Monk

The Monk, abbreviated as Mon, is one of the roles available for a hero in NetHack. From the guidebook:

Monks are ascetics, who by rigorous practice of physical and mental disciplines have become capable of fighting as effectively without weapons as with. They wear no armor but make up for it with increased mobility.

Monks are always human, and can be of any alignment.

Starting equipment

Each Monk starts with the following equipment:

• a +2 pair of leather gloves
• a +1 robe
• one of the following blessed spellbooks, with an equal probability of each:
  • spellbook of healing
  • spellbook of protection
  • spellbook of sleep
• a random scroll that is not the scroll of enchant weapon
• 3 potions of healing, any of which may be blessed
• 3-6 uncursed food rations
• 5-10 apples
• 5-10 oranges
• 3-6 fortune cookies
• one of the following:
  • an uncursed magic marker (¹⁄₅ chance or 20%), otherwise;
  • an uncursed oil lamp (²⁄₂₅ chance or effectively 8%)

Monks start with knowledge of the shuriken and all non-magical armor.

The Monk's default starting pet is a little dog or kitten with equal probability.

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.

Per commit d452242a, the spell of sleep is raised to level 3 and no longer eligible for Monks to start with - the spell of confuse monster is also lowered to level 1, and is made one of their possible starting spells.

Per commit 9d910773, Monks have a ¹⁄₄ chance (25%) of starting with a magic marker (19–23 charges), and otherwise have a ³⁄₄₀ chance (7.5%) chance of starting with an oil lamp.

Intrinsics

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

• XL 1: see invisible
• XL 1: sleep resistance
• XL 1: speed
• XL 3: poison resistance
• XL 5: stealth
• XL 7: warning
• XL 9: automatic searching
• XL 11: fire resistance
• XL 13: cold resistance
• XL 15: shock resistance
• XL 17: teleport control

Attributes

The Monk's starting attributes are distributed as follows:

Attributes	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma	Remaining
Minimum attributes	10	8	7	7	8	7	28
Distribution percentages	25%	20%	15%	10%	20%	10%
Mean w/ standard deviation	17.34±2.37	13.63±2.10	11.26±1.95	9.86±1.66	13.63±2.10	9.57±1.59

Skills

Monks have the following skills available to them:

Monk skills
Max	Skills
Basic	Weapons: quarterstaff, spear, crossbow, shuriken Spells: attack, divination, enchantment, matter
Skilled	Spells: clerical, escape
Expert	Spells: healing
Grand Master	Combat: martial arts

Monks start with Basic skill in martial arts and healing spells. They use the wisdom stat to cast spells, and their special spell is restore ability.

Special rules

Monks gain a +1 multishot bonus for throwing shuriken.

Monks only take ¹⁄₅ damage from breaking wands by applying them.

Monks have a +2 bonus to casting emergency spells.

The Monk's default crowning gift is the spellbook of restore ability, and a Monk carrying the spellbook or wielding an artifact when they are crowned will receive the normal crowning gift for their alignment.

Certain actions taken by Monks can impact their abilities and attributes, in addition to alignment record:

• Monks are expected to maintain at least a vegetarian diet, and take a -1 penalty to alignment record every time they consume non-vegetarian food.
• A Monk exercises wisdom while they are weak from hunger, and abuses wisdom while they are satiated - this is applied in addition to the normal stat abuse for both conditions, and occurs on every game turn whose number is a multiple of 10.
• Monks wearing a suit of armor in their normal form incur a -20 to-hit penalty for melee attacks (equal to their spellcasting penalty for worn armor). Monks that are in normal form and not wearing a suit of armor, using a shield, or wielding a weapon can perform staggering blows when attacking in melee or kicking, and gain a to-hit bonus equal to ^XL⁄₃ + 2 for melee attacks.

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.

Per commit c09733f2 and commit 7c44e06a, a Monk that reaches Minetown and does not load a bones level will have a health food shop in place of the standard delicatessen if possible. This is meant to be already present in the game, but only the shopkeeper's name was changed whenever this occurred, while the shop type and underlying room type were unchanged.

Per commit afbcf3f9, feedback for the to-hit penalty for worn armor will appear when checking the hero's status via ctrl + X, and per commit 97cbbaa0 the feedback also accounts for bonuses to accuracy from other sources.

