Mace
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| |
|---|---|
| Name | mace |
| Appearance | mace |
| Damage vs. small | 1d6+1 (2-7) |
| Damage vs. large | 1d6 (1-6) |
| To-hit bonus | +0 |
| Weapon skill | mace |
| Size | one-handed |
| Base price | 5 zm (+10/positive enchant) |
| Weight | 30 |
| Material | iron |
A mace is a type of weapon that appears in NetHack. It is a one-handed melee weapon that uses the mace skill, and is made of iron.
The mace is the base item for the artifact The Sceptre of Might.
Generation
Clerics start each game with a blessed +1 mace.[1]
Maces make up 1⁄25 (4%) of all weapons that are randomly generated on the floor, in general shops or as death drops. Antique weapons outlets and used armor dealerships can also stock maces.
One of the weapons in the pile of objects guarded by the ghost on the Rogue level has a 1⁄2 chance of being a mace, with an enchantment ranging from +1 to +3 and a 3⁄4 chance of being cursed[2]—the mace is the starting weapon for the player character in Rogue.
Some monsters can be generated with maces:
- Aligned clerics, acolytes, high clerics, and the Arch Priest (the quest leader for the Cleric quest) are always generated with maces that have an enchantment ranging from +1 to +3 and a roughly 1⁄2 chance of being cursed.[3]
- The Arch Priest is also generated with a +4 mace in addition to this one.[4]
- Sergeants have a roughly 1⁄2 chance of generating with a mace.[5]
- The monster that rules over a throne room and is placed on the throne will always be generated with a mace.[6]
- Player monsters, including those generated on the Astral Plane, have an effective 10⁄291 chance (~3.44%) of generating with a mace as their weapon before role-based replacements are applied.[7]
- Clerics have a 1⁄2 chance of forcing a mace as their weapon, resulting in an effective ~51.72% chance of generating with one.[8]
- Cave dwellers have a 3⁄4 chance of forcing a mace, raising their effective chance to ~75.86%.[9]
Strategy
The mace is generally an unimpressive weapon, though an enchanted mace like the starting +1 mace for Clerics is at least passable for the early game stages. As the hero advances, it is typically worth exchanging a mace for a more versatile weapon within the hero's skillset, such as a long sword or aklys.
History
The mace first appears in Hack 1.21 and Hack for PDP-11, which are based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial item list for Hack 1.0.
NetHack 5.0.0 adds the Arch Priest's second mace as part of commit 20cbadcf, which makes it so that a hero killing their quest leader no longer makes the game unwinnable and strengthens all quest leaders accordingly—this is likely a bug.
Origin
A mace is type of blunt club or rod that uses a heavy head on the end of a strong and heavy shaft to deliver powerful strikes; it also comes in a two-handed variety and is typically made of stone, bone, copper, bronze, iron, steel, or even metal-reinforced wood. Military maces can be shaped with flanges or knobs to allow greater penetration of plate armour, with their length depending on the soldier's rank.
Maces are used throughout prehistory and post-classical history, and in the modern era are rarely used for actual combat; ceremonial maces are still kept by many universities, government bodies such as the British House of Commons and the U.S. Congress, and other institutions to display as symbols of authority.
The mace's use as a standard weapon for priesthood is derived from Dungeons & Dragons, where clerical classes are typically forbidden by their god from shedding blood with edged weapons.
Variants
SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM adds Disrupter, an artifact mace that is the first gift for Priests.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, the mace has stronger damage dice compared to vanilla NetHack, dealing 1d10+1 blunt damage to small monsters and 1d10 blunt damage to large monsters, and a hero that wields one while they are Skilled or better in maces gains the "hew", "stunning strike" and "penetrate armor" expert traits.
Maces make up 33⁄1000 (3.3%) of all weapons that are randomly generated on the floor, in general shops or as death drops. Antique weapons outlets and used armor dealerships can also stock maces.
dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack also adds some artifact maces:
- The Rod of Lordly Might, which can be invoked to turn it into a mace
- Rod of the Ram (neutral mace)
- Field Marshal's Baton (lawful mace).
- Rod of Dis (lawful intelligent mace)
xNetHack
In xNetHack, the base item of Demonbane is changed to a mace with a material of silver.
The mace that an aligned cleric generates with is will never be created as cursed.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, a mace can be created at a forge by combining a dagger and a club. Maces can be used to create many other items:
- Two maces can be combined to create a heavy mace.
- A mace can be combined with 2 rubies to create a rod.
- A mace can be combined with a dagger to create a morning star.
- A mace can be combined with an orcish dagger to create a orcish morning star.
- A mace can be combined with a flail to create a war hammer.
- A mace can be combined with a helmet to create gauntlets.
Encyclopedia entry
Originally a club armed with iron, and used in war; now a staff
of office pertaining to certain dignitaries, as the Speaker of
the House of Commons, Lord Mayors, Mayors etc. Both sword and
mace are symbols of dignity, suited to the times when men went
about in armour, and sovereigns needed champions to vindicate
their rights.
References
- ↑ src/u.init in NetHack 5.0.0, line 115
- ↑ src/extralev.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 311-L315
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 263-L269
- ↑ dat/Pri-strt.lua in NetHack 5.0.0, line 76
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 203-L205
- ↑ src/mkroom.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 271
- ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 150: 1⁄2 to get a random weapon—the designated range of objects covers weapons from the spear to the bullwhip inclusively in objects.h, and uses normal generation odds
- ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 206-L207: cleric replacements for player monster melee weapons
- ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 174-L176: cave dweller replacements for player monster melee weapons
