Undead Slayer

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The Undead Slayer is a role specific to SLASH'EM. They are, as the name suggests, melee fighters that specialize in the harm or destruction of the undead. They can be any of the alignments, but they may not be Dwarven or Vampiric.

An Undead Slayer will start with an inordinate amount of intrinsic properties, including Drain resistance and Undead warning. In addition to that, they gain Speed at level 7 and Poison resistance at level 9.

They also have a basic ability to use medical kits, and they start the game with all non-magical weapons and armor pre-recognized.

They have the technique to practice their weapons and turn undead at level 1.

The Undead Slayer quest sees you fighting Count Dracula for The Stake of Van Helsing.

Starting Equipment

And one of the following:

  • 25% chance of +0 silver spear, 5 +0 silver daggers, +0 helmet and +0 chain mail

The wooden stake may also be poisoned.

Intrinsics

Undead slayers gain intrinsics at these experience levels:

Skills

Undead Slayer Skills
Max Skills
Basic
Skilled
Expert
Grand Master


Undead Slayer rank titles

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

  • XL 1-2: Assistant
  • XL 3-9: Eliminator
  • XL 10-17: Exterminator
  • XL 18-21: Destroyer
  • XL 22-29: Vindicator
  • XL 30: Undead Slayer

Strategy

The Undead Slayer is not a powerful role, in spite of its high starting HP. It can only reach strong weapon proficiency in dagger, though this is offset somewhat by the fact that wooden stakes are slightly more powerful daggers. The Undead Slayer is also weakened by its lack of a guaranteed sacrifice gift; most SLASH'EM roles have sacrifice gifts assigned to them, often providing a useful object early on. Furthermore, unlike some other fighting classes such as knight and valkyrie, the Undead Slayer will never attain any particular proficiency with magic. Worst of all, however, undead slayers start off slow: they have a base speed of 10, meaning, like yeomen, they move 4 times every 5 turns. Their early game is therefore quite difficult, as monsters will sometimes get an extra hit in quite often. They do gain speed at XP 7, which mostly negates this disadvantage, although they will still not be as fast as another role with speed.

On the other hand, the Undead Slayer's quest artifact, The Stake of Van Helsing, has a superb damage modifier (+12), making it a formidable late-game weapon. During the late game, the Undead Slayer's starting intrinsics, sickness and level-drain resistance, will also start to shine. The former neutralizes Juiblex, Demogorgon (almost), and Pestilence. The latter two are arguably the most dangerous enemies in SLASH'EM, and this ability all but eliminates the considerable threat they pose to you. Level drain-resistance protects against vampire and wraith attacks as well as the occasional intelligent monster who has found a wand of draining (almost a given if you run across the League of Disgruntled Adventures level).

Probably the best starting race for an Undead Slayer is a drow, because their sleep inducing punch is pretty useful: the Slayer's bare hands skill can be promoted to Grand Master. This is very effective for taking out the demon princes.

The technique weapon practice should be used to try to level the so useful dagger; firearms are also a good choice since the bullets can not be recovered from corpses.

The Bullwhip can be applied to remove monsters's weapons.

Origin

Some of the iconography of the Undead Slayer derives from the Castlevania game series: like the Belmont clan members, you start with a bullwhip, chain mail, daggers, and holy water. Other parts, such as the crossbow[1] and the ability to reach Grand Master in bare-handed combat[2] derive from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

This page is a SLASH'EM related stub. Should you wish to do so, you can contribute by expanding this page.