Death dog
d death dog 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 4 |
| Attacks | |
| Base level | 2 |
| Base experience | 17 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 7 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 500 |
| Nutritional value | 250 |
| Size | Small |
| Resistances | None |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
|
A death dog:
| |
| Reference | src/monst.c, line 456 |
A death dog, d, is a type of monster that appears in SLASH'EM, SlashTHEM and Hack'EM. The death dog is a small and carnivorous canine animal that may turn traitor while tame.
Death dogs have two bite attacks.
Generation
Randomly-generated death dogs are always created hostile. They are only randomly generated in Gehennom, and can appear in small groups.
Undertakers start each game with a tame death dog as their default pet.
Strategy
Death dogs can prove surprisingly damaging for their level, dealing upwards of 20 damage with their bites, and are often generated in packs. However, a hero has nothing to fear from them under normal circumstances, since they only appear in Gehennom: any hero capable of reaching Gehennom in the first place will almost always be able to handle far stronger adversaries barring severe misfortune, and thus should have no real issues dispatching packs of death dogs.
The death dog is generally more of a threat as a monster type that a chameleon, another shapeshifter or any hostile monster that steps across a polymorph trap can polymorph into, surprising early heroes with the damage they can inflict—even then, they may rate far lower as a danger to experienced players than most other eligible forms, even after discounting the most immediately lethal ones. In SlashTHEM, the possibility of the starting pet death dog turning traitor may push an Undertaker player into either gaining experience levels quickly to lower the chances of betrayal or else ditch the pet outright and tame another domestic animal to replace it.
Doppelganger heroes can make use of the death dog as a polymorph form the moment they gain an experience level: they cannot wear armor and have a very limited carrying capacity, so they are best reserved for combat-related emergencies and similar situations, and they will usually be supplanted in short order as a doppelganger hero raises their level further and gains access to better forms.
History
The death dog first appears in SLASH 6.
Messages
Encyclopedia entry
- See the encyclopedia entry for dog.
