Magicbane

)   Magicbane
Base item	athame
Damage vs. small	1d4 + 1d4 + (special) (2-8)
Damage vs. large	1d3 + 1d4 + (special) (2-7)
To-hit bonus	+2 +1d3
Bonus versus	fail monster MR check or player without MR
Weapon skill	dagger
Size	one-handed
Affiliation	neutral (Wizard)
When carried	(none)
When wielded	magic resistance blocks 95% of curses special attacks
When invoked	(none)
Base price	3500 zm
Weight	10
Material	iron

Magicbane is an artifact athame. It is considered a dagger for skill purposes, and has a 40% chance of having a magical effect on the victim as well inflicting damage. Throwing Magicbane can have the same effect on a monster it hits. Care should be taken not to throw at an enemy that can pick it up and wield it, conferring magic resistance to the monster. The "bonus" effects that Magicbane can produce are:

• Cancel monster
• Probe monster
• Stun monster
• Scare monster

Any bonus effect adds an additional 1d4 damage. Though the chance of some type of magical bonus effect is always 40%, Magicbane's level of enchantment affects the probability of each type of effect differently. Magicbane enchanted to +2 has the best chance of inflicting valuable magical effects, but the average damage it inflicts increases with each level of enchantment. It can be safely enchanted to +7 (but stop enchanting it once it reaches +6!), which is typically desirable for dealing maximum damage as primary weapon.

Magicbane has two reactions if it's enchanted to +0 or above:

• "Your right hand itches!" (+0 or +1)
• "Your right hand flinches" (+2 or higher)

In addition, Magicbane catches and resists 95% of curses sent to the wielder and gives magic resistance. Like all athames, when blessed or uncursed Magicbane can also engrave Elbereth without dulling and in one turn, albeit not permanently. While being wielded, Magicbane nullifies the effects of magical traps: teleport, polymorph, and level teleport. This is especially useful against polymorph traps.

Wizards receive Magicbane as their first gift from their god after sacrificing at an altar. Arch-liches have a miniscule (1/1170, or approximately 0.085%) chance of being generated with Magicbane. Even hunting them until extinction yields only a 9.75% chance of magicbane appearing.

Magicbane, like all artifacts, resists being dual-wielded as a second weapon.

Damage

The base damage is 1d4 to small monsters and 1d3 to large monsters. If the monster fails a magic resistance check, an additional 1d4 damage is added to the base damage. There is a 40% chance of 1d4 more additional damage:

• There is a chance of +1d4 stun damage. If the monster failed the previous magic resistance check, the probability of this stun damage is $\frac{10 - \max(\mathrm{enchantment}, 0)}{11}$ probability of +1d4 stun.

If the monster passed the magic resistance check, the probability of this stun damgae is $\frac{6 - \max(\mathrm{enchantment}, 0)}{7}$.

• Given there is additional damage, the base probability of scare & cancellation damage is p = 25% / 2^(enchantment div 3).
  • The probability of +1d4 scare damage is p.
  • The probability of +2d4 scare & cancellation damage is p.
  • The probability of no scare or cancellation damage is 1 - 2 p.
    • If there is no stun, scare, or cancellation damage, the attack probes.

Hallucination messages

If hallucinating, the Magicbane bonus damage (and effect) messages change to suitably warped messages, such as amaze, purge and tickle. The effects they correspond to are randomized, but are still in effect.

References

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.

It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.4.3. Information on this page may be out of date.

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