Caveman

The caveman is one of the player roles in NetHack. Cavemen can be either lawful or neutral, and can be humans, dwarves or gnomes.

Their special spell is dig. Default starting pet is a little dog called Slasher. Cavemen do not suffer consequences from cannibalism.

Starting inventory

Each caveman starts with the following:

• a +1 club
• a +2 sling
• 10 to 20 flint stones
• 18 to 33 rocks
• a +0 leather armor

Intrinsics

Cavemen gain intrinsics at these experience levels:

• Level 7: speed
• Level 15: warning

Skills

Caveman skills
Max	Skills
Basic	Weapons: dagger, pick-axe, morning star, unicorn horn Spells: attack
Skilled	Weapons: knife, axe, flail, hammer, polearms, trident, bow Spells: matter
Expert	Weapons: club, mace, quarterstaff, spear, sling, boomerang
Master	Combat: bare hands

Quest

Main article: Caveman quest

Strategy

Caveman's starting armor and weapons are rather weak. Many choose to drop their flintstones, rocks and sling as soon as they enter the dungeon. However, sling can be very useful against floating eyes in the early game, so it is advised to keep it until you have telepathy. Leather armor should be dumped for mithril as soon as possible. Leather rots, so stay away from puddings. Club is a very weak weapon against large monsters, but it will do in the early game. If for some reason you want to keep your club, typically a +3 - +4 one will work until Mines' End and maybe the quest. If you stumble over a spear (try to get a dwarvish one, but if you can't, soldiers usually carry them), you might want to make it your primary weapon. Cavemen are the only class that can get expert in spears. You don't really have to worry much about your weapon as long as it kills your quest nemesis, which is the Chromatic Dragon. After that, you get one of the best weapons in the game, The Sceptre of Might.

Since cavemen can only be lawful or neutral, you will suffer consequences of murder, but not cannibalism.

Encyclopedia entry

Now it was light enough to leave.  Moon-Watcher picked up
the shriveled corpse and dragged it after him as he bent
under the low overhang of the cave.  Once outside, he
threw the body over his shoulder and stood upright - the
only animal in all this world able to do so.
Among his kind, Moon-Watcher was almost a giant.  He was
nearly five feet high, and though badly undernourished
weighed over a hundred pounds.  His hairy, muscular body
was halfway between ape and man, but his head was already
much nearer to man than ape.  The forehead was low, and
there were ridges over the eye sockets, yet he unmistakably
held in his genes the promise of humanity.
        [ 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke ]