Expert trait

In dNetHack, notdNetHack, and notnotdNetHack, expert traits are a set of 21 special attributes which increase a weapon or weapon-tool's damage output or have other effects applied on a hit. Most weapons and weapon-tools possess a specific subset of expert traits that are largely consistent between weapons using the same skill, though few are wholly identical. While some expert traits occur on-hit, others have specific requirements related to the hero or a monster's movement or not being in two-weapon combat. All expert traits are additive to a weapon's base damage, with a skill-dependent chance to trigger, the odds of which are summarised in a table further below.

Description

Zerthimon's Focus

A hero that has learned the "Zerthimon's focus" mental edge from The Sky Reflected will receive bonuses to any mercurial weapon's expert traits while at high sanity or while under the effects of clear thoughts. The chance of this effect occurring at high sanity increases by 10% for every point of sanity above 81, up to 100% at 91 and above.

Accuracy dependent expert traits

When hitting a monster, a dieroll of 1d20 is made — dieroll henceforth.

Expert trait damage bonus

Expert traits that deal bonus damage, except when stated otherwise, deal an extra amount equal to the sum of the weapon's base damage and skill damage bonus (+2 and +5 at Skilled and Expert respectively). The weapon's base damage only includes its damage dice and die faces, as well as bonus dice and flat damage bonuses, but not its enchantment. Additive flat bonus damage from a weapon's special abilities is not included in this sum, such as a crystal sword's +1 bonus flat damage per 3 enchantment or a chikage's hermargyos' bonus flat damage.

Fighting style expert traits

These four expert traits will be disabled by default and must be manually enabled or disabled through the #style extended command. Only one fighting style expert trait can be active at a time.

Hew

The hew fighting style expert trait cannot be used in two-weapon combat. Will surpress the cleave expert trait while active. With a ¹⁄₁₀ chance at Skilled, or always at Expert skill, weapons will target the upper armor DR slot and gain the expert trait bonus damage. Weapons that deal both piercing and slashing damage will only deal slashing damage while hew is active. Additionally, successfully using hew will increase your own study count by half of your skill with the weapon (0 at Skilled, 1 at Expert) and burns 1 hunger for a medium-sized hero.

Fell

The fell fighting style expert trait cannot be used in two-weapon combat. Hitting a monster with a weapon that has the fell fighting form expert trait will reduce their movement points with a ¹⁄₁₀ chance at Skilled, or always at Expert. When it triggers, fell reduces a monster's current movement points by the half of their remaining points on the first hit, a third on the second and so on, up to -6 movement points at most. Hitting a monster with fell has a ¹⁄₂₅ chance to wound the target's legs and deals the weapon's base dice as bonus damage.

Knock back

A weapon with the knock back fighting style expert trait deals staggering blows with a ¹⁄₂₀ chance at Skilled, or ¹⁄₅ chance at Expert. With Zerthimon's focus these chances increase to ¹⁄₁₀ at Skilled, and ¹⁄₃ at Expert.

Stunning strike

A weapon with the knock back fighting style expert trait triggers with a ¹⁄₁₀ chance at Skilled, or ¹⁄₂ chance at Expert, increasing to ¹⁄₅ at Skilled and ³⁄₄ at Expert with Zerthimon's focus. A successful stunning strike permanently stuns the target and deals expert trait bonus damage. Monsters that have a head receive an additional 2d10 damage.

Focus fire

A weapon with the focus fire fighting style expert trait targets a monster where it is least armored, choosing the lowest DR slot with a ¹⁄₅ chance at Skilled, or always at Expert. With Zerthimon's focus, there is a separate chance the chosen slot's DR is reduced by 2 with a ¹⁄₂ chance at Skilled, and always by 5 at Expert. Making a melee attack with focus fire incurs a -5 to-hit penalty at Skilled, or -2 at Expert. A weapon deals only piercing damage while the focus fire expert trait is active, regardless of its previous damage masks.

Some weapons suffer changes when wielded with the focus fire fighting style:

• Fossilized teeth lose the knock back charge and penetrate armor traits and have their damage versus small and large monsters reduced to 1d8. For a hero with at least 20 insight, a fossilized tooth gains various damage bonuses based on its type.
• goedendags gain the bleed expert trait and deal 1d8 versus large monsters.
• The first gift for vampire Convicts, Storm-Curse, gains one sneak attack die.
• poleaxes gain stop thrust.
• pest glaives that acquired both the focus fire and long slash expert traits may only benefit from either one at a time. Puncture requires focus fire to be enabled.
• silverknight swords gain the penetrate armor and create openings.

