Knight

The Knight, abbreviated as Kni, is one of the roles available for a hero in NetHack. They are always lawful humans. The guidebook has relatively little to say about Knights:

Knights are distinguished from the common skirmisher by their devotion to the ideals of chivalry and by the surpassing excellence of their armor.

Starting equipment

Each Knight starts with the following equipment:

• a +1 long sword (wielded)
• a +1 lance (alternate weapon)
• a +1 ring mail
• a +0 helmet
• a +0 small shield
• a +0 pair of leather gloves
• 10-20 uncursed apples
• 10-20 uncursed carrots

Knights start with knowledge of all non-magical weapons and armor.

The Knight's default starting pet is a saddled pony.

Intrinsics

Knights gain the following intrinsic properties upon reaching the given experience levels:

• Level 7: Speed

Attributes

The Knight's starting attributes are distributed as follows:

Attributes	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma	Remaining
Minimum attributes	13	8	10	7	14	17	6
Distribution percentages	30%	10%	20%	15%	15%	10%
Mean w/ standard deviation	14.95±1.24	8.66±0.89	11.27±1.10	7.97±1.01	14.96±0.97	17.43±0.53

Skills

Knights have the following skills available to them:

Knight skills
Max	Skills
Basic	Weapons: dagger, knife, pick-axe, scimitar, club, flail, hammer, trident, bow
Skilled	Weapons: axe, short sword, broadsword, two-handed sword, saber, mace, morning star, polearms, spear, crossbow Combat: two weapon combat Spells: attack, healing, clerical
Expert	Weapons: long sword, lance Combat: bare hands, riding

Knights start with Basic skill in longsword, lance, and riding. They use the wisdom stat to cast spells, and their special spell is turn undead.

Special rules

Knights have an inherent ability to jump like the knight piece in chess - this ability is restricted to destinations two squares horizontally and one square vertically away, or vice versa. Jumping from other sources (i.e. jumping boots or the jumping spell) function as normal.

Knights can turn undead via the turn command.

Knights do not reduce the tameness of a steed when mounting it.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

Knights ignore penalties for metal body armor while casting clerical spells, which is adapted from SporkHack.

Knights are the only role to retain a ¹⁄₆ chance of creating Excalibur by dipping a long sword in a fountain.

Knightly conduct

Knights follow a code of conduct, and take a -1 penalty to alignment record for the following actions withe the accompanying messages being printed:

• Attacking a sleeping, paralyzed or fleeing monster in melee, even if the monster continues to attack while fleeing - this does not apply to monsters that flee after stealing items from the hero. Monsters putting on armor or items (e.g., "the soldier puts on a crested helmet") are considered paralyzed for this purpose. Projectiles, wands and spells do not incur a penalty.

You caitiff!

• Eating while satiated.

You feel like a glutton!

• Digging down in a shop, if the shopkeeper is alive.

You feel like a common thief.

Rank titles

The status line displays one of the following ranks for the corresponding experience levels:

• XL 1–2: Gallant
• XL 3–5: Esquire
• XL 6–9: Bachelor
• XL 10–13: Sergeant
• XL 14–17: Knight
• XL 18–21: Banneret
• XL 22–25: Chevalier/Chevaliere
• XL 26–29: Seignieur/Dame
• XL 30: Paladin

Gods

The Knight pantheon is based on the mythology of Celtic peoples.

• Lawful: Lugh
• Neutral: Brigit
• Chaotic: Manannan Mac Lir

Quest

The Knight's quest them fighting Ixoth for The Magic Mirror of Merlin, an artifact mirror. It grants magic resistance and telepathy while carried, and a Knight carrying it also deals doubled damage to their enemies with offensive magic (i.e. some wands and most spells). Applying or wielding the Mirror causes it to speak a random rumor that is true if the Mirror is blessed, false if cursed and either if uncursed.

Strategy

In terms of role difficulty, Knights are a relatively balanced role, if somewhat more difficult than average: their stats lean towards higher strength, and their enchanted long sword is easily one of the best melee weapons to start a game with even before considering the ease of access to Excalibur. Their affinity for mounted combat also lets them get more out of polearms and their starting lance - said lance is also quite heavy, to the point that many players will drop or stash it at the first opportunity. Conversely, maximizing luck and then mastering combat with lances as soon as possible can give Knights a significant edge over otherwise-difficult monsters in combat, up to and including their quest nemesis.