Rank titles

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

• XL 1-2: Candidate
• XL 3-5: Novice
• XL 6-9: Initiate
• XL 10-13: Student of Stones
• XL 14-17: Student of Waters
• XL 18-21: Student of Metals
• XL 22-25: Student of Winds
• XL 26-29: Student of Fire
• XL 30: Master

Gods

The Monk pantheon is based on Chinese mythology.

• Lawful: Shan Lai Ching
• Neutral: Chih Sung-tzu
• Chaotic: Huan Ti

Quest

The Monk's quest sees them fighting Master Kaen for The Eyes of the Overworld, an artifact pair of lenses. While worn, The Eyes of the Overworld suppress the effects of blindness and grant magic resistance and astral vision: astral vision allows the wearer to see through walls within a three-square radius, including any monsters within that range. NetHack assumes line-of-sight to be symmetrical, meaning that monsters will be able to see the wearer as well - be sure to remove them so you can blind yourself for Medusa!

Strategy

Monks are much different in design from the other roles of NetHack: they are arguably "intended" for weaponless and vegan or vegetarian play and commonly used in conduct-heavy ascensions, but are just as often played and ascended with artifact weapons and worn body armor like other roles, relying on maximized luck and a luckstone as well as strategies like long-term polymorph in order to overcome to-hit penalties. While The Monk FAQ is written with older versions of NetHack in mind, it illustrates many of the rationales behind specific choices for a given play-style of Monk, which will similarly be covered throughout this section and its sub-headers.

The Monk is considered one of the more difficult roles on average: their skill set, combined with their role's to-hit penalties and bonuses, incentivizes relying on martial arts and makes "standard" kits much harder (but not impossible) to utilize. Kicking has a ¹⁄₂ chance of not dealing damage even with martial arts training, and due to the mechanics of the damage function, ¹⁄₄ of unarmed hits do not use the skill and deal only 1 damage, causing inopportune damage fall-off to occur. In spite of this, the Monk's martial arts deal a lot of damage for the early game, and their casting provides a critical combat edge that can buoy them through some difficult parts of the mid-game - the limitations of martial arts and a lack of body armor still become very apparent for Monks around the time of their Quest, as well as in the late game.

While their magical prowess pales beside that of the Wizard (especially without reduced-hunger casting), and managing energy and nutrition is more difficult, Monks are still very capable casters that can train every spell school. Their starting robe can help make higher-level spells more viable, though Monks choosing to avoid body armor will likely reserve their cloak slot for a cloak of magic resistance - even then they can make superb use of spells like magic missile, which Basic skill in attack spells is more than sufficient for.

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.

Per commit c1c515af, martial attacks attacks that roll a 1 on their damage die will still apply bonuses and penalties based on skill, strength and the like. Per commit d1b5b39e, martial arts users performing kicks will always deal damage if they land one - a monster can still block or evade the kick.

Per commit 60c19568, bare-handed and martial arts attacks have a skill-based chance to make an "off-hand" attack, as in two-weapon combat - the chance is 20% at Skilled and increases up to 80% at Grand Master, and per commit fcf1a42c the hero must not be wearing a shield. Hitting twice applies only 3/4 of the strength bonus on each hit, but adds up to a 3/2 strength bonus if both hits land. The silver damage bonus from wearing a silver ring and no gloves is only applied on the first hit.

Per commit 0d508cc9, the spell of chain lightning is introduced, which is a powerful tool to deal with groups of weaker hostile monsters and can prove an invaluable aid to a Monk for managing group combat.

Character creation

There are two primary considerations behind a player's choice of alignment for a Monk: the first is the selection of sacrifice gifts and other artifacts for those planning to switch to a weapon, and the second is the overall ease of the ascension run, including the presence of the mysterious force.

Lawful Monks are most likely to receive a viable artifact weapon sooner: three of their four first gift candidates use the long sword skill and unrestrict it for the use of Excalibur, and the fourth candidate is the stellar double-damage Grayswandir. Neutral sacrifice gifts are less consistent, though they have Magicbane and Mjollnir among their stronger options; Vorpal Blade is also acceptable, if much less impressive in comparison. The only particularly useful chaotic artifact weapon is Stormbringer, but chaotic Monks have a means to guarantee it by crowning, and Stormy is a powerful artifact in its own right. In all cases, Monks can receive an artifact weapon by crowning while carrying a spellbook of restore ability (their normal crowning gift) or wielding an artifact.

For those planning to maintain weaponless conduct, chaotic Monks will have an easier time dealing with the mysterious force, and chaotic gods also grant more prayer timeout reduction from sacrifice, making it easier to farm spellbooks from an altar. Neutral Monks have a stronger pool of artifact wishes, especially in regards to sources of magic resistance.

