Red naga

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A red naga, N, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is an adult naga that can be seen via infravision, and is the only chaotic monster of the monster class.

A red naga has a bite attack and the ability to breathe fire, and possesses fire resistance and poison resistance.

Eating a red naga corpse or tin has a 15 chance each of conveying fire resistance or poison resistance.

Generation

Randomly generated red nagas may generate as peaceful towards chaotic characters. A red naga hatchling can grow up into a red naga.

Red nagas appear among the N that are part of the second quest monster class for Rogues, and make up 6175 of the monsters randomly generated on the the Rogue quest.

Strategy

The red naga is the slowest of the adult nagas, with its speed matching that of an unhasted and unburdened player character, and is likely to be the first monster encountered that has a fire breath attack. If you spot a hostile red naga nearby, fire resistance is enough to prevent damage from the breath attack if you lack reflection, though you should still stash any flammable items to avoid losing them. While it is unlikely that you will encounter one near ice, caution is still advisable in such scenarios.

History

The red naga first appears in NetHack 3.0.0.

Origin

The Nāga (feminine "Nagi") are a supernatural race of half-human half-serpent beings that can occasionally take human form, and hold cultural significance in the folkloric traditions of many South Asian and Southeast Asian cultures over the past two millennia. Nagas also appear in Dungeons & Dragons.

Their most common depiction is that of a snake with a human head, which the default tileset of NetHack draws from—other iconographic depictions portray them as human from the waist up and snake from the waist down, wholly human with snakes on the heads and necks, or even as common serpents. Various south and southeastern Asian cultures also portray Nāgas as having multiple usually-serpentine heads.

Encyclopedia entry

The naga is a mystical creature with the body of a snake and the head of a man or woman. They will fiercely protect the territory they consider their own. Some nagas can be forced to serve as guardians by a spellcaster of great power.