Water moccasin
S water moccasin 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 7 |
| Attacks |
Bite 1d6 poison |
| Base level | 4 |
| Base experience | 48 |
| Speed | 15 |
| Base AC | 3 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 150 |
| Nutritional value | 80 |
| Size | Small |
| Resistances | Poison |
| Resistances conveyed | Poison (27%) |
|
A water moccasin:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line1760 |
A water moccasin, S, is a variety of snake, virtually identical to the normal snake[1] but not generated at random. Like regular snakes, water moccasins will hide under items, are poisonous to eat, and have a 27% chance of imparting poison resistance.
Generation
Moccasins are only generated, in groups of 2-6[2], by quaffing from (or dipping an item into) a fountain; their presence in the absence of fountain quaffing is indicative of bones, a shapeshifter, or polymorph of some kind.
Strategy
Individually, water moccasins are similar enough to snakes that they can be dispatched in a similar manner. However, on top of necessitating poison resistance as usual, their decent speed and appearance in swarms will require efficient crowd control tactics, which may be further complicated if previous uses of the fountain caused pools of water to form. Engraving Elbereth as an escape tactic may prove impossible if the fountain that generated them doesn't dry up, as one cannot engrave on a fountain.
Water moccasins generated from the fountains in Delphi can easily trap the player, preventing escape: those fountains only have four (five for the entrance) adjacent squares free.
This makes it a potent source of deaths for unsuspecting low-level characters; fortunately, players who do not use fountains will never have to deal with them, while those who wait until after the early game will likely be prepared.
Due to their affiliation with fountain quaffing, they are the fourth most frequent cause of death on nethack.alt.org (next to soldier ants, jackals, and wands); it is common in the #nethack channel on Libera to exclaim "Go team fountain!" on hearing of a water moccasin death.
Origin
Water moccasins are a species of venomous snake well known in the southeastern United States.
Encyclopedia entry
- See the encyclopedia entry for snake.
References
- ↑ Apart from the weight of their corpses, they are identical; water moccasins' unused G_LGROUP flag (generated in large groups) is responsible for their higher difficulty.
- ↑ src/fountain.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 36: While they are listed as being generated in large groups, this never actually happens; the code that generates them around fountains is separate.
