Hell hound
d hell hound 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 14 |
| Attacks |
Bite 3d6, fire breath 3d6 |
| Base level | 12 |
| Base experience | 290 |
| Speed | 14 |
| Base AC | 2 |
| Base MR | 20 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 600 |
| Nutritional value | 300 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | Fire |
| Resistances conveyed |
Fire (80%) |
|
A hell hound:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line295 |
A hell hound, d, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is a medium-sized carnivorous canine that is strong can be seen via infravision.
Hell hounds have a bite attack and a fire breath attack that can burn armor and destroy flammable items in the inventory of any monster it hits, unless they have reflection. Hell hounds possess fire resistance.
Eating a hell hound corpse or tin has a 4⁄5 chance of conveying fire resistance.
Generation
Randomly generated hell hounds are always created hostile, and will only be randomly generated in Gehennom.
Strategy
Though hell hounds have stronger attacks than their pups, they are still not much of a threat to most characters by the time they are normally seen in Gehennom, since a character will at least have one of fire resistance and/or reflection, along with a bag to keep flammable items in. Hell hounds can appear much earlier and pose an actual threat depending on the circumstances: polymorph traps and shapeshifters such as chameleons can force you to deal with hell hound pups much earlier than expected, at a time where a character is not nearly as prepared.
History
The hell hound pup first appears in Hack 1.0.2. From this version to NetHack 3.0.0, hell hounds do not have breath weapons.
The hell hound accompanying the Wizard of Yendor has been present in some form since Hack 1.0.2, when the Wizard was the one who held the Amulet of Yendor.
In NetHack 3.4.3 and earlier versions, including some variants based on those versions, the encyclopedia entry for hell hounds and their pups reads as follows:
Hell hounds are fire-breathing canines from another plane of existence brought here in the service of evil beings. A hell hound resembles a large hound with rust-red or red-brown fur, and red, glowing eyes. The markings, teeth, and tongue are soot black. It stands two to three feet high at the shoulder and has a distinct odour of smoke and sulphur. The baying sounds it makes have an eerie, hollow tone that sends a shiver through any who hear them.
Variants
dNetHack
In dNetHack, hell hounds and their pups can be warded by pentagrams.
Encyclopedia entry
But suddenly they started forward in a rigid, fixed stare,
and his lips parted in amazement. At the same instant Lestrade
gave a yell of terror and threw himself face downward upon the
ground. I sprang to my feet, my inert hand grasping my pistol,
my mind paralyzed by the dreadful shape which had sprung out
upon us from the shadows of the fog. A hound it was, an
enormous coal-black hound, but not such a hound as mortal eyes
have ever seen. Fire burst from its open mouth, its eyes
glowed with a smouldering glare, its muzzle and hackles and
dewlap were outlined in flickering flame. Never in the
delirious dream of a disordered brain could anything more
savage, more appalling, more hellish be conceived than that
dark form and savage face which broke upon us out of the wall
of fog.
[ The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. ]
