Orc-captain

o orc-captain
Difficulty	7
Attacks	Weapon 2d4 physical, weapon 2d4 physical

o orc-captain
Difficulty	7
Attacks	Weapon 2d4 physical, weapon 2d4 physical
Base level	5
Base experience	66
Speed	5
Base AC	10
Base MR	0
Alignment	-5 (chaotic)
Frequency (by normal means)	1 (Very rare)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	1350
Nutritional value	350
Size	Medium
Resistances	poison resistance
Resistances conveyed	None
An orc-captain: has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso. is omnivorous. is an orc. is strong. likes gold. likes gems. can pick up weapons and food. has infravision. can be seen through infravision.
Reference	NetHack 5.0.0 - include/monsters.h, line 788

An orc-captain or orc captain, o, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The orc-captain is a strong humanoid that is the strongest type of orc among its monster class. Like most other orcish monsters, orc-captains have infravision and can be seen via infravision, and they will collect items such as weapons, food, gold, and gems.

An orc-captain has two weapon attacks and possesses poison resistance.

The orc-captain is one of two orcish polymorph forms that grant the hero 18/** strength like other strong monsters, rather than a capped natural strength of 18/50 as with other orcish monsters (including an orcish hero).

Generation

Randomly-generated orc-captains may be created as peaceful towards orcish heroes, and will always be hostile to all other races of hero. Hill orcs, Uruk-hai, Mordor orcs, and ordinary orcs can all grow up into orc-captains.

Orc-captains may appear among the hostile o that generate in throne rooms, as well as the various monsters that can be randomly generated by looting a throne while confused and carrying gold (provided there is no chest on the level).

In a game that has Orcish Town, multiple named orc-captains that are flavored as the leaders of a rival horde to the Mine Town invaders may appear among the orcs within the town walls, with a ¹⁄₂ chance (50%) of each created orc being an orc-captain. Another named orc-captain is guaranteed to appear elsewhere in either the Gnomish Mines or the main branch: this orc-captain is considered the leader of the invading horde and is generated with the most valuable of the Minetown loot—this loot consists of the watch captain's weapon (either a long sword or silver saber), a shiny ring, and some fruit named either "paddle cactus" or "dwarven root", along with a chance of some gold and other loot that is distributed among the horde they lead.

Orc-captains have a roughly ¹⁄₂ chance of being generated with an orcish helm, and will also be given either Mordor orc or Uruk-hai equipment, with an equal probability of each:

• Mordor orc equipment consists of a scimitar, an orcish shield, a knife, and orcish chain mail, with an independent ¹⁄₃ chance of each item.
• Uruk-hai equipment consists of an orcish cloak, an orcish short sword, a pair of iron shoes, an orcish bow and stack of 3–14 poisoned orcish arrows, and an Uruk-hai shield, with an independent ¹⁄₃ chance of each item set.

Strategy

While the orc-captain is typically generated alone and does not appear significantly stronger than a Mordor orc or Uruk-hai in terms of base stats, their ability to attack twice per turn and their potential for good initial armor can offset their very low movement speed of 5. An orc-captain with a decent weapon can deal unexpected melee damage, particularly if they are utilizing orcish arrows or the hero is lacking in AC.

Orc-captains may be best engaged at a distance unless their inventory contains an orcish bow and poisoned arrows, including those picked up from other dead orcs—poison resistance is ideal to have by the time you encounter one, especially if you are raiding Orctown. Fortunately, Orctown orc-captains can be softened up by keeping them in other hostiles' line of fire, even if they are poison resistant, and a patient player can use this knowledge to outwit and defeat them. A heavily-armored player with a good enough weapon on hand should have much less trouble besting an orc-captain in general melee.

History

The orc-captain is introduced in NetHack 3.0.0, where the various orcish monsters are first differentiated from each other. From this version to NetHack 3.6.7, including some variants based on those versions, orc-captains lack poison resistance—this allows a crafty player to dispatch orc-captains that are leading groups of Uruk-hai and the like using their comrades' arrows and careful positioning. However, poison in these versions has a chance of killing the hero outright as well, meaning that the poisoned arrows of an orc-captain or their allies just as lethal to the hero if they are not resistant.

