Vlad the Impaler

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Vlad the Impaler, V, is a unique vampire notable in that he holds the Candelabrum of Invocation. He resides at the top of his tower in Gehennom. Like his weaker brethren he possesses the abilities of flight and magical breathing. He is also covetous, but in his case, the ability is of little practical importance. He is always generated with a two-handed sword, a battle-axe, a bow and 3-14 arrows, or with a 21% chance, nothing.

Strategy

Be careful not to confuse Vlad: if he levelports by a confused scroll of teleportation, you get to look for him in his Tower, all of Gehennom above it, and the entire Dungeons of Doom, which is very annoying. On top of that, being covetous, he will be teleporting to the upstairs like a Master lich. You better not use Magicbane on him.

As of version 3.4.3, Vlad was widely regarded as being an exceptionally weak enemy to be a mandatory fight at the stage of the game when he is faced; he was not significantly stronger than the vampire lords which appear as normal enemies. As of version 3.6.1, Vlad is exceptionally stronger and faster, is slightly harder to hit, and can deliver more damage per round than in previous versions. Proceed with caution.

Jokes abound of fighting him with food rations, thoroughly rusty thoroughly corroded tin openers, or not moving every second turn while fighting him, or a variety of other absurd scenarios which would normally result in YASDs, and still easily defeating Vlad. The items used for such exploits have become known as Vladsbanes (or Vladbanes or Vladsmashers, in a mockery of the Banes) and on the occasions when such an item is used it is often so #named in tribute. The danger of confused levelport by Vlad, gives you a legitimate reason to use a Vladbane-type weapon instead of Magicbane!

A variety of patches have been written to address this issue by altering Vlad in some way. One of the better known ones is the aptly-named Vlad Balance patch. The Dudley's dungeon strip for 30 November 2006 (via Wayback Machine) featured several humorous attempts to remake Vlad; see also the comments for the 30 November and 1 December strips.

Origin

Vlad is a major vampire based mostly on the fictional Count Dracula, who is in turn based on the non-fictional Vlad Drăculea, a 15th century Romanian prince.

Variants

SporkHack

In SporkHack he's been beefed up significantly, most notably by arming him with an artifact two-handed sword named Lifestealer that has similar properties to Stormbringer.

GruntHack

GruntHack enhances Vlad's vital statistics (base level 28, base speed 24, stunning and confusion attacks) and give him a guaranteed thirsty spetum and a stack of cursed scrolls of teleportation.

SLASH'EM

Strangely, in SLASH'EM there is also the distinct Count Dracula as a quest nemesis. So they are two monsters, derived from the same non-fictional Vlad Drăculea.

External links


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