# Long sword

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Name

long sword

Appearance

long sword

Damage vs. small

1d8

Damage vs. large

1d12

To-hit bonus

+0

Weapon skill

long sword

Size

one-handed

Base price

15 zm(+10/positive enchant)

Weight

40

Material

iron

A long sword is one of the more popular weapons, for its damage and versatility. A plain (unenchanted, unblessed, non-artifact) long sword does d8/d12 damage against small/large monsters. Being made of iron, it can rust and corrode. A lawful character who is level 5 or higher can get Excalibur by repeatedly #dipping one into a fountain.

Contents

1 Long sword skill
2 Generation

2.1 Monsters
2.2 Starting inventory
2.3 Player monsters

3 Strategy
4 SLASH'EM
5 References

Long sword skill

Long sword

Max
Role

Basic

Tourist

Skilled

Barbarian, Rogue

Expert

Knight, Samurai, Valkyrie

Both long swords and katanas use the long sword skill.
The following artifact weapons use the long sword skill:

Demonbane (Lawful)
Excalibur (Lawful)
Fire Brand  (Unaligned)
Frost Brand  (Unaligned)
Giantslayer  (Neutral)
Snickersnee (Lawful katana)
Sunsword  (Lawful)
Vorpal Blade  (Neutral)
Generation
Long swords make up 5% of randomly generated weapons (on the floor, as death drops, or in shops).

Monsters
Barrow wights, Nazgul,[1] and all humanoid angelic beings[2] are generated with long swords.  Angels' long swords are blessed, erodeproof, and enchanted, and have a chance (depending on the type of angel) of being Demonbane or Sunsword, if either weapon has not yet been generated.
Lieutenants[3] and captains in the Yendorian army, as well as watch captains,[4] have a 50% chance of getting a long sword as their primary weapon.
Other strong monsters may be generated wielding a long sword if they have not received a default weapon.[5]
Starting inventory
Knights[6] and Valkyries[7] start with a +1 long sword.

Player monsters
To increase the likelihood that player monsters generated on the Astral Plane will get an artifact weapon, all player monsters except the weaponless monks have a chance of receiving a long sword as their primary weapon.  The probability ranges from 87.5% for knights to 6.25% for barbarians, cavepeople, and healers.  Long swords generated on player monsters on the Astral Plane have a 50% chance of being one of the artifact swords listed above, unless there are no artifact long swords left to be created.
Player monsters generated elsewhere (for example, on quests) with their inventory (therefore excluding player monsters revived from corpses or statues or reverse-genocided) have the same chances of starting with a long sword, but a lower probability of the sword being an artifact.

Strategy
A significant fraction (7/24 = 29.2%) of artifact weapons are long swords, the highest of any item type. Therefore, for roles that are unrestricted in long swords and find one early in the game (or start with one, as is the case with Knights and Valkyries), it is a good idea to keep it and practice with it to prepare for an artifact weapon. Lawful and neutral characters can become unrestricted in long sword by being crowned, even if they don't receive Excalibur or Vorpal Blade as a crowning gift, and any character can become unrestricted in long sword when receiving an artifact long sword as a sacrifice gift.

SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM also includes a silver long sword that deals an extra d20 in silver damage.
The Valkyrie's starting +1 long sword has been replaced with a +1 spear.[8]
The following additional artifact weapons use the long sword skill in SLASH'EM:

Sword of Justice
Thiefbane
Giantslayer has been replaced by Giantkiller, an artifact axe.

References

↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 425

↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 279

↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 205

↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 209

↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 491

↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 73

↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 152

↑ u_init.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 229

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It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.0. Information on this page may be out of date.
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