Early game

The Knight's special jump can be a handy escape tool early in the game, providing an extra opportunity to engrave Elbereth or escape to a stairway, though it does cost nutrition for each jump. Between this and the lack of food outside of the fruits and vegetables intended for the starting pony, the hero's first priority should be stocking up on permafood in general. The starting pony is likely your best asset for getting around quickly: it is a strong and fast pet and can finish off fleeing monsters in order to avoid early alignment record penalties.

A natural early game goal for a Knight is to transform their +1 long sword into Excalibur once they hit experience level 5 - more cautious Knights may choose to wait until they train up their strength and constitution and/or gain intrinsic speed at XL 7. The starting pony can also provide enough speed to make an escape if necessary, especially if they are given intrinsic speed of their own (e.g. via wand of speed monster), or else they grow up into a horse or warhorse - see the dedicated section about steeds for more information.

Attacking from range with the lance works as with polearms, requiring that the hero be able to see the target square - see the article on pounding for details. Attacking with the lance in melee can joust opponents, stunning them and pushing them one square away (which is the perfect range for another round of pounding), but a starting Knight will rarely succeed in jousting, and runs a low-but-notable risk of breaking the lance at a stage when it is hard to replace. Additionally, Knights do not start with high STR and CON as consistently as other roles like the Samurai and Valkyrie, and can easily become encumbered early on: as discussed above, stashing the starting lance may be a good idea, especially if you find more reliable and lightweight ranged attack options.

The Knight starts with a relatively full set of armor that grants them the best starting AC of all roles at 3, notably including leather gloves: while finding lighter and better-quality armor, Knights should seek out a cloak to protect their body armor from rusting, as well as a set of boots. Plumbing the Gnomish Mines for a dwarvish mithril-coat, iron shoes and/or dwarvish iron helm is risky - unlit levels rob Knights of most of their mobility and combat advantages; as they are always human and lack infravision, a Knight will want a light source as soon as possible if they plan to brave the Mines.

Knights looking to start casting early will have to play more carefully than usual: their starting intelligence is typically low, making it dangerous to read non-blessed spellbooks, and their metallic armor makes casting itself difficult. Outside of an early wish for silver dragon scale mail, the next best option is crystal plate mail, which is both rare and incredibly heavy - studded leather armor is the most practical spellcasting-friendly armor, and has the same base AC as ring mail.

Your steed

For Knights planning to make extensive use of their steed, be sure to bless the saddle as soon as possible with spare potions of holy water. At minimum, raising the starting pony into a 20-base speed horse is worthwhile, as riding sets the hero's movement speed to that of their mount - remember that all horses are vegetarian, and gain more nutrition from veggy food such as the starting apples and oranges unless they are starving. A horse close to starvation will also accept "people food" such as food rations, or even meat in a pinch - remember to heal them as soon as possible afterward, since starving pets have their maximum HP cut to ¹⁄₃ of their normal value.

As a result, while a Knight will not potentially have to compete with their starting pet for food like many other roles, finding suitable food for a pony can be generally more difficult: #chat to a steed regularly (using > if riding it) in order to monitor its status. Carefully rationing the starting food is vital to maintaining the starting steed's health in the long term, and a horse will also gladly feed on the corpses of lichens and red or brown molds. One good early strategy is to feed the starting pony 9 apples as soon as it drops an item: this increases its tameness enough that a Knight can reliably mount it without slipping - which deals 10-14 damage and may spell doom for a starting Knight (sometimes even instantly!) - as well as increasing its apport for liberating items from shops.

Another strategy is to avoid mounting the pony until it has gained enough HP, usually enough to become a horse: by that point, the hero will likely have gained a few levels as well. Steeds in general will not attack monsters as often while the hero is mounted, and will only counterattack if a monster attack targeting you falls upon them instead - it is sometimes best to dismount and let them handle weaker monsters, such as the aforementioned fungi and molds. For a hero short on food in general, one unorthodox method is to leave a level just before the horse becomes confused from hunger, let it go feral, and then return with food after the point where it would have starved if you had remained on the level; taming a monster always sets its hunger level to satiated.

Unknown rings present a greater danger than normal for aspiring riders: putting on an unknown ring of conflict will cause the steed to buck its rider off immediately, resulting in wounded legs and a possible severe beating before the hero can get their next turn! Additionally, when descending past Mine Town or below DL 7, be especially careful of polymorph traps: magic resistance will protect both you and your steed from transformation.