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.

Demonbane is changed to a mace, making it much less useful as a first gift for a lawful Monk - they have an 89% chance of obtaining Grayswandir or unrestricting the long sword skill in at most two gifts.

Early game

Monks can breeze through much of the early game with martial arts and their starting inventory alone, making weapons and suits of armor of little use outside of certain conducts (e.g. a pacifist maximizing AC) - helms and boots are worthwhile to wear, and the starting robe can mitigate penalties from metallic armor. Even if a Monk is not committed to weaponless conduct, they have few weapon skills to train outside of sacrifice gifts, and will need to significantly raise their luck to compensate for the loss of the to-hit bonus from fighting unarmed and unarmored. Each of the three possible starting spells are incredibly useful alongside a Monk's martial arts:

• Healing is a powerful survival tool to have for any role in the early game, especially with the Monk's poor HP growth.
• Sleep prevents hostile monsters from fighting back or fleeing, and can trivialize otherwise problematic encounters, particularly against faster monsters.
• Protection can make up for armor deficiencies when cast prior to combat, and the energy spent per cast is usually recovered by the time that the effect expires (assuming an unburdened Monk).

Finding additional spellbooks is a good priority, and blessing them is typically necessary since many Monks start with low to middling intelligence: price identification is useful to this end, and a ring of slow digestion heavily lowers the nutritional burden. Heading to Sokoban early is a good idea due to the plentiful loot there there, including food, wands and a possible amulet of reflection that is likely to be their primary reflection source throughout the game.

Beyond casting, the starting food generally provides enough nutrition for a Monk to at least find additional permafood (especially with early general stores or food shops), and rations should suffice even when not observing vegetarian or vegan conduct. Though gaining intrinsics from corpses versus maintaining alignment record can be an early dietary conflict, Monks can obtain many of their necessary properties by raising experience levels or by eating vegetarian and vegan corpses, such as certain molds and gelatinous cubes; crowning early for resistances is an option as well unless a player expects to pray frequently (e.g., while observing foodless conduct). Monks not observing dietary conducts will usually accept alignment penalties to get telepathy from floating eyes and experience levels from wraiths, though there are alternatives to these as well for Monks that are stricter vegans or more cautious overall.

The starting robe is a Monk's most critical armor, as the spellcasting bonus for wearing one is twice that of any other role, and grants them a better total bonus than even a Wizard; robes are also very rarely generated, making one very hard to replace early on. Polymorph traps are the biggest threat to a worn robe by far: in particular, be extremely careful when advancing beyond dungeon level 7 in either the main branch or the Gnomish Mines; a Monk that finds a cloak of magic resistance may have to choose between casting reliability and a vital defensive property. Items such as the ring of polymorph control or amulet of unchanging can be ideal solutions depending on the situation, and the ring of searching and wand of secret door detection can also help uncover polymorph traps, especially with high luck - a Monk also obtains automatic searching at experience level 9.

Monks that feel a pressing need for a non-magical ranged weapon can try a crossbow and some bolts or a stack of spear weapons: crossbows are plentiful in the Gnomish Mines, but require more than 18 strength to multishot, and weaponless users risk breaking the conduct; all types of spears are heavier and trickier to assemble stacks of, but can be more safely thrown for weaponless play. Shuriken are a superior option to both, but are vanishingly rare in the early stages of the game, and they are hard to maintain without a combination of high luck, enchantment and a means of blessing them.

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.

As mentioned previously, Monks can no longer start with the spellbook of sleep, whose spell is raised to level 3, but can start with the spellbook of confuse monster, whose spell level is lowered to 1. The spell and scroll of confuse monster also apply more uses of the ability if used while no charges are currently stored. The confuse monster ability works naturally with a Monk's unarmed fighting, and can easily daze hostile monsters into missing attacks repeatedly, granting the Monk a significant combat edge.

Per commit 39a7dc1c, monsters cannot drop food items besides their corpse upon death, unless they are carrying food at the time of death, or else are of a monster type that picks up and collect food items. To compensate for the decrease in generated food, commit ae3e5d28 adds bonus items to some early game levels to encourage pressing forward.

