Vampire (starting race in SLASH'EM)

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This article is about the playable race in SLASH'EM. For the race in other variants, see Vampire (starting race).
For other instances of the term, see Vampire (disambiguation).

Vampires are one of the new playable races available to a hero in SLASH'EM. A vampire hero will appear as V if the showrace option is set on, and is part of the vampire monster class. According to the guidebook:

Vampires strike fear into the heart of many. Their super-human strength, notorious dexterity and resilience make them difficult to defeat while their almost hypnotic charm makes them dangerous opponents. Even their own Gods treat vampires with some distaste.

Vampires are always chaotic, and can be played as Barbarians, Ice Mages, Necromancers, Rogues, or Wizards.

Racial benefits and restrictions

Vampire heroes are human undead that have many of the same traits as monster vampires in NetHack—the vampire monster itself is significantly changed in SLASH'EM, and is used to represent a vampire hero rather than a placeholder monster as with some other playable races. Vampires are among the physically stronger races and have stellar attribute caps, with their physical attributes on par with or even surpassing those of dwarves, while their mental attributes equal or even surpass those of humans.[1]

Vampire heroes possess a life-draining bite attack that can also drain lifeblood to raise nutrition.[2] This bite attack is automatically skipped when attacking a monster that would immediately turn a vampire hero to stone by consuming their lifeblood if that hero is wielding a weapon.

A vampire hero starts every game with infravision, sleep resistance, poison resistance, regeneration, unbreathing, flight, drain resistance, and death resistance, and they are also vulnerable to silver. As undead, they are additionally vulnerable to the double damage inflicted by Sunsword. These are all properties of the base vampire monster, meaning that they will be temporarily lost if a vampire hero should polymorph into another form.

For all of these advantages, vampires are set back by a few significant difficulties: they are restricted in the two-weapon combat skill regardless of role, due to monster vampires having a single claw attack, and as implied by the guidebook they also start with a -1 penalty to luck and -5 alignment.[3] Even more pressingly, vampire heroes and monsters alike are not inediate as vampires are in NetHack, and they also cannot gain nutrition by eating like other races of hero can, instead requiring blood to survive. Partly mitigating this is the fact that vampire heroes are exempt from standard penalties for cannibalism[4][5]—a vampire hero that is not polymorphed gains a +1 alignment record bonus for cannibalism if they are chaotic, or takes a -1 penalty if they are lawful).[6][7]

All monsters with the human and vampire monster attributes are considered the same race as a vampire hero for purposes such as cannibalism and same-race sacrifice. Elves, gnomes, dwarves, hobbits, and orcs that are not undead will always generate as hostile for a vampiric hero.[8] Vampire heroes that die and leave bones where they arise from the dead will resurrect as human mummies and human zombies, depending on their killer[9]—in practice, there is no means of killing any hero that causes them to rise as a zombie.

A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:

"Check for vampshifting ability and see which traits carry over."

Dietary restrictions

Vampire heroes cannot consume corpses or other comestibles directly, and must instead drink blood to obtain a majority of their nutrition:[10] this means that tins are completely inedible for them. Similar dietary restrictions apply to vampiric monsters (including polymorphed heroes) as well. Vampire heroes can safely quaff potions of blood and vampire blood, and any vampires in roles that start with potions of fruit juice or food rations will have them replaced with blood and vampire blood respectively (applicable to all vampire heroes other than Rogues).[11]

A vampire hero can use the 'eat' command, e, on a meaty corpse to begin draining the blood from it.[12] A corpse with blood must be no more than about 5 turns old in order for its blood to be fresh, as it will coagulate unless it is drained quickly enough:[13][14] coagulation will not occur while the corpse is being drained, though it can occur during turns where the occupation is interrupted.[15][16][17] Blood is assumed to constitute 1⁄5 of a meaty corpse's nutrition and takes 1⁄5 of the usual duration for a blood-drinking hero to consume fully, with the blood of poisonous, acidic and/or hallucination-inducing corpses sharing those same properties.[18][19][20] A corpse being partially or fully drained of blood has no impact on its eligibility for sacrifice.

