Queen's Guard

)   Queen's Guard
Base item	rapier
Damage vs. small	1d6 +6
Damage vs. large	1d8 +6
To-hit bonus	+6
Bonus versus	(any)
Weapon skill	saber
Size	one-handed
Affiliation	lawful (Corsair)
When carried	(none)
When wielded	(none)
When invoked	(none)
Base price	1500 zm
Weight	40
Material	metal

Queen's Guard is an artifact weapon that appears in SlashTHEM. It is lawful-aligned, and its base item is a rapier. It deals a flat +6 damage against all monsters and has a +6 to-hit.

Generation

Queen's Guard is given to Corsairs as their first sacrifice gift.

Strategy

Queen's Guard is a pretty straightforward and powerful early game weapon. While the overall average damage output is a little less than that of Excalibur, the high to-hit makes it a lot more consistent. Saber-skill weapons are also generally rare, making it worthwhile to keep until they can trade up for another desired artifact, such as Grayswandir.

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 monsters	Large monsters
+0 Queen's Guard	$\frac{1+6}{2}+6=\bold{9.5}$	$\frac{1+8}{2}+6=\bold{10.5}$
+7 Queen's Guard	$\frac{1+6}{2}+6+7=\bold{16.5}$	$\frac{1+8}{2}+6+7=\bold{17.5}$