Mid game

In the mid-game, the Monk's needs diverge significantly depending on a player's aims and build considerations. The Monk quest has a well-earned reputation as one of the toughest in NetHack: Master Kaen is a legendarily difficult melee fighter that can also cast clerical monster spells, usually requiring magic resistance and/or a means of ensuring a quick and painless fight; Monks grappling with armor choice questions will often want to clear the Castle first unless they opt for particular strategies. Master Kaen has thankfully-low MR score, leaving him vulnerable to sleep and other statuses, and is often (but not always) vulnerable to a wand of death - he and other hostiles can also be held back by a scroll of scare monster on the ground. See Master Kaen's article for precise details on taking him down. Of note is that the Monk's quest is also full of xorns and earth elementals, which have phasing and can reliably swarm a Monk at almost any location, and the xorn's strong attacks can chew through their often-low HP pool unless they have very good AC.

High-priority goals for Monks include maintaining alignment record, maximizing luck and obtaining a luckstone, especially if they are planning to use or wish for weapons and/or body armor. Martial arts are still very effective for weaponless Monks, especially at Grand Master, though they may have to mix in smart spell-work and/or item usage against some of the mid-game's nastier hostiles. Training and maintaining dexterity is vital to keep up a Monk's to-hit, and gauntlets of dexterity are a good choice of armor for almost any Monk; Monks not as concerned with dexterity or frequent casting may instead consider gauntlets of power. A worn ring of increase damage and/or ring of increase accuracy that is at least +2 can be potentially useful as well.

Monks foregoing body armor should augment their AC and magic cancellation by any other means possible, such as buying protection and heavily enchanting their other armor - magic resistance can be difficult to fit into a kit of this type, especially due to the conflict between the cloak of magic resistance versus the robe's casting bonuses. The protection spell can pay dividends, especially with higher skill in clerical spells; a ring of protection can provide some extra points of AC, and more importantly grants MC3 if worn alongside a robe. Particularly daring Monks may choose to drain themselves to level 1 and buy extremely cheap protection in the hopes of maximizing the bonus - a blessed potion of restore ability will restore all lost levels.

Melee weapon Monks should invest in shields, since they do not further penalize weapon usage: the small shield has the most lenient spellcasting penalty, and the shield of reflection provides reflection and opens up the amulet slot in return for much stiffer casting penalties. The most ideal suits for armored Monks are generally gray dragon scale mail and silver dragon scale mail, which are the only ones worth the downsides—the choice between them depends on which extrinsics they have covered from other sources. Monks wearing body armor and/or wielding weapons often polymorph before especially-demanding fights and tasks (such as facing Master Kaen), and the more daring may even remove their body armor if they have enough AC to compensate otherwise; both types of character build also benefit significantly from the to-hit improvement methods above.

As a crowning gift, the Monk's spellbook of restore ability is generally worthless: unicorn horns supersede it entirely, and blessed potions of restore ability have the same function while additionally restoring lost levels; Monks that want to be crowned and find the spellbook elsewhere can use it to obtain an artifact weapon instead if they choose. Artifact selection in general for a Monk should prioritize magic resistance (ideally from a slotless source) if they have not yet completed the Quest, followed by sources of half physical damage and/or half spell damage if possible - both half damage properties are generally useful and good for low-HP casting roles in particular, and are especially important considerations for body armor-less Monks. There is also drain resistance, which is only granted by artifact weapons or polymorph.

The following artifacts of each alignment are all potential options for a Monk to pursue:

• Lawful Monks will have Excalibur as their drain resistance source, and can gain slotless magic resistance and telepathy from wishing for The Magic Mirror of Merlin; The Orb of Detection is heavy, but grants the same properties as the Mirror alongside half spell damage. No lawful artifacts grant half physical damage.
• Neutral Monks may consider The Orb of Fate, which is heavy but grants both half damage properties. Monks that are frequent spellcasters, or else plan to use a shield of reflection or silver dragon scale mail, should consider The Eye of the Aethiopica for its magic resistance, half spell damage and energy regeneration boosts; The Staff of Aesculapius is also a possible candidate that provides drain resistance and other defensive utilities, and as a quarterstaff weapon it does not require unlocking additional skills. Neutral Monks can also sacrifice for Magicbane, which grants magic resistance while wielded.
• Chaotic Monks have no access to magic resistance or half spell damage from co-aligned artifacts, but can obtain half physical damage by wishing for The Master Key of Thievery. Their drain resistance source is the powerful Stormbringer, which can also drain targets itself: while this cuts into its damage against resistant monsters, it is still a valuable weapon in those situations (e.g. against vampires).

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.

The scroll of scare monster no longer works on Master Kaen, and similarly does not work against any human or elf or unique monster.

