Morning star
) 
| |
|---|---|
| Name | morning star |
| Appearance | morning star |
| Damage vs. small | 2d4 (2-8) |
| Damage vs. large | 1d6+1 (2-7) |
| To-hit bonus | +0 |
| Weapon skill | morning star |
| Size | one-handed |
| Base price | 10 zm (+10/positive enchant) |
| Weight | 120 |
| Material | iron |
A morning star is a type of weapon that appears in NetHack. It is a one-handed melee weapon that uses the morning star skill, and is made of iron.
The morning star is the base item for the artifact Trollsbane.
Generation
Morning stars make up 3⁄250 (1.2%) of all weapons randomly generated on the ground, in general shops or as death drops. Used armor dealerships and antique weapon outlets can also stock morning stars. A normally-generated morning star has a base 1⁄20 chance of being made into Trollsbane if no artifacts have been generated yet.[1]
Player monsters that are not monks and are created on the Astral Plane have an effective 2⁄97 chance (~2.06%) of being generated with a morning star as their initial weapon before role-based replacements are applied.[3][4]
Description
A morning star inflicts blunt damage, and deals 2d4 damage versus small monsters and 1d6+1 versus large ones.
In terms of monster weapon preference, monsters will prefer a morning star to an elven short sword, and will prefer a silver saber or better to the two-handed sword.[5]
Strategy
Morning stars have passable damage output against many of the monsters encountered early on, but are somewhat lackluster against monsters from the midgame onward—they are also quite heavy at 120 aum, and are generally not common enough for most heroes to consider investing skill points in. Roles capable of advancing the skill usually have better options readily available to them even in the short term, such as the Barbarian's starting battle-axe or two-handed sword, the Knight's long sword and the Rogue's stack of daggers (which can still perform well for short-range damage)—the aklys in particular is a weapon that is weaker in base damage output, but has very convenient ranged applications that make it better and can be used by most roles that are capable of training in morning stars.
History
The morning star first appears in NetHack 1.3d.
Origin
A morning star is any of several medieval club-like weapons consisting of a wooden shaft and an attached iron ball adorned with one or more spikes, designed for use as a bludgeon to wound or kill enemies. The morning star first came into widespread use around the beginning of the 14th century, particularly in Germany where it was known as Morgenstern. Morning stars were used by both infantry and cavalry, with the ones used by horsemen the horseman's weapon had a shorter shaft. Many surviving morning stars were two-handed and typically six feet in length if not longer.
Morning stars are often conflated with maces, which use flanges or knobs as opposed to spiked balls and are entirely metallic, as well as military flails that typically consist of an iron-shod wooden bar joined to a shift by chain (with ball-and-chain flails being seemingly quite uncommon). Three different types of morning star have been found: the well-crafted military type, made by expert weapon-smiths and used by professional soldiers; a second, much simpler type, hand-cut from wood by peasant militia men and fitted with spikes by a local blacksmith; and a third, decorative metallic type with a shorter shaft. The "simple" morning star usually had a combined shaft and head, sometimes reinforced at the top with an iron band.
Variants
Some NetHack variants with object material systems may make morning stars somewhat more appealing if they are discovered early on with a lighter material.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, the morning star deals 2d6 damage to small monsters and 1d8+1 to large monsters, and its weight is reduced to 80 aum.
dNetHack also adds two artifact morning stars:
- Bloodletter (unaligned morning star)
- The Ruinous Descent of Stars (chaotic, intelligent and drow-favoring silvered metal morning star)
notdNetHack
In notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, in addition to dNetHack details, Iris generates with a +7 psionic morning star when summoned by an Illithanachronounbinder.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, some additional monsters can generate with morning stars:
- Dwarven sergeants have a 1⁄2 chance of generating with a morning star.
- Gnolls, gnoll hunters and flinds each have a 2⁄3 chance of generating with one.
- The Paladin is always generated with a morning star that has an enchantment ranging from +3 to +5.
- Lucifer is always generated with a morning star that has the fire object property.
A morning star can be created at a forge by combining a dagger and a mace. Morning stars can be used to create a couple of items:
- A morning star can be combined with a mace to create a flail.
- A morning star can be combined with barding to make spiked barding.
Encyclopedia entry
The morning star was a medieval weapon resembling a mace, but
with a large spike on the end and smaller spikes around the
circumference. It was also known as the goedendag (from the
Dutch word for "good day") and the holy water sprinkler (from
its resemblance to the aspergillum sometimes used in the
Catholic Mass). It was used by both cavalry and infantry;
the horseman's weapon typically had a shorter haft than the
footman's, which might be up to six feet long. It came into
use in the beginning of the 14th century.
The name "morning star" is often erroneously applied to the
military flail (also known as the therscol), a similar weapon,
but with the head attached by a short chain.
by Bradford Broughton ]
References
- ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 889-L893
- ↑ include/objects.h in NetHack 5.0.0, line 174-L392
- ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 150: roughly 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[2]
- ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 199: monks will always have no melee weapon
- ↑ src/weapon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 695
