Monk

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The monk is one of the player roles in NetHack. The monk is 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

Intrinsics

Monks gain intrinsics at these experience levels:[6]

In essence, Monks automatically acquire all of the intrinsics granted by crowning (and then some) by the time they reach Level 17. That and their nearly worthless crowning gift of a spellbook of restore ability suggests that a Monk should probably avoid being crowned so as to preserve a shorter prayer timeout.

Skills

Monk skills
Max Skills
Basic
Skilled
Expert
Grand Master

Monks start with Basic skill in Martial arts and Healing spells. The initial spellcasting skills are hardcoded in the function skill_init in WEAPON.C, so even Monks starting with other spellbooks than healing start unskilled in Clerical or Enchantment , but still basic skilled in Healing.

Special Rules

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. However, some players start using body armor once they have reached a high experience level with enough dexterity, strength and luck to overcome the to-hit penalty. 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", reducing his or her effectiveness in martial arts.

Strategy

Early game

Objectives

Monks are pretty capable fighters in the early game. Martial arts do good enough damage, and the Monk's starting inventory is just fine. Many of the weapons and armor lying around in the early game are of little use. It is probably best to focus on learning spells and gaining protection.

It is very likely that an amulet of reflection will be your source of reflection for the entire game, so heading to Sokoban early is a good idea.

Weapons

Monks can often get through the early game (or the entire game) with no weapons at all. If you really feel you need a ranged weapon, crossbows are plentiful in the Mines. Shuriken are good if you can find some, as well.

A Monk is probably the best role for attempting a weaponless conduct, since they can train up to Grand Master in martial arts. There is no actual penalty for using weapons, but Monks can attain proficiency in very few weapon skills.

Armor

Body armor is entirely infeasible, except for pacifists. You should find a good helm and shoes, even if they are metallic. Keep your robe safe: it massively boosts your spellcasting and will be hard to replace early on.

Spellcasting

All of the three possible starting spells are useful if used in conjuction with martial arts. Healing lets you fight longer, sleep prevents your enemies from fighting back, and protection can make up for armor deficiencies (if you cast it before going into your fights).

Monk is the only role other than Wizard that can achieve at least a Basic proficiency in every magical school. This broad array of possible spells is useful for any Monk, but especially for one attempting a weaponless conduct.

The starting robe gives Monks a massive bonus to spellcasting as well, twice what any other role gets from wearing one. Even taking into account base spellcasting penalties, a Monk with a robe will still enjoy a better total bonus than even a Wizard.

Monks do not have the hungerless spellcasting available to Wizards, so wearing a ring of slow digestion is especially useful.

Mid game

Objectives

Maximize your Luck as soon as possible once you get a luckstone. Once you have maximized your luck and have a good experience level, start trying on body armor to see if you can hit consistently. If you can, a lot of the problems surrounding armor will be resolved.

Monks have one of the toughest quests in NetHack. Master Kaen is legendarily difficult, and due to his spellcasting you will want magic resistance prior to meeting him. Be sure to read up on his weaknesses. The phasing monsters on the Quest can swarm around you no matter where you hide. Combining all that with your difficult armor choices makes it likely that you will need to wait until after completing the Castle to embark on the Quest. (In 3.6.0, Kaen is vulnerable to the effects of a scroll of scare monster, making the fight with him much easier, so finishing the Castle shouldn't be necessary.)

Assembling an ascension kit can be a bit of a puzzle, seeing as you will likely avoid body armor and shields. Your alignment becomes very important once you start wishing for artifacts.

If you decide to wish for artifacts, try to obtain magic resistance first (slotless if possible), and then half damage if you can get some. There are no lawful half physical damage artifacts, an important consideration given a monk's AC challenges. Neutrals can get the weighty Orb of Fate for this, but for a spellcaster, the energy regeneration and branchporting of the Eye of the Aethiopica might be better. Neutrals can also sacrifice for Magicbane to get magic resistance and unrestrict dagger skill as a bonus. Chaotic monks can get half physical damage via the Master Key of Thievery.

Armor

If you cannot hit anything while wearing body armor, and cannot get an artifact offering magic resistance, you might need to forego your robe in favor of a cloak of magic resistance.

If you can almost but not quite hit consistently while wearing body armor, try augmenting your to-hit bonus with gauntlets of dexterity or a ring of increase accuracy.

Spellcasting

Maxing out your healing and clerical spellcasting skills is probably not worth it if you can keep wearing your robe. Neutral monks who cast lots of spells will likely want to wish for The Eye of the Aethiopica for energy regeneration.

Late game

Objectives

In addition to rounding out your ascension kit, you might also want a silver object for fighting undead and demons in Gehennom. Weaponless monks can remove their gloves and wear a silver ring, or wield a silver non-weapon such as the Bell of Opening.

Weapons

A highly-enchanted double-damage weapon like one of the Brands, even at Unskilled, will do significantly more damage than martial arts at Grand Master level. See The Monk FAQ for an in-depth comparison of average damage. Monks not attempting the weaponless conduct may want to switch to using an artifact weapon once they get something powerful enough (and once they are high enough level to hit monsters even with the Unskilled to-hit penalty). Alternatively, using their existing weapon skills, a fully enchanted silver spear wielded with gauntlets of power can also be effective, especially in Gehennom against the numerous silver-haters.

Shuriken are a good ranged option for late game Monks. If you want a large number of them, you will probably have to polypile for them. In 3.6.0, Monks have a +1 multishot bonus for throwing shuriken.

Armor

At this point you should be able to overcome the body armor penalty entirely with high stats and luck, or possibly through self-polymorph. You should be wearing body armor unless you have some good reason not to or are roleplaying.

Once you start wearing body armor, you should also get a shield, which doesn't have any further adverse effects if you already have body armor, and doesn't affect your martial arts. A shield of reflection in particular can free up your amulet slot for something more useful.

Spellcasting

It is likely that extremely high level spells like finger of death will remain out of your reach, but don't underestimate the power of the middling spells. Magic missile in particular is probably your most powerful ranged attack.

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

Quest

Main article: Monk quest

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

Variants

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, monks get a bonus point of AC while confused as a reference to the idea of drunken boxing.

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.

They don't suffer to-hit penalty for wearing body armor (unless fighting bare-handed).

Their first sacrifice gift are the Gauntlets of Defense.

dNethack

In dNethack, monks continue to gain intrinsics after level 17:

Their crowning gift is the Grandmaster's Robe, which improves their unarmed attacks while worn.

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


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It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.0. Information on this page may be out of date.

Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-360}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.