Barbarian

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Barbarians are strong melee fighters who start the game with poison resistance. Because barbarians can fight their way through situations that would kill other players, and because they need not worry about poison, they are one of the easier roles for a new player. When a barbarian starts the game with a dog, the dog is always named Idefix (unless you specified another name in options). The barbarian's attack messages replace most instances of "hit" with "smite" (e.g. "You smite the foo!"), but this has no gameplay effect.

Barbarians can be either neutral or chaotic, and can be either humans or orcs. Their first sacrifice gift is Cleaver. According to the guidebook:

         Barbarians  are  warriors out of the hinterland, hardened to 
         battle.   They  begin  their  quests  with  naught  but  uncommon 
         strength, a trusty hauberk, and a great two-handed sword.


Starting inventory

Each barbarian starts with the following:[1][2]

Intrinsics

Barbarians gain intrinsics at these experience levels:[4]

Skills

Barbarian skills
Max Skills
Basic
Skilled
Expert
Master

Barbarians start with Basic skill in Axe, Bare hands, and the skill for their sword (short or two-handed).

Strategy

Early game

Weapons

Barbarians receive an excellent two-handed major weapon and a somewhat weaker one-handed minor weapon; half of the time they will start will be a two-handed sword and an axe, and the other half start with a battle-axe and a short sword. In either case, most Barbarians will begin training up their axe skill in preparation for Cleaver, an artifact battle-axe that is their first sacrifice gift and the perfect supplement to their playstyle, since its wide swings grant more crowd-clearing potential

Armor

The starting ring mail is adequate for the beginning stages of the game, though it is among the weakest mail armor. As a melee-dominant class, the average barbarian does not have to be as picky as most other classes about wearing metal armor can simply go for whichever sets of gear grant the lowest AC possible, with the main question being the usual one of weight vs. carrying capacity. The barbarian's combat capabilities make the Gnomish Mines a viable if risky choice to visit early, as they are bound to come across an elven or dwarvish mithril-coat while fending off the hostile inhabitants.

General

Most fresh corpses (even the poisonous ones) will slide down a barbarian's gullet like an eel in a waxed tube. However, like other classes, barbarians need to avoid eating old corpses (including any corpse of a mummy or zombie). Cannibalism does not fly as far as human barbarians go, so human corpses (including Keystone Kop) should not be consumed unless you are willing to suffer the consequences. Human barbarians will also gain aggravate monster if they eat dog or cat corpses (this won't be too much of a problem if you have stealth, though), so this should be avoided in all but the most desperate times.

Mid game

Objectives

The barbarian quest is not especially difficult, although it does have a couple of wrinkles. There will be a very large number of trolls on the quest. They can form an almost perpetual swarm around the character, rising from the dead faster than they can be permanently disposed of. There are far more of them than even a hungry barbarian can eat, so a tinning kit can be extremely helpful in this situation, as can a wielded cockatrice or chickatrice corpse. A corpse-eating pet is another option. As a last resort, you can lure one or two trolls at a time from Thoth Amon's lair to the previous level and dispatch them there. This gets the trolls off your back while you to kill all the ogres and Thoth Amon. If your character is not strong enough to yawn at trolls in melee, they can be the biggest hazard on this quest.

The barbarian's quest is also full of magical loot—scrolls, potions and wands—presenting both an opportunity and a challenge, since the swarms of ogres and trolls will be trying to use these items against the character. Attacks from a wand of sleep can be very dangerous to an otherwise strong combatant. These risks are eliminated if you postpone the quest until you have reflection, or at least a good assortment of intrinsics.

Another reason to delay going on the quest is the lack of incentive from the quest artifact the Heart of Ahriman. The Heart is infamous as one of the most useless quest artifacts. It is a luckstone, but another luckstone is guaranteed at Mines' End. It provides stealth, but the barbarian gets that for free at Level 15 (one level after the quest even becomes an option). You can #invoke it for levitation, but this particularly quirky form of levitation is only slightly preferable to the potion of levitation, and much less desirable than that provided by other means, such as a ring of levitation. (However, it does let you ride a non-flying steed.) The most potent use of the Heart may be as an artifact sling stone, which isn't saying much.

Although altar-scumming in the lair can result in loads of gifts for the patient adventurer, the real reward for the quest is certainly the Bell of Opening, which is required to win the game. But this is, perhaps, another argument for going on the quest late rather than early. Until you obtain the Bell, it is safely in the possession of your quest nemesis. Once he's dead, the Bell is your responsibility. On the other hand, if lacking a silver saber, the Bell (which is silver) can be an effective weapon against the shades in Orcus-town.

Late game

Weapons

Cleaver becomes a risky weapon to carry, since if it becomes cursed, it will leave you with no hands free to get it uncursed. Prayer is a workable strategy in the upper dungeon, but this is no longer available in Gehennom, and the pace of the endgame is too hectic to rely on being able to pray. Genociding liches and keeping Cleaver blessed will greatly reduce the danger of it becoming cursed. You could try to alternate between Cleaver (or another artifact) and fighting bare-handed. A better solution for that late into the game is to sacrifice for more gifts until you receive a good artifact sword such as Frost Brand (using the long sword skill). Once you have Frost Brand at basic, then start fighting with two weapons, preferably with a silver saber or silver spear as your secondary weapon.