Expert traits

Knock back charge

At Skilled, makes an automatic attack when you move towards an enemy with knockback active ¹⁄₂ of the time, or always at Expert. If the attack hits, the target will be pushed back 1 square.

Graze

Missing a monster with a weapon with the graze expert trait has a chance to instead inflict a lesser amount of damage. Zerthimon's focus instead has a ¹⁄₂₀ chance of making the attack hit instead at Skilled, or ¹⁄₄ at Expert. A graze attack's damage is equal to the sum of the expert trait damage bonus and the weapon's enchantment. For example, at Expert a +0 trident (1d8+2 vs. small, 3d6 vs. large) deals 8 damage against a small monster (+1 from damage dice amount, +2 flat damage, +5 from skill) and 8 damage against a large monster (+3 from damage dice amount, +5 from skill) when performing a graze attack. A check against your to-hit is made:

• Skilled: To-hit must exceed an amount between -9 and 29 (Dieroll + 10 - 1d20)
• Expert: To-hit must exceed an amount between -19 and 0 (Dieroll - 20)

Striking

Making a melee attack with striking benefits from a +2 to-hit bonus at Skilled, or +5 at Expert.

Stop thrust

Triggers when you attack an enemy by moving in the opposite direction that they moved in their last turn. Deals the expert trait damage bonus ¹⁄₁₀ of the time at Skilled, or always at Expert. This trait is especially useful when kiting enemies, as they repeatedly open themselves to stop-thrusts while chasing you.

Penetrate armor

Attacks made with a weapon with the penetrate armor expert trait ignore 2 points of the monster's hit DR slot at Skilled, or 10 at Expert.

Long slash

The long slash expert trait adds bonus base damage to attacks made with high to-hit, up to +4x base damage. Four successive checks against to-hit are made, with the amount needed for each bonus amount of base dice increasing by 20 points each time:

• Skilled:
  • +1x: To-hit must exceed 21–59 (Dieroll + 40 - 1d20)
  • +2x: To-hit must exceed previous amount by 20 (41–79)
  • +3x: To-hit must exceed previous amount by 20 (61–99)
  • +4x: To-hit must exceed previous amount by 20 (81–119)
• Expert:
  • +1x: To-hit must exceed 21–40 (Dieroll + 20)
  • +2x: To-hit must exceed previous amount by 20 (41–60)
  • +3x: To-hit must exceed previous amount by 20 (61–80)
  • +4x: To-hit must exceed previous amount by 20 (81–100)
• Zerthimon's focus is cumulative with long slash if the trait added at least one count of bonus base dice:
  • Skilled: ¹⁄₄ chance of adding another +1x bonus base damage
  • Expert: Always adds +1x.

Bleed

Attacks made with bleed weapons inflict 1 point of bleed with a ¹⁄₁₀ chance at Skilled, or with a ¹⁄₂ chance at Expert. When a bleeding wound is inflicted, the bleed damage is also added as bonus damage to the current hit. Bleed damage is dealt at the beginning of each round, and a monster's natural healing is blocked while it is bleeding. Bleed damage decreases by 1 each round.

Puncture

Attacks made with the puncture expert trait increment a "puncture" counter by 1 point per hit at Skilled, or by 2 at Expert. There is a ¹⁄₁₀ chance every time the puncture counter is incremented that the attack deals the expert trait damage bonus and increments the target's study counter by the sum of the weapon's base damage dice and the skill bonus (+2 at Skilled and +5 at Expert). The puncture counter is reset to 0 when this occurs. A monster's damage is reduced by 5 for every point of puncture it is currently afflicted by, with a point decaying each turn with a ¹⁄₂ chance.

Cleave

The cleave expert trait will not trigger if the hew fighting style expert trait is currently active. Killing a monster with a cleaving weapon will automatically make a second attack to either the left or the right of the dead monster, and, with Zerthimon's focus, a third attack. At Skilled, the odds of these attacks triggering are ¹⁄₄, and they always occur at Expert.

Lunge

Makes an automatic attack ¹⁄₂ of the time you move towards an enemy at Skilled, or always at Expert.

