Cannibalism
In NetHack, cannibalism is the act of eating a monster of your own race.[1]
Contents
Description
A character that eats a corpse, tin or egg of the same species as them - including their current form if polymorphed - will gain the aggravate monster intrinsic and lose 2–5 points of Luck.[2] This includes eating brains as a mind flayer.[3] However, if you are an orc or a Caveman, cannibalism is considered natural for you, and you will not be penalized.[4] Contracting lycanthropy will further extend the cannibalism restriction to beasts similar to your wereform even when you're still in your original form, but not to lycanthropes of your type.
Whether you are exempt from cannibalism rules altogether depends solely on your base form: orcish heroes and Cavemen will never be affected by cannibalism, but a human polymorphing into an orc could not safely eat orc or human corpses. If you polymorph into a monster with a digestion attack, using that attack is not considered cannibalism.
Strategy
Cannibalism is generally a bad idea - while the aggravate monster intrinsic can be dealt with, the Luck penalty will take significant time to recover from, and eating corpses from your own race is avoidable enough that it is mostly not worth considering. Dwarves and gnomes can readily identify members of their race via glyph and/or monster name, as can elves; human characters will have some slight difficulty due to sharing a glyph (@) with elves. Anything represented by an @ that isn't obviously an elf is human—this includes werecreatures and doppelgangers, but not Medusa (who should not be eaten regardless, lest you turn to stone). The Keystone Kops (represented by a K) are also humans, and are the only non-undead monsters that use a different glyph.
Human characters who are not Cavemen should only use blessed tins of nurse meat to fully restore their HP in emergencies, where being a live cannibal is preferable and easier to recover from than dying with a "clean" conscience.
Pets
Humanoid pets will generally avoid cannibalism unless they are starving.[5] Undead pets that are capable of eating will not avoid cannibalism, nor will orcs, kobolds, and ogres - conversely, elves will not commit cannibalism even if they are starving. Pets that do commit cannibalism suffer no ill effects, even if they would normally avoid it.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, cannibalism has several relevant changes applied.
Drow are considered elves for the purpose of cannibalism: either race will incur penalties for eating a corpse or tin of the other. Similarly, doppelgangers are considered human, and incur penalties for eating anything human. SLASH'EM also introduces several non-obvious human monsters, most notably gibberlings and grimlocks, as well as the extremely rare duergar which is a type of dwarf. Oddly, none of the new G are considered gnomes for the purposes of cannibalism - even ones that quite clearly should be, such as gnome thieves and deep gnomes.
Player vampires and lycanthropes are exempt from penalties for cannibalism, and committing cannibalism when you are exempt gives an alignment bonus.[6]
Polymorph restrictions are not applied: only explicitly eating the corpse of your base race is considered cannibalism.
All pets (not just humanoids) refuse to eat the corpses of monsters represented by the same letter as themselves, unless they are starving.[7] This can lead to some amusing results: a tamed human monster will gladly eat a Keystone Kop corpse, for example.
Messages
- You honour the dead.
- You ate a monster of your race as a Caveperson.
- You feel evil and fiendish!
- You ate a monster of your race as a vampire, lycanthrope, or orc.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, if you are a non-cannibalistic race or role and have a high alignment record, you have a wisdom-based chance of being warned if you are about to eat something of the same race as you.
Messages
- You feel a deep sense of kinship to <foo>! Eat anyway?
- This prompt may appear if you are non-cannibalistic and about to eat the corpse or tin of a monster of your race.
