Reaver

This article is about the artifact weapon in the Pirate patch. For the role title, see Barbarian.

Reaver is an artifact cutlass (scimitar) in the Pirate patch for NetHack. It is the crowning gift for Pirates, and is the only artifact weapon they are able to receive from their deity (or guaranteed artifact weapon of any kind in the game). It adds +1d4 to hit and +1d8 to damage, which combined with its relatively weak base damage of 1d8, makes it noticeably weaker than other artifact swords such as Excalibur, Stormbringer, and Snickersnee, not to mention Grayswandir, or the the Brands. However, it steals one item from an opponent with each successful hit, which will allow the Pirate to collect potions of full healing, amulets of life saving, and attack wands that otherwise would have been used up by monsters.

References: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.games.roguelike.nethack/pirate%7Csort:date/rec.games.roguelike.nethack/o95FVd7p_yQ/TgWCFVKJkwsJ