Monk
The monk is one of the player roles in NetHack. Monks are always human, and can be lawful, neutral or chaotic. He is a martial-artist suiting to the "Shaolin Monk stereotype". 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.
The Monk is a good choice for a player who wants to practice both magic and hand-to-hand combat, but isn't interested in using weapons. It is a good class with which to achieve conducts.
Monks know all nonmagical armors from the start. Their special spell is restore ability. When crowned they get a spellbook of restore ability instead of the standard crowning sword.
Contents
Starting Equipment
- +2 leather gloves
- +1 robe
- a blessed spellbook, (equal chance of healing, protection or sleep)
- a random scroll (not enchant weapon)
- 3 potions of healing (possibly blessed)
- 3 to 6 uncursed food rations
- 5 to 10 apples
- 5 to 10 oranges
- 3 to 6 fortune cookies
- 20% chance of an uncursed magic marker
- 8% chance of an oil lamp
Intrinsics
Monks start with the intrinsics See invisible, Sleep resistance and Speed.
Monks gain intrinsics at these experience levels:[1]
- Level 3 : Poison resistance
- Level 5 : Stealth
- Level 7 : Warning
- Level 9 : Searching
- Level 11: Fire resistance
- Level 13: Cold resistance
- Level 15: Shock resistance
- Level 17: Teleport control
Code of conduct
The things that make a monk unique are the penalties imposed for non-Monkish behavior:
Vegetarianism
Monks feel guilty about eating non-vegetarian food, and suffer a small alignment penalty for doing so. As compensation for this, they gain intrinsics rapidly as they level up. Most players of this role keep vegetarian conduct simply to avoid the penalty, although the penalty can be considered a fair price for getting otherwise tricky to find intrinsics, such as disintegration resistance.
No body armor, no shield
Monks are penalized for wearing body armor (all armors and mails; this doesn't include robes, cloaks and shirts) with a -20 to-hit penalty. For a low-level Monk it is virtually impossible to hit while wearing body armor. Some players however start using them when reaching high level, dexterity and Luck.
Wearing a shield makes a Monk incapable of dealing a "staggering blow" which reduces his abilities in martial-arts.
Magic
Monks are the only role other than Wizards that can achieve Basic skill in all magical schools. They can only attain Expert skill in the Healing school.
Skills
Monk skills | |
---|---|
Max | Skills |
Basic |
|
Skilled | |
Expert |
|
Grand Master |
|
Quest
- Main article: Monk quest
Strategy
No weapon
There is no actual penalty for using weapons; however, this can still be considered a restriction because Monks can attain proficiency in very few weapon skills, but can train up to Grand Master in martial arts. As a result, they deal more damage bare-handedly than using a weapon (with an exception for some powerful artifacts). Trying for a weaponless conduct is very popular for a monk.
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 month, 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 ]