Quick

Attacks with this weapon take ³⁄₄ as many movement points as normal at Skilled, or only ²⁄₃ at Expert.

Braced

Attacking an enemy in the direction that they just attacked toward with a braced weapon deals the expert trait damage bonus with a ¹⁄₁₀ chance at Skilled and always at Expert.

Second

An offhand weapon with this trait automatically attacks a single adjacent target ¹⁄₄ of the time after killing a monster at Skilled, or always at Expert.

Second

The second expert trait requires you to be in two-weapon combat with a weapon with the second expert trait in the offhand and to kill a monster. Landing the last blow with either the offhand or main hand will automatically make a second attack with the offhand weapon against a monster in melee range. At Skilled, the odds of this attack occurring are ¹⁄₄, and it always occurs at Expert. With Zerthimon's focus, this second attack will deal double damage ¹⁄₄ of the time, or always at Expert.

Create opening

At Skilled, when attacking a monster with a weapon with the create opening expert trait, there is a ¹⁄₁₀ chance of making that monster "open" (vulnerable to sneak attack) for the next 2 turns. At Expert skill, monsters hit will always be made vulnerable. At Skilled, Zerthimon's focus adds a sneak attack die with a ¹⁄₄ chance and a second one with a ¹⁄₂₀ chance. At Expert, it always adds at least one and has a ¹⁄₄ chance of adding a second one.

Braced

Hitting a monster that has attacked you on the last turn with a weapon that has the braced expert trait will deal bonus damage ¹⁄₁₀ of the time at Skilled, and always does at Expert. This damage is equal to the sum of the weapon's base damage (not including enchantment) and skill damage bonus. Zerthimon's focus doubles the damage bonus ¹⁄₄ of the time at Skilled, and always does at Expert.

Blade song

Weapons with the blade song expert trait always gain the expert trait bonus damage if you have recently cast a spell or sung a song at Expert — at Skilled the chance lessens the closer the blade song is to timing out. The base duration of the blade song is equal to the song or spell's level. Songs gain a Cha - 102 bonus, up to 8 at 25 charisma, to the blade song's duration. Elven heroes gain 3 additional base turns. Weapons appear as "chiming" while the blade song is active.

Blade dance

To trigger blade dance, you must attack or move in a different direction than you did on your last turn, gaining ¹⁄₃ of the expert trait bonus damage at Skilled and the full damage bonus at Expert. Elven heroes get +12 charisma to damage, but have their AC reduced by 1 at Skilled and by 3 at Expert.

Weapon size

A weapon's size directly impacts which expert traits it has. Weapons which are larger than their base size suffer the following changes:

• Create openings becomes stop thrust, and lunge for pierce-only weapons
• Second target is removed with no replacement
• Quick becomes create openings for large weapons, and stop thrust/lunge for huge+ weapons

Weapons which are smaller than their base size suffer the following changes:

• Knock back charge is lost (becoming knock back) with no replacement
• Cleave is replaced with graze

Tiny weapons suffer the following changes:

• Stop thrust becomes create opening
• Lunge becomes quick
• Hew and Fell become focus fire
• Knock back is lost with no replacement

Weapons by skill

Axe

Weapon	Fighting forms		Active forms
axe	Hew
battle-axe	Hew	Fell	Cleave
diskos	Hew	Fell
hunter's axe	Hew
hunter's long-axe	Hew	Fell	Cleave	Stop Thrust
moon axe	Hew	Fell	Cleave

Bare handed combat

Weapon	Fighting forms	Active forms
bestial claw		Create Opening				Bleed
katar		Create Opening			Penetrate armor
shanta-pata	Focus Fire		Stop Thrust	Cleave

Broadsword

Weapon	Fighting forms	Active forms
broadsword		Graze
force sword			Stop Thrust	Penetrate armor	Lunge
elven broadsword		Graze						Blade Song
ninja-to	Focus Fire					Bleed	Create Opening
runesword		Graze

Club

Weapon	Fighting forms					Active forms
aklys	Hew			Stunning Strike				Penetrate armor
beast crusher	Hew		Knock Back	Stunning Strike
breaking wheel			Knock Back			Knock Back Charge
clawed hand	Hew		Knock Back	Stunning Strike
club	Hew		Knock Back	Stunning Strike
goedendag	Hew		Knock Back	Stunning Strike	Focus Fire
greatclub	Hew	Fell	Knock Back			Knock Back Charge
macuahuitl	Hew			Stunning Strike			Graze
square club			Knock Back	Stunning Strike		Knock Back Charge
tooth	Hew		Knock Back	Stunning Strike	Focus Fire	Knock Back Charge		Penetrate armor

