Ghoul
Z ghoul 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 5 |
| Attacks |
Claw 1d2 paralysis, Claw 1d3 |
| Base level | 3 |
| Base experience | 28 |
| Speed | 6 |
| Base AC | 10 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | -2 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 400 |
| Nutritional value | 50 |
| Size | Small |
| Resistances | Cold, Sleep, Poison, Sickness |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
|
A ghoul:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line2174 |
A ghoul, Z, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. Ghouls are undead humanoid monsters that have infravision and a tendency to wander while moving. Though they are are considered inediate like the rest of the zombie monster class, ghouls are the only monster in the class that can eat food, with a special case allowing tame ghouls to consume tainted corpses and rotten eggs.[1]
A ghoul has two claw attacks, the first of which can paralyze the hero for up to 10 turns unless they have free action.[2] Ghouls possess cold resistance, sleep resistance, and poison resistance.
A hero that is polymorphed into a ghoul has sickness resistance in addition to the ghoul's other traits.[3]
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.
Hostile ghouls will also eat any old corpses they come across.Contents
Generation
Ghouls are always generated hostile.
Ghouls can appear among the undead that populate graveyards. A ghoul is summoned if the hero engraves on a headstone.
Ghouls can also appear among the random Z that are part of the first quest monster class for Priests and make up 24⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Priest quest.
A hero that is killed by a ghoul will arise as a named ghoul instead of a ghost if a bones file is created.
A ghoul does not leave a corpse upon death.
Strategy
Ghouls can be somewhat dangerous to an early hero: though the duration of their paralysis attack is relatively low, being paralyzed for any duration leaves them vulnerable to other surrounding hostiles. Fortunately, ghouls are often too slow at 6 speed to be a major threat in most instances. Free action prevents paralysis entirely, while higher MC can reduce the frequency of paralysis.
As a polyform, ghouls are one of the few ways a hero can obtain sickness resistance, though they are too small to wear body armor and have a pitiful carrying capacity - in practice, it is more feasible to simply have a reliable cure for sickness, such as a blessed unicorn horn or a potion of full healing, when dealing with illness-inflicting threats such as Pestilence or Demogorgon. However, the ghoul polyform does have use for illiterate conduct players that are throne farming and do not mind breaking polyselfless conduct - if using a cursed unicorn horn as their source of confusion, they can polymorph into a ghoul and put on an amulet of unchanging.
History
Ghouls first appear in NetHack-- 3.1.3, and make their vanilla debut in NetHack 3.3.0.
There is a bug that allowed the player to generate unlimited ghouls by engraving on the same headstone over and over again[4][5] - this bug was fixed in NetHack 3.4.0.
Origin
A ghoul, which comes from the Arabic غول (ghūl, from َghāla, "to seize"), is a demon-like being or monstrous humanoid, the concept of which originated in pre-Islamic Arabian religion. The ghul (or ghulah if female) is said to dwell in cemeteries and other uninhabited places; some ghouls prey on young children, drink blood, steal coins, eat the dead, and are capable of taking the form of the person most recently eaten. One particular reoccurring figure is known as Mother Ghoul (ʾUmm Ghulah) or a relational term such as Aunt Ghoul; she is portrayed in many tales luring hapless characters, who are usually men, into her home where she can eat them. Another monstrous ghoul named Ghul-e Biyaban was believed to be inhabit the wilderness of Afghanistan and Iran.
The concept of the ghoul was introduced to Western cultures via the 1700s Galland French translation of One Thousand and One Nights, and the term saw its first use in English literature in 1786, in the Orientalist novel Vathek by William Beckford. Perhaps the most famous ghouls are the undead monsters of the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead, which are described as ghouls - their subsequent association (and conflation) with zombies is attributed to an article in Cahiers du Cinéma by director George A. Romero.
Ghouls appear in Dungeons and Dragons, where they are chaotic evil creatures which feed on the corpses of humans and other creatures. Ghouls are said to arise from the death of a person who savored human flesh, and the transformation into a ghoul destroys the former human's mind - however, ghouls still retain a terrible cunning that is employed to effectively hunt prey. Ghouls attack using gnarled nails and fangs, and their touch could paralyze humans and human-like beings with the notable exception of elves - humans killed by ghoul attacks become ghouls themselves unless blessed (or blessed and then resurrected). Ghouls are immune to sleep and charm spells, but can be turned by clerics and repelled completely by a magic circle of protection from evil. Other varieties of ghoul exist, such as the supernaturally foul-smelling ghast that can paralyze even elves, and the marine-bound lacedon.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, Necromancers start the game with a tame ghoul.
Ghouls are slightly more dangerous compared to NetHack 3.4.3: their claw attacks are stronger and their base level is increased to 5. Ghouls also leave old corpses upon death.[6]
Stronger ghoul monsters such as the ghoul mages and ghoul queens are introduced, but ghouls cannot grow up into them.
The raise zombies technique has a 3⁄4 chance of generating a ghoul if used to raise a humanoid corpse without a corresponding zombie type.[7]
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, players killed by gnoll ghouls will arise as named ghouls if a bones file is left.
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, ghouls can grow up into ghasts.
The Lavender Town map of Minetown generates a peaceful ghoul at level creation.
The ghoul is a defunct playable race that appears in pre-1.0.0 versions of SpliceHack.
xNetHack
In xNetHack, a hero dies at the hands of a ghoul has a 1⁄5 chance of rising from death and being allowed to continue play as a ghoul with permanent intrinsic unchanging.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, hostile ghouls will eat any old corpses they come across.
Ghouls are also available as a playable race.
Encyclopedia entry
The forces of the gloom know each other, and are strangely
balanced by each other. Teeth and claws fear what they cannot
grasp. Blood-drinking bestiality, voracious appetites, hunger
in search of prey, the armed instincts of nails and jaws which
have for source and aim the belly, glare and smell out
uneasily the impassive spectral forms straying beneath a
shroud, erect in its vague and shuddering robe, and which seem
to them to live with a dead and terrible life. These
brutalities, which are only matter, entertain a confused fear
of having to deal with the immense obscurity condensed into an
unknown being. A black figure barring the way stops the wild
beast short. That which emerges from the cemetery intimidates
and disconcerts that which emerges from the cave; the
ferocious fear the sinister; wolves recoil when they encounter
a ghoul.
References
- ↑ src/dog.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 769
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1178
- ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 77: immunity to sickness is not defined elsewhere, and AD_DISE has no cases laid out in mhitm.c so monsters cannot become ill
- ↑ rec.games.roguelike.nethack @ Google Groups - "ghoul abuse" (initial post)
- ↑ rec.games.roguelike.nethack @ Google Groups - "ghoul abuse" (reply by Dylan O'Donnell)
- ↑ mon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 256
- ↑ mon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1718
