Werewolf

@ werewolf (human)
Difficulty	6
Attacks	Weapon 2d4 physical

@ werewolf (human)
Difficulty	6
Attacks	Weapon 2d4 physical
Base level	5
Base experience	61
Speed	12
Base AC	10
Base MR	20
Alignment	-7 (chaotic)
Frequency (by normal means)	1 (Very rare)
Genocidable	No
Weight	1450
Nutritional value	400
Size	Medium
Resistances	poison resistance, drain resistance
Resistances conveyed	causes lycanthropy
A human werewolf: has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso. regenerates HP quickly. is poisonous to eat. is omnivorous. is not a valid polymorphable form. can change between human and animal forms. is a human. is normally generated hostile. can pick up weapons and food. can be seen through infravision.
Reference	NetHack 5.0.0 - include/monsters.h, line 2627

d werewolf (animal)
Difficulty	7
Attacks	Bite 2d6 lycanthropy

d werewolf (animal)
Difficulty	7
Attacks	Bite 2d6 lycanthropy
Base level	5
Base experience	61
Speed	12
Base AC	4
Base MR	20
Alignment	-7 (chaotic)
Frequency (by normal means)	0 (normally created in human form)
Genocidable	No
Weight	500
Nutritional value	250
Size	Medium
Resistances	poison resistance, drain resistance
Resistances conveyed	causes lycanthropy
An animal werewolf: has no hands. regenerates HP quickly. is poisonous to eat. is carnivorous. is not a valid polymorphable form. can change between human and animal forms. is normally generated hostile. can be seen through infravision.
Reference	NetHack 5.0.0 - include/monsters.h, line 267

A werewolf, @ / d, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The werewolf is an omnivorous human werecreature that is the strongest of the werecreatures and can shift between human and canine form, which is signified by howling that can wake up sleeping monsters. Werewolves possess enhanced regeneration and can be seen via infravision in both forms, while werewolves in human form will also seek out and collect items.

A werewolf in human form that is not subjected to protection from shape changers will transform into their animal form with a chance dependent on whether it is night and if the full moon is out: they have a ¹⁄₃₀ chance on each turn during nighttime, a ¹⁄₃₀ chance on each turn during the full moon, a ¹⁄₃ chance on each turn if the full moon is out at night, and a ¹⁄₅₀ chance on each turn otherwise. Werewolves in animal form have a ¹⁄₃₀ chance each turn of returning to their human form, and will always change back if the hero has an active source of protection from shape changers.

A werewolf can summon other wolves and wolf-like canines on nearby squares when in melee range of the hero. They have a weapon attack while in human form, and they have a bite attack while in wolf form that can cause lycanthropy in the hero. Werejackals possess poison resistance and drain resistance, and have a weakness to silver.

A werewolf corpse is poisonous to eat, and a hero eating a werewolf corpse or tin will develop lycanthropy upon finishing the meal. Eating wolves, wargs, winter wolves, winter wolf cubs, or other werewolves is considered cannibalism for any hero that has contracted lycanthropy from a werewolf.

Generation

Randomly-generated werewolves are always created hostile, and are normally generated in their human form unless they were created from a figurine that depicts their animal form. They are not a valid genocide target, and only a hero with lycanthropy from a werewolf can polymorph into one.

An inaccessible closet generated during level creation may contain the aged corpse of a werewolf.

A werewolf summoning help will generate up to 5 hostile monsters on a square adjacent or close to it, and each monster has a ⁴⁄₅ chance of being a wolf, a roughly ¹⁄₁₀ chance of being a warg, and a ¹⁄₁₀ chance of being a winter wolf—heroes that get lycanthropy from a werewolves can summon the above monsters as pets with the #monster extended command by using 10 power.

Werewolves that leave corpses upon death will always leave corpses of their human form.

