Flaming sphere
e flaming sphere 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 8 |
| Attacks |
Explode 4d6 fire |
| Base level | 6 |
| Base experience | 91 |
| Speed | 13 |
| Base AC | 4 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 2 (Quite rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 10 |
| Nutritional value | 10 |
| Size | Small |
| Resistances | fire |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
|
A flaming sphere:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line318 |
A flaming sphere, e, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is a fiery sphere that emits light in a 1-square radius around itself, and can burn through webs while moving.
Flaming spheres possess a fire explosion attack that can burn vulnerable items in the target's inventory, and possess fire resistance.
The spellbook of flame sphere is a deferred feature that teaches a spell the hero can use to create tame flaming spheres.
Generation
Randomly generated flaming spheres are always created hostile.
A flaming sphere does not leave a corpse upon death.
Strategy
Flaming spheres are fairly annoying to deal with, since their explosion attack can destroy the hero's scrolls, potions and spellbooks along with burning armor. Thankfully, pets that attack flaming spheres will likely take the explosion in your stead, and fire resistance completely trivializes them. Flaming spheres can also be made to miss if you are invisible or displaced, and can easily be put to sleep or otherwise immobilized, allowing a hero or their pet to kill them before they explode.
History
The flaming sphere first appears in NetHack 3.0.10, and makes its vanilla debut in NetHack 3.3.0.
Variants
SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM makes the spellbook of flame sphere and its spell functional: monsters attacked by a flaming sphere created with this spell are treated as though the hero had attacked them, e.g. awarding them experience for monsters that the sphere kills, blaming them for angering peaceful monsters and so on. The spell also respects extinction, meaning it has a finite number of uses.
Encyclopedia entry
The attack by those who want to die -- this is the attack against which you cannot prepare a perfect defense.
--Human aphorism