When draining a corpse that grants an intrinsic, vampire heroes have only a 1⁄5 chance of gaining that intrinsic compared to a hero of another race consuming that corpse:[21] this is applied before any additional chance calculation restrictions on gaining the intrinsic apply, e.g. the 1⁄3 chance of a newt corpse increasing a hero's maximum energy when they are full is 1⁄15 for a vampire hero draining the corpse of blood, and giant corpses that have a 1⁄4 chance of increasing strength when eaten have a 1⁄20 chance instead when drained.[22][23]

A vampire drinking a potion of blood gains 30 nutrition for a blessed potion or 20 for an uncursed potion, while a cursed potion's contents will have congealed and give 0 nutrition, and a diluted potion gives half of the appropriate nutrition value.[24][25] Vampire blood grants 800 nutrition for non-cursed potions (or 400 if diluted), and a blessed potion will additionally increase a vampire hero's current and maximum HP as if they had gained an experience level, while a cursed potion's contents will have congealed and give 0 nutrition.[26][27] Vampires subjected to the vapors of a broken potion of blood or vampire blood will abuse wisdom.[28]

Tame vampires can drain meaty corpses with blood in a similar manner to a vampire hero, gaining 1⁄5 of the usual nutrition and becoming immobile for 1⁄5 the normal duration of a pet eating a corpse (which is also applied to "devouring" corpses as well).[29][30] Non-player vampires can also quaff vampire blood, but will do so to heal themselves rather than gain nutrition:[31] this has no effect if the potion is cursed, and otherwise raises the monster's current and maximum HP by 2-10.

Blood and lifeblood

Vampire heroes can drain the "lifeblood" from living monsters by landing their bite attack on an applicable target during melee combat, which raises their nutrition in addition to the chance of draining a level from the victim, and non-player vampires can do the same if they are not cancelled.[32][33][34] This is distinct from the blood drained out of corpses: lifeblood cannot be poisonous, acidic or hallucinogenic, and can be drained from any monster with life force even if they do not normally have blood or leave corpses (e.g. flaming spheres, elementals, or grid bugs). The hero also cannot become overstuffed from gaining nutrition by draining lifeblood in this manner.

Attributes

Attribute Strength Dexterity Constitution Intelligence Wisdom Charisma
Minimum[35] 4 4 3 0 0 4
Maximum[1] 19 20 20 18 18 20
Level bonuses[36] Starting Pre-cutoff Post-cutoff
HP gain[37][38][39][40] 3 d3 2
Energy gain[41][42][43][44][45] 3 3 4

Vampire heroes share the highest cap for strength with lycanthropes at 19, higher than the dwarf's strength cap of 18/** (18/100). Vampires also share the highest caps for both dexterity and constitution with dwarves and doppelgangers 20; lycanthropes are tied with them for highest dexterity cap, while hobbits are tied with them for highest constitution cap. Their intelligence and wisdom caps are on par with those of humans, while their charisma cap of 20 is the highest among races and also shared with hobbits.

Vampire heroes have better-than-average HP gains that are only outpaced by those of dwarves and lycanthropes: they gain +3 to the starting HP for their role, a +1d3 bonus to HP for each experience level gained while they are below their role's "cutoff" level, and +2 to HP for each level gained while at or above the "cutoff".[37] Vampire heroes have similarly stellar energy growth that is the third-best behind doppelgangers and lycanthropes, with +3 to their role's starting energy, +4 for each level gained while below their role's "cutoff" level, and +4 for each level gained while at or above the "cutoff" level.[41]

Techniques

Vampire heroes can learn the disarm technique by reaching Skilled in any weapon, and also gain the following techniques at the listed experience levels:[46]

Level Technique
1 Dazzle
1 Draw blood

Strategy

A majority of the gameplay for a vampire hero, especially in the early game, is primarily about nutrition management: On top of being restricted to drinking fresh blood unless you polymorph, vampire heroes cannot make wishes or pray safely before turn 600, and will need to kill a few non-chaotic monsters to gain positive alignment. The mechanics for intrinsic gain from blood also mean that a vampire hero's maximum strength of 19 will prove difficult to achieve, and critical intrinsics such as fire resistance, cold resistance, sleep resistance, and telepathy are much more difficult to acquire. This also makes carnivorous pets especially troublesome for vampires after the earliest stages of the game, since they will often eat corpses that you want to drain.

On the upside, vampire heroes are exempt from cannibalism penalties, and a chaotic vampire hero will even gain alignment by draining blood from another vampire (which in practice is only possible with the fresh corpse of a vampire bat); this cannibalism exemption does not apply to heroes of other races polymorphed into vampires. Drained corpses being eligible for sacrifice also eliminates much of the need for the hero to balance between keeping themselves sated and trying for sacrifice boons. Additionally, vampire heroes naturally have several vital resistances for an early game hero, including sleep resistance, poison resistance and death resistance from being undead; casting-focused builds can make use of protection spells such as endure heat and endure cold when necessary in lieu of obtaining the intrinsics directly and permanently.

