Ring of aggravate monster
A ring of aggravate monster is a type of ring that appears in NetHack.
Contents
Generation
Wizards will never receive a ring of aggravate monster as either of the two random rings in their starting inventory.[1][2]
9⁄10 of rings of aggravate monster are generated cursed, and the rest are uncursed or blessed with equal probability. General stores and jewelers shops can sell rings of aggravate monster.
Description
A hero putting on the ring gains the aggravate monster extrinsic property. Monsters will not wear this ring.
A hero eating the ring has a 1⁄3 chance of successfully absorbing its magic and granting the property as an intrinsic.
NetHack 5.0.0
Wearing the ring also doubles the level difficulty used to generate monsters up to a maximum effective depth of 50.[3].
Strategy
While the ring of aggravate monster is generally considered undesirable and frequently used as polypile fodder, it still has a few niche uses: Knights can use it to awaken certain monsters and avoid caitiff penalties to alignment record, and any character trying to lure monsters (such as fodder for sacrifice on an altar or wraiths whose corpses they want) can wear the ring temporarily, even while invisible.
If dealing with an unwanted cursed ring, any source of stealth can override the worst of the ring's effects until you find a means to remove it.
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.
The ring becomes much more perilous to wear even when identified, due to the likelihood of generating monsters that would be out of depth otherwise—prior to commit d88f0cfe, an unidentified ring being worn could prove lethal outright for this reason, even when non-cursed, while also being of negligible effect in the late game.
The ring can be used deliberately for this effect by players skilled in out-of-depth combat with their hero to raise the odds of high-difficulty monsters generating for the purpose of sacrifice; this is especially useful for chaotic heroes, whose gods require higher-difficulty corpses to mollify if they are angry. The aforementioned commit makes it slightly harder to do so early on, but ring usage for this end becomes much more consistent later in the game.
Per commit d87cadaf and commit c2c797fa, artifacts are rebalanced such that more powerful ones require sacrifices of stronger monsters to be gifted, and are given two additional internal stats—the minimum sacrifice value required to obtain them by sacrificing (which is usually just the difficulty rating of the monster sacrificed), and a flat number added to the weapon's enchantment when it is either randomly generated or gifted. A ring of aggravate monster can be used as described above to increase the odds of higher-value monsters generating for sacrifice gifts, at the obvious risk of the hero's life and/or inventory.
For players attempting to generate a ki-rin or Archon to tame, one obstacle is the fact that these monsters do not generate in Gehennom, but are often too difficult for the Dungeons of Doom: wearing the ring solves this problem by not only making them more eligible, but much more likely to generate.
This higher difficulty monster generation also affects what is produced by the Create familiar spellHistory
The ring of aggravate monster first appears in Hack 1.21 and Hack for PDP-11, which are based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial item list for Hack 1.0. The ring also appears previously in Rogue, where it makes up 1⁄10 of random rings and causes monsters to attack more aggressively.
Messages
- Several flies buzz angrily around the sink.
- You dropped a ring of aggravate monster down a sink; this message still prints while blind.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, Flame Mages, Ice Mages, Necromancers, and Wizards will never be given a ring of aggravate monster as the random ring(s) in their starting inventory.[4]
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, the ring of aggravate monster will never have the randomized appearance of a black signet ring.
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, a ring of aggravate monster can be combined with a ring of hunger at a furnace to create a ring of conflict.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, Acid Mages, Corsairs, Electric Mages, Nobles, and Pirates will never be given a ring of aggravate monster as the random ring(s) in their starting inventory.
The Imperial Token is an artifact ring of aggravate monster that acts as the Gladiator quest artifact. It grants drain resistance while carried, grants regeneration and fire resistance while worn, and can be invoked for the leadership effect, which detects all pets on the level and increases the tameness of those within line of sight.
