Difference between revisions of "Monk"

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== Intrinsics ==
 
== Intrinsics ==

Revision as of 23:15, 14 February 2013

The monk is one of the player roles in NetHack. Monks are always human, and can be lawful, neutral or chaotic. He or she is a martial-artist conforming to the "Shaolin Monk" stereotype. From the guidebook:

Monks are ascetics, who by rigorous practice of physical and
mental disciplines have become capable of fighting as effectively
without weapons as with. They wear no armor but make up for it
with increased mobility.

The Monk is a good choice for a player who wants to practice both magic and hand-to-hand combat, but isn't interested in using weapons. It is a good class with which to achieve conducts.

Monks know all nonmagical armors from the start. Their special spell is restore ability. When crowned they get a spellbook of restore ability instead of the standard crowning sword.

Starting equipment

If A Scroll Of Teleportation Is Generated, Than The Player May be Spawned In A Closed Room

Intrinsics

Monks start with the intrinsics see invisible, sleep resistance and speed.

Monks gain intrinsics at these experience levels:[6]

Code of conduct

The things that make a monk unique are the penalties imposed for non-Monkish behavior:

Vegetarianism

Monks feel guilty about eating non-vegetarian food, and suffer a small alignment penalty (-1 alignment) for doing so. As compensation for this, they gain intrinsics rapidly as they level up. The penalty can be considered a fair price for getting otherwise tricky to find intrinsics, such as telepathy or disintegration resistance. Because of these intrisics, many players who want to play a vegetarian, vegan, or foodless character choose monk. However, in general monks should not feel required to maintain the vegetarian conduct. Unless they eat enough meat to make their alignment negative they shouldn't have any problems.

No body armor, no shield

Monks are penalized for wearing body armor (all armors and mails; this doesn't include robes, cloaks and shirts) with a -20 to-hit penalty.[7] Other types of armor (boots, gloves, and helms) carry no penalty. For a low-level Monk it is virtually impossible to hit while wearing body armor. Some players however start using them when reaching high level, dexterity and Luck. The armor penalty doesn't apply if you are polymorphed, so a monk that gets his hands on a ring of polymorph control can turn into, say, a vampire lord and have no problem hitting while wearing armor.

Monks get additional hit bonus when not wearing a body armor nor a shield and not wielding a weapon. This bonus is experience level / 3 + 2.

Wearing a shield or body armor makes a Monk incapable of dealing a "staggering blow" which reduces his abilities in martial-arts.

Magic

Monks are the only role other than Wizards that can achieve Basic skill in all magical schools. They can only attain Expert skill in the Healing school.

A robe is extremely useful for a Monk because it gives them a massive bonus to spellcasting, twice that of what any other role gets with a robe. Even when taking into account base spellcasting penalties, they will still have a better total bonus with a robe than even a Wizard would.

Skills

Monk skills
Max Skills
Basic
Skilled
Expert
Grand Master

Quest

Main article: Monk quest

In the Monk quest, the player fights Master Kaen for the Eyes of the Overworld.

Rank titles

The status line shows you to be one of the following ranks when you reach the specified experience level:[8]

  • XL 1-2: Candidate
  • XL 3-5: Novice
  • XL 6-9: Initiate
  • XL 10-13: Student of Stones
  • XL 14-17: Student of Waters
  • XL 18-21: Student of Metals
  • XL 22-25: Student of Winds
  • XL 26-29: Student of Fire
  • XL 30: Master

Strategy

No weapon

There is no actual penalty for using weapons; however, this can still be considered a restriction because Monks can attain proficiency in very few weapon skills, but can train up to Grand Master in martial arts. As a result, they deal more damage bare-handedly than using a weapon (with an exception for some powerful artifacts). Trying for a weaponless conduct is very popular for a monk.

Alignment

One of the key parts of playing the monk is the starting alignment choice. Playing as a lawful monk is the most difficult, as it has a tough code of conduct, and with no clear advantage. Neutral is relatively easy to play and has good sacrifice gifts. Then again, monks don't need sacrifice gifts, so that is not a clear advantage. Playing chaotic is probably the best for a new player, because the conduct is easy. Beware of angry gods, though. Chaotic are the most difficult to mollify.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, monks also have the largest number of techniques of any role. Most of these are martial arts-themed offensive moves that make the monk a more balanced role.

Their first sacrifice gift are the Gauntlets of Defense.

Encyclopedia entry

One day, an army general invited the Buddhist monk I-Hsiu
(literally, "One Rest") to his military head office for a
dinner. I-Hsiu was not accustomed to wearing luxurious
clothings and so he just put on an old ordinary casual
robe to go to the military base. To him, "form is void".

As he approached the base, two soldiers appeared before him
and shouted, "Where does this beggar came from? Identify
yourself! You do not have permission to be around here!"

"My name is I-Hsiu Dharma Master. I am invited by your
general for a supper."

The two soldiers examined the monk closely and said, "You
liar. How come my general invites such a shabby monk to
dinner? He invites the very solemn venerable I-Hsiu to our
base for a great ceremony today, not you. Now, get out!"

I-Hsiu was unable to convince the soldiers that he was
indeed the invited guest, so he returned to the temple
and changed to a very formal solemn ceremonial robe for
the dinner. And as he returned to the military base, the
soldiers observed that he was such a great Buddhist monk,
let him in with honour.

At the dinner, I-Hsiu sat in front of the table full of
food but, instead of putting the food into his mouth, he
picked up the food with his chopsticks and put it into
his sleeves. The general was curious, and whispered to
him, "This is very embarrassing. Do you want to take
some food back to the temple? I will order the cook to
prepare some take out orders for you." "No" replied the
monk. "When I came here, I was not allowed into the
base by your soldiers until I wear this ceremonial robe.
You do not invite me for a dinner. You invite my robe.
Therefore, my robe is eating the food, not me."

[ Dining with a General - a Zen Buddhism Koan ]

References

External links


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