Dwarf ruler
h dwarf ruler / dwarf king / dwarf queen 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 8 |
| Attacks | |
| Base level | 6 |
| Base experience | 83 |
| Speed | 6 |
| Base AC | 10 |
| Base MR | 20 |
| Alignment | 6 (lawful) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 900 |
| Nutritional value | 300 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | None |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
|
A dwarf ruler:
| |
| Reference | NetHack 5.0.0 - include/monsters.h, line 511 |
- "Dwarf queen" redirects here. For the monster in dNetHack and its variants, see Dwarf queen (dNetHack).
A dwarf ruler, h, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The dwarf ruler is a humanoid monster that is the strongest type of dwarf, and is an overlord to dwarf-kind: male dwarf rulers are known as dwarf kings, while female dwarf rulers are known as dwarf queens. Like standard dwarves, dwarf rulers can tunnel through walls with a wielded digging tool and will collect items such as armor, weapons, gold, and gems that they come across.
A dwarf ruler has two weapon attacks.
Generation
Randomly-generated dwarf rulers are always peaceful towards dwarven and gnomish heroes, and will mostly be peaceful towards other lawful heroes. Dwarf rulers will not randomly generate in Gehennom due to being lawful. A dwarf leader can grow up into a dwarf ruler of the matching gender.[1]
Dwarf rulers can appear among the random h that are generated on each of the filler levels of the Gnomish Mines during level creation.
A dwarf ruler can be generated in a throne room as the occupant of the throne.
Dwarf rulers can appear among the random h that are part of the first quest monster class for Cave Dwellers and make up 24⁄175 of monsters that are randomly generated on the Cave Dweller quest.
Monster starting inventory
Dwarf rulers are eligible for offensive items, defensive items, and miscellaneous items.
A dwarf ruler can be generated with each of the following items:[2]
- A 6⁄7 chance of a pair of iron shoes and an independent 6⁄7 chance of a dwarvish cloak.
- A 1⁄4 chance of a dwarvish short sword and dwarvish iron helm, combined with an equal probability of either of the following:
- A dwarvish mattock, or
- A dwarvish roundshield paired with either a dwarvish spear or an axe, with an equal probability for each weapon.
- Dwarf kings that receive a dwarvish short sword and dwarvish iron helm also have a further 1⁄3 chance of receiving a dwarvish mithril-coat.
- Dwarf kings that are not given a dwarvish short sword and dwarvish iron helm will instead receive either a pick-axe (1⁄3 chance) or a dagger (2⁄3 chance).
As overlords to their kind, dwarf rulers will always generate with armor that has a minimum enchantment of +0 and weapons (but not tools) that have a minimum enchantment of +1.[3]
Strategy
Dwarf rulers have the potential to be deadly with their enchanted weapons and pair of weapon attacks, especially if they are given enchanted dwarvish mattocks, and they may also generate with good AC from their worn starting armor. Like other dwarves, dwarf rulers that are using a dwarvish short sword, axe, mattock, or dwarvish spear tend to have better armor on average. An early hero will want to deal with a hostile dwarf ruler from afar unless they were incredibly fortunate in assembling a set of quality armor: a hero that manages to kill a dwarf ruler using their pet or some other means may consider taking their armor and/or weapons as upgrades afterward. As with other dwarves, dwarf rulers move at a slow 6 speed, which can be used to the hero's own advantage.
Since dwarf rulers, mind flayers and master mind flayers share similar-colored glyphs, you should use far look to correctly identify any h or h, especially at lower dungeon levels or in the Gnomish Mines (where the random h generated on level creation monster can be a minesflayer)—a h encountered in Gehennom will almost never be a dwarf ruler.
History
The dwarf ruler first appears in NetHack 3.0.0 as the dwarf king: from this version to NetHack 3.6.7, including variants based on those versions, dwarf kings are exclusively-male monsters. NetHack 5.0.0 makes changes to monster growth via commit 0c3b9642 so that dwarf kings and several other monsters have female counterparts.
Variants
Some NetHack variants grant dwarf rulers and other dwarven monsters AC bonuses for wearing racial equipment, and may additionally generate them with a potion of booze. NetHack variants created prior to NetHack 5.0.0 may also make their own adjustments so that female counterparts to dwarf kings are properly named and generated.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, dwarf kings are exclusively-male as they are in NetHack 3.4.3 and previous contemporary versions.
Peaceful dwarf kings are intended to be replaced with hostile war orcs during level creation for the Gnomish Mines (with the exception of bones) so that dwarven and gnomish heroes will have to deal with hostile monsters like other races.[4][5] The substitution is not seen in practice, since the code checks for instances where dwarf kings are specified when creating any of the Mines levels—this specification never actually occurs, and dwarf kings are typically generated as the random h placed on each of the Gnomish Mines filler levels.
GruntHack
In GruntHack, dwarf kings are effectively replaced by king and queen racial monsters, which can be dwarven.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, dwarf kings are exclusively-male as they are in NetHack 3.4.3 and previous contemporary versions. They also gain +1 bonuses to AC for each piece of worn dwarven armor.
Dwarf kings that are created outside of the Gnomish Mines have a 6⁄7 chance of being generated with a potion of booze.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, dwarf kings have a full base attack bonus of +1 to-hit per monster level, and their second weapon attacks use off-hand weapons instead of using their primary weapon twice. Dwarf clerics (which are always women) will grow up into dwarf queens instead of dwarf kings, and neither dwarf kings nor dwarf queens are valid polymorph forms.
A dwarf king may appear as the ruler of a throne room, and his court can contain dwarf lords, dwarf clerics, dwarves, gnomes, gnome lords, gnome ladies, gnomish wizards, hobbits, and leprechauns.
Dwarf kings may appear as prisoners within random throne rooms, as well as throne rooms ruled by orcs of the ages of stars and ogre kings. Additionally, the prisoners in the northern prison tower of the Drow Healer quest home level may include dwarf kings.
Dwarf kings that are created outside of the Gnomish Mines are always generated with a potion of booze.
xNetHack
In xNetHack, dwarf rulers that generate with dwarvish ring mail have an increased chance of it being made of mithril, which makes it behave similarly to the dwarvish mithril-coat of NetHack.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, the monster is referred to as a dwarf royal, and dwarf royals gain +1 bonus AC for each piece of worn dwarven armor.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, the monster is also known as a dwarf royal as in EvilHack, and dwarf royals gain +1 bonus AC for each piece of worn dwarven armor. Dwarf royals generated outside of the Gnomish Mines have a 6⁄7 chance of being generated with a potion of booze, as in UnNetHack.
