Couatl
A couatl 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 11 |
| Attacks | |
| Base level | 8 |
| Base experience | 180 |
| Speed | 10 |
| Base AC | 5 |
| Base MR | 30 |
| Alignment | 7 (lawful) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 900 |
| Nutritional value | 400 |
| Size | Large |
| Resistances | Poison |
| Resistances conveyed |
None |
|
A couatl:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line983 |
A couatl, A, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It has the lowest level and difficulty among angelic beings, making them likely to be the first type a player encounters.
The coautl is capable of flight and is an eligible choice of steed. It has a pair of bite attacks, with the first being stronger and poisonous, followed by a holding attack that acts as a drowning attack if the coautl is flying over a moat. Like other angelic beings, it ignores Elbereth.
Contents
Generation
Randomly generated couatls may appear in small groups of 2 to 4, and are peaceful towards lawful player characters. A couatl is generated on the Plane of Air at level creation.
Couatls serve as minions for lawful gods, who may generate hostile couatl if you anger them (e.g. with excessive prayer) or convert one of their altars. Hostile couatls can also appear via the summon nasties monster spell used by a lawful spellcasting monster.
Strategy
Couatl are somewhat slow at 10 speed, but remain something of a danger for mid-game characters: their holding attack and tendency to generate in groups may result in you being surrounded unless you are careful, and encountering them near moats introduces the risk of instadeath by drowning. They are the only other non-sea monster alongside the python that is capable of drowning players.
As a steed, a couatl is not especially remarkable - among the mounts capable of flight, it is only faster than a dragon, which has better AC alongside a breath attack and is generally much stronger.
History
The couatl is introduced alongside the other angelic beings in NetHack 3.1.0.
Origin
The word coatl or couatl (plural cocoah) originated from classical and Central Nahuatl, where the word means "serpent" or "twin". The Aztec god Quetzalcoatl derives his name from this word: it translates literally to "Precious Serpent" or "Quetzal-feathered Serpent". Quetzalcoatl is said to appear in the form of a feathered, rainbow-winged serpent, and feathered serpent deities occurred in the iconography and worship of many Mesoamerican cultures. The couatl as it appears in NetHack comes from Dungeons & Dragons, where it debuts in Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry (1976) for the first edition of the game.
The couatl of Dungeons & Dragons (sometimes pluralized as "couatls") is a feathered serpent with a pair of rainbow-colored wings that originated from ancient clans of creator-race reptilians known as saurians, or sarrukh. More than 35,000 years before the present age, these sarrukh clans once controlled a mighty empire; as the empire fell, these clans became nomadic and migrated from plane to plane, slowly embracing their darker natures. Some of their kindred despaired at this, and chose to pray to Jazirian - a fragment of the World Serpent - who aided them by transforming them into the first couatls. In the present age, couatls are rarely seen and tend to avoid interfering in mortal affairs, but are very highly intelligent and powerful, and inhabit warm, jungle-like regions; some of them are considered gods, and they are regarded with awe by the inhabitants of their homelands.
Variant
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, the encyclopedia entry for the couatl is expanded.
Encyclopedia entry
A mythical feathered serpent. The couatl are very rare.
SLASH'EM
A mythical feathered serpent. The couatl are very rare. The couatl are feathered serpents of myth and lore. It is believed that they are distant relatives of dragons, though this remains unproven. So rare as to be considered legendary, the couatl are some of the most beautiful creatures in existence. A couatl has the body of a long serpent and feathered wings the colour of the rainbow. Occasionally sent as messengers from the gods to their erring servants, a couatl will always seek to punish those who deserve it.
[ 2nd ed. Monstrous Compendium, by TSR, Inc. ]
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