Strategy

While a werewolf's 20 MR score and the 4 AC of their animal form are far from stellar, their regeneration combined with decent damage and the ability to summon fairly bulky wolves can be very troublesome for heroes that encounter them as they approach the mid-game stages. A werewolf summoning one or more winter wolves in an open area can unexpectedly turn the tables on decently-kitted heroes unless they have cold resistance or reflection for the breath attack. Worse yet, contracting lycanthropy from one will eventually cause a hero to shift to wolf form: while not nearly as weak as the other lycanthrope forms, turning into a wolf will destroy body armor rather than shrink out of it, on top of forcing them to drop other armor and much of their inventory.

Like other werecreatures, werewolves should be eliminated as quickly as possible before they can get into melee range and summon monsters or infect you—constraining them to hallways is less effective than in other cases, since summoned winter wolves can hit from behind other monsters with their cold breath and destroy potions in open inventory, though this has the occasional benefit of softening up the werewolf and some of the other wolves you are fighting off. A means to reliably engrave Elbereth may be needed to get some breathing room if you do not have a silver weapon or a well-trained weapon skill to bring the wolves down quickly. As always, keep sprigs of wolfsbane, holy water or other cures on hand, and consider wearing a ring of protection from shape changers if you identify one.

History

The werewolf first appears in NetHack 3.0.0. From this version to NetHack 3.0.10, their animal forms are referred to as wolfweres.

From NetHack 3.0.4 to NetHack 3.6.7, including some variants based on those versions, the werewolf's animal form uses the d glyph as the wolf does—NetHack 5.0.0 gives the wolf and animal werewolf their current glyph via commit 3b2d3eab.

Werewolves are the subject of some other bugfixes and code adjustments over multiple versions and some applicable variants.

• In versions up to NetHack 3.4.3:
  • Heroes that have both lycanthropy from a werewolf and polymorph control cannot toggle between forms by specifying the other form they are not currently in, and a hero transforming from lycanthropy has a ¹⁄₁₀ chance of changing their sex. This is fixed in NetHack 3.6.0 via commit 3c58c3b2 to prevent lycanthropy from changing a hero's sex, and allows lycanthrope heroes that are changing shape while they have polymorph control to specify their alternate werecreature form while in either form and choose closely-related monsters to enter their were-animal form.
  • It is possible for a lycanthrope hero in animal form (or any hero polymorphed into an animal) to throw projectiles and other items—this is bug C343-243, and is fixed in NetHack 3.6.0 via commit 187b8dec so that a hero's polymorph form must have hands in order to throw items.
• In versions up to NetHack 3.6.0:
  • Werewolves summoning help will generate allied wolves with a ⁴⁄₅ chance and allied winter wolves otherwise—their ability to summon wargs as well is introduced in NetHack 3.6.1 via commit 1f4574b6, which also makes it cannibalism to eat those animals while the hero has lycanthropy from a werewolf.
• In versions up to NetHack 3.6.7:
  • The howling of a werewolf does not awaken sleeping monsters. This is fixed in NetHack 5.0.0 via commit 91257e00.
  • Werewolf corpses and tins cannot be wished for properly, due to a bug involving their animal forms being designated as corpseless, and a figurine of a werewolf that is applied or brought to life via stone to flesh will always create the monster in their animal form. Both are fixed in NetHack 5.0.0 via commit 2337252a.

Origin

The concept of humans shapeshifting into animals has been a common concept in folklore among various human eras and cultures, while "therianthropy" and related terms as a means of describing specific forms of human-animal shapeshifting have been in use since the early 20th century.

The werewolf is the definitive example of such a being, and is also known as a "lycanthrope", which comes from the Ancient Greek (λυκάνθρωπος, lykánthrōpos, "wolf-human") and is the basis for the term "therianthrope" used to describe other werecreatures—their shapeshifting is either an intrinsic ability or the result of a curse or affliction, often resulting from a bite or scratch by another werewolf, with the transformations occurring on the night of a full moon. The folklore around this "lycanthropy" dates back as far as classical antiquity in ancient Greece, with sources dated as early as the first century of the Common Era, while the infectious properties of their bites is a relatively modern development in comparison.

