Death (monster)
& Death 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 34 |
| Attacks |
Deadly touch 8d8, Deadly touch 8d8 |
| Base level | 30 |
| Base experience | 1431 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | −5 |
| Base MR | 100 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Unique |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 1 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | fire, cold, sleep, shock, poison, petrification, drain |
| Resistances conveyed | teleport control (but eating the corpse is an instadeath) |
|
Death:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line2743 |
Death, &, is a unique monster that appears in NetHack. Death is one of the three Riders: they are strong, have infravision, can see invisible, can be seen via infravision, are capable of flight and regeneration, and will revive from their corpse if destroyed - the revival has a 1⁄3 chance of occurring each turn, with a guaranteed revival after 500 turns, and revival always occurs in response to attmpts to move, pick up, block, or otherwise remove the corpse.[1][2][3][4]
Death has teleport control, which has a 12⁄13 chance of placing them adjacent to the hero if they are teleported.[5] They also ignore the effects of sanctuary, are unaffected by Elbereth, can unlock doors without an unlocking tool, and can displace other monsters that are in their path unless the monster is occupying a square where a corpse cannot be generated.[6][7]
Death has two unique and powerful 'deadly touch' attacks:[8] the attack has a 1⁄4 chance of failing, and will otherwise deal physical damage while reducing the hero's maximum HP;[9][10] if the hero does not have magic resistance, there is a 3⁄20 chance of instadeath, while if the hero is undead they will take physical damage from a successful touch.[11][12] Death's deadly touch has no effect on monsters, though a second successful hit damages and stuns monsters as they do the hero.[13]
The maximum HP reduction for a hero hit by Death's deadly touch scales with the proportion of the hero's max HP to their experience level: a hero with less than five times their level in maximum HP has their maximum HP reduced by a value between 0 and half the damage, while a hero who is polymorphed, or whose maximum HP is at least 25 times their level, has all the damage applied as maximum HP reduction. The hero's maximum HP will never be reduced below a value equal to their level from the attack.
Death possesses many elemental resistances: fire resistance, cold resistance, shock resistance, poison resistance, stoning resistance, and drain resistance. Death ironically does not have death resistance, but is instead fully healed and made stronger by death magic (though they are still damaged by the "death field" from breaking a wand of death);[14][15] disintegration will simply cause Death to instantly reintegrate.
Eating Death's corpse abuses wisdom and is instantly fatal, including digestion attacks and attempting to eat their brain as a mind flayer or master mind flayer, and Death will immediately revive from its corpse even if the eater survives via life saving.[16][17][18] If the corpse is somehow eaten by a hero without reviving, they always gain teleport control.
Death speaks in ALL CAPS and without quotation marks as a form of tribute to the late Terry Pratchett, who portrays Death's dialogue this way in the Discworld series of novels[19] - chatting to Death can produce several unique messages, particularly if the hero is carrying a novel.[20]
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 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.
Death's deadly touch replaces the chance of instadeath with an effect that deals 8d6 + 50 damage and reduces the target's maximum HP by half of the damage dealt - this also applies to the touch of death monster spell. If the resulting damage would reduce the hero's maximum (and thus current) HP to zero, they instead die immediately without any maximum HP reduction, meaning that a hero in polyself will not return to normal form.
Per commit 017a8687, Death's deadly touch can damage and kill other monsters and deals reduced damage against undead, as part of resolving issue #594.Contents
Generation
Death is always generated hostile, and is not a valid form for polymorph. They are always created with 10d8 maximum HP, and their current maximum HP is preserved upon death for revival.[21]
Death is always generated on the Astral Plane, where they are placed in the center of one of the three round rooms at level creation.
Death always leaves a corpse upon death.
Strategy
Death possesses full monster MR, -5 AC, is immune to death rays, and cannot have their maximum HP drained, but they are generally not considered the most dangerous of the Riders: magic resistance can prevent the worst outcomes of its deadly touch attack (but hallucination does not, as with the touch of death monster spell).
Like the other Riders, Death can be dispatched quickly with high damage output, especially from any ranged weapon in order to avoid contending with their deadly touch, and the expensive camera can scare them off. Spellcasting heroes with a high experience level and access to the magic missile spell can bring Death down in a few shots (especially with rebounds), while heroes with highly-enchanted projectiles can also defeat Death with a few volleys. Melee-focused heroes can still bring Death down quickly enough in order to prevent them attacking too often As the primary objective is to find the high altar of the hero's alignment and ascend, it is generally unwise to get bogged down in killing Death and the Riders repeatedly outside of bragging rights strategies.
History
Death first appears in NetHack 3.1.0, which adds the revamped endgame featuring the Riders and the Astral Plane. From this version to NetHack 3.3.1, including some variants based on those versions, Death's deadly touch attack was one part of a long-running software bug that was only reported and fixed prior to the release of NetHack 3.4.0.