Unicorn horns no longer restore reduced attributes, making the spell of restore ability somewhat more useful, though likely not preferable to an artifact weapon in many instances.

Per commit 87f3b480, extra food rations are placed on the Monk quest's home level to compensate for the food generation changes mentioned in the previous section and better support vegetarian Monks. Per commit c2894a42, tins of spinach are added to the quest's home and locate levels as a similar aid to vegetarian Monks.

Drain resistance can also be granted by black dragon scales and black dragon scale mail.

Monks and polymorph

As mentioned prior, controlled polymorph can circumvent complications involving body armor, to-hit and AC while granting access to even more powerful melee attacks. For example, one common method of dealing with Master Kaen is to polymorph into a black dragon and disintegrate him. Polymorph also allows Monks to eat rings and amulets by turning into a gelatinous cube or xorn (which does not violate vegetarian or vegan diets) and obtain otherwise-tricky intrinsics such as telepathy, unbreathing, and even boosts to damage, accuracy or AC.

• For Monks that do not care much about vegetarian or vegan diets, the master mind flayer is among one of the best forms to utilize: they have a base AC of 0, can wear all armor and fly, and are capable of hitting multiple times per turn with tentacle attacks that can inflict significant damage against non-mindless targets (with +d10 damage per successful brain-sucking). Beware of attacking cockatrices and other monsters with dangerous passives!
• Vampire lords have a base speed of 14, a base AC 0, and are capable of flight and regeneration as well as being breathless. A hero in the form of a vampire lord is also warned of any human or elf monsters on the level. However, they have similar weaknesses with regards to contact attacks as described above, and are also silver-hating, preventing them from wearing or wielding any silver items (though throwing is still possible) - make sure your ring of polymorph control isn't silver!
• Elvenkings have a base speed of 12 and base AC of 10, and have a lower level and fewer intrinsic abilities than vampire lords and master mind flayers - they are also strong, possess no material aversions and can hit twice per attack, with the 2d4 base damage added to any weapon attacks made in that form.

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.

Per commit 486ed290, blessed potions of polymorph grant a controlled polymorph when quaffed that lasts for a much shorter duration.

Late game

Monks rounding out their ascension kit might consider silver weapons for fighting demons and shades within Gehennom, as well as polypiling and/or wishing for stacks of shuriken to enchant. The magic missile spell is one of a Monk's best assets as it is for many a casting hero, and both it and other ray spells like cone of cold deal solid damage when rebounded. Wearing the Eyes of the Overworld allows a Monk to more comfortably fit sources of reflection elsewhere in their kit, though as with any other quest artifact there is a significant risk of the Wizard of Yendor stealing them - carrying multiple artifacts may be warranted, especially if a monk is foregoing suits of armor or not wearing a cloak of magic resistance.

Monks wearing body armor should have enough luck and experience levels at this stage to overcome the to-hit penalty entirely, especially if they have access to controlled polymorph as discussed above. Monks using melee weapons are restricted to Basic skill even in artifact weapons that they unlock the skill for, but this is still sufficient for highly-enchanted options such as Excalibur, Stormbringer, Frost Brand, or Grayswandir; within their default skill set, a highly-enchanted silver spear can also be especially effective.

Weaponless Monks generally start feeling the limits of martial arts around this stage - the lack of damage output means that even with superb play and sufficient supplementary damage e.g. from shuriken, rays of cold and the like, they may experience many close calls within Gehennom. Those Monks willing to go the distance regardless can still find ways to put out significant offense, e.g. by wearing highly-charged rings of increase damage to augment damage, or by polymorphing and either eating rings of increase damage or using stronger humanoid monster forms. When attacking shades in particular, weaponless Monks can either remove their gloves and wear a silver ring, or wield a silver non-weapon such as the Bell of Opening.

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.

The changes to martial arts damage makes weaponless combat much more viable in the late game - while it is still outshined by high-damage artifact weapons, Monks using martial arts can still enjoy the benefits of consistent damage output and their own version of "two-weaponing".

History

The Monk first appears in NetHack Plus, a variant of the NetHack 3.1 series, as a neutral role. It is included among many other NetHack Plus features in SLASH 6, an ancestor of SLASH'EM, and makes its vanilla debut in NetHack 3.3.0.

