Difference between revisions of "Vampire"
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| − | Vampires are a starting [[race]] added in [[SLASH'EM]] - this means that [[Doppelganger (starting race)|Doppelgangers]] cannot polymorph into vampires, though they can still polymorph into other members of the vampire monster class. | + | Vampires are a starting [[race]] added in [[SLASH'EM]] - this means that [[Doppelganger (starting race)|Doppelgangers]] cannot polymorph into vampires, though they can still polymorph into other members of the vampire monster class. |
| − | Player vampires and | + | Player vampires and players [[polymorph]]ed into undead vampires can fly and do not need to breathe, but they cannot eat solid food and have to rely on fresh blood as a food source. Player and pet vampires can drain blood from living victims or corpses, or else drink a [[potion of blood]] or vampire blood, as nutritional replacements for rations and the like; drained corpses are still eligible to sacrifice if they are not too old. Vampires in the dungeon may generate with either potion, and will drink non-cursed vampire blood to restore 2-10 HP - they gain nothing from drinking cursed potions. A non-vampire player that attempts to drink an uncursed potion of vampire blood will polymorph into a vampire and suffer a −3 alignment penalty if neutral, while lawfuls and Monks take a −15 alignment penalty and anger their god. |
Randomly generated vampires and their stronger forms are often generated with [[opera cloak]]s, and can provide a valuable method of farming said cloaks, especially if it is the [[randomized appearance]] of a [[cloak of magic resistance]] - the tradeoff lies in these vampires being made harder to dispatch, depending on the cloak. The {{spell of|acid stream}} spell is a good substitute for the {{spell of|magic missile}} spell in such scenarios. | Randomly generated vampires and their stronger forms are often generated with [[opera cloak]]s, and can provide a valuable method of farming said cloaks, especially if it is the [[randomized appearance]] of a [[cloak of magic resistance]] - the tradeoff lies in these vampires being made harder to dispatch, depending on the cloak. The {{spell of|acid stream}} spell is a good substitute for the {{spell of|magic missile}} spell in such scenarios. | ||
Revision as of 08:51, 24 August 2022
- For the monster class, see Vampire (monster class).
V vampire 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 12 |
| Attacks |
Claw 1d6, bite 1d6 drain life |
| Base level | 10 |
| Base experience | 327 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 1 |
| Base MR | 25 |
| Alignment | -8 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 400 (human corpse) |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | Sleep, poison |
| Resistances conveyed |
None |
|
A vampire:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line1840 |
A vampire, V, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. Vampires are human undead that are breathless and capable of flight and regeneration; they also possess sleep resistance and poison resistance, and will follow you to other levels if they are adjacent.
Vampires can polymorph at will into vampire bats or fog clouds - they often disguise themselves as the former when outside of the player's sight and shift into the latter to flow under locked or inaccessible doors, and revert to vampire form if killed in either of these forms. Standing on any altar scares vampires, similar to standing on Elbereth or a scroll of scare monster.[1]
Players in the form of a vampire are warned of any human or elf, and will turn into vampire bats if they polymorph without polymorph control. will turn into vampire bats if they polymorph without polymorph control.
Contents
Generation
In addition to random generation, vampires are a somewhat uncommon find in graveyards. All normally-generated vampires are hostile.
At least five vampires are generated in Orcus-town on level creation.
Human characters killed by a member of the vampire class arise as a vampire instead of a ghost in any bones file that is created.[2]
Strategy
Vampires often make for annoying fights, due to their ability to rob you of experience levels unless you have drain resistance, e.g. from an artifact weapon like Excalibur; MC3 is the next best option in the event you lack this resistance. They can wear armor to bolster their base AC of 1, though this is usually only a concern with bones files - most vampires will approach you as a vampire bat or be found in fog cloud form, which forces them to drop any armor they would find, and will revive in vampire form once you dispatch their weaker guises.
Vampires that shapeshift retain their current HP between forms, making it possible to bring them to low health and wait for them to assume their humanoid forms before finishing them off. A silver weapon with decent enchantment and/or skill level can bring them low in a few hits, and the silver damage applies regardless of their current form.
