Barbarian/SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, the Barbarian is one of the roles from NetHack that is available to the hero.

Barbarians can be of neutral or chaotic alignment, and can be a human, doppelganger, orc, elf, drow, lycanthrope, or vampire.

Starting equipment

Each Barbarian starts with the following equipment:

• Either of these weapon sets (with equal probability):
  • a +0 two-handed sword and a +0 axe
  • a +0 battle-axe and a +0 short sword
• a +0 ring mail
• 2-4 food rations
• a torch (¹⁄₆ chance or 16.67%)

Barbarians know the appearances of all non-magical weapons and armor. Orcish Barbarians receive an orcish short sword in place of a short sword, orcish ring mail in place of ring mail, and 2 additional stacks of 1-2 random comestibles. Elven Barbarians receive an elven short sword in place of a short sword. Drow Barbarians receive a dark elven short sword in place of a short sword.

The Barbarian's default starting pet is a little dog named Idefix.

Intrinsics

Barbarians gain the following intrinsic properties upon reaching the given experience levels:

• Level 1: poison resistance
• Level 7: speed
• Level 15: stealth

Attributes

The Barbarian's starting attributes are distributed as follows:

Attributes	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma	Remaining
Minimum attributes	16	15	16	7	7	6	8
Distribution percentages	30%	20%	30%	6%	7%	7%
Mean w/ standard deviation	18/00.89±1.34	16.72±1.01	17.69±0.59	7.60±0.87	7.69±0.91	6.60±0.87

Skills

Barbarians have the following skills available to them:

Barbarian skills
Max	Skills
Basic	Weapons: dagger, saber, flail, quarterstaff, bow Combat: riding, two weapon combat
Skilled	Weapons: pick-axe, broadsword, long sword, scimitar, club, paddle, mace, morning star, spear, trident Spells: attack, body
Expert	Weapons: axe, short sword, two-handed sword, hammer
Master	Combat: bare hands

Barbarians start with Basic skill in axe, bare-handed combat, and either short sword or two-handed sword depending on their starting weapons.

Techniques

Barbarians can learn the disarm technique by reaching Skilled in any weapon, and also gain the following techniques:

Level	Technique
1	Berserk

Special rules

Barbarians are charged 3 times the normal price when purchasing items from a shop, applied after charisma adjustments and before additional upcharges for an angry shopkeeper and/or a purchase made in the black market.

The barbarian's attack messages replace most instances of "hit" with "smite" (e.g. "You smite the goblin!"), but this is flavor text with no gameplay effect.

Rank titles

The status line displays one of the following ranks for the corresponding experience levels:

• 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

Gods

The Barbarian pantheon is based on Robert E. Howard's Conan mythos. Their first sacrifice gift is Cleaver, and their second sacrifice gift is Deathsword.

• Lawful: Mitra
• Neutral: Crom
• Chaotic: Set

Quest

The Barbarian's Quest sees them fight Thoth Amon for The Heart of Ahriman, an artifact luckstone. While carried, it confers stealth in addition to acting as a luck item like other luckstones, and can be invoked to toggle controlled levitation, even if already levitating: after invoking this effect, the hero can return to the ground by pressing >, or else by dropping or stashing the artifact.

Strategy

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Character creation

A drow Barbarian is an easy race-role combination for SLASH'EM: Barbarians excel at bare-handed combat, and drow fighting bare-handed can put monsters to sleep - this is an immense boon for the difficult melee environment of the SLASH'EM early game, and should compensate for the lower damage; the starting weapons can be wielded against monsters with sleep resistance. Since drow are restricted in twoweaponing, a good idea is to alternate between the primary weapon and bare-handed combat as needed once the hero has obtained their desired artifact weapon.

Early game

Being overcharged in shops for both their role, combined with their low starting charisma, makes it very difficult for Barbarians to afford most items found in a shop—this is further complicated by changes to the base price of especially-desirable items, including the magic lamp whose cost is increased to 1000zm. As a result, barbarians are more likely to struggle with finding a better weapon for fighting monsters than their starting ones, and may have to rely on finding an altar for sacrifice or crowning or obtaining a wish. Fortunately, spears are much more common, and can serve as a viable ranged option for Barbarians willing to sacrifice some of their usually-high carrying capacity.

In terms of sacrifice gifts, Cleaver is simply a stronger battle-axe with +3 to-hit and +6 damage bonuses, while Deathsword is a two-handed sword that has +5 to-hit and deals +14 damage against humans. While Cleaver is better for general-purpose combat, Deathsword can be useful as a specialty weapon against early hostiles such as muggers and werecreatures, or even against shopkeepers for a particularly murderous Barbarian. Unfortunately, Deathsword requires commitment of skill points to two-handed swords, which is typically neglected by players even when starting with one—both weapons are also usually outclassed later on, despite Deathsword's decent range of bonus damage targets that includes barracks (full of soldiers and their higher-ups) and even Thoth Amon.

For Barbarians seeking other artifacts, Vorpal Blade is still respectable for neutral Barbarians, with a flat +5 to-hit bonus and a higher ¹⁄₁₀ chance of beheading targets. For chaotic Barbarians, Stormbringer is only slightly stronger than in NetHack and finds itself outpaced by many other chaotic artifact weapons; its level draining and drain resistance are still a powerful early-game aid, and drain resistance is of much more relevant throughout SLASH'EM. A spoiled or seasoned player may also try for the Bat from Hell, since Barbarians can reach Skilled in clubs and the flat +3 to-hit and +20 damage bonuses keep it relevant well into the end game. Furthermore, any hero that can perform two-weapon combat is capable of wielding two artifacts should they so desire—note that an offhand Stormbringer will remain as bloodthirsty as ever.