Trollsbane

)   Trollsbane
Base item	Morning star
Damage vs. small	2d4 ×2
Damage vs. large	1d6+1 ×2
To-hit bonus	+1d5
Bonus versus	trolls
Weapon skill	Morning star
Size	one-handed
Affiliation	unaligned
When carried	(none)
When wielded	(none)
When invoked	(none)
Base price	200 zm
Weight	120
Material	iron

Trollsbane is an artifact that appears in NetHack. It is unaligned, and its base item is a morning star.

Generation

A morning star randomly generated on the ground or as a death drop has a base ¹⁄₂₀ chance of being made into an artifact, which will always be Cleaver if it has not yet been generated. Trollsbane can be given to any hero as a sacrifice gift, though it will never be the first one given.

Player monsters on the Astral Plane that generate with a morning star have a ¹⁄₂ chance of it being made into Trollsbane if it has not been generated.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.

Per commit d87cadaf and commit c2c797fa, artifact balance is substantially reworked: artifacts have 2 additional internal stats—the minimum sacrifice value required to obtain them by sacrificing (which is usually just the difficulty rating of the monster sacrificed), and a flat number added to the weapon's enchantment when it is either randomly generated or gifted.

The aforementioned changes also mean that unaligned artifacts such as Trollsbane can be given as first gifts, though they are less likely to be given than a co-aligned artifact in this case. Trollsbane requires a sacrifice of any positive non-zero value, and will always have +2 added to its enchantment when randomly generated or given as a sacrifice gift.

Description

Trollsane has +1d5 to-hit and deals double damage against trolls. While wielded, Trollsbane prevents troll corpses from reviving.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.

Trolls killed by Trollsbane are marked as non-reviving, no longer requiring it to be wielded by the hero (or by any other monster, as made possible via commit 3cd45b7c). This is implemented via commit 328dc5bd and further refined in commit dd6ed502.

Per commit 178bd3a9, Trollsbane grants hungerless regeneration while wielded.

Strategy

Like most of the Banes, Trollsbane is of limited use: though trolls are often troublesome, they make up a very small portion of the total monsters a hero normally encounters. Trollsbane is also further hampered by its base item, as morning stars are heavy and are very rarely used by most players, despite their decent base damage early on—there is also little incentive to train the morning star skill over using a more accessible artifact weapon, such as Excalibur. At +0, and accounting for doubled damage against target monsters, Excalibur deals 14 damage on average versus Trollsbane's 9.

One potential use case for Trollsbane is the Barbarian quest, which pits Barbarians against trolls of all types. Trollsbane may also be worth employing to clear out troll-heavy throne rooms.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.

Trollsbane has some more use as a general backup weapon against trolls, since it only needs to kill the offending troll to stop them from reviving—it is still limited by the small amount of roles that are capable of training morning stars beyond Basic skill, though it also becomes much more useful for those roles. Its likelihood of being enchanted when gifted or generated also gives it more viability as an early game gift.

History

Trollsbane first appears in NetHack 3.0.0. From NetHack 3.0.3 to NetHack 3.1.2, Trollsbane is a lawful artifact, while from NetHack 3.1.3 to NetHack 3.2.3, Trollsbane is chaotic—it is made unaligned in NetHack 3.3.0.

The ability to prevent troll corpses from reviving is added in NetHack 3.6.1 via commit 14bd5504.

Variants

NetHack: The Next Generation

In NetHack: The Next Generation, Trollsbane is one of the many artifacts that can be requested at The Forge, for a base price of 4000zm.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, Trollsbane has a flat +5 to-hit bonus and retains its double damage against trolls, with a ³⁄₂₀ chance of cancelling any troll it hits.

SporkHack

In SporkHack, Trollsbane grants hungerless regeneration while wielded, deals +d4 damage to all monsters and has a ¹⁄₂ chance of instantly destroying trolls on a successful hit.

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, Trollsbane grants hungerless regeneration while wielded, warns of trolls and prevents them from leaving corpses—it also has a ¹⁄₅ chance of instantly killing any trolls it hits.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, Trollsbane is made of silver, and morning stars are somewhat buffed.

Trollsbane has +1d10 to-hit and +1d20 damage against trolls and monsters with enhanced regeneration, with a ¹⁄₁₀ chance of canceling one that it hits. It also has a secondary damage bonus of 2d20 + 2x enchantment against covetous monsters, which can stack with the primary damage bonus. It does not resist being held second to other weapons when performing two weapon combat, but is too heavy to use it in the off-hand by almost all characters without a −20 to-hit penalty. Trollsbane is also a sunlight-emitting artifact: gremlins and hunting horrors are reduced to dust, and trolls without stoning resistance are petrified.

FIQHack

In FIQHack, Trollsbane deals +1d20 damage against trolls and grants hungerless regeneration while wielded.

SpliceHack

In SpliceHack, Trollsbane can be combined with Werebane at a furnace to create Mortality Dial.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, Trollsbane warns of trolls and has a chance of instakilling any troll it hits, and wielding the artifact will make trolls that see it hostile. Trolls that are killed directly by Trollsbane, or else die while in proximity of the wielded artifact, will not leave corpses.

Trollsbane can be combined with Ogresmasher at a forge to create Ashmar, an artifact dwarvish roundshield.

SlashTHEM

In addition to SLASH'EM details, SlashTHEM includes The Forge from NetHack: The Next Generation, and Trollsbane is one of the many artifacts that can be requested there, with the same base price as before.