Flintlock (dNetHack)
| ) | |
|---|---|
| Name | flintlock |
| Appearance | broken hand-crossbow |
| Damage vs. small | 1d2 |
| Damage vs. large | 1d2 |
| To-hit bonus | -2 |
| Weapon skill | firearm |
| Size | one-handed |
| Base price | 50 zm (+10/positive enchant) |
| Weight | 10 |
| Material | iron |
- For the weapon in Hack'EM, see flintlock (Hack'EM).
A flintlock is a type of firearm that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. The flintlock is a small launcher, making it one-handed for all users, and uses the firearms skill. It is designed for use with bullets, silver bullets, blood-bullets, and blood-spears.
The flintlock has a default material of iron, and appears as a broken hand-crossbow for heroes in most roles when unidentified—Anachrononauts, Androids, Pirates, and Undead Hunters will instead see the item as an "unfamiliar handgun".
The flintlock is the base item for the artifact Reaver.
Generation
Anachrononauts and Androids start each game with knowledge of the flintlock's appearance.
Pirates start each game with an uncursed +0 flintlock as their secondary weapon. Undead Hunters start each game with an uncursed +0 flintlock as their default secondary weapon and 20 uncursed +0 blood-bullets as ammo, and their flintlock and/or its ammo may be exchanged or altered:
- Vampire Undead Hunters that start with a soldier's rapier or shanta-pata will be given a +0 buckler in place of the role's standard flintlock, and will be given +1 blood-bullets.
- Undead Hunters of other races have a 1⁄6 chance of an equipment substitution that replaces the flintlock with 26–45 blessed +2 arrows which act as ammo for the bow-blade replacing their cane.
Flintlocks are not randomly generated, though they can be wished for or found in bones.
A few monsters can be generated with flintlocks:
- Pirate brothers are always generated with flintlocks and a stack of bullets as ammo.
- Skeletal pirates have a roughly 1⁄2 chance of generating with a flintlock, and are always generated with a stack of bullets regardless of if they are given the flintlock or not.
- Damned pirates are always generated with flintlocks and a stack of up to 10 bullets as ammo.
- Player monster pirates are always generated with flintlocks and bullets.
- Some deminymph kits contain bullets as ammo for firearms.
- Deminmpyhs that are given Undead Hunter kits have a chance of being generated with a flintlock and 3–62 standard bullets as ammo, and there is a 1⁄3 chance those bullets will be made into silver bullets instead.
- Deminymphs that are given Pirate kits will generate with flintlocks and 4–20 bullets for ammo.
Flintlocks are capable of generating as the base item of Fire Brand and Frost Brand exclusively for Pirates (usually via wishing for them).
Description
Flintlocks have a maximum range of 8 squares and a -2 to-hit penalty. Shooting bullets from a flintlock has a 1⁄7 chance of the bullets misfiring as if they were cursed.
A flintlock has a -2 rate of fire, meaning that a hero will normally be unable to fire more than one shot per turn with it unless they are wielding the Sansara Mirror in the offhand—even then, quickdrawing and Expert skill in firearms are required to perform multishot with a flintlock, and doing so will allow that hero to shoot 1–3 bullets per action.
Origin
"Flintlock" is a general term for any firearm that uses a flint-striking ignition mechanism, the first of which appeared in Western Europe in the early 16th century. The term may also apply to a particular form of the mechanism itself, also known as the true flintlock, that was introduced in the early 17th century, and gradually replaced earlier firearm-ignition technologies such as the matchlock, the wheel-lock, and earlier flintlock mechanisms like the snaplock and snaphaunce. The true flintlock continued to be in common use for over two centuries, replaced by percussion cap and (later) the cartridge-based systems in the early-to-mid 19th century. Although long superseded by modern firearms, flintlock weapons enjoy continuing popularity with black-powder shooting enthusiasts.
Flintlocks may be any type of small arm: long gun or pistol, smoothbore or rifle, muzzleloader or breechloader. The flintlock as it appears in variants of NetHack is based on the flintlock pistol, which was historically used as a self-defense weapon and military arm: the effective range of flintlock pistols was short, and they were frequently used as an adjunct to a sword or cutlass—the stereotypical image of a pirate often depicts them with such weapons, including a sometimes-holstered flintlock pistol. Flintlock pistols were usually smoothbore firearms, although some rifled pistols were produced, and came in a variety of sizes and styles which often overlap and are not well-defined due to many of the names being applied by collectors and dealers long after the pistols were obsolete.
The smallest flintlock pistols were less than 6 inches (15 cm) long and the largest were over 20 inches (51 cm)—from around the beginning of the 1700s, larger pistols became got shorter, with the largest ones of the late 1700s around 16 inches (41 cm) long. The smallest flintlock pistol would fit into a typical pocket or a hand warming muff and could easily be carried by women, while the largest would be carried in holsters across a horse's back just ahead of the saddle. Arguably the high point of the mechanical development of the flintlock pistol was the British dueling pistol: it was highly reliable, water-resistant and accurate, and while external decoration was minimal, the craftsmanship was evident and the internal works were often finished to a higher degree than the exterior. Dueling pistols were the size of late 1700s horse pistols, around 16 inches (41 cm) long, and were usually sold in pairs along with accessories in a wooden case that included compartments for each piece.
