Classes, Races And Alignments In Slash'EM
Introduction
This spoiler on classes, races and alignments in Slash'EM was written by Eva Myers, with helpful contributions from Dylan O'Donnell, K. Bailey, Jukka Kuusisto, Stephen Churchill, Robert R. Schneck, David Cochran and Kevin Wayne. If you have any comments, additions or corrections, please feel free to email me. Information on why the permissible class/race/alignment combinations are what they are would be particularly welcome.
Table of Class/Race/Alignment Combinations
This table shows the permissible combinations of class, race and alignment (L means Lawful, N means Neutral and C means Chaotic). Valkyries are always female and Yeomen are always male, but all other classes can be of either gender.
Why are these the only permissible combinations? To begin with, each class and race has an allowed range of alignments, and only combinations with compatible alignments are allowed (e.g., there are no dwarven barbarians because dwarves are lawful and barbarians are not).
Now I'll discuss the allowed alignment ranges, but first a note on the meanings of ``lawful'' and ``chaotic''. In AD&D, lawful characters believe in the value of order and social structure, chaotic characters are strong individualists who distrust authority and dislike being ordered around, and it is possible to be chaotic good or lawful evil. In Nethack and Slash'EM, there are only three alignments (lawful, neutral and chaotic) and to some extent lawful is equated with good and chaotic with evil.
Lycanthropes, orcs, vampires and drow (dark elves) are always chaotic because they are actively evil. (Light) elves are always good and therefore cannot be chaotic. Hobbits are non-chaotic because they don't like adventure and change. Doppelgangers cannot be lawful because taking the form of another person would usually be done with intent to deceive.
Apparently, dwarves are lawful and gnomes neutral because that's the way their societies are. [References to books showing dwarven and gnomish societies would be useful here.]
Knights, Samurai and Yeomen can only be lawful because they follow a strong code of honour and/or fill a clear role in a social hierarchy.
Rogues and Necromancers are evil and therefore chaotic.
Monks and Priests can be of any alignment because they can be followers of any deity, Flame and Ice Mages because their magic can be used for either good or evil, and Undead Slayers because they can either be part of an organised army or a lone warrior against the undead hordes.
Barbarians and Rangers are lone wanderer types, and therefore are neutral or chaotic but not lawful. Wizards are also non-lawful, because they are more dedicated to study of the magic arts than to law or ethics, and because magic was historically regarded as the "black arts" and messing with powers that ought not to be messed with, and therefore lawfuls would stay away from it.
Archaeologists are non-chaotic because research is a collaborative activity, Cavemen are non-chaotic because of their opposition to Tiamat (the Chromatic Dragon, their quest nemesis, who personifies the water of Chaos), and Valkyries are non-chaotic because they are doing the will of Odin in choosing fallen warriors for Valhalla and no chaotic character would ever serve the will of anyone else.
Healers can only be neutral because they take an oath to heal everyone whether good or evil. Tourists can only be neutral because they've left their society to go travel around, so they're not lawful, but they're not actively evil either, and unlike Barbarians and Rangers, they'll probably go back home someday, so they're not really chaotic.
Some class/race combinations are banned for reasons other than alignment:
- Gnomes and Hobbits are not strong enough to be Barbarians. (Although this was posted on r.g.r.n as an explanation for the lack of Elven and Gnomish Barbarians in vanilla Nethack, it doesn't quite work for Slash'EM, because Elves and Drow are just as weak, and they can be Barbarians. Perhaps Hobbits are too fond of home comforts to live as Barbarians or Cavemen.)
- Elves don't like living underground or in caves, preferring living in forests, and therefore can't be Cavemen. (Or maybe the lack of Elven Cavemen is because Elves did not evolve like humans.)
- Dwarves and Lycanthropes don't like magic and therefore cannot be Flame Mages, Ice Mages, Necromancers or Wizards.
- Vampires can't be Flame Mages because they are cold-blooded and it would be strange for them to have a magical command of fire. Also, sunlight kills them, and the sun is a big ball of fire.
- Knights and Samurai come directly from human history and hence can only be human.
- Lycanthropes, Orcs and Vampires are more into random slaughter than dedicating themselves to religion and so can't be Monks or Priests. Similarly, Dwarves cannot be Monks or Priests because they lack the mental discipline required (they have a tendency to fly into rages and drink a lot).
- Gnomes cannot be Monks or Priests because they are too practical and selfish to suffer for some abstract ideal with no guaranteed reward.
- Elves and Drow cannot be Monks because they prefer to fight with bows and arrows rather than martial arts.
- Vampires can't be Rangers because they couldn't survive being outdoors all the time in daylight.
- Apparently, Drow cannot be Rogues because Droven societies are very closely knit and it would be impossible for a Drow to rebel to the extent required to be a Rogue.
- Elves and Gnomes can't be Tourists because they prefer to keep themselves to themselves in their own communities rather than travelling around visiting human societies.
- Vampires obviously can't be Undead Slayers. Perhaps the lack of Dwarven Undead Slayers is because dwarves and vampires share an affinity for sunless caves, or because vampires prefer to drain blood from young maidens and the dwarf sexes are indistinguishable in appearance.
- Elves, Gnomes and Hobbits are all too weak to be Valkyries. (This is a consistent explanation - all races which a Valkyrie can be can reach strength 18/** - but maybe the real reason has something to do with them deriving from incompatible mythology?)
- Dwarves cannot be Yeomen because they do not ride into battle.
Maximum Stats For The Different Races
Difficulty Comparison Of Slash'EM Races
See J. Ali Harlow's spoiler on class- and race-dependent abilities for lists of the intrinsics and techniques associated with each race. The notes below are a rough guide to the relative difficulty of the races in Slash'EM 7E6F3. However, your mileage may vary, and character class is more important than race in determining how easy a character is.
Doppelganger
Advantages: Excellent stats, self-polymorph
Disadvantages: No infravision
Difficulty:
Drow
Advantages: Putting monsters to sleep with their bare-handed attack, sleep resistance
Disadvantages: Low strength and constitution
Difficulty: Moderate
Dwarf
Advantages: Good physical stats, rage eruption technique
Disadvantages: Mines inhabitants will be peaceful
Difficulty: Moderate
Elf
Advantages: See invisible, sleep resistance
Disadvantages: Low strength and constitution
Difficulty: High
Gnome
Advantages: Tinker technique, vanish technique
Disadvantages: Mines inhabitants will be peaceful
Difficulty: Low
Hobbit
Advantages: Speed, stealth, high constitution
Disadvantages: Low strength
Difficulty: Low
Human
Advantages: Good stats, can be any role and alignment
Disadvantages: No infravision
Difficulty: Moderate
Lycanthrope
Advantages: Regeneration (not hungerless), excellent physical stats
Disadvantages: Randomly polymorphs into a wolf
Difficulty: Very high
Orc
Advantages: Poison resistance, extra food
Disadvantages: Orcish weapons and armour
Difficulty: Low
Vampire
Advantages: Excellent stats, regeneration (not hungerless), level-drain resistance
Disadvantages: Cannot eat anything except fresh blood
Difficulty: Very high