Vampire bat
B vampire bat 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 7 |
| Attacks |
Bite 1d6, Bite poison |
| Base level | 5 |
| Base experience | 66 |
| Speed | 20 |
| Base AC | 6 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 2 (Quite rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 30 |
| Nutritional value | 20 |
| Size | Small |
| Resistances | sleep, poison |
| Resistances conveyed |
None |
|
A vampire bat:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line1141 |
A vampire bat, B, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is the strongest type of bat and possesses two bite attacks, with the second being poisonous. It is capable of enhanced regeneration, and has poison resistance and sleep resistance. Vampires are capable of shifting into bat form, and will resurrect into their base form if killed; Vlad the Impaler will not shift to bat form while he has the Candelabrum of Invocation.
A vampire bat corpse is poisonous to eat, but eating its corpse or tin does not stun you as with other species of bat.
A player polymorphed into vampire bats are stunned for the duration of the polyself. A player polymorphed into any form of vampire will turn into a vampire bat if they are polymorphed again or use the #monster extended command, and can decline to do so if they have polymorph control - as vampire bats lack a special ability, players turned into bats this way cannot turn back at will.
Contents
Generation
Three vampire bats are generated in the Valley of the Dead at level creation (outside of bones).
Vampire bats are the first quest monster for the Wizard quest, composing 55% of the monsters randomly encountered there; they may also appear among the random B that make up 14% of randomly generated monsters and are placed at level creation on non-filler floors. Vampire bats are also generated on several floors below the home level at level creation: four on the upper filler level, seven on the locate level, two on the lower filler levels, and eight on the goal level.
Strategy
Vampire bats are generally weak, but their 20 speed and erratic movement make them hard to hit and deal with, and their bites can deal severe damage to an early character lacking poison resistance.
Vampires disguised as vampire bats can be revealed by using any means of probing (e.g. a wand of probing or a stethoscope), or else attacking them with a silver weapon.
History
The vampire bat first appears in Hack 1.21, a variant of Jay Fenlason's Hack, where it uses the b glyph. It makes its vanilla debut in NetHack 3.0.0 under its current glpyh.
Vampires' ability to transform into bats is introduced in NetHack 3.6.0.
Origin
Vampire bats are real, and common to the American Southwest as well as Central and South America. There are three distinct species of vampire bat, and are the only animals known to feed primarily or solely on the blood of other animals.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, vampire bats are classified as vampiric monsters - while this does not give them any actual vampiric properties, they qualify as monsters of the same race for player vampires, and are weak to silver weapons.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, a potion of vampire blood quaffed by non-vampire players will polymorph them depending on beatitude: a cursed potion will turn them into a vampire bat. This incurs a −3 alignment penalty if neutral, while you take a −15 alignment penalty and anger your god if you are lawful or a Monk. The polymorph is "semi-permanent" and will last until your HP is reduced to 0.
Encyclopedia entry
A bat, flitting in the darkness outside, took the wrong turn as it made its nightly rounds and came in through the window which had been left healthfully open. It then proceeded to circle the room in the aimless fat-headed fashion habitual with bats, who are notoriously among the less intellectually gifted of God's creatures. Show me a bat, says the old proverb, and I will show you something that ought to be in some kind of a home.