NetHack 5.0.0 overhauls the functions of poison via commit d0b11fd2 and changes it to its current behavior, including severe poison—this does not completely remove poison's threat, especially with severe enough attribute loss, but makes it significantly more survivable. NetHack 5.0.0 also gives the intrinsic poison resistance property to all orcish monsters other than the goblin and the hobgoblin via commit b6a3d4b9: this is done as part of resolving issue #679 regarding congruence between non-player monsters and their player counterparts, and also caps all orcs other than Uruk-hai at 18/50 strength for purposes of polyself. Orc-captains are later given the same strength exception as Uruk-hai via commit 651a5b21.

Origin

Many of the orcs in NetHack are derived from their portrayal in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, either directly or through their adaptation into Dungeons & Dragons.

Variants

In NetHack variants that give AC bonuses for wearing racial equipment, orc-captains may prove tougher foes than they are in vanilla NetHack.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, orc-captains behave mostly as they do in NetHack 3.4.3 and previous contemporary versions, but they can also hit as +1 weapons and are not randomly generated normally in Gehennom.

As in NetHack, orc-captains have a roughly ¹⁄₂ chance of being generated with an orcish helm, and will also have a roughly equal probability of receiving either Mordor orc or Uruk-hai equipment, which is different in SLASH'EM:

• Mordor orc equipment consists of a scimitar, an orcish shield, two separate knives, and an orcish chain mail, with an independent ¹⁄₃ chance of each individual item. Additionally, if they are not given a scimitar, they will be generated with an orcish dagger.
• Uruk-hai equipment consists of an orcish cloak, an orcish short sword, a pair of iron shoes, an orcish bow and stack of 3–14 poisoned orcish arrows, and an Uruk-hai shield, with an independent ¹⁄₃ chance of each item set. Additionally, if they are not given an orcish short sword, they will be generated with an orcish dagger.

Two orc-captains are generated in the outer open area of Grund's Stronghold during level creation.

In older versions, orc-captains are the first quest monster for the defunct Dwarf quest, composing ⁹⁶⁄₁₇₅ (~54.86%) of monsters that are randomly generated in the branch—orc captains also appear among the o that are part of the first quest monster class for the branch and make up ²⁴⁄₁₇₅ (~13.71%) of the monsters randomly generated there. Additionally, the branch also generates eight orc-captains on the locate level during level creation, and four orc-captains on the lower filler level(s) during level creation, and orc-captains can appear among the o placed on each floor during level creation.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, orc-captains have their movement speed increased to 9, their second weapon attack uses their offhand weapon, and they are not a valid polymorph form.

Orc-captains may appear as the ruler of throne rooms: their court can contain orc shamans, Mordor orcs, hill orcs, hobgoblins, goblins, manes, quasits. Orc-captains may also appear in the court of a throne room ruled by an ogre king.

The Chaos Quest generates some orc-captains during level creation for various floors in two of its variations:

• The Mordor Ruins version of the Chaos Quest generates an orc-captain on the level in the main dungeon containing the branch's magic portal. Three orc-captains are also generated at the Mordor Wall, while two are generated in the Mordor Fortress.
• The Chaos Temple Quest generates an orc-captain within the forest area of the Ancient Temple level, and ¹⁄₁₀ of the randomly-generated monsters on the level will be orc-captains.

xNetHack

In xNetHack, orc-captains are considered lords to their kind, and have their base speed raised to 9; they also have poison resistance like orcish heroes.

For weapon generation, orc-captains that roll Mordor orc equipment have a ¹⁄₃ chance of either generating with a scimitar (²⁄₃ chance) or a stack of orcish spears (¹⁄₃ chance); orc-captains that roll Uruk-hai equipment instead have a ¹⁄₃ chance of either generating with an orcish short sword (²⁄₃ chance) or a stack of orcish spears (¹⁄₃ chance).

EvilHack

In EvilHack, orc-captains have poison resistance like orcish heroes and gain AC bonuses for wearing proper racial equipment like the player and other monsters—orc-captains that roll Mordor orc equipment have a ¹⁄₃ chance of generating with an orcish scimitar as their weapon, rather than a standard one, while orc-captains that roll Uruk-hai equipment have a ¹⁄₃ chance of getting orcish boots rather than dwarvish boots (which replace iron shoes from NetHack). Orc-captains have a ¹⁄₄ chance of generating mounted atop wargs.

Hack'EM

In Hack'EM, orc-captains have poison resistance. They have 9 speed and are lords to their kind as in xNetHack, and may also generate the same kits for Mordor orcs and Uruk-hai as in EvilHack.