Vampire mage (SLASH'EM)

V vampire mage
Difficulty	28
Attacks	Claw 2d8 drain life, Bite 1d8 drain life, Spell-casting 2d6

V vampire mage
Difficulty	28
Attacks	Claw 2d8 drain life, Bite 1d8 drain life, Spell-casting 2d6
Base level	20
Base experience	806
Speed	14
Base AC	-4
Base MR	50
Alignment	-9 (chaotic)
Frequency (by normal means)	1 (Very rare)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	1450
Nutritional value	400
Size	Medium
Resistances	sleep, poison, level drain
Resistances conveyed	None
A vampire mage: can fly. does not breathe. has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso. regenerates HP quickly. is poisonous to eat. is carnivorous. is undead. is a lord to its kind. is male. is normally generated hostile. can follow you to other levels. is nasty. is strong. can pick up magical items. can be seen through infravision. can leave an old human corpse. requires a +3 weapon to hit. is a vampire. may turn against you when tame.
Reference	SLASH'EM_0.0.7E7F2/monst.c#line3241

This article is about monster as it appears in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM. For the monster in the original code or other variants, see vampire mage.

A vampire mage, V, is a monster that appears in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM, and is implemented from the deferred monster in the code of NetHack. Among vampires, the vampire mage is considerably stronger than a vampire lord - he is a blood-drinking carnivore that shares the same traits as his undead vampire kin, will seek out and pick up magical items, and is a lord to his kind. A tame vampire mage may turn traitor.

A vampire mage possesses a claw attack and bite attack that can each drain life, and will attempt to cast one mage monster spell during each of his turns. Vampire mages can only be hit by +3 or better weapons, and implicitly hit as +3 weapons themselves. Vampire mages possess sleep resistance, poison resistance and drain resistance.

Generation

Randomly generated vampire mages are always hostile. A vampire lord can grow up into a vampire mage.

Vampire mages appear among the random V that make up the second quest monster class for Undead Slayers, and makes up ⁶⁄₁₇₅ of the monsters randomly generated on the Undead Slayer quest.

Vampire mages also appear among the random V generated in the Chaotic Quest at level creation.

A vampire mage is always generated with an opera cloak and has a ¹⁄₂ chance of generating with either a potion of blood or a potion of vampire blood, with the potion selected depending on the monster's level.

A vampire mage leaves an old human corpse behind upon death.

Strategy

Vampire mages are excellent at wreaking havoc in the later stages of the game: in addition to their draining abilities, they wield a suite of especially dangerous monster spells. Additionally, the opera cloaks they generate with can potentially be a cloak of magic resistance, making it difficult to damage them with non-elemental magic - thankfully, they are still vulnerable to fireball and cone of cold.

A fleeing vampire mage will often continue to cast spells at you, which often results in repeated castings of summon nasties that fills the nearby area with monsters and make them incredibly difficult to reach - this is all the more pronounced on open, no-teleport levels such as Juiblex's Swamp or Moloch's Sanctum. Vampire mages are usually priority targets to eliminate with prejudice, and it is not uncommon for players to target vampire mages for uncursed genocide.

As pets

Vampire mages are stellar pets: they possess regeneration, healing spells, and low base AC combined with the ability to wear all armor, and are immune to weapons or monster attacks that are not +3 or better. A basic vampire can be tamed and quickly raised to a vampire mage in a few levels.

A vampire mage can easily be kept fed and high in tameness since they can drain blood from corpses, which also leaves them edible for heroes that are not observing conducts such as atheist, foodless or vegan, or else are feeding other carnivorous pets. Unfortunately, vampire mages may turn traitor, particularly if you are much weaker than them or else abuse them.

When outfitting a vampire mage, remember that he cannot wear blessed armor - vampires in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM avoid blessed items as most pets do cursed items.