Talk:Vorpal Blade

I have met once a shapelifter carrying vorpal blade on the castle level. I hint that any payer monster has a change of carrying ot of not created and that the shapeshifter that would be created as a player monster also has a chance (the same ?) to carry vorpal blade. Can anyone confirm this ?

I would doubt it; player monsters are generated differently on Astral than everywhere else. Everywhere else, they carry a few standard (non-artifact) weapons, different for every class, and generally pretty similar to what you would start with if you played that class. The major (and useful) difference is that wizard player-monsters carry athames instead of quarterstaves.

With that in mind, though, as a general thing, do people think it would be appropriate to add to the article a section on what to do if you do encounter a monster wielding Vorpal Blade, perhaps in order of risk? I can think of, from most safe to least:

• Kill it at a distance with projectiles/spells
• Use Elbereth (not safe for player-monsters!)
• Polymorph into something without a head (a trapper/lurker above seems like a good choice, as they can instakill anything with their digestion attack)
• Stone it
• Ignore it, possibly immobilizing it/slowing it to prevent it following you (most viable on Astral, where you're going to ascend soon anyway)
• Attempt to disarm it with a bullwhip
• Melee it, hoping to kill it quickly enough