Dagger

Weapon	Fighting forms	Active forms
athame	Focus Fire	Second	Quick
blade of pity		Second
dagger	Focus Fire	Second	Quick
droven dagger	Focus Fire	Second	Quick
elven dagger	Focus Fire	Second	Quick				Blade Song
orcish dagger	Focus Fire	Second	Quick
rakuyo-dagger	Focus Fire	Second
rondel dagger	Focus Fire	Second	Quick			Penetrate armor
set of crow talons		Second		Bleed
stake	Focus Fire	Second	Quick		Stop Thrust
tecpatl	Focus Fire	Second	Quick	Bleed

Farm implements

Weapon	Fighting forms	Active forms
elven sickle		Bleed		Blade Song
long saw		Bleed
saw cleaver		Bleed
scythe	Fell	Bleed	Cleave
sickle		Bleed

Firearms

Weapon	Fighting forms	Active forms
assault rifle	Focus Fire
carcosan sting	Focus Fire	Second
evelyn	Focus Fire
pistol	Focus Fire
rifle	Focus Fire
sniper rifle	Focus Fire

Flail

Weapon	Fighting forms		Active forms
beast cutter	Hew	Stunning Strike	Penetrate armor	Bleed
flail	Hew	Stunning Strike	Penetrate armor

Hammer

Weapon	Fighting forms			Active forms
church-hammer	Hew		Knock Back	Penetrate armor
seismic hammer	Hew	Stunning Strike		Penetrate armor
smithing hammer	Hew	Stunning Strike
war hammer	Hew	Stunning Strike		Penetrate armor

Knife

Weapon	Fighting forms	Active forms
crysknife	Focus Fire	Quick	Second
fang of apep	Focus Fire	Quick	Second
knife	Focus Fire	Quick	Second
scalpel	Focus Fire	Quick		Bleed
spoon	Focus Fire	Quick	Second
stiletto	Focus Fire	Quick	Second
worm tooth	Focus Fire	Quick	Second

Lance

Weapon	Fighting forms	Active forms
droven lance		Stop Thrust	Penetrate armor	Lunge	Braced
elven lance		Stop Thrust	Penetrate armor	Lunge	Braced	Blade Song
force pike	Focus Fire	Stop Thrust		Lunge	Braced
gold-bladed vibrospear	Focus Fire	Stop Thrust		Lunge	Braced
lance		Stop Thrust	Penetrate armor	Lunge	Braced
white vibrospear	Focus Fire	Stop Thrust		Lunge	Braced

Long sword

Weapon	Fighting forms		Active forms
cane		Focus Fire	Stop Thrust		Lunge
chikage	Hew	Focus Fire
crystal sword		Focus Fire	Stop Thrust	Graze
gold-bladed vibrosword		Focus Fire	Stop Thrust		Lunge
hunter's longsword		Focus Fire	Stop Thrust	Graze
katana	Hew	Focus Fire		Graze
long sword		Focus Fire	Stop Thrust	Graze
odachi	Hew			Graze		Long Slash
red-eyed vibrosword		Focus Fire	Stop Thrust		Lunge
rod of force				Graze
silverknight sword		Focus Fire	Stop Thrust		Lunge
white vibrosword		Focus Fire	Stop Thrust		Lunge

Mace

Weapon	Fighting forms				Active forms
devil fist	Hew	Fell			Penetrate armor
elven mace	Hew			Stunning Strike	Penetrate armor		Blade Dance
great mace	Hew		Knock Back	Stunning Strike	Penetrate armor	Knock Back Charge
mace	Hew			Stunning Strike	Penetrate armor
sunrod					Penetrate armor
tonitrus	Hew			Stunning Strike

Morning star

The morning star has the hew, stunning strike, penetrate armor, and bleed expert traits.

