Monk/EvilHack
In EvilHack, the Monk is one of the roles from NetHack that is available to the hero.
Monks can be humans, elves, dwarves, giants, centaurs, tortles, drow, or draugr, and can be lawful, neutral or chaotic.
Starting equipment
Each Monk starts with the following equipment:
- a +2 pair of leather gloves
- a +1 robe
- a +1 pair of high boots if the hero is a giant
- one of the following blessed spellbooks unless the hero is a draugr, with an equal probability of each:
- a random scroll that is not the scroll of enchant weapon
- 3 potions of healing, any of which may be blessed
- 3-6 uncursed food rations
- 5-10 apples unless the hero is a draugr
- 5-10 oranges unless the hero is a draugr
- 3-6 fortune cookies
- an uncursed oil lamp (1⁄4 chance or 25%) unless the hero is a drow
Giant Monks are given two additional stacks of 1-2 vegetarian comestibles (which includes vegetarian tins). Dwarven Monks have the same 1⁄4 chance of starting with a pick-axe as most other dwarven heroes, but the pick-axe will not be wielded at the start of the game to avoid immediately breaking weaponless conduct.
Monks start with knowledge of the shuriken and all non-magical armor, in addition to any applicable racial equipment.
Intrinsics
Monks gain the following intrinsic properties upon reaching the given experience levels:
- XL 1: see invisible
- XL 1: sleep resistance
- XL 1: speed
- XL 3: poison resistance
- XL 5: stealth
- XL 7: warning
- XL 9: automatic searching
- XL 11: fire resistance
- XL 13: cold resistance
- XL 15: shock resistance
- XL 17: teleport control
- XL 20: telepathy
- XL 23: water walking
- XL 25: stoning resistance
- XL 27: disintegration resistance
- XL 30: immunity to sickness
Attributes
The Monk's starting attributes are distributed as follows:
| Attributes | Strength | Dexterity | Constitution | Intelligence | Wisdom | Charisma | Remaining |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum attributes | 10 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 28 |
| Distribution percentages | 25% | 20% | 15% | 10% | 20% | 10% | |
| Mean w/ standard deviation | 17.34±2.37 | 13.63±2.10 | 11.26±1.95 | 9.86±1.66 | 13.63±2.10 | 9.57±1.59 |
Skills
Monk have the following skills available to them:
| Monk skills | |
|---|---|
| Max | Skills |
| Basic |
|
| Skilled | |
| Expert |
|
| Grand Master |
|
Draugr Monks use a different skill set, which is primarily the same with the removal of spell schools since they cannot cast spells:
| Draugr Monk skills | |
|---|---|
| Max | Skills |
| Basic |
|
| Skilled | |
| Expert |
|
| Grand Master |
|
Monks start with Basic skill in martial arts and healing spells. They use the wisdom stat to cast spells, and their special spell is restore ability.
Special rules
Monks that maintain weaponless conduct will receive shuriken as sacrifice gifts if they are given non-artifact weapons, and otherwise may receive either a broadsword (1⁄4 chance) or a quarterstaff skill weapon (3⁄4 chance). Monks that are gifted non-artifact armor by their god have doubled chances to receive cloaks or gloves compared to other types of armor. The Monk's default crowning gift is the spellbook of restore ability, and draugr Monks will receive gauntlets of protection instead - a Monk carrying the spellbook or wielding a weapon when they are crowned will receive the normal crowning gift for their alignment.
Certain actions taken by Monks can impact their abilities and attributes, in addition to alignment record:
- Non-draugr Monks are expected to maintain at least a vegetarian diet, and abuse their alignment record with a -1 penalty every time they consume non-vegetarian food.
- A Monk exercises wisdom while they are weak from hunger, and abuses wisdom while they are satiated - this is applied in addition to the normal stat abuse for both conditions, and occurs on every game turn whose number is a multiple of 10.
- Monks wearing a suit of armor in their normal form incur a -20 to-hit penalty for melee attacks (equal to their spellcasting penalty for worn armor) along with an additional -30 to-hit penalty, all but ensuring they cannot land attacks. Feedback is printed when a monk wears or removes a suit of armor.
- Monks that are in normal form and not wearing a suit of armor, using any shield other than a set of bracers, or wielding and using a weapon gain a to-hit bonus equal to XL⁄3 + 2 for melee attacks - they can randomly perform staggering blows when attacking in melee or kicking while not wielding a weapon, and can also randomly perform forceful blows that confuse the target if they are not mindless.
Monks that reach Skilled or higher in martial arts and are not wielding anything can break boulders and statues by force-fighting (pressing shift + F and then a movement key in the desired direction).
When attacking with their bare or gloved hands, Monks that reach Master skill or higher in martial arts have a 1⁄3 chance of performing an extra kick attack if they are dismounted, they are not engulfed, they do not have wounded legs, and they are not wearing non-bracer shields. This extra kick can be suppressed by force-fighting, and is automatically suppressed for centaur and tortle Monks in their normal forms that are attacking monsters with immediately-deadly passive attacks (e.g. the stoning passive of a cockatrice or the disintegration passive of a black dragon) and do not possess a resistance to the passive's damage type (i.e. either stoning resistance or at least 50% disintegration resistance - this is done in order to prevent fights becoming unnecessarily difficult, since neither race can wear boots.
Monks that reach Grand Master skill in martial arts gain a second attack while they are fighting with their bare or gloved hands and not wearing non-bracer shields, and are capable of performing shattering blows.
Rank titles
The status line displays one of the following ranks for the corresponding experience levels:
- XL 1-2: Candidate
- XL 3-5: Novice
- XL 6-9: Initiate
- XL 10-13: Student of Stones
- XL 14-17: Student of Waters
- XL 18-21: Student of Metals
- XL 22-25: Student of Winds
- XL 26-29: Student of Fire
- XL 30: Master
Gods
The Monk pantheon is based on Chinese mythology.
- Lawful: Shan Lai Ching
- Neutral: Chih Sung-tzu
- Chaotic: Huan Ti
Quest
The Monk's quest sees them fighting Master Kaen for The Eyes of the Overworld, an artifact pair of lenses. Wearing The Eyes of the Overworld grants magic resistance, as well as astral vision: this allows the wearer to see through walls within a three-square radius, including any monsters within that range, and suppresses the effects of blindness. The wearer is also protected against most gaze attacks, with partial protection against the cancellation, disintegration and stoning gazes of beholders (which deal varying amounts of physical damage instead) - Medusa's petrifying gaze is too powerful for the Eyes to block, and the fiery gaze, cold gaze and luck-draining gazes of magical eyes ignore the Eyes since they are considered area-of-effect attacks. Monks wearing The Eyes of the Overworld also have a 2⁄3 chance of resisting all cancellation effects.
Strategy
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