Elvenking
@ elvenking 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 11 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 2d4, weapon 2d4 |
| Base level | 9 |
| Base experience | 196 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 10 |
| Base MR | 25 |
| Alignment | -10 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 800 |
| Nutritional value | 350 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | Sleep |
| Resistances conveyed | Sleep (60%) |
|
An Elvenking:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line2346 |
An Elvenking, @, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is the strongest of the elves, and like all elves has intrinsic sleep resistance. The Elvenking shares its colored glyph with the Wizard of Yendor.
Eating an Elvenking's corpse or tin has a 60% chance to grant sleep resistance, which is the second-most among elves.
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.
The Elvenking has been renamed to the elven monarch; female elven monarchs are called Elvenqueens.Contents
Generation
Randomly-generated Elvenkings will be peaceful towards chaotic elven players, and occasionally are also peaceful towards chaotic humans. Elf-lords can grow up into Elvenkings.
Outside of normal generation, hostile Elvenkings can be found in throne rooms occupying the throne itself, and are more likely to be found in much deeper throne rooms within the dungeon; a hostile Elvenking with a pick-axe is guaranteed to appear on the Plane of Earth. Elvenkings can also be created via the summon nasties monster spell.
Elvenkings can be generated with any type of elven equipment, and are eligible for offensive, defensive and miscellaneous items. They have a 2⁄3 chance to be generated with a pick-axe, and have a 1⁄50 chance of generating with a crystal ball.[1]
Strategy
Elvenkings represent a nasty threat for an early game player that stumbles upon a throne room with one presiding over it - such a room can appear as early as the fifth dungeon level, and throne room Elvenkings can deal surprising amounts of damage with the mace they are given. Furthermore, they will ignore Elbereth like most elves, requiring players to maintain a distance and pick them off with projectiles, spells or wands. In the later segments of the game, you are more likely to both encounter random Elvenkings and be prepared for them - their primary threat at this stage is as a summonable nasty that ignores Elbereth engravings typically used to avoid being surrounded.
If the Wizard of Yendor summons nasties while you are fighting him, be sure to far look any @ that appear to identify potential Elvenkings; as it is common practice to zap the Wizard with a death ray at the first opportunity, it is wise to ensure you have the right target.
The pick-axe from the Elvenking on the Plane of Earth can be used to navigate through the level, but only consider this if there are little to no other options available - most players should have several digging wands on hand handy alongside a pick-axe or mattock of their own by the time they reach the Elemental Planes, and the minotaur that also appears will provide another wand of digging.
As a polyform
Elvenkings are solidly powerful polyforms for non-elven players - they are strong (which sets player strength to 18/**), can wear all armor and have two weapon attacks that add +2d4 damage, enabling twoweaponing in that form.[2][3]
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 part of resolving issue #679 regarding congruence between non-player monsters and their player counterparts, commit b6a3d4b makes it so that elven monarchs and other elven polyforms are capped at 18 strength as player elves are.History
The Elvenking first appears in NetHack 3.0.0.
Origin
The rare possibility of Elvenkings generating with a crystal ball is an allusion to the palantír, a magical artifact from J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth novels. Palantíri are indestructible crystal balls used for communicating and viewing past and future events in other parts of the realm, and were made by the Elves of Valinor in the First Age. Elves are the only player race in the game that can naturally reach an Intelligence of 20, which allows them to apply crystal balls with no chance of failure.
Messages
- You feel very comfortable here.
- You sat on a throne while polymorphed into an Elvenking or other "royal" monster.
Variants
GruntHack
In GruntHack, Elvenkings are replaced by the racial king and queen monsters, which can be elven.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, the monster is renamed to an elven royal, with male monarchs called "elven kings" and female monarchs called "elven queens".