Pick-axe

Weapon	Fighting forms		Active forms
church-pick	Hew	Fell	Penetrate armor	Cleave
demon claw	Hew	Fell
dwarvish mattock	Hew		Penetrate armor
pick-axe	Hew		Penetrate armor

Polearm

Weapon	Fighting forms					Active forms
bardiche	Hew										Long Slash
bec de corbin	Hew			Stunning Strike		Stop Thrust	Penetrate armor
bill-guisarme			Knock Back						Bleed
fauchard	Hew
glaive	Hew
guisarme									Bleed
halberd	Hew		Knock Back			Stop Thrust	Penetrate armor	Braced
lucern hammer	Hew			Stunning Strike		Stop Thrust	Penetrate armor	Braced
naginata	Hew
partisan						Stop Thrust	Penetrate armor	Braced
poleaxe	Hew			Stunning Strike	Focus Fire
ranseur						Stop Thrust	Penetrate armor	Braced
silverknight scythe		Fell							Bleed	Cleave
spetum			Knock Back			Stop Thrust		Braced
voulge	Hew

Quarterstaff

Weapon	Fighting forms					Active forms
bar	Hew	Fell	Knock Back	Stunning Strike		Knock Back Charge
double force-blade								Cleave
double sword								Cleave
khakkhara			Knock Back	Stunning Strike	Focus Fire		Stop Thrust	Cleave	Braced
quarterstaff	Hew	Fell	Knock Back	Stunning Strike		Knock Back Charge
shepherd's crook		Fell

Saber

Weapon	Fighting forms	Active forms
crow quill	Focus Fire	Stop Thrust	Lunge		Bleed
rapier	Focus Fire	Stop Thrust	Lunge
rakuyo-saber	Focus Fire
saber	Focus Fire			Long Slash
soldier's rapier	Focus Fire	Stop Thrust	Lunge

Scimitar

Weapon	Fighting forms		Active forms
bow-blade			Long Slash
cutlass			Long Slash
elven scimitar			Long Slash	Blade Dance			Striking
high-elven warsword	Hew	Fell	Long Slash	Blade Dance	Cleave	Blade Song
scimitar			Long Slash				Striking

Short sword

Weapon	Fighting forms		Active forms
blade of grace			Create Opening
blade of mercy	Focus Fire		Create Opening
church shortsword	Focus Fire		Create Opening
droven short sword	Focus Fire		Create Opening
dwarvish short sword	Focus Fire		Create Opening
elven short sword	Focus Fire		Create Opening				Blade Song
hunter's shortsword	Focus Fire		Create Opening		Quick
khopesh		Hew	Create Opening	Bleed
mirrorblade	Focus Fire		Create Opening
orcish short sword	Focus Fire		Create Opening
short sword	Focus Fire		Create Opening
vibroblade	Focus Fire		Create Opening
wakizashi	Focus Fire		Create Opening			Second

Spear

Weapon	Fighting forms		Active forms
atgeir	Hew	Focus Fire	Stop Thrust				Graze
droven spear		Focus Fire	Stop Thrust	Puncture
dwarvish spear		Focus Fire	Stop Thrust			Braced
elven spear		Focus Fire	Stop Thrust		Lunge				Blade Song
javelin		Focus Fire	Stop Thrust	Puncture
orcish spear		Focus Fire	Stop Thrust	Puncture
saw spear			Stop Thrust	Puncture				Bleed
silverknight spear			Stop Thrust	Puncture		Braced
spear		Focus Fire	Stop Thrust	Puncture	Lunge

Trident

Weapon	Fighting forms	Active forms
pincer staff			Stop Thrust
trident	Focus Fire	Graze	Stop Thrust

Two-handed sword

Weapon	Fighting forms		Active forms
church blade	Hew	Fell				Lunge
droven greatsword		Fell	Cleave	Graze
gold-bladed vibrozanbato		Fell	Cleave		Long Slash
nagamaki	Hew		Cleave	Graze	Long Slash
two-handed sword		Fell	Cleave	Graze
white vibrozanbato		Fell	Cleave		Long Slash

Unicorn horn

The unicorn horn has the focus fire, quick, and second expert traits.

Whip

Weapon	Active forms
force whip	Penetrate armor
whip-saw	Bleed	Cleave

Projectile

All of the following projectiles gain the focus fire expert trait:

• shuriken
• boomerang
• chakram
• dart
• spike

Launcher

All of the following launchers gain the focus fire expert trait:

• crossbow
• droven crossbow
• bladed bow
• bow
• elven bow
• yumi

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