Martial arts
Martial arts is a skill in NetHack that is used when attacking or kicking enemies while not wielding anything. The base damage for a martial arts attack is 1d4. Naturally, martial arts preserve the weaponless conduct.
Monks and Samurai possess this skill, while all other roles use the bare hands skill. When attacking using martial arts without body armor or a shield, there is a chance of dealing a staggering blow, knocking the enemy backwards.[1]
Contents
Martial arts skill
| Martial arts | |
|---|---|
| Max | Role |
| Master | |
| Grand Master | |
To-hit and damage
Attacking with martial arts deals silver damage if you are wearing a silver ring and no gloves, similar to any wielded silver object. Blessed gloves or boots (when kicking) cause +1d4 blessed damage against the undead, major demons, and shapeshifted vampires.
An attack's skill-based damage bonus only applies if the attack rolls at least a 2 on its primary damage die[2] - the average damage for a d4 attack is not 2.5 + bonus, but 2.5 + (0.75 * bonus), making the +9 bonus for Grand Master skill less powerful than it might seem.
In addition to the bonuses below, a Monk not wearing body armor or a shield gets an additional to-hit bonus of (XL / 3) + 2.
| +to hit | +damage | average damage | |
| Basic | +3 | +3 | 4.75 |
| Skilled | +4 | +4 | 5.5 |
| Expert | +5 | +6 | 7 |
| Master | +6 | +7 | 7.75 |
| Grand Master | +7 | +9 | 9.25 |
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.
Per commit c1c515af, martial arts is buffed significantly: The martial arts damage bonus is now applied to all hits, though hits that roll a 1 on their d4 will still not train skill. Per commit 60c19568, martial arts attacks have a 1⁄5 chance per skill level above Basic to make an "off-hand" attack, as in two-weapon combat - per commit fcf1a42c, the character must not be wearing a shield. The updated damage numbers (assuming both attacks hit) are:| +to hit | +damage | average damage | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | +3 | +3 | 5.5 |
| Skilled | +4 | +4 | 7.8 |
| Expert | +5 | +6 | 11.9 |
| Master | +6 | +7 | 15.2 |
| Grand Master | +7 | +9 | 20.7 |
Strategy
Martial arts is a more than suitable form of primary offense in the early game, but on its own will inevitably fall behind other weapon skills in the late game due to the low base damage, lack of enchantment bonuses, and 1⁄4 chance of skill-based damage bonuses not applying. As a result, Monk characters often forgo martial arts in favor of obtaining an artifact weapon with a lower skill point investment, maximizing their luck to offset the to-hit penalties. While Samurai start with solid weaponry, martial arts gives them enough extra damage that the skill can be used as a fallback against acid blobs and other weapon-damaging monsters, and makes the Samurai one of the better choices for weaponless conducts after Monks.
In any scenario, characters relying primarily on martial arts should carry some form of ranged attack to supplement it against monsters with dangerous passives, which usually overlap with monsters that can damage weapons. Outside of magic, Monks have very few options in terms of ranged weapons, and can only train three relevant skills to Basic: spear, crossbow and shuriken. Samurai are much more limited in terms of magical skill, but have several more ranged weapon skills - they can reach Basic in daggers, Skilled in knives and spears, and Expert in bows and shuriken. Rings of increase damage are incredibly valuable for martial arts practitioners, to the point that it is often worth eating the rings if possible to accrue large damage bonuses for martial arts and ranged skills alike.
History
In NetHack 3.4.3 and previous versions, including some variants based on these versions, martial arts erroneously receives no skill-based to-hit bonus since the code that grants it is only called if the character is wielding a weapon. This is fixed in NetHack 3.6.0.
Variants
Many variants make some form of adjustment to improve martial arts.
SporkHack
In SporkHack, advancing skill in martial arts grants a to-hit bonus.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, half-dragon Bards can reach Expert in martial arts, and elven, incantifier and myrkalfar Anachrononauts can reach Grand Master.
Any role with the martial arts skill can twoweapon to attack with both hands, even if wielding only one weapon - Monks can reach Grand Master with two-weapon combat. Any character that is experience level 30 and reaches Grand Master in martial arts can name the Grandmaster's Robe, an artifact robe that increases the base dice for martial arts to 1d8 and grants it exploding dice.
The spirit Buer grants skill in martial arts and permanently unlocks the skill, while Eurynome increases the size of your unarmed attack's damage dice. Binding Buer allows you to reach Expert in martial arts, while having both Buer and Eurynome bound allows you to reach Grand Master. The Earth Crystal upgrades the bare-handed combat skill to martial arts and boosts a character's martial arts skill level.
FIQHack
In FIQHack, the enchantment of your gloves is used when calculating damage, and martial arts attacks no longer do only 1 damage 1⁄4 of the time.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, a lawful character wearing the Gauntlets of Purity gains a bonus to martial arts damage when fighting unarmed. Shuriken can be forged, which makes them a viable ranged weapon for Monks (they are arguably too rare in vanilla to be considered seriously).
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, Ninja can reach Master in martial arts.
