# Short sword
A short sword is a type of melee weapon.
Short swords seem to be popular weapons in the Dungeons of Doom, for all non-human starting races except gnomes have their own racial versions: there are elven, orcish, and dwarvish short swords.  All weigh 30 units and have a base price of 10 zorkmids.

Contents

1 Short sword skill
2 Types of short sword

2.1 Short sword
2.2 Dwarvish short sword
2.3 Elven short sword
2.4 Orcish short sword

3 Generation
4 Strategy
5 Variants
6 Encyclopedia entry

6.1 Wazikashi

7 References

Short sword skill

Short sword

Max
Role

Basic

Archeologist, Ranger, Wizard

Skilled

Healer, Knight, Valkyrie

Expert

Barbarian, Rogue, Samurai, Tourist

The following weapons use the short sword skill:

short sword
dwarvish short sword
elven short sword
orcish short sword
There are no artifact short swords.

Types of short sword
Short sword

) 

Name

short sword

Appearance

short sword

Damage vs. small

1d6

Damage vs. large

1d8

To-hit bonus

+0

Weapon skill

short sword

Size

one-handed

Base price

10 zm(+10/positive enchant)

Weight

30

Material

iron

The ordinary short sword (wakizashi for Samurai) makes up about 0.8% of randomly generated weapons (on the floor, as death drops, or in shops).  It does 1d6 damage to small monsters, and 1d8 to large monsters.   
Short swords of this kind are made of iron and susceptible to corrosion from acidic monsters and rusting from rust monsters and water.

Dwarvish short sword

) 

Name

dwarvish short sword

Appearance

broad short sword

Damage vs. small

1d7

Damage vs. large

1d8

To-hit bonus

+0

Weapon skill

short sword

Size

one-handed

Base price

10 zm(+10/positive enchant)

Weight

30

Material

iron

The dwarvish short sword, which appears as a broad short sword when unidentified, can do a little more damage against small monsters than the ordinary short sword, though not as much as the elven short sword.  Dwarves are sometimes generated with one.[1]  In addition, dwarvish short swords make up about 0.2% of randomly generated weapons.
Roles that normally start with a short sword would receive a dwarvish short sword when playing as a dwarf.  However, dwarves cannot be Barbarians, Rogues, or Samurai, the three roles that can start with short swords, so this substitution never occurs in vanilla NetHack.

Elven short sword

) 

Name

elven short sword

Appearance

runed short sword

Damage vs. small

1d8

Damage vs. large

1d8

To-hit bonus

+0

Weapon skill

short sword

Size

one-handed

Base price

10 zm(+10/positive enchant)

Weight

30

Material

wood

The elven short sword, which appears as a runed short sword, does the most damage of all short swords to both small and large targets (1d8/1d8, as much as a scimitar or a silver saber not dealing silver damage).  Elven short swords are also made of wood, and therefore naturally immune to corrosion and rusting.  Elves are often generated with one.[2]  In addition, elven short swords make up about 0.2% of randomly generated weapons.
Roles that normally start with a short sword would receive an elven short sword when playing as an elf.  However, elves cannot be Barbarians, Rogues, or Samurai, the three roles that can start with short swords, so this substitution never occurs in vanilla NetHack.

Orcish short sword

) 

Name

orcish short sword

Appearance

crude short sword

Damage vs. small

1d5

Damage vs. large

1d8

To-hit bonus

+0

Weapon skill

short sword

Size

one-handed

Base price

10 zm(+10/positive enchant)

Weight

30

Material

iron

The orcish short sword, which appears as a crude short sword when unidentified, does the least damage versus small monsters of any of the short swords, one point less than even the ordinary short sword.  It can be generated on Uruk-hai[3] and orc-captains[4].  In addition, orcish short swords make up about 0.3% of randomly generated weapons.
Orcish Rogues and some orcish Barbarians start with a +0 orcish short sword.

Generation
Short swords of all kinds make up 1.5% of randomly generated weapons in the dungeon.  As noted above, racial short swords are commonly found on their respective racial monsters.
In addition, the following monsters may get short swords:

Watchmen and soldiers in the Yendorian army[5] and skeletons[6] may be generated with a short sword.
Ninja (on the Samurai quest) have a chance of getting a wakizashi.[7]
Player monster rogues, such as Pug on the Wizard quest, may be generated with a short sword.[8]
Rogues[9] and Samurai[10] start with a +0 short sword (wakizashi for the latter).  A +0 short sword is also part of one of two starting packages for Barbarians.[11]

Strategy
Among the weakest of the swords, the short sword lacks the damage potential of stronger weapons, as well as an artifact version. However, 10 of the 13 roles are capable of obtaining skill in it, 4 at expert, and short swords are normally plentiful even in the early game. One may be of some lasting value #twoweaponed with a stronger weapon or perhaps even with a second short sword.

Variants
Silver short swords can be found in SLASH'EM and SporkHack.
SLASH'EM also adds a few artifact short swords:[12]

Quick Blade (elven)
Luckblade
The Sword of Balance (silver)
Doomblade (orcish)
In xNetHack, Fire and Frost Brand are short swords instead of long swords.

Encyclopedia entry
Wazikashi

A wakizashi was used as a samurai's weapon when the katana
was unavailable.  When entering a building, a samurai would
leave his katana on a rack near the entrance.  However, the
wakizashi would be worn at all times, and therefore, it made
a sidearm for the samurai (similar to a soldier's use of a
pistol).  The samurai would have worn it from the time they
awoke to the time they went to sleep.  In earlier periods,
and especially during times of civil wars, a tanto was worn
in place of a wakizashi.

[ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ] 

References

↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 239: dwarvish short swords

↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 239: elven short swords

↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 367: Uruk-hai with short swords

↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 352: orc-captains can have Uruk-hai equipment

↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 199: short swords on watchmen and soldiers

↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 431: short swords on skeletons

↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 272: Ninja wakizashi

↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 229: player monster short swords

↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 123: Rogue short sword

↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 134: Samurai wakizashi

↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 676: Barbarian short sword

↑ http://www.angelfire.com/trek/mazewest/spoilers/arti_007e6.txt

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