Bat from Hell (SLASH'EM)
| ) Bat from Hell (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Base item | Baseball bat |
| Damage vs. small | 1d8 +20 (+1d20 in Hack'EM) |
| Damage vs. large | 1d6 +20 (+1d20 in Hack'EM) |
| To-hit bonus | +3 (+1d3 in Hack'EM) |
| Bonus versus | (any) |
| Weapon skill | club |
| Size | one-handed |
| Affiliation | |
| When carried |
(none) |
| When wielded |
(none) |
| When invoked |
(none) |
| Base price | 5000 zm |
| Weight | 40 |
| Material | wood |
- For the artifact in SpliceHack, see Bat from Hell (SpliceHack).
The Bat from Hell is an artifact that appears in SLASH'EM, SlashTHEM and Hack'EM. It is chaotic-aligned, and its base item is a baseball bat. In Hack'EM, its glyph is colored red rather than the standard wood color.
Contents
Generation
In SLASH'EM, the Bat from Hell can only be obtained from a sacrifice gift, wish or bones, since baseball bats do not randomly generate. In SlashTHEM, a baseball bat randomly generated on the ground or as a death drop has a base 1⁄20 chance (5%) of being made into the Bat from Hell—this applies to Hack'EM as well, where baseball bats only appear in junk shops.
The Bat from Hell is the first guaranteed sacrifice gift for Rogues, and any chaotic hero may receive it as a sacrifice gift.
Description
The Bat from Hell has +3 to-hit and +20 damage bonuses versus all monsters. In Hack'EM, this is converted to +1d3 to-hit and +1d20 damage bonuses.
Strategy
The Bat from Hell is easily one of the best chaotic artifacts available via sacrifice and one of the strongest artifact weapons in the variants it appears in, with its flat bonuses giving it viability well into the endgame stages—its damage output against non-specific targets is only matched by Reaper, which is a two-handed halberd that can only be used for riding combat or pounding. In SLASH'EM, Mjollnir and Disrupter have higher damage bonuses, but they are only applied against monsters that lack shock resistance or are undead, respectively.
A Rogue's primary goal in the early game of SLASH'EM will almost always consist of obtaining the Bat as soon as possible, and it is good enough that other heroes may consider using a non-essential wish for it, even if they are not chaotic: a non-chaotic hero will need a minimum of 49 HP to survive the 8d6 artifact blast if it occurs (which is reduced to 6d6 with magic resistance). Roles that can perform two weapon combat may especially want the Bat from Hell as an offhand weapon to pair with Excalibur or Stormbringer, granting them both drain resistance and maintaining the Bat's high damage.
History
The Bat from Hell first appears in SLASH 6.
