Silver saber
) 
| |
|---|---|
| Name | silver saber |
| Appearance | silver saber |
| Damage vs. small | 1d8+(1d20) |
| Damage vs. large | 1d8+(1d20) |
| To-hit bonus | +0 |
| Weapon skill | saber |
| Size | one-handed |
| Base price | 75 zm (+10/positive enchant) |
| Weight | 40 |
| Material | silver |
A silver saber is a type of weapon that appears in NetHack. It is a one-handed melee weapon that uses the saber skill, and is made of silver.
The silver saber is the base item for the artifacts Grayswandir and Werebane.
Generation
Silver sabers make up 3⁄50 (0.6%) of all weapons that are randomly generated on the ground, in general shops or as death drops. Used armor dealerships and antique weapons outlets can also stock silver sabers.
Some monsters can be generated with a silver saber.
- Watch captains and Yendorian army captains have a roughly 1⁄2 chance of being generated with a silver saber.[1]
- In a game with Orcish Town, the orc-captain that acts as leader of the invading horde has a roughly 1⁄2 chance of being given the watch captain's silver saber.[2]
- Player monsters that are not monks and are created on the Astral Plane have an effective 2⁄291 chance (~1.03%) of generating with a short sword as their initial weapon before role-based replacements are applied.[4][5]
Description
A silver saber inflicts slashing damage, and deals 1d8 damage versus all monsters with a +1d20 damage bonus against silver-hating monsters.[6]
In terms of monster weapon preference, monsters that do not hate silver will prefer a silver saber to a morning star, and will prefer a scimitar or better to the silver saber.[7][8]
Strategy
The silver saber is a respectable weapon that is commonly chosen as the off-hand weapon for long-term two-weapon combat to provide coverage against silver-hating monsters such as shades, demons, werecreatures, and vampires. Due to their rarity, characters seeking a silver saber often consider killing the watch captain in Minetown if they generate with one—those trying to avoid any alignment record penalties or alignment abuse can use a suitably strong pet. Players that do not have a watch captain with a saber or do not wish to take the risk of killing one (indirectly or otherwise) can search Fort Ludios if they encounter it or head towards the Castle in the hopes of finding a captain to fight or possibly encountering one en route.
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.
| Weapon | Not silver-hating | Silver-hating |
|---|---|---|
| +0 silver saber | ||
| +7 silver saber |
History
The silver saber first appears in NetHack 3.1.0, which introduces Grayswandir and changes Werebane's base item from a long sword to a silver saber.
From NetHack 3.2.0 to NetHack 3.6.7, including some variants based on those versions, the silver saber is the only saber weapon while the scimitar has a separate weapon skill. NetHack 5.0.0 merges the scimitar skill into the saber skill via commit 296a3ac2.
Origin
A saber is a curved, single-edged sword with a cross-guard connecting to the pommel (tip of the hilt)—it descends from the similar West Asian scimitar, which has a simple cross-guard, and has a backward-curved blade as opposed to the forward-curving one associated with many similar swords. Designed for use by mounted cavalry such as the Central European hussars and the light cavalry of the 16th-to-19th centuries, the saber's cross-guard was improved due to the development of firearms making many forms of armor ineffective.
As a heavy and soft metal, silver would never have been used to make a weapon intended for battle. However, British light cavalry officers stationed in India often carried richly decorated sabers, and these weapons would sometimes have silver-plated hilts as well as silver wire-wrapped grips. In addition to its aesthetic purpose, this silvering also served to help the weapons resist corrosion and rust in the humid Indian environments.
Variants
NetHack variants with object materials systems often change the item's name to the saber, and may change its default material to iron while retaining the possibility of generating as silver.
In variants that incorporate the Convict role, prison guards have a 1⁄2 chance of being generated with a silver saber.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, silver sabers are far more common, with the chance for a randomly generated weapon to be a silver saber raised from 3⁄500 (0.6%) to 27⁄1000 (2.7%).[9]
NetHack brass
In NetHack brass, silver sabers are replaced with iron sabers. Grayswandir retains its silver damage as a unique property of the artifact, rather than an intrinsic property of the base item.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, the silver saber is simply known as a saber, has a default material of silver and always shows the material's name.
Argentum golems have a 1⁄12 chance of generating with a silver saber. The Rebel Ringleader, the quest nemesis for the default Noble quest, will always generate with a silver saber.
Some artifacts have the saber as a base item:
- Demonbane has its base item changed to a silver saber from vanilla NetHack.
- Fire Brand and Frost Brand can be generated, wished for or gifted in saber form, and can be reshaped into a saber.
- The Crescent Blade is an artifact silver saber that favors drow.
- The Iconoclast is an artifact silver saber wielded by Daemon.
- The Saber of Sabaoth is a large artifact silver saber that Throne Archons can generate with.
Berith is a spirit that can be summoned by drawing his seal around a saber.
xNetHack
In xNetHack, sabers have a default material of iron and can generate as silver. Grayswandir and Werebane are still generated as silver sabers.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, sabers have a default material of iron and can generate as silver—Grayswandir remains a silver saber, while Werebane has its base item changed to a scimitar made of silver. The scimitar skill is also merged into the saber skill.
A saber can be created at a forge by combining a long sword and a scimitar, and a fauchard can be created by combining a saber with a spear.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, the Rebel Ringleader retains her silver saber and serves as the nemesis for all Nobles.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, sabers behave as they do in EvilHack and use the same forging recipes. Upgrading a saber successfully will produce a rapier, and vice versa.
Encyclopedia entry
Flashed all their sabres bare,
Flashed as they turned in air,
Sab'ring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wondered:
Plunged in the battery smoke,
Right through the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reeled from the sabre-stroke
Shattered and sundered.
Then they rode back, but not--
Not the six hundred.
References
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 209-L212
- ↑ src/mkmaze.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 843-L852
- ↑ 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[3]
- ↑ 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 331-L332
- ↑ src/weapon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 696
- ↑ src/weapon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 733-L736
- ↑ objects.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 198