As pets
Vampires are decently strong as pets, and only require two levels to grow up into vampire lords. However, pet vampires will shapeshift as normal unless you are wearing a ring of protection from shape changers - in their other forms, they are weak fighters that cannot wear armor, and will not shapeshift back to humanoid form unless killed or forced back to normal by the ring. Players planning to keep vampire pets should identify this ring as soon as possible.
Though their hitdie in humanoid form are somewhat mediocre, it remains the vampire's strongest form by far: its good base AC and access to all armor gives them the potential for high survivability. However, their silver weakness and lack of elemental resistances can easily work against them.
As a polyform
Vampires are a decent polyself form for players - they have the same base speed, can wear the same armor as the player and allow wielding of any non-silver weapon, and you can easily compensate for the lack of elemental resistances. They are also inediate and have regeneration, flight, and breathlessness that you can readily take advantage of. The silver weakness is just as much a danger to you in this form as it is to other vampires, however, and you will need to avoid engaging certain monsters such as cockatrices in melee, lest your bite attack lead to YASD. Additionally, most players capable of controlled polymorph will usually opt for vampire lords, which are similar but strictly better in all aspects.
History
Vampires have been present in the game since Hack121, a variant of Jay Fenlason's Hack.
The vampire's shapeshifting abilities were added in NetHack 3.6.0.
Messages
Chatting to vampires in their humanoid form will produce various responses from them depending on the time of day, the monster's peacefulness and your current form.
Variants
Many variants add the vampire as a playable race and make some changes to the vampire monster.
SLASH'EM
Vampires are a starting race added in SLASH'EM - this means that Doppelgangers cannot polymorph into vampires, though they can still polymorph into other members of the vampire monster class.
Player vampires and players polymorphed into undead vampires can fly and do not need to breathe, but they cannot eat solid food and have to rely on fresh blood as a food source. Player and pet vampires can drain blood from living victims or corpses, or else drink a potion of blood or vampire blood, as nutritional replacements for rations and the like; drained corpses are still eligible to sacrifice if they are not too old. Vampires in the dungeon may generate with either potion, and will drink non-cursed vampire blood to restore 2-10 HP - they gain nothing from drinking cursed potions. A non-vampire player that attempts to drink an uncursed potion of vampire blood will polymorph into a vampire and suffer a −3 alignment penalty if neutral, while lawfuls and Monks take a −15 alignment penalty and anger their god.
Randomly generated vampires and their stronger forms are often generated with opera cloaks, and can provide a valuable method of farming said cloaks, especially if it is the randomized appearance of a cloak of magic resistance - the tradeoff lies in these vampires being made harder to dispatch, depending on the cloak. The acid stream spell is a good substitute for the magic missile spell in such scenarios.
UnNetHack
As with SLASH'EM, UnNetHack also adds the vampire as a starting race, and randomly generated vampires are also often generated with opera cloaks. The same conditions for player and polyself vampires apply as in SLASH'EM.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, vampires are also a starting race. Pet vampires will drain corpses for nutrition the same way a player vampire does, with similar conditions (i.e. corpses must be less than 3 turns of age and have blood).
Vampires may appear in the court of a vampire lord-ruled throne room.
Encyclopedia entry
He can transform himself to wolf, as we gather from the ship
arrival in Whitby, when he tear open the dog; he can be as
bat, as Madam Mina saw him on the window at Whitby, and as
friend John saw him fly from this so near house, and as my
friend Quincey saw him at the window of Miss Lucy. He can come
in mist which he create--that noble ship's captain proved him
of this; but, from what we know, the distance he can make this
mist is limited, and it can only be round himself. He come on
moonlight rays as elemental dust--as again Jonathan saw those
sisters in the castle of Dracula. He become so small--we
ourselves saw Miss Lucy, ere she was at peace, slip through a
hairbreadth space at the tomb door.
[ Dracula, by Bram Stoker ]
The Oxford English Dictionary is quite unequivocal:
_vampire_ - "a preternatural being of a malignant nature (in
the original and usual form of the belief, a reanimated
corpse), supposed to seek nourishment, or do harm, by sucking
the blood of sleeping persons. ..."