Stories of humans turning into wolves are widespread elsewhere throughout much of pre-Christian European folklore, with Christian interpretations of the folklore developing during the medieval period and forming the motif of the devilish werewolf devouring human flesh. Werewolf beliefs also spread to the New World during the era of colonialism, and developed in parallel to the belief in witches during the Late Middle Ages and the early modern period: the trials of supposed witches and werewolves alike emerged in the early 15th century in what is now Switzerland, and spread throughout Europe in the 16th, peaking in the 17th and subsiding by the 18th century. Despite this, there was only a marginal overlap between accusations of lycanthropy and those of witchcraft.

King Lycaon of Arcadia is a notable example of a werewolf in classical literature and folklore. In the version of the tale told by Greek geographer Pausanias, Lycaon was transformed into a wolf after sacrificing a child at the altar of Zeus Lycaeus, while in the version told in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Zeus visits Lycaon disguised as a common man, with Lycaon desiring to test if he is really a god; to that end, he kills a Molossian hostage and serves his entrails to Zeus, which disgusts the god enough to turn Lycaon into a wolf. Classical tales also feature a recurring motif of men that transform into wolves being able to turn back after nine years, provided they abstain from tasting human flesh while in wolf form - Pausanias asserts this to be a regular occurrence with those who sacrificed to Zeus Lycaeus after Lycaon, such as Damarchus of Parrhasia; Pliny the Elder also recounts a tale, quoted from Euanthes, that claims the Arcadians regularly chose a man from the clan of Anthus by lot to travel and undergo such a transformation once a year.

The werewolf has long since become a subject of interest in folklore studies, as well as a staple of the Gothic horror genre of media (with werewolf fiction having pre-modern precedents in medieval romances) and of most fantasy media in general. Most modern fiction describes werewolves as vulnerable to silver weapons and highly resistant to other injuries, which occurs fairly often in post-witch trial European literature. Bram Stoker's 1897 Dracula also attributes similar qualities to the vampiric Count Dracula, and many fictional vampires also independently display an ability to shift into wolven form and a weakness to silver.

The werewolf of Dungeons & Dragons is one of the oldest creatures to appear in the game, with artwork of a werewolf's face by Tom Keogh (a childhood friend of Gary Gygax) present in the original "white box" versions, and is also available in some forms as a playable character—the werewolf of NetHack pulls much of its statistics from the werewolf's entry in the 1st Edition Monster Manual. Werewolves are the most common type of lycanthropes in the game's settings: they organize in packs similar to those of actual wolves, and are said to be very difficult to detect in human form, unlike other lycanthropes such as the wiry and distinctly foul-smelling wererats. Though commonly depicted as evil, there are many non-evil werewolves as well, such as those who worship the goddess of the moon.

Messages

You hear a <wolf> howling at the moon.

A werewolf shifted into animal form on the current level while it is outside of your sight, and you are not deaf.

Variants

Some NetHack variants based on NetHack 3.6.0 and previous versions may not include the ability to summon allied wargs for werewolves, or count eating the monster types they can summon as cannibalism for heroes given lycanthropy by a werewolf. Other NetHack variants may make werewolves a playable race.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, the lycanthrope is a playable race of hero that is a human werewolf, and has a similar ability to switch between forms and summon other wolves. Unlike other werecreatures, player lycanthropes in wolf form will have hit dice equal to their current level, and can also throw projectiles such as daggers (which is a bug mentioned in the history section that may have been kept as a feature).

Non-player werewolves hit monsters as +2 weapons, and may generate as peaceful towards chaotic heroes. They can summon wolves and winter wolves, but not wargs, and will only summon up to two at a time. Eating wolves, wargs, and winter wolves (including their cubs) will not be considered cannibalism for a hero that has contracted lycanthropy from a werewolf.

