V Vlad the Impaler | |
---|---|
Difficulty | 18 |
Attacks |
Weapon 1d10, bite 1d10 drain life |
Base level | 14 |
Base experience | 477 |
Speed | 18 |
Base AC | -3 |
Base MR | 80 |
Alignment | -10 |
Frequency (by normal mechanisms) | Unique |
Genocidable | No |
Weight | 1450 |
Nutritional value | 400 (human corpse) |
Size | Medium |
Resistances | Sleep, poison |
Resistances conveyed |
None |
Other attributes |
Vlad the Impaler, V, is a unique vampire notable in that he holds the Candelabrum of Invocation. He resides at the top of his tower in Gehennom. As with his weaker brethren he possesses the abilities of flight and magical breathing.
Vlad is widely regarded as being an exceptionally weak enemy to be a mandatory fight at the stage of the game when he is faced; he is not significantly stronger than the vampire lords which appear as normal enemies. Jokes abound of fighting him with thoroughly rusty thoroughly corroded tin openers, or not moving every second turn while fighting him, or a variety of other absurd scenarios normally resulting in YASDs and still easily triumphing over this. The items used for this have become known as Vladsbanes (or Vladbanes or Vladsmashers, in a mockery of the Banes) and on the occasions when such an item is used it is often #named as such in a tribute.
A variety of patches have been written to address this issue by altering Vlad in some way. One of the better known ones is the aptly-named Vlad Balance patch. The Dudley's dungeon strip for 30 November 2006 featured several humorous attempts to remake Vlad; see also the comments for the 30 November and 1 December strips.
In SporkHack he's been beefed up significantly, most notably by arming him with an artifact two-handed sword named Lifestealer that has similar properties to Stormbringer.
Origin[]
Vlad is a major vampire based mostly on the fictional Count Dracula, who is in turn based on Vlad Drăculea, a 15th century Romanian prince.