Orcus
- This article is about the demon prince. For the chaotic god of the Undertaker pantheon, see Orcus (god).
& Orcus 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 36 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 3d6 physical, claw 3d4 physical, claw 3d4 physical, spell-casting 8d6 mage, sting 2d4 poisonous |
| Base level | 30 |
| Base experience | 1445 |
| Speed | 9 |
| Base AC | -6 |
| Base MR | 85 |
| Alignment | -20 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Unique |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1500 |
| Nutritional value | 500 |
| Size | Huge |
| Resistances | Fire, poison |
| Resistances conveyed |
None |
|
Orcus:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line2684 |
Orcus, &, is a demon prince that appears in NetHack. He is a very powerful demon spellcaster with a poisonous body that is tied for the fifth-highest monster difficulty with Geryon, and has the seventh-highest base experience in the game. Orcus has infravision, the ability to see invisible, possesses flight, will pick up items, and can follow the player character to other levels if he is adjacent. Orcus is covetous and wants both the Amulet of Yendor and the Book of the Dead.
Orcus has a weapon attack, two claw attacks, will attempt to cast one mage monster spell per round of combat, and uses a poisonous sting attack. He possesses fire resistance and poison resistance.
Contents
Generation
Orcus is always generated hostile, and is not a valid form for normal polymorph.
Outside of bones files, Orcus will always generate meditating on the down stair of his lair in Gehennom.
Orcus always generates with a wand of death.
Strategy
For characters without magic resistance, Orcus poses a dual threat of instadeath through his wand of death and the touch of death spell - reflection can deflect rays from the former, but cannot protect against the latter. For any character with magic resistance, Orcus can still deal significant damage via psi bolts and has full access to the rest of the mage spell arsenal, including the standard trouble spells: curse items, summon nasties, destroy armor, and so on. He is fairly slow at 9 speed (or 12 once he casts haste self), but has a strong -6 AC and high MR score of 85.
The main priority is often relieving Orcus of his wand without destroying it or letting him waste several charges, especially if you plan to use it against non-immune threats like the Wizard of Yendor. Orcus can also use his melee attack to gate in major demons, and can even summon Demogorgon or Yeenoghu (who can also summon Demogorgon) - the possibility of Demogorgon arriving is often the prime motivator to kill Orcus as fast as possible in either case, or else avoid fighting him directly in melee.
While skipping Orcus is technically possible, it is more ideal to dispose of him if at all possible. If you cannot avoid fighting him directly, then your options to block the up stair and prevent him escaping are as follows:
- As with most covetous monsters, use the down stair in Orcus-town while Orcus is adjacent to you: the up stair is always on the opposite end of the map, and the level is no-teleport. This is most easily arranged by digging down upon reaching the level, then taking the up stair - it is also easier if you chose to map Gehennom starting from the bottom.
- Create a boulder fort on or near the stair, then get the attention of Orcus, e.g. with a cursed potion of invisibility; missile weapons are the most ideal offense for this strategy, as many spells and wands will be blunted by his 85 MR. You can also move a boulder onto the up stair to prevent him actually using it.
Orcus is not immune to stoning or disintegration: hitting him with a footrice corpse or egg will instantly kill him, and Orcus may summon a cockatrice alongside other nasties; the breath attack of a black dragon will also wipe him out instantly if you can get him in the line of fire, and is best done with a tame or conflicted black dragon. Another option is to wield a potion of paralysis and strike with it while wearing a ring of free action, then try to finish Orcus as quickly as possible - this may likely require multiple potions. Finally, a Knight on a steed with high Luck and Expert skill in lance can potentially joust Orcus to death, with the stun from jousting impeding his escape.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
Covetous monsters now pick a particular stair to teleport to. Monsters will also avoid using wands if they see that you are immune to them: this means it is easier to preserve the charges of Orcus's wand, but also means that he will start using "proper" attacks on you much sooner.History
Orcus first appears in NetHack 3.0.0, which introduces the demon lords and princes. His lair is introduced in NetHack 3.1.0.
Origin
Orcus is derived from Dungeons & Dragons, which takes the name and general association with undeath from an Etruscan god named Orcus whose domain was the Estrucan and later Roman underworld, and acted as a punisher of broken oaths. As with Hades, Orcus's name was also used for the underworld itself; in later Roman tradition, he was conflated with Dis Pater (who inspired the Dispater of Dungeons & Dragons). Like many other deities associated with death and the underworld, his name was used for demons and other underworld beings such as the Dungeons & Dragons demon prince.
