Demonbane will never be randomly generated.
References
- ↑ artilist.h in NetHack 3.4.3, line 105: Demonbane gets a bonus against monster types with the M2_DEMON flag set
- ↑ Imps and other minor demons in monst.c: No minor demon has M2_DEMON set
- ↑ makemon.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 268: the game always tries to give overlord A one of the two artifacts; if the chosen artifact has already been generated, it will be converted to a normal rustproof long sword. Thus, when one of the two artifacts has already been generated, the next Archon generated has a 50% chance of receiving the other.
This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.4. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-364}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.