Like other polymorphed monsters, they can revert to the form they are generated in, making them much more dangerous—however, they also have a chance of undergoing system shock, typically when killed in human form.

Werewolves can appear among the @ generated within the Chamber of Junk in the Lawful Quest during level creation.

The werewolf is the second quest monster for Yeomen, and makes up ²⁴⁄₁₇₅ of monsters randomly generated on the Yeoman quest. Some werewolves are also generated on various levels of this quest branch during level creation: one is generated at a specific square on the home level, and two each are generated on the filler levels and the goal level.

GruntHack

In GruntHack, werewolves can only summon normal wolves and winter wolves, and all werecreatures are generated as racial monsters. Eating wolves, wargs, and winter wolves (including their cubs) will not be considered cannibalism for a hero that has contracted lycanthropy from a werewolf.

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, werewolves can summon wargs as in vanilla NetHack, and eating wargs, wolves, winter wolves and their cubs, and other werewolves counts as cannibalism for a hero that has lycanthropy from a werewolf.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, the werewolf is stronger than in NetHack: their base monster level is raised to 9, their monster difficulty is raised to 11, and they have 4 points of "dodge" AC in human form and 6 in their wolf form. Werewolves are also demihumans, can summon only wolves and winter wolves, and can track the hero and other monsters via normal vision and scent. Seeing a werewolf in their canine form can decrease the hero's sanity. Lycanthropy transmitted by a mist wolf, the index wolf, the Vicar wolf, the high priest wolf, the Moon's Chosen, aether wolves, or the Moon-entity manipalp will turn the hero into a werewolf. Eating wolves, wargs, and winter wolves (including their cubs) will not be considered cannibalism for a hero that has contracted lycanthropy from a werewolf.

Werewolves play an important role in the Undead Hunter quest: if an Undead Hunter does not slay the Moon's Chosen within a set amount of time, the quest guardians and villagers that inhabit the various quest levels will gradually begin transforming into werewolves aligned with the quest nemesis faction and become hostile in the process. Werewolves in their human form also serve as the first quest monster for Undead Hunters and make up ⁹⁶⁄₁₇₅ of the monsters randomly generated on their quest—the eastern-most room on the north row of the home level will have a human-form werewolf placed inside it during level creation.

Werewolves can also be generated in several other areas.

• Hostile werewolves can be summoned by a hostile monster casting the summon nasties monster spell.
• Aether wolves that call for help (including while in their aether cyclone forms) have a ⁴⁄₅ chance per monster of summoning a werewolf, while the index wolf has a roughly ¹⁄₃ chance per monster of summoning werewolves, and the Moon's Chosen has a roughly ¹⁄₆ chance per monster of summoning werewolves.
• A werewolf is placed on a specific square within the inner halls on the ground floor of the Windowless Tower during level creation.
• Four werewolves are generated in specific locations on the goal level of the Elvish Racial quest during level creation.
• Two werewolves can be generated within specific locations in the Neutral Quest during level creation: the first is placed randomly on the Lich Marshes map of the first alhoon's dwelling, and the second is generated as one of the guards for the fortress of the second alhoon.
• Werewolves make up roughly ¹⁄₁₂ of the monsters that are randomly generated within the desert floors on the Mithardir variant of the Chaos Quest.
• Werewolves can appear among the default pool of random prisoners (i.e. before ruler-specific rules are applied) that are kept in throne rooms.
• Werewolves can appear among the court of a throne room ruled by a vampire, vampire lord or vampire lady, where each monster in the court has a ¹⁄₂₀ chance of being a werewolf.
• A werewolf is generated among the "guard dogs" placed in the southwest tower on the Pleasant Valley map of the Castle during level creation.
• Werewolf zombies may appear among the undead that can be generated within the lair of Orcus if his domain appears as the second Abyss level.