Origin

The Monk is based off the archetype of the Shaolin kung fu practitioner, who is a member of the Shaolin Monastery (or Shaolin Temple) located at the foot of Wuru Peak within the Songshan mountain range in Dengfeng County, Henan province, China. The Shaolin Monastery dates back to 495 AD and is recognized as the birthplace of Chan Buddhism, which is the originating tradition of Zen Buddhism and a main pillar of Shaolin culture; the first Monk to preach Buddhism at the temple is simply known as "Batuo". The other main pillar and primary creation of its culture is Shaolin kung fu: the name 'Shaolin' is used as a brand for "external styles" of kung fu in southern and northern China, and it is debated whether or not there is any significant difference between "internal" and "external" kung fu styles.

Shaolin is said to be the largest and most famous kung fu style, and blends Zen philosophy with martial arts. Somewhat contrary to the style of monk featured in NetHack, Shaolin kung fu features several exercises and teaches a number of techniques and styles for both bare-handed combat and weapon combat, including situations that pit one against the other. Batuo's first Chinese disciples, Huiguang and Sengchou, are both attested by historical record to have possessed exceptional martial skills, to the point that Sengchou's skill with the tin staff and 'empty-hand' strikes is documented in the Chinese Buddhist canon, and is among the most recognizable characteristics of Shaolin styles in the modern eye.

The Sui dynasty of the 6th and 7th centuries AD saw the building blocks of Shaolin kung fu begin to form, and Shaolin monks began to create their fighting systems in earnest; their martial training was not as thoroughly detailed until the early 17th century, with late Ming dynasty literature containing various references to Shaolin martial arts and describing unarmed combat, spear combat, and staff combat alike. The earliest extant manual on Shaolin kung fu, Exposition of the Original Shaolin Staff Method, was written in around 1610 and published in 1621 from what the author Chéng Zōngyóu learned during a more than ten-year stay at the monastery.

Chinese cinema has produced many films focused on Shaolin Kung Fu that have gained global popularity, particularly during the 1970s and early '80s with movies such as 36th Chamber of Shaolin, The Shaolin Temple, and Shaolin Wooden Men. The ABC TV series Kung Fu (1972-1974), which stars David Carradine as a fugitive Shaolin monk traveling the Western United States in search of his brother, helped to further popularize Shaolin Kung Fu with the general American TV audience.

Variants

The Monk role is subject to more divergences within variants of NetHack than other roles by virtue of its origin in one such variant.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, Monks are only penalized for wearing body armor if they are fighting while unarmed, and have the most techniques of any role, which are either used to provide vital defensive properties or else powerful offensive strikes and boosts to damage. They can also twoweapon using martial arts as well.

The Monk's first sacrifice gift is the Gauntlets of Defense.

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, Monks get a bonus point of AC while confused, as a reference to the idea of drunken boxing.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, Monks are given a variety of special maneuvers similar to SLASH'EM techniques, including fighting game-style attacks, and can utilize far more weapons without to-hit penalties. Monks also continue to gain intrinsics after level 17.

Their crowning gift is the Grandmaster's Robe, which improves their unarmed attacks while worn.

FIQHack

In FIQHack, monks can be human or elven. The monk crowning gift is a magic marker instead of a spellbook.

Encyclopedia entry

One day, an army general invited the Buddhist monk I-Hsiu (literally, "One Rest") to his military head office for a dinner. I-Hsiu was not accustomed to wearing luxurious clothings and so he just put on an old ordinary casual robe to go to the military base. To him, "form is void".

As he approached the base, two soldiers appeared before him and shouted, "Where does this beggar came from? Identify yourself! You do not have permission to be around here!"

"My name is I-Hsiu Dharma Master. I am invited by your general for a supper."

The two soldiers examined the monk closely and said, "You liar. How come my general invites such a shabby monk to dinner? He invites the very solemn venerable I-Hsiu to our base for a great ceremony today, not you. Now, get out!"

I-Hsiu was unable to convince the soldiers that he was indeed the invited guest, so he returned to the temple and changed to a very formal solemn ceremonial robe for the dinner. And as he returned to the military base, the soldiers observed that he was such a great Buddhist monk, let him in with honour.

At the dinner, I-Hsiu sat in front of the table full of food but, instead of putting the food into his mouth, he picked up the food with his chopsticks and put it into his sleeves. The general was curious, and whispered to him, "This is very embarrassing. Do you want to take some food back to the temple? I will order the cook to prepare some take out orders for you." "No" replied the monk. "When I came here, I was not allowed into the base by your soldiers until I wear this ceremonial robe. You do not invite me for a dinner. You invite my robe. Therefore, my robe is eating the food, not me."

[ Dining with a General - a Zen Buddhism Koan ]