Rat

Rats are long-tailed rodents.

Sewer rat

r sewer rat
Difficulty	1
Attacks	Bite 1d3

r sewer rat
Difficulty	1
Attacks	Bite 1d3
Base level	0
Base experience	4
Speed	12
Base AC	7
Base MR	0
Alignment	0 (neutral)
Frequency (by normal means)	Very rare, normally appears in small groups
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	20
Nutritional value	12
Size	tiny
Resistances	None
Resistances conveyed	None

A sewer rat is just another weak monster. Compare it to the kobold, the newt, or the grid bug, but those three monsters are far more popular.

To see why, try these searches on Dudley's dungeon, the webcomic set in NetHack:

• newt returns at least 31 comics (thanks to the rivarly between Dudley and newts)
• grid bug returns 4 comics
• kobold returns 3 comics
• sewer rat returns exactly one comic, 7 December 2005

So (at least for the authors of Dudley's dungeon), even kobolds have three times the probability of sewer rats. (If you look in Wikihack though, the sewer rat page appeared at 26 March 2006, before the pages for any of the three other monsters.)

Giant rat

r giant rat
Difficulty	2
Attacks	Bite 1d3

r giant rat
Difficulty	2
Attacks	Bite 1d3
Base level	1
Base experience	8
Speed	10
Base AC	7
Base MR	0
Alignment	0 (neutral)
Frequency (by normal means)	Quite rare, normally appears in small groups
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	30
Nutritional value	30
Size	tiny
Resistances	None
Resistances conveyed	None

A giant rat is one of the fabled "rodents of unusual size". It is nothing special.

Rabid rat

r rabid rat
Difficulty	4
Attacks	Bite: Constitution draining poison

r rabid rat
Difficulty	4
Attacks	Bite: Constitution draining poison
Base level	2
Base experience	20
Speed	12
Base AC	6
Base MR	0
Alignment	0 (neutral)
Frequency (by normal means)	Very rare
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	30
Nutritional value	5
Size	tiny
Resistances	poison
Resistances conveyed	None

A rabid rat has an animal body. It has no hands. It is a carnivore. Their bite is occasionally poisonous, which has a slim chance of causing instadeath if not poison resistant. Its corpse is poisonous if eaten, but will not grant poison resistance.

Encyclopedia entry

Rats are long-tailed rodents.  They are aggressive,
omnivorous, and adaptable, often carrying diseases.

"The rat," said O'Brien, still addressing his invisible
audience, "although a rodent, is carnivorous.  You are aware
of that.  You will have heard of the things that happen in
the poor quarters of this town.  In some streets a woman dare
not leave her baby alone in the house, even for five minutes.
The rats are certain to attack it.  Within quite a small time
they will strip it to the bones.  They also attack sick or
dying people.  They show astonishing intelligence in knowing
when a human being is helpless."
        [ 1984, by George Orwell ]

SLASH'EM

In Slash'EM, if you throw cheese at a sewer rat you might tame it, but it's probably not worth the effort.

This page is based on a spoiler by J. Ali Harlow.