Werewolves created in the Lost Cities can be generated with a helmet, a pair of gloves, leather armor, a pair of high boots, a ³⁄₄ chance of a bestial claw, and a chance of a "beast's embrace" glyph item dependent on their starting form: the chance is ¹⁄₃ for human werewolves and ¹⁄₄ for animal-form werewolves.

SpliceHack

In SpliceHack, eating wolves, wargs, other werewolves, and winter wolves (but not their cubs) is considered cannibalism for a hero that has contracted lycanthropy from a werewolf.

Non-player pack lords that call for help have a roughly ¹⁄₂ chance per monster of summoning a werewolf.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, each monster summoned by a werewolf has the same odds of being a wolf, warg or winter wolf as in NetHack. Eating wolves, wargs, winter wolves (and their cubs), and other werewolves is counted as cannibalism for a hero that has lycanthropy from a werewolf.

Werewolves are capable of generating in the Ice Queen's Realm. Hostile werewolves can be generated by the summon nasties monster spell if it is cast in the Ice Queen's Realm or Vecna's Domain.

The werewolf is the first quest monster for Druids, and makes up ⁹⁶⁄₁₇₅ of the monsters randomly generated on the Druid quest. Several werewolves are placed on each of the quest levels during level creation: two each are randomly placed on the goal level, and four each are randomly placed on all the other levels.

Several werewolves appear on the Infidel quest during level creation: three are placed randomly on the locate level, five each are placed randomly on the lower filler level(s), and four are placed randomly on the goal level.

Six werewolves are generated in the central room on the first floor of Vlad's Tower during level creation.

SlashTHEM

In addition to SLASH'EM details, SlashTHEM also includes the Lunatic as a playable "werewolf" role that makes use of several defunct features tied to the lycanthrope starting race, such as their racial quest and the associated quest artifact.

A werewolf is generated among the "guard dogs" placed within the southwest tower on the village level of the Town branch at level creation.

Hack'EM

In Hack'EM, each monster generated by a hero or monster werewolf calling for help has a ⁴⁄₅ chance of being a wolf, a roughly ¹⁄₁₀ chance of being winter wolf, and a roughly ¹⁄₁₀ chance of being a rabid wolf. Eating wolves, winter wolves, rabid wolves, wargs, and other werewolves is considered cannibalism for a hero with lycanthropy from a werewolf.

Werewolves are always generated as peaceful to a doppelganger hero.

A werewolf is generated among the "guard dogs" within the southwest tower of the village level in the Town branch during level creation, as in SlashTHEM.

Werewolves can appear among the @ generated within the Lawful Quest's Chamber of Junk during level creation as they do in SLASH'EM.

As in SLASH'EM, the werewolf is the second quest monster for Yeomen, and makes up ²⁴⁄₁₇₅ of monsters randomly generated on the Yeoman quest. Some werewolves are also generated on various levels of this quest branch during level creation: one is generated at a specific square on the home level, and two each are generated on the filler levels and the goal level.

As in EvilHack, several werewolves also appear on the Infidel quest during level creation: three are generated on the locate level, five each are generated on the lower filler level(s), and four are generated on the goal level.

Encyclopedia entry

In 1573, the Parliament of Dole published a decree, permitting the inhabitants of the Franche-Comte to pursue and kill a were-wolf or loup-garou, which infested that province, "notwithstanding the existing laws concerning the chase." The people were empowered to "assemble with javelins, halberds, pikes, arquebuses and clubs, to hunt and pursue the said were-wolf in all places where they could find it, and to take, burn, and kill it, without incurring any fine or other penalty." The hunt seems to have been successful, if we may judge from the fact that the same tribunal in the following year condemned to be burned a man named Giles Garnier, who ran on all fours in the forest and fields and devoured little children, "even on Friday." The poor lycanthrope, it appears, had as slight respect for ecclesiastical feasts as the French pig, which was not restrained by any feeling of piety from eating infants on a fast day.

[ The History of Vampires, by Dudley Wright ]