Soldier's rapier
| ) | |
|---|---|
| Name | soldier's rapier |
| Appearance | hinged rapier |
| Damage vs. small | 1d10 |
| Damage vs. large | 1d6 |
| Damage type | slashing, piercing |
| To-hit bonus | +2 |
| Weapon skill | saber |
| Primary attribute | strength |
| Secondary attribute | dexterity |
| Magical item? | no |
| Properties | |
| Base size | medium |
| Base price | 100 zm (+10/positive enchant) |
| Default weight | 40 |
| Base material | metal |
| ) | |
|---|---|
| Name | soldier's saber |
| Appearance | gun saber |
| Damage vs. small | 1d8 |
| Damage vs. large | 1d8 |
| Damage type | slashing |
| To-hit bonus | +2 |
| Weapon skill | saber |
| Secondary skill | firearms |
| Primary attribute | strength |
| Secondary attribute | dexterity |
| Magical item? | no |
| Properties |
|
| Base size | medium |
| Base price | 100 zm (+10/positive enchant) |
| Default weight | 40 |
| Base material | metal |
A soldier's rapier is a type of weapon that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. The soldier's rapier is a medium-sized melee weapon, making it one-handed for a medium-sized hero, and uses the saber skill. It has a base material of metal, and appears as a hinged rapier when unidentified.
The soldier's rapier can be latched to transform it into a soldier's saber, a medium-sized weapon that can function as both a melee weapon using the saber skill and as a launcher for shooting bullets and blood-spears using the firearms skill. It retains its material between transformations, and appears as a gun saber when unidentified.
Generation
Vampire Undead Hunters have a 1⁄5 chance of starting the game with a soldier's rapier, and those that do will also know the appearance of the soldier's saber and start with Basic skill in firearms.
Neither the soldier's rapier nor the soldier's saber are randomly generated, though they can be wished for or found in bones.
Vampire Madpeople that started the game as female will have a soldier's rapier generated in their quest box on the goal level of the Madperson quest during level creation.
Player monster undead hunters have a 1⁄15 chance each of generating with either a soldier's rapier or a soldier's saber as their weapon.
Description
As a melee weapon the soldier's rapier deals slashing and piercing damage, with 1d10 damage against small monsters and 1d6 against large ones, and has a +2 to-hit bonus. As a rapier-like weapon, it gains a full damage bonus from the hero's dexterity, but only a halved bonus from strength, and increases the hero's AC by the lower value between their saber skill (with 1 point per level) and (DEX - 13)4. A hero that wields a soldier's rapier at Skilled or better in sabers gains the "focus fire", "stop thrust" and "lunge" expert traits. In terms of monster weapon preference, monsters will favor the soldier's rapier over the viperwhip, and will prefer a bestial claw or better to the soldier's rapier.
Applying a soldier's rapier will latch it and turn the weapon into a soldier's saber of the same beatitude, enchantment and object material, and applying a soldier's saber will unlatch it and turn the weapon into a soldier's saber in the same manner vice versa.
A soldier's saber deals slashing damage when used in melee, with 1d8 damage against all monsters, and retains the to-hit bonus of the soldier's rapier. When used as a launcher, a soldier's saber has a range of 15 squares. The soldier's saber does not have any expert traits.
An Undead Hunter that uses a twin columnar crystal or a columnar chunk to upgrade a weapon via manual smithing has a 1⁄2 chance of learning the appearance of both the soldier's saber and the soldier's rapier, which will also grant them the ability to train to Expert in sabers and firearms.
Fire Brand and Frost Brand can be reshaped into either a soldier's rapier or soldier's saber, both of which are also exclusive abilities to Undead Hunter heroes.
Strategy
An Undead Hunter hero that is fortunate enough to start the game with a soldier's rapier will be set offensively for a majority of the game: the scaling of damage and AC with the hero's dexterity does not have a significant impact in practice, outside of granting an extra 1-3 points of AC on average and slightly increasing the weapon's damage floor at 25 dexterity and strength. This amounts to the soldier's rapier slightly hindering characters that have low starting dexterity—a generally more concerning development is the tendency of the weapon's damage to fall off towards the late stages of the mid-game, even with extra sneak attack damage.
One method of solving any issues involving maintaining a given damage-per-turn output is to take advantage of upgrades from cult boons. If the hero is willing to swap for a better weapon, they can opt for a rakuyo or seek out artifact sabers to maintain their skill point investment, with the Blade Singer's Saber and Grayswandir being good candidates—the hero can also name The Singing Sword using a good base saber or rapier weapon.
Origin
The soldier's rapier is based on the Reiterpallasch 'trick weapon' that appears in the 2015 game Bloodborne. The Reiterpallasch is a blade with a built-in pistol that transforms between the form of a rapier and that of a gun with the rapier's blade serving as a "bayonet", and it excels at being used to parry enemies.
Messages
- You open the <soldier's rapier>.
- You close the <soldier's saber>.
- You applied a soldier's rapier or soldier's saber and transformed it into its other form.
- You need to buy it.
- You were prevented from applying either weapon because it belongs to a shop.
Encyclopedia entry
Both the soldier's rapier and soldier's saber share the same encyclopedia entry.
The old nobles, long-time imbibers of blood, are no strangers
to the sanguine plague, and the disposal of beasts was a
discrete task left to their servants, or knights, as they were
called for the sake of appearances.
