Viperwhip
| ) | |
|---|---|
| Name | viperwhip |
| Appearance | foo-headed silver viperwhip |
| Damage vs. small | 1d4 (+1d20) per head |
| Damage vs. large | 1d3 (+1d20) per head |
| Damage type | piercing |
| To-hit bonus | +2 |
| Weapon skill | whip |
| Primary attribute | strength |
| Magical item? | no |
| Properties |
|
| Base size | medium |
| Base price | 40 zm (+10/positive enchant) |
| Default weight | 30 |
| Base material | silver |
A viperwhip is a type of weapon that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. The viperwhip is a medium-sized and multi-headed melee weapon that is one-handed for a medium-size wielder and uses the whip skill. It has a base material of silver, and the current material and number of whip heads will always display in the item's name (e.g., "a blessed four-headed +2 silver viperwhip")—a viperwhip with nine or more heads will be displayed as "many-headed".
The viperwhip is the base item for the artifact The Scourge of Lolth.
Contents
Generation
Drow Noblewomen and drow Priestesses start the game with a single-headed, drug-coated +2 silver viperwhip that has at least 7 coatings of sleep poison.
Viperwhips make up 1⁄500 (0.2%) of all weapons randomly generated on the ground, in general shops or as death drops. Antique weapon outlets and used armor dealerships can also stock viperwhips.
Three separate blessed and four-headed +3 bone viperwhips with the "poison-secreting" and "living weapon" object properties are generated in the Temples of the Old Gods within the Neutral Quest, where they are placed inside the statue of a god named "Shub-Nugganoth, Black Goat of the woods with a thousand young" during level creation.
Five different viperwhips are each randomly placed around the lower filler level of the Anachrononaut quest and Android quest during level creation.
An uncursed +3 viperwhip is generated within a sack placed near the center of the Drow Healer quest goal level during level creation.
Several monsters can be generated with viperwhips:
- A'salom is always generated with a single-headed +4 viperwhip that has 30 coatings of filth-poison.
- Mother, the female Drow Noble quest leader, is always generated with a five-headed +2 viperwhip that has 30 coatings of either basic poison (with a 3⁄4 chance) or a paralyzing poison (with a 1⁄4 chance).
- The sisters that act as the female Drow Noble quest guardians are always generated with +2 viperwhips that each have 1-3 heads and a single coating of either basic poison (with a 3⁄4 chance) or a paralyzing poison (with a 1⁄4 chance).
- Y-cultist matrons are always generated with +2 viperwhips that have one coating of either filth-poison (with a 1⁄20 chance), basic poison (with a 57⁄80 chance) or paralyzing poison (with a 19⁄80 chance)—the viperwhip has a 1⁄20 chance of generating with six heads, and otherwise will generate with two.
- Drow matrons, drow matron-mothers and yochlol are always generated with +2 viperwhips that have one coating of either basic poison (with a 3⁄4 chance) or a paralyzing poison (with a 1⁄4 chance)—the viperwhip has a 1⁄20 chance of generating with 2-4 heads, and otherwise will generate with 1-3.
- Desert seers have an effective 1⁄6 chance of generating with a metal viperwhip, which has an equal probability of being paired with either a metal elven scimitar or a metal elven sickle.
- Kuo toa whips have an effective 1⁄30 chance of generating with a rustproofed and medium-sized iron viperwhip that has an enchantment ranging from +1 to +7, and will have 3 coatings of either ergot-poison or basic poison with an equal probability for each.
- Deminymphs can generate with viperwhips in various instances.
- Deminymphs that are part of the cult of The Black Mother and are given priest kits will be generated with four-headed +3 bone viperwhips that have 3 coatings of acid—those that are generated in the Temples of the Old Gods within the Neutral Quest at level creation will also have viperwhips with the "living weapon" and "acid-secreting" object properties.
- Deminymphs that are given the "Mistweaver" priestess subset of madwoman kits will have four-headed +3 bone viperwhips that have 3 coatings of acid, and the viperwhips have an independent chance each of being given the "living weapon" property (with a 1⁄20 chance), the "acid-secreting" property (with a 1⁄10 chance), and the "drooling" property (with a 1⁄20 chance). The viperwhips may be made into an appropriate artifact with the base 1⁄20 chance, and may also be made mercurial instead.
- Deminymphs that are given drow priestess kits have a 3⁄4 chance of generating with a viperwhip that has anywhere from 1 to 5 heads, an enchantment ranging from +2 to +4, and 6 coatings of either basic poison (with a 3⁄4 chance) or a paralyzing poison (with a 1⁄4 chance). This viperwhip may be made into an appropriate artifact with the base 1⁄20 chance, and may also be given a mercurial object material.
- Lilitu that are part of the cult of The Black Mother always generate with a four-headed +6 bone viperwhip that has 3 coatings of acid.
