Ring of aggravate monster
A ring of aggravate monster is a type of ring that appears in NetHack.
Contents
Generation
Rings of aggravate monster are generated cursed 1⁄10 of the time.
Description
While worn, the ring confers the aggravate monster property.
Eating the ring has a 1⁄3 chance of conferring the property as an intrinsic.
Strategy
While the ring of aggravate monster is generally considered undesirable, and is frequently used as polypile fodder, it still has a few niche uses: for example, Knights can use it to awaken certain monsters and avoid caitiff penalties to alignment record, and any character trying to lure monsters (such as fodder for sacrifice on an altar or wraiths whose corpses they want) can wear the ring temporarily, even while invisible.
If dealing with an unwanted cursed ring, any source of stealth can override the worst of the ring's effects until you find a means to remove it.
History
The ring of aggravate monster first appears in Hack 1.21 and Hack for PDP-11, which are based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial item list for Hack 1.0. Before that, the ring also appears in Rogue, where it makes up 1⁄10 of random rings and causes monsters to attack more aggressively.
Messages
- Several flies buzz angrily around the sink.
- You dropped a ring of aggravate monster down a sink; this message still prints while blind.
Variants
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, a ring of aggravate monster can be combined with a ring of hunger at a furnace to create a ring of conflict.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, the Gladiator quest artifact is a ring of aggravate monster named the Imperial Token. It confers drain resistance while carried, grants regeneration and fire resistance while worn, and can be invoked for the leadership effect, which detects all pets on the level and increases the tameness of those within line of sight.