Ranger/SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, the Ranger, abbreviated as Ran, is one of the roles from NetHack that is available to the hero.

Rangers can be humans, doppelgangers, elves, drow, gnomes, orcs, lycanthropes, or hobbits. Human and doppelganger Rangers can be either neutral or chaotic; elven, gnome and hobbit rangers are always neutral; and drow, lycanthrope and orc Rangers are always chaotic.

Starting equipment

Each Ranger starts with the following equipment, depending on their starting race:

	Default (applies for humans and other races not listed)	Gnome	Elf	Orc	Drow
Melee weapon	+1 dagger		+1 elven dagger	+1 orcish dagger	+1 dark elven dagger
Launcher	+1 bow	+1 crossbow	+1 elven bow	+1 orcish bow	+1 dark elven bow
Primary ammo	50-59 +2 arrows	50-59 +2 crossbow bolts	50-59 +2 elven arrows	50-59 +2 orcish arrows	50-59 +2 dark elven arrows
Secondary ammo	30-39 +0 arrows	30-39 +0 crossbow bolts	30-39 +0 elven arrows	30-39 +0 orcish arrows	30-39 +0 dark elven arrows
Cloak	+2 cloak of displacement		+2 elven cloak	+2 cloak of displacement
Food	4-8 cram rations		4-8 lembas wafers	4-8 cram rations two stacks of 1-2 random comestibles	4-8 cram rations

Chaotic Rangers have a ¹⁄₁₀₀ chance of each starting stack of ammo being poisoned.

Rangers start with knowledge of any applicable racial equipment.

The Ranger's default starting pet is a little dog named Sirius.

Intrinsics

Rangers gain the following intrinsic properties upon reaching the given experience levels:

• XL 1: searching
• XL 7: stealth
• XL 15: see invisible

Attributes

The Ranger's starting attributes are distributed as follows:

Attributes	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma	Remaining
Minimum attributes	13	9	13	13	13	7	7
Distribution percentages	30%	20%	20%	10%	10%	10%
Mean w/ standard deviation (human)	15.22±1.32	10.45±1.17	14.44±1.14	13.75±0.93	13.75±0.93	7.68±0.91

Skills

Rangers have the following skills available to them:

Ranger skills
Max	Skills
Basic	Weapons: pick-axe, short sword, morning star, hammer, quarterstaff, trident, whip Combat: bare hands, riding Spells: healing, body
Skilled	Weapons: knife, axe, flail, polearms, spear, shuriken
Expert	Weapons: dagger, javelin, bow, sling, crossbow, dart, boomerang Spells: divination

Rangers start with Basic skill in daggers as well as their starting launcher, i.e. crossbows for gnomes and bows otherwise. They use the intelligence stat to cast spells, and their special spell is invisibility.

Techniques

Rangers can learn the disarm technique by reaching Skilled in any weapon, and also gain the following techniques at the listed experience levels:

Level	Technique
1	Missile flurry

Special rules

Rangers gain a +1 bonus to multishot with all projectile weapons.

Rangers have a bonus to untrap floor traps.

Rangers have a -2 penalty to casting emergency spells.

Rank titles

The status line displays one of the following ranks for the corresponding experience levels:

• XL 1-2: Tenderfoot
• XL 3-5: Lookout
• XL 6-9: Trailblazer
• XL 10-13: Reconnoiterer/Reconnoiteress
• XL 14-17: Scout
• XL 18-21: Arbalester
• XL 22-25: Archer
• XL 26-29: Sharpshooter
• XL 30: Marksman/Markswoman

Gods

The Ranger pantheon is based on the classical pantheon of Roman mythology, particularly deities that also lend their names to planets.

• Lawful: Mercury
• Neutral: Venus
• Chaotic: Mars

Quest

The Ranger's quest sees them fighting Scorpius for The Longbow of Diana, an artifact bow. The Longbow of Diana grants telepathy while carried, and while wielded it grants reflection and applies a +1d5 to-hit bonus to fired arrows. Invoking The Longbow of Diana creates arrows with the same beatitude as the bow and places them in the hero's inventory, with a small chance of producing poisoned arrows.

Strategy

Early game

As in Vanilla, Rangers are weak in melee but very strong in ranged combat, and will want to use their bow/crossbow as their main weapon. In the early game, it may be tempting to use a Ranger's starting dagger for weaker monsters in order to conserve ammunition, but this is dangerous: the turn spent switching weapons can prove deadly against a more dangerous monster, particularly in dark rooms. A better option for conserving ammo early on is to collect a stack of daggers to use as throwing weapons: while weaker than the bow, they do not mulch, so are useful for taking out low-threat monsters. Avoid the temptation to use the stack of +0 arrows early on: they will mulch very quickly. The +2 stack should last long enough for you to find enough scrolls to enchant the +0 stack to +2.

Elven rangers will have a distinct advantage in the early game because SLASH'EM gives additional multishot benefits for the elven bow and elven arrows. An elven ranger can have a chance of firing a volley of up to six arrows at a time from his second turn (if he wields his bow on his first turn). Even non-elves will want to acquire an elven bow, as SLASH'EM's extra bonus applies to all characters. Note that the droven Ranger's dark elven bow does not provide a similar multishot bonus - or even a racial bonus for drow - and is therefore a prime candidate for replacement.

Mid game

As a Ranger transitions from the early to the mid-game, they should have two goals in mind: acquiring a more powerful weapon via sacrifice, and improving their starting ranged weapons.