Mid game

Weapons

A decently-enchanted Excalibur is more than enough to carry most Knights throughout the entire game. Some mid-level knights may decide to joust long-term after training the skill sufficiently—they should find a luckstone to maintain positive Luck if they haven't already. Due to the lance's weight, improving your carrying capacity in some way ahead of time is also recommended.

Knights with Expert skill in lances will want to use their main weapon on weaker monsters to further lower the chances of it breaking; invisibility is a good way to keep foes off-balance and wandering aimlessly, ideally into pounding range. Soldiers are sometimes generated with lances, making barracks such as those in Fort Ludios and the Castle good places to look for a replacement or spare lance.

Objectives

At this point, you may want to begin stashing treasure and other excess items regardless of whether or not you utilize your lance–being encumbered slows you down and bars you from jumping, and more pertinently makes it difficult to evade foes or run them down before they can deal too much damage. Maximizing your speed is extremely important for combat from this point, especially if mounted—a bag of holding can easily do most of the work in that regard. If you make the choice to press on while encumbered, be prepared to shed excess items (e.g. stashing them in a sack that can be dropped at a moment's notice) when dealing with particularly troublesome enemies.

The quest nemesis Ixoth is a rather tough opponent—although he can be dealt with by using Elbereth or paralysis, his spellcasting ability is annoying to deal with unless you have magic resistance, and may warrant postponing the quest until after you clear the Castle. Repeatedly jousting Ixoth on a warhorse with expert skill is also a viable strategy for dealing with him.

Riding

Black dragons are likely the worst threat any committed rider can encounter; even if you are immune to disintegration, your mount won't be unless it has reflection somehow, and the saddle will end up disintegrated if hit by the dragon's breath. Your best tactic is to use your speed to close in while avoiding the dragon's line of fire, then defeat them up close (e.g., with jousting or Excalibur).

Late game

Weapons

Knights with Expert skill in lances using a very fast mount can potentially deal severe damage to minotaurs, dragons and high-level demons through jousting and pouding without losing a single hit point.

If you wish to bribe Asmodeus and/or Baalzebub in Gehennom, be sure to unwield Excalibur before entering their lairs - if Excalibur is wielded when a demon prince is generated or warps to demand a bribe from you, they will become hostile.

Riding

By the time a player approaches Gehennom, maintaining a steed (like any other pet) is likely to be more trouble than it's worth. For those still committed to riding, ki-rin are perhaps the only steeds that can consistently last throughout Gehennom, and Knights can mount them without decreasing their tameness. However, players will have to decide if they are worth the risks—a wish for a blessed figurine gives an 80% chance of obtaining a tamed ki-rin at best, and despite their good natural AC they are not immune to death and disintegration rays, which player reflection will not save them from. In addition, their lack of poison resistance will likely spell their doom on the Plane of Fire unless the player can successfully avoid the poison cloud plumes.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

Ki-rin now have poison resistance, and are no longer considered animals. They also now have the ability to cure themselves using their horns, like unicorn horns. As they do not leave corpses, they do not drop their horns either.

Spellcasting

A late-game Knight can amass a formidable array of spells and large energy pool. However, unlike a Priest or Wizard, your quest artifact doesn't grant any form of energy recovery, and your natural energy regeneration is as slow as anyone else's, so conserve spells for when they'll be most effective.

With the Magic Mirror, a high-level Knight casting magic missile can deal over 100 damage, or more if they can arrange for their spell to rebound off a wall. This makes magic missile a potential alternative to the traditional wand of death for dispatching the Wizard of Yendor and high priest of Moloch. However, if the Wizard steals the Mirror, he gains magic resistance and complete immunity to magic missile and death rays, so keeping the Mirror in your bag is a safer option. As with all roles, don't count on a quest artifact as your only source of magic resistance.

History

The Knight first appears in Hack 1.0

Origin

The Knight as a role is based on historical and fictional stereotypes of medieval knights.

Variants

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, a Knight can also be a lawful dwarf. Knights wearing any body armor heavier than studded leather armor receive a weight reduction for it equal to half the difference; this allows them to carry more while wearing heavy armor before becoming burdened.

FIQHack

In FIQHack, Knights can be dwarves as well as humans. Knights are always warned before violating their honor code, and Dragonbane is the guaranteed first sacrifice gift for them.

Encyclopedia entry

Here lies the noble fearless knight,
Whose valour rose to such a height;
When Death at last had struck him down,
His was the victory and renown.
He reck'd the world of little prize,
And was a bugbear in men's eyes;
But had the fortune in his age
To live a fool and die a sage.

[ Don Quixote of La Mancha by Miquel de Cervantes Saavedra ]