# Grayswandir

)   Grayswandir   

Base item

silver saber

Damage vs. small

1d8 ×2 +(1d20)

Damage vs. large

1d8 ×2 +(1d20)

To-hit bonus

+1d5

Bonus versus

(any)

Weapon skill

saber

Size

one-handed

Affiliation

lawful

When carried

(none)

When wielded

hallucinationresistance

When invoked

(none)

Base price

8000 zm

Weight

40

Material

silver

One of the most coveted weapons in the game, Grayswandir is a lawful silver saber that can do both double damage (to all targets, without exception) and silver damage, and prevents hallucination. Because, like Fire and Frost Brand, it is non-intelligent, it may be wished for and used even by non-lawfuls who can survive its possible blasting damage (25% chance of 4d4) when it is transferred to or appears in their inventory or is wielded.

Contents

1 Average damage calculation
2 Generation
3 Strategy
4 Hallucination resistance
5 Origin
6 Variants

6.1 EvilHack

7 Encyclopedia entry
8 References

Average damage calculation
Grayswandir's double damage applies only to its base d8 damage and its damage due to enchantment, not to its silver damage or any other bonuses. 
The average damage calculations in the following table do not include bonuses from weapon skills, strength, or from using a blessed weapon against undead or demons.

Weapon

Not silver-hating

Silver-hating

+0 Grayswandir

+7 Grayswandir

Generation
Grayswandir can be randomly generated wherever a silver saber can be generated, but this is exceptionally rare. Only 1⁄40 of all randomly generated silver sabers will be Grayswandir,[1] and there aren't many randomly generated silver sabers. A more reliable way to get it, if lawful, is to offer sacrifices to your god. Others can wish for it or occasionally find it in bones files.

Strategy
Grayswandir has an advantage over Fire Brand, Frost Brand, and Mjollnir in that it will not destroy items in the inventory of the monster or player being hit. It is also a single-handed weapon, allowing you to wear a shield, or #twoweapon with a plain silver saber for even more silver damage. Because of this, many players consider Grayswandir the best weapon in the game. It cuts through the undead and demons in Gehennom, but it should be noted that most of the monsters on the Elemental Planes are not silver haters.
It should be noted that Grayswandir is indisputably the best weapon in the late game, when fully enchanted and at expert. However, artifact weapon selection matters less in the late game than in the early game, as in the late game, hit points, magic defenses, evasion strategies, and armor class are more valuable than weapon damage. For this reason, other weapons which are more readily available and do more damage when at basic skill and unenchanted (such as Mjollnir) should also be considered as early game powerhouses. In the early game, there are few silver haters, and the ×2 bonus is unremarkable without scrolls of enchant weapon. If those are in short supply, other options should be considered if given the choice.

Hallucination resistance
Wielding Grayswandir protects you from hallucination. However, it does not actually prevent you from being afflicted with the status, but merely suppresses its effect. If you were attacked by hallucination while wielding Grayswandir, unwielding it will cause you to start hallucinating as normal.
If hallucination wears off while you are wielding Grayswandir, you will receive the message "Your vision seems to flatten for a moment but is normal now."

Origin
Grayswandir is a reference to the Chronicles of Amber book series. Corwin, the protagonist, has a silver sword called Grayswandir. From Wikipedia:

Grayswandir is Corwin's sword, also known as the Night Blade; its twin is Brand's Werewindle, the Day Sword. Both Grayswandir and Werewindle are inscribed with portions of the Pattern of Amber; this makes them particularly effective against creatures of Chaos.
Variants
EvilHack
In EvilHack, Grayswandir can be forged together with Dragonbane to create The Gauntlets of Purity, an artifact pair of silver gauntlets of power.

Encyclopedia entry

Why had I been wearing Grayswandir?  Would another weapon have affected a Logrus-ghost as strongly?  Had it really been my father, then, who had brought me here?  And had he felt I might need the extra edge his weapon could provide?  I wanted to think so, to believe that he had been more than a Pattern-ghost.

[ Knight of Shadows, by Roger Zelazny ] 

References

↑ mkobj.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 403: the 1⁄20 chance is shared with Werebane

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