# Undead Slayer
The Undead Slayer is a role in SLASH'EM. They are, as the name suggests, melee fighters that specialize in the harm or destruction of the undead. They can be any of the alignments, but they may not be dwarven or vampiric. According to the guide book:

Undead Slayers are specialists, trained to hunt the undead as well as other incarnations of evil. They are well aware of the weaknesses of their foes and come prepared. Few denizens of darkness ever encounter such warriors of light and live to tell of it.

An Undead Slayer will start with an inordinate amount of intrinsic properties, including drain resistance and undead warning. In addition to that, they gain speed at level 7 and poison resistance at level 9.
They also have a basic ability to use medical kits, and they start the game with all non-magical weapons and armor pre-identified.
They have the technique to practice their weapons and turn undead at level 1.
The Undead Slayer quest sees you fighting Count Dracula for the Stake of Van Helsing.

Contents

1 Starting Equipment
2 Intrinsics
3 Skills
4 Rank titles
5 Strategy
6 Origin
7 References

Starting Equipment
+0 wooden stake
5–10 blessed cloves of garlic
5–10 blessed sprigs of wolfsbane
4 holy wafers (lembas wafers for chaotics)
4 potions of holy water
1⁄6 chance of oil lamp
And one of the following:

25% chance of +0 pistol, 30–39 +0 silver bullets, +0 helmet, and +0 chain mail
25% chance of +0 crossbow, 30–39 +0 crossbow bolts, +1 low boots, and +1 leather jacket
25% chance of +2 bullwhip, 5 +0 silver daggers, +0 helmet, and +0 chain mail
25% chance of +0 silver spear, 5 +0 silver daggers, +0 helmet, and +0 chain mail
The wooden stake may also be poisoned.

Intrinsics
Undead Slayers gain intrinsics at these experience levels:

XL 1: Stealth
XL 1: Drain resistance
XL 1: Sickness resistance
XL 1: Warning against undead
XL 7: Speed
XL 9: Poison resistance
Skills

Undead Slayer Skills

Max
Skills

Basic

Weapons: bow, sling, dart, shuriken, boomerang
Spells: matter

Skilled

Weapons: long sword, club, paddle, mace, morning star, flail, hammer, quarterstaff, polearms, javelin, unicorn horn
Spells: protection, body

Expert

Weapons: crossbow, dagger, firearm, spear, whip

Grand Master

Combat: bare hands

Rank titles
The status line shows you to be one of the following ranks when you reach the specified experience level:

XL 1–2: Assistant
XL 3–9: Eliminator
XL 10–17: Exterminator
XL 18–21: Destroyer
XL 22–29: Vindicator
XL 30: Undead Slayer
Strategy
Despite high starting HP and a decent starting inventory, the Undead Slayer is a less powerful role than it appears. They can reach Skilled in many weapons, but are much more limited in Expert-caliber options - daggers, whips, firearms, spears, and crossbows. With that in mind, their starting wooden stake has the second-strongest base damage among daggers, and their secondary weapon always uses one of the other four skills. They also start with stealth, drain resistance and sickness resistance, and have a high chance to start with a silver weapon, giving them a way to handle the powerful werecreatures encountered down the line.
Much more detrimental to an early-game Undead Slayer is their base speed of 10 (i.e. 4 moves every 5 turns), a relative lack of spellcasting proficiency compared to other combat roles such as the Knight and Valkyrie, and lack of a guaranteed sacrifice gift unlike most roles. Monsters will get an extra hit in quite often, and a lack of speed can work against them while facing monsters with similar speed such as baby dragons. Undead Slayers do gain intrinsic speed at XP 7 - while mostly negating that disadvantage, they are still much slower than other speedy roles.
The weapon practice technique is an early Undead Slayer's best friend, and can quickly bring you up to skilled in dagger - firearms is also a good target, as it lets you save precious bullets for actual use. Reaching skilled in any weapon also lets you learn the disarm technique, which can supplement or even replace the bullwhip's ability to disarm depending on your dexterity. Drow Undead Slayers can utilize bare-handed combat to put foes to sleep, and Slayers can reach Grand Master skill with them, making them an effective role-race combo for taking out various high-level foes.
Slayers that survive the early game will find their starting intrinsics a powerful boon against the wand of draining and various other level-draining threats - wraiths can be more comfortably disposed of, while vampires can be thwarted with the wooden stake and any silver weapons you have available. The Undead Slayer's quest artifact, the Stake of Van Helsing, is a formidable late-game weapon due to its +5 to-hit and +12 bonus damage, and it provides valuable slotless magic resistance.
In the late game, Undead Slayers will appreciate the ability to take on demon princes such as Juiblex and Demogorgon without fearing their illness-inducing attacks (though Demogorgon is still a threat outside of this). However, they will also want a secondary source of magic resistance, as the Wizard of Yendor can steal their quest artifact from them. Intrinsic drain resistance also frees up valuable armor and amulet slots for an Undead Slayer's ascension kit.

Origin
Some of the iconography of the Undead Slayer derives from the Castlevania game series; like the Belmont clan members, you start with a bullwhip, chain mail, daggers, and holy water. Other parts, such as the crossbow[1] and the ability to reach Grand Master in bare-handed combat[2] derive from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

References

↑ u_init.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 212

↑ u_init.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 720