Orcus is among the most well-known and mighty demon princes of the Dungeons & Dragons settings - he physically appears as a fat and immense humanoid demon anywhere between 15-20 ft (4.6-6.1 m) in size, with the horned, tusked and decayed skull of a ram for a head; Orcus also has the legs and hooves of a goat, the wings of a bat, and a long and spiny poison-tipped tail. His most iconic artifact by far is the "Wand of Orcus": a skull-topped wand with the power to slay any living being, represented by the literal wand of death he holds in NetHack.
As Prince of the Undead, Orcus seeks to extinguish life throughout all universes, and is at constant war for the Abyss with rivals such as Demogorgon; among the ranks of his armies and followers are zombies, vampires and shades (referred to as shadows). Orcus is one of the Abyssal powers most often worshipped as a deity, and has attained actual divinity once previously: after doing so, he eventually abandoned the war for the Abyss and became lazy and careless, culminating in his death at the hands of the ambitious drow demi-goddess, Kiaransalee. Despite her efforts, Orcus was eventually resurrected by one of his foremost high priests in a blasphemous ritual and took back his wand and the title of Prince of the Undead, resuming his war for the Abyss.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, Orcus has his difficulty raised to 39.
While Orcus is still capable of summoning Demogorgon, each demon lord and prince has their own lair within Gehennom - as a result, characters will eventually face Demogorgon yourself sooner or later, but will still want to avoid Orcus and/or Yeenoghu springing the demon prince on them.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, Orcus is one of the demon princes whose lair can appear as the second Abyss level.
Orcus is heavily buffed in dNetHack: his MR score is boosted even further to 99, rendering several spells and wands all but useless against him, and his base speed is buffed to 12, while his effective AC is boosted to -17 (with all 27 points in "natural" AC). Orcus no longer uses a stinging attack, and his spellcasting attack is weaker than in vanilla, but he has access to far more deadly and damaging spells in general, and favors the raise dead monster spell in combat.
Orcus also generates with an artifact wand of death fittingly called The Wand of Orcus: it is a huge-sized chaotic wand that is intelligent and bloodthirsty, uses the mace skill in melee, and has +d20 to-hit and +d12 life draining damage, along with the ability to drain experience levels. Seeing Orcus will confer the "suicidal" permanent madness, which intermittently causes severe AC reduction and consistently causes you to take extra damage in combat.
xNetHack
In xNetHack, Orcus's lair resides in either Shedaklah or the Abyss.
Orcus has a unique spell list that includes a few exclusive spells and several changes:
- Orcus can cast a blighting spell that inflicts withering similar to Dark Speech.
- He can also cast a disenchanting spell that drains enchantment from weapons and armor, as well as charges from rings, wands and magic tools.
- The summon nasties monster spell cast by Orcus creates undead monsters instead.
- The drain strength, stun and touch of death monster spells bypass player magic resistance.
The archfiends in xNetHack also apply debuffs if they are not killed prior to obtaining the Amulet of Yendor: Orcus in particular inflicts a fluctuating penalty that increases your spellcasting power costs, and you may randomly fail to write scrolls and spellbooks (including known ones) some of the time.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, Orcus is always among the four demon lords and princes whose lair you encounter in Gehennom; the other three are chosen from a set pool of lairs for each tier. Orcus-town is most likely to be the third demon ruler lair in order of appearance.
Orcus is significantly buffed: his speed is raised to 15, and he has two weapon attacks and a withering-inducing claw attack; his spellcasting dice are weakened slightly, but he has access to far more dangerous spells, and his poisonous sting is still present. Like all other large monsters, Orcus gains more HP and AC from his massive size.
Like in dNetHack, he is always generated with his trademark Wand of Orcus, which is implemented much differently in EvilHack: the Wand is an artifact weapon rod that has +1d5 to-hit and +1d6 damage against living monsters, and can additionally drain the maximum HP of a victim - if they are not magic resistant, it has a chance of killing them outright.
Encyclopedia entry
Orcus, Prince of the Undead, has a ram's head and a poison
stinger. He is most feared, though, for his powerful magic
abilities. His wand causes death to those he chooses.
