Amorphous
In NetHack, an amorphous monster is one that is defined as having a malleable body with no fixed shape or form.
Amorphous monsters are defined by the M1_AMORPHOUS monster attribute flag in monflag.h.[1][2]
Description
Amorphous monsters generally lack distinct body parts of any kind, such as limbs, eyes or a head.
Amorphous monsters are valid to generated on the Plane of Air, both during level creation and through normal monster creation afterward.[3]
Amorphous monsters have several distinct traits and abilities compared to other monsters, which can also apply to a hero polymorphed into an amorphous monster:
- An amorphous monster can move through closed doors if they are not carrying many items and are not currently engulfing the hero, and they can also fit through tight diagonal gaps regardless of their physical size.[4][5][6][7] A shapeshifter that is on a closed door's square and turns into a non-amorphous form (e.g. a vampiric monster that is killed in fog cloud form and returns to their human form) will attempt to relocate to a nearby square[8]—if the monster cannot relocate, the door will be destroyed instead and activate any traps that were on it.[9]
- An amorphous monster that is engulfing the hero and transforms into another monster will expel the hero prior to shifting forms.[10]
- Amorphous monsters take normal damage from Vorpal Blade instead of being beheaded on 1⁄20 (5%) of hits, although most amorphous monsters also lack a head and thus will cause Vorpal Blade to miss them completely.[11][12]
- Amorphous monsters take no damage from rocks or boulders dropped upon them by a read scroll of earth.[13][14]
- A hero polymorphed into an amorphous monster cannot be punished since the heavy iron ball cannot be properly chained to them, and polymorph into an amorphous form causes any existing ball and chain to fall away.[15][16]
- Amorphous monsters cannot be trapped by beartraps or webs.[17][18][19][20][21][22][23] A hero that is trapped in a beartrap or web and polymorphs into an amorphous monster will be freed from the trap.[24]
- A hero that is buried alive in the ground and polymorphs into an amorphous form will unearth themselves.[25]
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List of amorphous monsters
The following monsters are amorphous:
Messages
- <The monster> <flows/oozes> under the door.
- An amorphous monster moved through a closed door.
- <You> <flow/ooze> under the door.
- You moved through a closed door while in the form of an amorphous monster.
- You <ooze> up through the <ground>.
- You unburied yourself by polymorphing into an amorphous monster.
- It's squishy...
- You used the sit command on a square that has the corpse of an amorphous monster at the top of a pile.[26]
References
- ↑ include/mondata.h in NetHack 5.0.0, line 30: amorphous(ptr)
- ↑ include/monflag.h in NetHack 5.0.0, line 87
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 69-L73
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2231-L2238
- ↑ src/monmove.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1548-L1553
- ↑ src/monmove.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2355-L2361
- ↑ src/teleport.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 165: valid teleport position
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 4898-L4919
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2949-L2982: shapeshifting vampire destroying doors
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 3791-L3792: shapeshifting vampire lets hero go
- ↑ src/artifact.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1603-L1616: beheading vs. headless or amorphous monster
- ↑ src/artifact.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1624-L1636: beheading vs. hero in headless or amorphous form
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2314
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2355
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 3036-L3045
- ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 990-L999
- ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 969-L1014: mu_maybe_destroy_web() function denotes if monsters tear through webs or pass harmlessly through
- ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1124-L1128: monsters unharmed by bear traps
- ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1164-L1168: monsters unharmed by webs
- ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1495-L1500: hero unharmed by beartraps
- ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1530: amorphous monsters will not be caught in beartraps
- ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2803-L2807: immunity check for bear traps
- ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2856-L2861: immunity check for webs
- ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1000-L1009
- ↑ src/dig.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2251-L2262
- ↑ src/sit.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 454-L455
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