Grayswandir

)   Grayswandir   (No tile)
Base item	silver saber
Damage vs. small	1d8 ×2 +(1d20)
Damage vs. large	1d8 ×2 +(1d20)
To-hit bonus	+1d5
Bonus versus	(any)
Weapon skill	saber
Size	one-handed
Affiliation	lawful
When carried	(none)
When wielded	hallucination resistance
When invoked	(none)
Base price	8000 zm
Weight	40
Material	silver

Grayswandir is an artifact that appears in NetHack. Its default alignment is lawful, and its base item is a silver saber.

Generation

A randomly generated silver saber has a base ¹⁄₂₀ chance of being generated as an artifact, which has a ¹⁄₂ chance of being Grayswandir (and will otherwise be Werebane, the other artifact silver saber) if no artifacts have already been generated. Lawful heroes may receive Grayswandir as a sacrifice gift for a sacrifice with a value of 10 or higher—Grayswandir will not have any value added to its enchantment when randomly generated or gifted.

Player monsters on the Astral Plane that generate with a silver saber have a ¹⁄₂ chance of that saber being turned into a compatible artifact, with a subsequent ¹⁄₂ chance of Grayswandir being chosen as above if no artifact silver sabers have been generated, resulting in an effective ¹⁄₄ chance of a player monster's silver saber becoming Grayswandir.

Description

While wielded, Grayswandir grants hallucination resistance, and has +1d5 to-hit and double damage bonuses against all monsters: the bonus is applied to the weapon's base dice and its enchantment before silver damage and other bonuses are factored in.

Strategy

Grayswandir is one of the most sought-after artifact weapons in NetHack, both for general use and two weapon combat: while Grayswandir's only "utility" is suppressing hallucination–a status property that can be cured with a unicorn horn, and which most players can avoid by selectively blinding themselves against black lights and not drinking unidentified potions–it more than makes up for this with sheer damage output, especially with high skill in sabers and against silver-hating monsters like vampires and major demons. It is also not intelligent and can be wished for or picked up by non-lawful heroes, with the only risk being a ¹⁄₄ chance of 4d4 damage each time they touch the artifact.

Due to damage calculations, Grayswandir shines most when it is heavily-enchanted, and is arguably most useful in the late game, when heroes are guaranteed to encounter several silver haters and will have enchanted the weapon a reasonable amount. Ironically, this is also the stage where artifact weapon selection matters much less: hit points, magic defenses, evasion strategies, healing, and armor class are each just as valuable as weapon damage at this stage, if not more so, and many 'lesser' artifact weapons are more than capable of doing the job—several of those artifacts are also of low enough "value" to be more easily obtained through sacrifice gifts. As such, players should only seek out Grayswandir if they really want the artifact and its extra damage: heroes in the early game should ideally prioritize survival and a consistent source of damage, while late-game heroes can easily stay the course if they have already obtained a high-quality artifact weapon, e.g. Excalibur or Stormbringer.

Average damage calculation

The average damage calculations in the following table do not include bonuses from weapon skills, strength, or from using a blessed weapon against undead or demons. In addition, remember that double damage applies to the damage from base dice and enchantment.

Weapon	Not silver-hating	Silver-hating
+0 Grayswandir	$\left (\frac{1+8}{2}\right )\times 2=\bold{9}$	$\left (\frac{1+8}{2}\right )\times 2+\frac{1+20}{2}=\bold{19.5}$
+7 Grayswandir	$\left (\frac{1+8}{2}+7\right )\times 2=\bold{23}$	$\left (\frac{1+8}{2}+7\right )\times 2+\frac{1+20}{2}=\bold{33.5}$

History

Grayswandir first appears in NetHack 3.1.0.

NetHack 5.0.0 reworks artifact balance and sacrifice gifts to their current behavior via commit d87cadaf and commit c2c797fa.

Origin

Grayswandir is a weapon from Chronicles of Amber book series by Roger Zelanzy: also known as the Night Blade, Grayswandir is the silver sword of the protagonist, Corwin, and has a twin called Brand's Werewindle, the Day Sword. Both swords are inscribed with portions of the Pattern of Amber, granting them some power over Shadow, and Corwin is able to summon Grayswandir to him while travelling in the region.

The sword Grayswandir enables Corwin to speak to the shades of Tir-na Nog'th and inflict damage on the hostile ones he fights. The weapon's name and its abilities echo that of Graywand, the longsword of Fafhrd in Fritz Leiber's tales of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser—Fafhrd naming consecutive swords Graywand after losing the previous one may be the inspiration for Grayswandir reappearing to Corwin even after being lost.

Variants

NetHack: The Next Generation

In NetHack: The Next Generation, Grayswandir is the most expensive artifact available at The Forge with a base price of 17,500 zm.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, Grayswandir's to-hit bonus is a flat +5 as with other artifacts, and it can be used in the offhand when twoweaponing. However, unlike many others, its damage is not improved from vanilla NetHack, and as such it's only about as strong as Excalibur against most monsters, with several artifacts (such as the Bat from Hell) being significantly more powerful.

As silver sabers are generated much more frequently in SLASH'EM, Grayswandir is also a more common sight, particularly in weapon shops. Its hallucination resistance can prove very useful on the Lawful Quest, particularly for characters who lack a well-enchanted unicorn horn.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, Grayswandir grants warning while carried, always hits non-corporeal monsters and deals an additional +9 damage against non-lawful monsters.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, Grayswandir can be combined with Dragonbane at a forge to create the Gauntlets of Purity, an artifact pair of gauntlets of power.

SlashTHEM

In addition to SLASH'EM details, SlashTHEM incorporates The Forge from NetHack: The Next Generation, and Grayswandir is available there with the same base price—it is the second-most expensive artifact available there after Houchou.

Encyclopedia entry

Why had I been wearing Grayswandir? Would another weapon have affected a Logrus-ghost as strongly? Had it really been my father, then, who had brought me here? And had he felt I might need the extra edge his weapon could provide? I wanted to think so, to believe that he had been more than a Pattern-ghost.

[ Knight of Shadows, by Roger Zelazny ]