Draft:Demonblade
| ) | |
| Base damage rating | 16 |
|---|---|
| Base hit bonus | +8 |
| Normal attack type | Cutting |
| Hands | 1 |
| Weight | 500 |
Demonblade is a one-handed life-stealing weapon that appears as a bastard sword. It begins at +8 enchantment with a deep -8 curse, weighs ten times as much as the ordinary bastard sword, and makes its wielder berserk. Its rewards against living opponents come with severe spirit backlash and curse-removal complications.[1]
Generation
Demonblade has item level 9 and base value 1,000 Au. Random treasure, pawn-shop stock and acquirement can produce it; its nonzero +8 enchantment and -8 curse are preserved by construction. It is not stocked by Julie's. Despite its name, it is not excluded as a predefined unique weapon from ordinary generation.[2]
Nazguls and demon princes carry copies with the same fixed properties. Ambrosias' can instead transform a frost demon lord's sigil into Demonblade for 1,000 Au. This transformation retains the -8 curse; the usual blessing of alchemical products does not cleanse it.[3]
Attacks and life stealing
The following effects require a landed attack:
| Condition, checked in this order | Result |
|---|---|
| Demonblade is no longer cursed | Weapon disintegrates; berserk status clears; no attack on the target |
| Target has the demon special ability | Target vanishes; no life-stealing reward |
| Other target with spirit melee | Backlash against the player |
| Other target | Chance to drain and kill it; otherwise an ordinary physical hit |
For the final branch, the drain chance is 10% per monster level, capped at 100%. Success kills the target, heals by its remaining HP up to the player's maximum, adds one point of current Strength and restores current Power by the monster's level up to maximum. The Strength gain does not raise maximum Strength. Draining bypasses the normal physical damage roll, whereas a failed drain falls back to ordinary damage.[4]
Demon banishment does not award the kill's experience or perform an ordinary carried-item death drop. This is an escape or removal effect, not the same reward as life stealing.[5]
Against spirit-melee creatures, a landed attack has a 10% chance to shatter Demonblade and inflict 50 unstoppable damage on the player. Otherwise it inflicts 25 unstoppable damage and removes three current Strength and Constitution; either attribute falling below 1 is fatal. This branch does not strike the target. Nazguls themselves use spirit melee, making one recovered Demonblade a poor choice for killing the next nazgul. Spectres and vampire lords are other examples.[6]
Wielding and removing
Wielding fully identifies Demonblade and sets berserk status to 1500. Berserk removes the normal confirmation before attacking nonhostile creatures; the deep curse prevents ordinary removal. Its attack does not require chaotic alignment.[7]
Self-targeted dispelling of effective strength at least 7 can neutralize the initial curse. Remove it before attacking again: a neutral Demonblade disintegrates when its attack is invoked. A sufficiently strong blessing instead destroys this deeply cursed weapon; repeated weak blessing is not a safe gradual cleansing method.[8]
Throwing a merely carried copy uses the same special branches, including backlash against the thrower. A cursed copy currently in use cannot be thrown away. Tunneling treats it as a cutting weapon, using only base damage 16 and risking equipment damage on a mishap.[9]
Strategy
Demonblade can rapidly restore HP and build current Strength against suitable high-level targets, but identify the opponent's attack type before committing. Its source monsters illustrate both exceptions: a nazgul causes spirit backlash, while a demon prince is banished rather than drained.
Prepare a way to remove the curse before wielding it, and account for its 500 weight. A mace of disruption is a much safer answer to spirit-melee creatures. For life stealing as a chaotic character, Desecrator has different, more predictable healing, but introduces its own alignment and altar risks.
Older spoiler advice treated Demonblade as chaotic-only and suggested over-enchanting it until it exploded to escape the curse. Those claims do not describe the current alignment check or self-dispelling route; exploding a weapon is not required to remove it.[10][11]
References
- ↑ iinit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 180; iinit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 222; itemf2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 237–282; itemf2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 377–392.
- ↑ iinit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 222; item.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 7–41; item.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 188–204; site1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 1022–1053; effect1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 713–728; site1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 164–187.
- ↑ minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 219; minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 285; minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 257; lev.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 376–393; mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 97–109; site1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 845–869.
- ↑ itemf2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 237–282.
- ↑ mmove.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 228–241; mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 97–109.
- ↑ itemf2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 263–282; minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 173; minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 219; minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 281.
- ↑ itemf2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 377–392; aux1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 354–389; inv.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 1354–1358; itemf2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 237–282.
- ↑ effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 827–857; effect1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 154–198; itemf2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 237–249.
- ↑ command3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 223–311; command3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 865–933.
- ↑ A. Light (editor), Omega Spoilers, document version 1.10, updated 3 May 1994 and reposted 19 April 1995, lines 840-847 of local
omega-0.75-spoilers.txt; executable version not established. - ↑ itemf2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 237–282; effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 827–857.