In NetHack 3.4.3 and previous versions, including some variants based on them, a hero can polymorph themself into a green slime and turn Death and the Riders to slime, since the sliming touch attack is not considered magical - similarly, a substantial herd of tamed green slimes stands some chance of turning a Rider into a slime, although this is only somewhat less risky; in either case, the resulting green slime can then be tamed. Additionally, a hostile gelatinous cube can engulf Rider corpses without trying to digest them, allowing the hero to steal them from the cube's inventory using a nymph polyself: a hero that can lift 1450 units of weight can use several methods to dispose of the stolen corpse permanently, such as placing it in a cursed bag of holding and then repeatedly looting it without using up any further turns. In these versions, it is also possible to farm Death for exotic drops and billions of points.
NetHack 3.6.0 makes Death and the Riders immune to sliming and polymorph, prevents gelatinous cubes from engulfing their corpses, and grants the Riders their ability to displace other monsters.
The inability for Death and the Riders to displace monsters located on squares that cannot have corpses created on them (such as a closed door) is added in NetHack 3.6.3, in order to ensure that Rider corpses are created when they are killed.
Origin
Death is one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (or the Riders of the Apocalypse), who appear in The Book of Revelation, the last book of most common versions of the Christian Bible. The sixth chapter of the book has verses describing Death and the other Riders as they appear when the Lamb (representing Jesus) opens six of the seven seals of the Apocalypse—these quotes are cited from the New International Version:
- I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.
- They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
- Revelation 6:8-9
Death is also a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, where he serves as a parody of depictions of the Grim Reaper (a common psychopomp figure and bringer of death) from across Europe. He is a black-robed skeleton who usually carries a scythe, as well as a sword for dispatching royalty. Death is a minion of Azrael, who is the "Death" of all things across the Universes, and his jurisdiction is specifically the Discworld itself—similarly, the Death of Rats that appears in some of the novels is an infinitesimally small part of Death himself.
Death's role is partly that of a device through which Pratchett explores human existence, and becomes more sympathetic as the series progresses; he almost never kills anyone or anything directly, but merely acts in his role as a psychopomp to ensure that when lives comes to an end, they move on to where they believe they should go if they are sentient, which often involves a desert to be crossed. Death appears in every single Discworld novel with the exception of The Wee Free Men and Snuff, and he speaks in ALL CAPS via telepathy, as he lacks vocal cords.
Messages
Chatting to Death while carrying a novel in open inventory will cause them to point out the novel's title and read a quote of Death's dialogue from within the tribute passages.[20]
- Ah, so you have a copy of <novel>.
- You spoke to Death while carrying a Discworld novel. Two specific novels will result in the additional message below, and otherwise they will quote an appropriate passage from the novel in question.
- I may have been misquoted there.
- The novel in question was either The Wee Free Men or Snuff.
- <Death> is busy reading a copy of Sandman #8.
- This has a 1⁄10 chance of being printed if none of the above messages occur.[22]
- Who do you think you are, War?
- The default response when chatting to a Rider.[23]
- <The monster> vomits violently and drops dead!
- A monster tried to digest Death and immediately died.[24]
Variants
Some variants of NetHack make significant changes to Death and the other Riders, some of which are in line with their origin.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, Death and the other Riders generate with three times as much health, and cannot be identified as specific monsters (e.g. via far look) until they enter the hero's line of sight, which reveals their identity.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack, and notnotdNetHack, Death and the other Riders are all male primordials, and are additionally made amphibious and breathless, given death resistance, and will turn traitor if somehow tamed. 3 Binah sephiroth are generated whenever Death or any Rider is generated or revived. Attempting to sacrifice Death to The Black Mother will anger her and revive him as usual.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, Death and the other Riders have their monster levels raised to 40 and are given psychic resistance and immunity to sickness, and they generate with 100 + 10d8 HP. They are capable of instantly destroying boulders that block their path on each turn, and will instantly kill tiny monsters rather than displace them to get to the hero.
Death is generated atop the Pale Horse, a unique monster that serves as their steed, and they are the only Rider to have an undead mount.
Encyclopedia entry
[Pestilence:] And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals,
and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four
beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white
horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given
unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
[War:] And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the
second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another
horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon
to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one
another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
[Famine:] And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the
third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black
horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his
hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say,
A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley
for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.
[Death:] And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the
voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and
behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death,
and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over
the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with
hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
References
- ↑ src/do.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1880: revive_mon function
- ↑ src/do.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1900: cases for Rider revival
- ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1201: In practice, unless there is something wrong with the RNG, this 500-turn limit will never be hit.
- ↑ src/teleport.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1432: Teleporting a dead Rider always revives them
- ↑ src/teleport.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1576
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1589
- ↑ src/monmove.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 820
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1590: AD_DETH damage type
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1609: default touch damage
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1613: touch failure cases
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1592: "deadly" touch against undead hero
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1598: instadeath chance
- ↑ src/mhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1449: Unhandled cases default to 0 damage
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 606
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4156: Death vs. death magic
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 553: brain-eating against Riders
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 715: eating Rider corpses
- ↑ src/mhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 905: digesting Riders
- ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 961
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 932
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 994
- ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 947
- ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 949
- ↑ src/mhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 912
