The Longbow of Diana
| ) The Longbow of Diana (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Base item | bow |
| Damage vs. small | 1d2 |
| Damage vs. large | 1d2 |
| To-hit bonus | +1d5 |
| Bonus versus | (any) |
| Weapon skill | bow |
| Size | one-handed |
| Affiliation | |
| When carried | |
| When wielded | |
| When invoked |
|
| Base price | 4000 zm |
| Weight | 30 |
| Material | wood |
- This article is about the artifact. For the item that appears as a "long bow", see yumi.
The Longbow of Diana, formerly known as The Longbow of Artemis, is the Ranger quest artifact. It is the prize for completing the Ranger quest, and is chaotic for wishing purposes. Its base item type is a bow.
Contents
Description
While carried, the Longbow of Diana confers telepathy, and while wielded, it confers reflection and grants a +d5 to-hit bonus when firing arrows. Invoking the Bow 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 - if the hero is fumbling or there is no open space, the arrows will drop to the floor on their square. Beatitude also influences the amount of arrows created each time: a blessed Bow creates up to 21 per invoke, while a cursed Bow will create at most 11 per invoke.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
Rangers get a +1 multishot bonus while wielding the Longbow of Diana and shooting arrows from it.Arrow creation details
The enchantment range of the arrows is inclusive and depends on rne(3) and the current beatitude of the Longbow.[1][2] A blessed Longbow will only produce arrows with enchantment from 0 to 10; a cursed Longbow will only produce arrows with enchantment from -10 to 0; and an uncursed Longbow will produce arrows in the range of -10 to 10.
The probability distribution of the enchantments is not uniform: Arrows generated from the blessed or cursed Longbow of Diana are more likely to be +0 than randomly generated blessed or cursed arrows. This is because mksobj - which arti_invoke calls to generate the arrows - can produce arrows of any beatitude, regardless of the beatitude of the Longbow, and the arrows have their beatitude changed to the intended one that mksobj returns, bringing negative enchantments on blessed arrows and positive enchantments on cursed arrows to 0.
Strategy
- For optimized invocation, see Invoke#Optimum invocation schedule.
The Longbow of Diana is generally regarded as one of the more unimpressive chaotic artifacts, and one of the weakest in the game overall. Since the base type of the Longbow is an ordinary bow, it will not provide racial multishot bonuses like the starting bows of non-human Rangers; gnomish Rangers in particular use crossbows, an entirely different launcher with its own skill.
Furthermore, arrows can be easily obtained from arrow traps and/or other monsters, and blessed arrows are very unlikely to break with high luck; this makes it unlikely that you will be invoking the artifact often, if at all. Finally, the Longbow must be wielded to convey reflection, and the presence of centaurs throughout the Ranger quest is likely to warrant having a source of reflection prior to entering.
With all the above said, the Longbow's reflection does allow the amulet and shield slots to be used for non-reflection purposes, although you will have to sacrifice either reflection or one of the slots if you want to switch to a melee weapon. The Longbow also provides telepathy while carried, allowing you to more reliably take out non-mindless targets.
History
The Longbow of Diana first appears in NetHack 3.3.0 alongside the Ranger role, and is given its current name in NetHack 3.3.1.
Variants
Many variants attempt to improve on the Longbow in some manner.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, as of version 5.1.0, the Longbow of Diana gives +1 to multishot and a +1 damage bonus when firing any type of arrow.[3]
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, the Longbow of Diana is a silvered bow that grants +1d5 to-hit and +1d6 damage bonuses, with +8 damage per fired arrow; it additionally grants an inherent +1 multishot bonus (+2 for Rangers), and arrows fired from it continue flying until they hit a wall or another monster.
Gnomish Rangers are instead given their own quest and artifact: in the Gnomish Ranger Quest, they must fight the Great High Shaman of Kurtulmak for The Rogue Gear-spirits, an artifact crossbow.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, The Longbow of Diana adds +d6 damage to arrows fired with it, and the ammunition created from invoking the artifact has a 1⁄5 chance of being given an object property, and matches the hero's race where applicable. Bows are also two-handed weapons in EvilHack, meaning that it cannot be wielded while wearing a shield.
Gnomish and hobbit Rangers share the same quest, but will instead have The Crossbow of Carl as an 'alternate' quest artifact: its base item is a crossbow, ensuring that gnomish Rangers in particular retain their racial multishot bonus, and it otherwise possesses all the same properties as the Longbow of Diana - a Ranger cannot wish for the other quest artifact of their role.
If The Longbow of Diana is wished for by a non-Ranger hero, there is a 1⁄x chance (where x is the amount of previous artifact wishes) of it being created successfully, and an effective x⁄(x+1)² chance of a hostile Orion generating adjacent to the character with the artifact in his possession.
Encyclopedia entry
This legendary bow grants ESP when carried and can reflect magical attacks when wielded. When invoked it provides a supply of arrows.
References
- ↑ src/artifact.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1582: arti_invoke calls mksobj to create arrows
- ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 803: relevant section of mksobj
- ↑ https://github.com/UnNetHack/UnNetHack/blob/master/ChangeLog