Regardless, it is common for a vampire hero to dive deep into the dungeon quickly in order to avoid starvation and maintain their nutrition levels until they either discover the ring of slow digestion through sheer fortune, or else reach a point where they can reliably land bites on monsters to get multiple feedings in, provided they can survive combat with such monsters. Typical strategies such as altar camping, establishing and retrieving stashes, farming, and returning to the Minetown temple for protection are all much more risky, since going through too many empty levels increases the risk of starvation. Similarly, amulets and rings are riskier to put on without formally identifying them, and even once identified they should only be put on when absolutely necessary.

Nutrition issues become somewhat easier to resolve as a vampire hero progresses in the game, due to the frequency and greater size of monsters that they will encounter. As vampire heroes are breathless, they cannot choke from overeating and instead vomit immediately if they become overstuffed from either draining a corpse or a monster's lifeblood—though this means being oversatiated is not immediately lethal, the duration a hero is immobilized for is enough that they risk death if this occurs in the middle of a combat situation, while any corpse they were draining will very likely have its blood coagulate.

Feeding off monsters

As a vampire hero's bites can also provide nutrition, they should think of every monster they encounter as an essential source of food, and will want to avoid killing them too quickly unless they pose a severe-enough danger: it is often worth fighting weaker monsters with bare hands or weak weapons such as knives in order to land as many bites as possible, especially since to-hit will increase with the hero's experience level. Methods of inflicting sleep (e.g. the potion of sleeping or the sleep spell) and other means to immobilize monsters are especially valuable to this end, including the dazzle technique naturally available to vampire heroes—take advantage of the vampire's intrinsic regeneration to drain corpses before you finish a battle.

A wand of create monster or create horde should be saved by a vampire hero to use its charges as a form of food source, especially once you have a decent artifact weapon: in a pinch, a couple of zaps can produce enough sources of blood and/or lifeblood to keep you sated long enough to find that next throne room or leprechaun hall. A vampire hero in a casting role will be in a much better position to survive if they learn the create monster spell and can reliably cast it frequently enough—vampire Wizards in particular are well-positioned as spellcasters, since they will usually have the required intelligence for hungerless casting (or at least reduced-hunger casting).

Prayer

Prayer is often essential to survival for most vampires due to the nutrition constraints—a vampire hero's intrinsic regeneration also makes it easier to recover HP in a pinch by retreating, making it more likely that they will save prayers for maintaining nutrition. Due to the difficulty of obtaining permanent intrinsics, crowning is a very tempting and useful option to cover almost all necessary intrinsics with the exception of disintegration resistance: in exchange, crowning significantly increases the hero's prayer timeout, which almost always puts them at greater risk of starvation in the early and middle game.

Atheist conduct vampires will be extremely reliant on a ring of slow digestion, since they cannot access prayer at all and will be heavily reliant on nutrition from other sources; vegan and/or foodless vampires will be reliant on both the ring and the ability to pray, since draining corpses and quaffing potions of regular and vampire blood both break vegan and vegetarian conduct (but draining lifeblood does not).

Ring of slow digestion

The ring of slow digestion is an item already prized enough by general players that some running Wizards in NetHack will start scum for them—for a vampire hero in SLASH'EM, the ring is a godsend that allows them to survive entirely on draining lifeblood through their bite attacks and/or draining corpses, and may even be worth an early wish. One of the few drawbacks to the ring is becoming oversatiated as a result of constantly draining blood and lifeblood, which may induce vomiting and immobilize the hero as above; a hero may remove it if they are at or near satiated levels of nutrition and want to avoid dexterity abuse. They may also pair it with a ring of conflict, regeneration or even hunger.

Stoning

Since vampire heroes can only feed on fresh blood, lizard corpses cannot be used for their intended purpose of curing stoning by eating one, although such vampire heroes can still carry one or two to protect from the effects of the new moon. As an alternative cure, vampire heroes may opt to rely on potions of acid, the stone to flesh spell, or a worn amulet versus stone—the amulet in particular should be kept non-cursed in order to prevent it being destroyed upon saving the hero from stoning.