A chaotic ranger has an advantage in sacrifice weapons, having access to powerful gifts like Bat from Hell, Doomblade, and Serpent's Tongue. Furthermore, there are two chaotic launchers that are possible sacrifice gifts; of limited use to other characters, these are very useful for rangers:

• Plague, a dark elven bow that gives +5 to-hit +7 damage to any arrows fired from it in addition to autopoisoning them.
• Hellfire, a crossbow +5 to-hit and +7 damage to any bolts fired from it, with said bolts also causing a 3x3 explosion dealing 2d6 damage. Note that even though the bolts "explode", they do not automatically mulch.

A neutral ranger will have a more difficult time finding a decent weapon, as only Magicbane, Mjollnir, and Cleaver are worth their salt as a main melee weapon of the neutral sacrifice gifts, although there are several useful pieces of armor - Gauntlets of Defense, Mirrorbright, and Whisperfeet - that they may receive. Thus, a ranger should focus on training bow and either dagger or dart skills and building up a stack of blessed, enchanted arrows and daggers/darts, and use them as his primary weapon until he gets a better alternative such as a crysknife (much improved over Vanilla). For these reasons it may be worth going straight for the luckstone at Mine's End before trying Sokoban, and any clear potions costing 100 zorkmids should be altar-tested at Minetown and, if blessed, used to bless your main stack of arrows.

The enchantment-dependent success rate of unicorn horns means that Rangers thinking of doing their quest may need to plan ahead: as in vanilla, Scorpius can inflict sickness, but unlike in vanilla, an unenchanted unicorn horn (30% chance to work) may not cure the illness in time. Neutral rangers can just quaff a potion of holy water instead, but chaotic ones will either want to enchant their unicorn horn or bring along some potions that can cure the sickness (blessed healing, non-cursed extra or full healing).

Late game

Once the ranger has a decent weapon from the midgame on, a ranger plays much like any other role but should continue to rely on ranged attacks for dangerous monsters. By this point, it is safe to use a melee weapon to deal with weaker monsters, and even with maxed-out luck this is usually a good idea in order to conserve ammo: the 2% attrition rate will eventually exhaust your stack of arrows if used on every nonthreatening monster. This is especially true in SLASH'EM, whose generally higher depths lead to mid-level melee-only monsters spawning at very high base levels, i.e. monsters such as frost giants and baluchitheria, not to mention some SLASH'EM-specific monsters such as killer beetles and manglers. Said monsters are not particularly dangerous, but their greater HP reserve means they require many arrows to kill, gradually depleting your stack.

It is better to enchant a stack of (preferably elven) arrows to +7 than to spend the enchantment on a melee weapon, as you will be able to fire up to 6 shots per round with a +7 bow (9 if you are an elf firing elven arrows with a +7 elven bow), with an average damage of 10.5 per hit (double if firing silver arrows at silver-haters) plus any applicable strength and skill bonuses. To put this in perspective, an elven ranger, expert in bow, firing +7 elven arrows from a +7 elven bow will fire 4.3 arrows per round, for an average of 3.5 base damage + 7 enchantment bonus + 2 skill bonus = 54 damage per turn. If firing blessed +7 silver arrows from a +7 elven bow at Demogorgon will fire an average of 3.7 arrows per turn, for an average of 3.5 base damage + 7 enchantment bonus + 2 skill bonus + 2.5 blessed bonus + 10.5 silver damage = 93.5 damage per turn. The abovementioned Plague or Hellfire will add nearly 30 more damage per turn (7 per shot * 3.7). This is comparable with the damage that can be achieved with firearms, and far more renewable. Rangers will need to be mindful of water and lava, both of which are more common in SLASH'EM, but thankfully the most dangerous monsters are covetous, and thus easily lured to solid ground.

Bear in mind that bows and crossbows in SLASH'EM are two-handed. As SLASH'EM lacks the #tip command, this can create a very dangerous situation if your bow ends up cursed, especially in an area where prayer is impossible. Furthermore, SLASH'EM introduces multiple new monsters capable of casting curse items. This danger can be mitigated (but not entirely avoided) by using the intelligent Longbow of Diana, but an elven bow or Plague will have considerably superior damage output. The best strategy is to simply make sure your bow never ends up cursed: keep it blessed, and re-bless it immediately if a spellcaster manages to un-bless it. As a backup, it may be advisable to carry a non-cursed scroll of remove curse in open inventory, replacing it as necessary.

For vanilla Rangers, with their mediocre spellcasting aptitudes and inability to #twoweapon, a shield of reflection is a natural fit for an ascension kit. Unfortunately, the two-handedness of bows and crossbows in SLASH'EM makes shields of reflection impractical for rangers using either of those weapons. In general, most Rangers will want to go with silver dragon scale mail and a cloak of magic resistance, rather than gray dragon scale mail and an amulet of reflection, in order to leave the amulet slot free to swap in an amulet of drain resistance as needed. While chaotic Rangers can also gain drain resistance by wielding Stormbringer, doing so will deprive of them of the ability to inflict large amounts of ranged damage, often when it is most needed. As for other parts of the ascension kit, elven and droven rangers may want to consider gauntlets of power, as they are otherwise unable to reach maximum carrying capacity; the gauntlets do impose a -2 penalty to-hit (but not to-damage) on arrows and bolts, but this is insignificant late-game.