- Temples to Lolth outside of the Sanctum or Astral Plane that are encountered by a female drow hero will have a drow matron as the altar's priestess, who is generated with a +2 erosion-proofed viperwhip among their initial gear—this also applies to drow matrons that are generated as temple priestesses for Kiaransali and Ver'tas, as well as priestesses of Ghaunadaur that are generated as temple priestesses for Ghaunadaur, and each temple priestess will have their deity's symbol on their viperwhip and other equipment. Viperwhips given to these temple priestesses will have 2-4 heads, and are each loaded with a coating of either basic poison (with a 3⁄4 chance) or a paralyzing poison (with a 1⁄4 chance).
Randomly-generated viperwhips have a 1⁄2 chance of generating with a single head, a 2⁄5 chance of generating with up to two heads, and a 1⁄10 chance of generating with up to 5 heads. Wishing for a viperwhip allows the hero to specify the desired number of heads, though the odds of the weapon generating with that many heads is subject to a similar set of rules as wishing for particular enchantments on items: the game rolls against a 1d5, and will create the viperwhip with only a singular head if the number of heads specified exceeds that roll.
Description
Viperwhips are droven weapons that deal 1d4 piercing damage per head against small monsters and 1d3 piercing damage per head against large monsters: each individual hit must overcome the target's AC to hit, and is subject to the weapon's +2 to-hit bonus as well as bonuses from the weapon's enchantment, object properties, material and the like; bonuses granted from strength and skill level are only applied once per round of attacks. In terms of monster weapon preference, monsters will favor the viperwhip over the bardiche (if they can use polearms in melee) and the droven short sword, and will prefer a soldier's rapier or better to the viperwhip.
Like a bullwhip, a viperwhip can be applied by a hero to snap it in a direction and perform a number of special tricks, such as disarming monsters and retrieving items—the tricks that can be performed and their odds of success are identical to those of bullwhips in NetHack. Similarly, Archeologists wielding a viperwhip will prevent themselves from falling through any hole or trap door that they walk into.
Viperwhips can be poisoned by dipping them into appropriate potions, and can stores multiple such doses of poison that are automatically reapplied when the current coating wears off—they are the only normally-silver weapons that can be dipped into a potion of starlight to coat it, granting it a coating that deals additional silver damage along with an automatic re-coating. This behavior of the viperwhip is currently buggy for all poisons beyond the standard type, i.e. from a potion of sickness: loading a viperwhip with any other source of poison constantly removes the initial poisonous coating, thus always granting the initial coating and stocked re-coat instead of two additional re-coatings.
Origin
The viperwhip is based on the "scourge of fangs" and "whip of fangs" from Dungeons & Dragons: these weapons first appear in the 1990 book "Exile", the second book of the Dark Elf trilogy of Drizzt Do'urden stories by R.A. Salvatore, and they make their debut within the Dungeons & Dragons game in the 1991 Forgotten Realms accessory for 2nd Edition AD&D, "The Drow of the Underdark". The scourge of fangs and whip of fangs are two highly-similar versions of the same weapon, and both of them incorporate serpents (or "whip vipers") either as constructs like those of the scourges or living snakes like those used in the whips; these snakes writhed and hissed in response to the bearer's emotions.
Attacks made with a scourge or whip of fangs are performed by the snakes themselves, ensuring that even an incompetent or untrained wielder could hit their target as long as the snakes could. Both weapons can generally only be used by those who were of non-good alignments, and will otherwise be non-functional or else turn on the wielder—these and other specifics varied between the weapon being used, though both are primarily shown in the possession of Lolth's clerics and high priestesses. Viperwhips in dNetHack and its derivatives lean somewhat closer to the scourge of fangs than they do to the whip of fangs.
The whip of fangs has a handle of adamantite (a mixed-ferrous adamant ore), and can only be used by evil clerics that are attuned to them; in the case of Lolth's clerics, acting against Lolth's will, losing her favor or else betraying her faith will render the snakes inert or even cause them to attack the user. In contrast to the snake-constructs of a scourge, these whips have living snakes that bite the target and pump magical energy into the victim, causing staggering pain from their muscles going tense and numbing. Any non-lethal injury sustained by the whip's snakes will heal over time.
The scourge of fangs has a handle of adamantine (a mithril-adamant alloy), and can only be used by individuals that are not good-aligned, since the snake-constructs will attack good-aligned beings that try to use it. The scourge's snake-constructs are created via "animate objects" and "bestow curse", and cause severe pain upon hitting their victims. The number of snakes on a scourge is indicative of a priestess of Lolth's power among her peers; while destroyed constructs will fall from the scourge, they can naturally be repaired and their loss does not impact the function of the other heads.
Messages
- <The potion/One of the potions> is drawn up into <the viperwhip>.
- A viperwhip was dipped into a potion and the liquid formed a coating on its heads.
