Dwarf leader
h dwarf leader / dwarf lord / dwarf lady 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 6 |
| Attacks | |
| Base level | 4 |
| Base experience | 51 |
| Speed | 6 |
| Base AC | 10 |
| Base MR | 10 |
| Alignment | 5 (lawful) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 2 (Quite rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 900 |
| Nutritional value | 300 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | None |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
|
A dwarf leader:
| |
| Reference | NetHack 5.0.0 - include/monsters.h, line 502 |
- "Dwarf noble" redirects here. For the specific role and race combination in dNetHack and its variants, see Noble/dNetHack/Dwarf Noble.
A dwarf leader, h, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The dwarf leader is a humanoid monster that is a stronger type of dwarf and is a lord to dwarf-kind: male dwarf leaders are known as dwarf lords, while female dwarf leaders are known as dwarf ladies. Like standard dwarves, dwarf leaders 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 leader has two weapon attacks.
Generation
Randomly-generated dwarf leaders are always peaceful towards dwarven and gnomish heroes, and will mostly be peaceful towards other lawful heroes. Dwarf leaders do not appear in Gehennom due to being lawful. A dwarf can grow up into a dwarf leader of the matching gender, and a dwarf leader can grow up into a dwarf ruler of the matching gender.[1]
Dwarf leaders can appear among the random h that are generated on each of the filler levels of the Gnomish Mines during level creation.
Dwarf leaders 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 leaders are eligible for offensive items, defensive items, and miscellaneous items.
A dwarf leader 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 leaders that receive a dwarvish short sword and dwarvish iron helm also have a further 1⁄3 chance of receiving a dwarvish mithril-coat.
- Dwarf leaders 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).
Strategy
Dwarf leaders are quite deadly with their pair of attacks if they are generated wielding a decently strong weapon, up to and including dwarvish mattocks. They can also have good AC if the game is generous with their initial worn armor: as with other dwarves, dwarf leaders that are using a dwarvish short sword, axe, mattock, or dwarvish spear tend to have better armor on average.
Peaceful dwarf leaders will likely be harder for a pet to kill if they are not sufficiently trained beforehand. Hostile dwarf leaders can be an unexpected and unpleasant surprise for an early hero that dives into the Gnomish Mines for early equipment or comes across them through simple misfortune. Dwarf leaders are fortunately just as slow as regular dwarves at 6 speed, which can be used to the hero's own advantage.
History
The dwarf leader first appears in NetHack 3.0.0 as the dwarf lord. From this version to NetHack 3.0.3, the dwarf lord uses the h glyph; in NetHack 3.0.4, when color was introduced, it was given the h glyph. The dwarf lord is given its current glyph color in NetHack 3.0.7.
From NetHack 3.0.0 to NetHack 3.6.7, including variants based on those versions, dwarf lords are exclusively-male monsters, and dwarves of both genders grow up into male dwarf lords. NetHack 5.0.0 makes changes to monster growth via commit 0c3b9642 so that dwarves, dwarf lords and several other gendered monsters do not change gender while growing up and their resulting form has a matching title.
Variants
Some NetHack variants grant dwarf leaders 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 lords are properly named and generated.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, dwarf lords are exclusively-male as they are in NetHack 3.4.3 and previous contemporary versions, and dwarves of both genders grow up into dwarf lords.
Peaceful dwarf lords are intended to be replaced with hostile dwarf mummies 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.[3][4] The substitution is not seen in practice, since the code checks for instances where dwarf lords are specified when creating any of the Mines levels—this specification never actually occurs, and dwarf lords are typically generated as the random h placed on each of the Gnomish Mines filler levels.
GruntHack
In GruntHack, dwarf lords are effectively replaced by lord and lady racial monsters, which can be dwarven.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, dwarf lords are exclusively-male as they are in NetHack 3.4.3 and previous contemporary versions, and dwarves of both genders grow up into dwarf lords. They also gain +1 bonuses to AC for each piece of worn dwarven armor.
Dwarf lords 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 lords 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. Dwarven women will grow up into dwarf clerics rather than male dwarf lords, and neither dwarf clerics nor dwarf lords are valid polymorph forms.
Dwarf lords may appear in the court of a throne room ruled by a gnome king, gnome queen, dwarf king or dwarf queen. Dwarf lords may also appear as prisoners within random throne rooms, as well as throne rooms ruled by the following monsters: orc-captains; Uruk-captains; orcs of the ages of stars; ogre kings; Elvenkings or Elvenqueens; drow matrons; embraced drowesses; Y-cultist patrons; and the Necromancer. Additionally, the prisoners in the northern prison tower of the Drow Healer quest home level may include dwarf lords.
Dwarf lords that are randomly generated outside of the Gnomish Mines are always given a potion of booze.
xNetHack
In xNetHack, dwarf leaders 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 noble, and dwarf nobles gain +1 bonus AC for each piece of worn dwarven armor.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, the monster is known as a dwarf noble as in EvilHack, and dwarf nobles gain +1 bonus AC for each piece of worn dwarven armor. Dwarf nobles generated outside of the Gnomish Mines have a 6⁄7 chance of being generated with a potion of booze, as in UnNetHack.