Spellcasting

Barbarians have the highest spellcasting penalty in the game. Without a robe, it is impossible for them to cast any spell other than their special spell, haste self, at lower than 66% fail (67% without helm of brilliance). Even haste self will cap at 30% fail (34% without helm of brilliance). Spellcasting is essentially out of the question until the Barbarian can manage to find a robe, but once they locate one they might be able to make use of some low level non-combat spells.

General

Neutral barbarians who are not averse to wishing for quest artifacts may find The Orb of Fate a worthwhile use of a wish. The Orb provides valuable enhancements to a combat-reliant character, confering half physical damage and half spell damage, as well as doing a number of other useful things. It is, in short, everything that the Heart of Ahriman isn't (including very heavy—a significant downside factor). Chaotic barbarians, on the other hand, would likely prefer The Master Key of Thievery due to its half physical damage and other effects, though it unfortunately does not offer the half spell damage that the Orb does.

Rank titles

The status line shows you to be one of the following ranks when you reach the specified experience level:

  • XL 1–2: Plunderer/Plunderess
  • XL 3–5: Pillager
  • XL 6–9: Bandit
  • XL 10–13: Brigand
  • XL 14–17: Raider
  • XL 18–21: Reaver
  • XL 22–25: Slayer
  • XL 26–29: Chieftain/Chieftainess
  • XL 30: Conqueror/Conqueress

Quest

Main article: Barbarian quest

The Barbarian quest sees you fighting Thoth Amon for the Heart of Ahriman.

Variants

SLASH'EM

Barbarians can expect to be overcharged in SLASH'EM's shops, by a factor of 3. This, combined with barbarians' low charisma, makes many items (in particular the now 1000zm base-cost magic lamp) nigh-unaffordable, forcing barbarians to resort to other means, such as their second sacrifice gift (see below).

In addition to Cleaver, barbarians get Deathsword as their second sacrifice gift; it is a chaotic two-handed sword with +5 to hit and +14 to damage against humans. This can be useful for murdering shopkeepers and aligned priests, it can also be useful against werecreatures and for cleaning out barracks. Other significant targets are Thoth Amon, the Wizard of Yendor, and the high priest of Moloch as well as his attendant aligned priests. Since it is such a specialty weapon, you won't likely want to waste any skill points on two-handed sword.

Unfortunately, the fact is that barbarians' first two guaranteed sacrifice gifts both become outclassed by SLASH'EM's mid-game, and approach obsolescence by its endgame. A barbarian can either expect to have more of a challenge fighting monsters, to do a lot of sacrificing, to spend a wish or two, or to be crowned to get Stormbringer or Vorpal Blade, which are both respectable weapons in SLASH'EM—Vorpal Blade has had its chance of beheading doubled to 10%. It goes without saying that many spoiled chaotic barbarians will try for the infamous Bat from Hell, but the old favorites from vanilla remain good choices.

Spears are much more common in SLASH'EM, making them a more viable distance weapon if you don't mind the weight, which barbarians should be able to carry.

A droven barbarian is an easy race-role combination for SLASH'EM players. At the start of the game, a droven barbarian should immediately unwield the weapon (w-) and fight bare-handed. This gains access to the drow's very useful melee sleep attack, an immense help for the difficult melee environment at the start of SLASH'EM. The ability to repeatedly put your opponent to sleep should compensate for bare hands doing less damage than good weapons! To train your axe skill, wield your axe or battle-axe against monsters with sleep resistance. Eventually, you will be fighting primarily with Cleaver, alternating to bare-handed only when you need it. Drow cannot two-weapon, but fighting bare-handed should more than offset that.

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, the Heart of Ahriman gives its owner displacement instead of stealth. Considering that Barbarians acquire intrinsic stealth at level 15, this makes the Heart a more desirable acquisition.

In addition to Human and Orc, UnNetHack also offers Vampire as a starting race for Barbarians.

dNethack

The Heart of Ahriman now grants MR, reflection, half-spell damage, drain resistance, fire resistance and poison resistance while carried, and #invokes for blessed remove curse. This makes uncursing your weapon a tad easier, so barbarians can possibly wield Cleaver late in the game.

Encyclopedia entry

They dressed alike -- in buckskin boots, leathern breeks and
deerskin shirts, with broad girdles that held axes and short
swords; and they were all gaunt and scarred and hard-eyed;
sinewy and taciturn.
They were wild men, of a sort, yet there was still a wide
gulf between them and the Cimmerian. They were sons of
civilization, reverted to a semi-barbarism. He was a
barbarian of a thousand generations of barbarians. They had
acquired stealth and craft, but he had been born to these
things. He excelled them even in lithe economy of motion.
They were wolves, but he was a tiger.

[ Conan - The Warrior, by Robert E. Howard ]

References


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