Vampires and blood potions

While potions of blood and vampire blood are valuable nutrition resources, they are fairly weighty to keep on hand at 20 aum per potion, and are not generated randomly. Additionally, carrying potions in open inventory runs the risk of them being destroyed by fire or cold damage without a container to keep them in. Vampire heroes may need to rely on medical kits and the draw blood technique to drain some experience levels and create potions of vampire blood for maintaining nutrition down the line, and the tools are popularly recommended to vampire heroes as early wishes for this reason.

The draw blood technique requires a phial from the medical kit (whose contents can by appraised by looting it while on the ground) and will drain an experience level from the hero and set them to the minimum experience points required for that lower level, rather than the maximum as with many life-draining attacks. With the adjusted experience curve compared to corresponding versions of NetHack, it is much easier to regain levels drained in the early game, while in the late game gaining levels past XL 15 will always take 50,000 XP per level.

This makes protection rackets absurdly easier, since the hero can drain their levels after safely reaching the Minetown temple, and medical kits used for this purpose can be sold for a significant amount of gold as well once they have used enough phials from it—vampire Rogues are especially well-positioned for this due to their starting gold and oilskin sack. The technique can also be life-saving in general for a vampire hero that is close to dying of starvation, with the side benefit of a lower experience level making is less likely to encounter especially-dangerous monsters in the late early game and early mid-game.

Large stacks of fruit juice potions can be assembled and turned into diluted vampire blood via alchemy, requiring one potion of vampire blood to be used up in the process; fruit juice can be created by dipping a unicorn horn into a potion of sickness, or by canceling potions of sickness and see invisible. Undead vampires encountered later in the dungeon (i.e., ones that are not star vampires or fire vampires) have a 1⁄2 chance of generating with a blood-red potion which has a chance equal to ML⁄30 of being vampire blood and will otherwise be regular blood[47][48]—this makes them thus ideal targets to kill quickly and efficiently in order to claim the potions before they can be quaffed.

Flying

A vampire hero's intrinsic flight allows them to pass over hazards while still being able to pick up items off the ground unlike levitation, and will save them resources spent on equipment slots or other items—however, due to how flight functions in the versions of NetHack that SLASH'EM is based on, a hero that is flying cannot manually descend into pits and spiked pits using >: this makes it difficult to retrieve any items from those pits, since the property is intrinsic rather than given by an item the hero can remove or take off.

Among the methods for a vampire hero to retrieve a pit-bound item, they can relocate the item with a wand of teleportation or use a fishing pole, and can also dig downwards (e.g. using a pick-axe or wand of digging) and either use autopickup to grab the item or else hope it falls through the resulting hole; a flying hero can manually descend into holes with >. A vampire hero can also use a source of levitation such as worn levitation boots or putting on a ring of levitation, then snag items from the pit with a bullwhip: this can also be used to pull items out of any moats or pools that the hero comes across.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 role.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 715
  2. ↑ uhitm.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 2030
  3. ↑ u_init.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1390
  4. ↑ eat.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 62
  5. ↑ eat.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 501
  6. ↑ eat.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 509
  7. ↑ eat.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 512
  8. ↑ role.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 712
  9. ↑ role.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 710
  10. ↑ eat.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 135
  11. ↑ u_init.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 360
  12. ↑ eat.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1508
  13. ↑ eat.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1514
  14. ↑ eat.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1528
  15. ↑ eat.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 444
  16. ↑ eat.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 456
  17. ↑ eat.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 2462
  18. ↑ eat.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1596
  19. ↑ eat.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1615
  20. ↑ obj.h in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 271
  21. ↑ eat.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 481
  22. ↑ eat.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 924
  23. ↑ eat.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1130
  24. ↑ potion.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1042
  25. ↑ potion.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1049
  26. ↑ potion.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1049
  27. ↑ potion.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1053
  28. ↑ potion.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1642
  29. ↑ dogmove.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 156
  30. ↑ dogmove.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 170
  31. ↑ muse.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 963
  32. ↑ uhitm.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 2030
  33. ↑ mhitm.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1597
  34. ↑ mhitu.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1431
  35. ↑ role.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 714
  36. ↑ you.h in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 24: RoleAdvance defines HP/Pw gains
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 role.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 717
  38. ↑ attrib.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 734
  39. ↑ attrib.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 744
  40. ↑ u_init.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 984
  41. ↑ 41.0 41.1 role.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 718
  42. ↑ exper.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 290
  43. ↑ exper.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 293
  44. ↑ exper.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 296
  45. ↑ u_init.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 986
  46. ↑ tech.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 177
  47. ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1150
  48. ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1164
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