Snickersnee

)   Snickersnee
Base item	katana
Damage vs. small	1d10 +1d8
Damage vs. large	1d12 +1d8
To-hit bonus	+1
Bonus versus	(any)
Weapon skill	long sword
Size	one-handed
Affiliation	lawful (Samurai)
When carried	(none)
When wielded	(none)
When invoked	(none)
Base price	1200 zm
Weight	40
Material	iron

Snickersnee is an artifact katana, that simply does +1d8 damage; the main good thing about it is that it uses the long sword skill, so you can build up skill quickly. It is the first sacrifice gift for a samurai.

It is moderately useful in the early game, especially for Samurai, Valkyries and Knights (or other long sword wielders), but is usually not worth burning a wish for. It is interesting to note, however, that Excalibur is only slightly better than Snickersnee - they inflict the same amount of damage versus small monsters (1d8+1d10 for Excalibur versus 1d10+1d8 for Snickersnee), and Snickersnee does not anger demons or reveal your presence to monsters. However, neither does it confer level-drain resistance or searching, and it gets only +1 to hit (versus Excalibur's +1d5), though the attack bonus is much less significant at high levels or with high luck. Excalibur also inflicts slightly more damage to large monsters.

Average damage calculation

The average damage calculations in the following table do not include bonuses from weapon skills, strength, or from using a blessed weapon against undead or demons.

Weapon	Small monster	Large monster
+0 Snickersnee	$\frac{1+10}{2}+\frac{1+8}{2}=\bold{10}$	$\frac{1+12}{2}+\frac{1+8}{2}=\bold{11}$
+7 Snickersnee	$\frac{1+10}{2}+\frac{1+8}{2}+7=\bold{17}$	$\frac{1+12}{2}+\frac{1+8}{2}+7=\bold{18}$

Variants

In SLASH'EM, Snickersnee does its maximum damage bonus on each hit, thus 1d10+8 vs. small and 1d12+8 vs. large, making it significantly more powerful than in Vanilla. Additionally, since artifacts can be #two-weaponed, a Samurai who finds a longsword can get easy access to both Excalibur and Snickersnee, which makes for a formidable combination even into the late game.

In SporkHack, Snickersnee gains +1d5 to hit (in addition to the +1 for being a katana), but is otherwise unchanged. This is more significant than it might initially seem because of the to-hit calculation changes in Spork.

Origin

Per the encyclopedia entry. Snickersnee is a reference to a popular 19th century comic opera set in Japan.

Despite been a katana and been the first sacrifice gift for samurai. Its name has nothing Japanese, it's just an old English word, for "large knife".

Encyclopedia entry

Ah, never shall I forget the cry,
or the shriek that shrieked he,
As I gnashed my teeth, and from my sheath
I drew my Snickersnee!
--Koko, Lord high executioner of Titipu

[ The Mikado, by Sir W.S. Gilbert ]