Orc (monster)

o orc
Difficulty	3
Attacks	Weapon 1d8

o orc
Difficulty	3
Attacks	Weapon 1d8
Base level	1
Base experience	13
Speed	9
Base AC	10
Base MR	0
Alignment	−3 (chaotic)
Frequency (by normal means)	0 (Not randomly generated)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	850
Nutritional value	150
Size	Medium
Resistances	None
Resistances conveyed	None
An orc: has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso. is omnivorous. is not a valid polymorphable form. is an orc. is strong. likes gold. likes gems. can pick up weapons and food. has infravision. can be seen through infravision.
Reference	monst.c#line677

An orc, o, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It serves as the corresponding "base" monster for player orcs.

Generation

Orcs are not randomly generated, but can appear in a game that has Orcish Town present - various named orcs may be among the orcish monsters generated carrying looted items. Orcs can grow up to become orc-captains.

Orcs have a ¹⁄₂ chance of generating with an orcish helm, and a separate ¹⁄₂ chance of being given an orcish dagger or a scimitar, with an equal chance for each weapon.

An orc zombie or orc mummy will leave an aged orc corpse behind upon death; player orcs that are killed and leave bones will have a gnome corpse atop their grave, unless they were killed by certain monsters or else stoned or disintegrated. Orcs can be generated by zapping a wand of undead turning at an orc corpse not left by a mummy or zombie, or selecting orcs when reading a cursed scroll of genocide.

Strategy

"Plain" orcs are not too substantially different from hobgoblins and hill orcs minus a slightly stronger weapon attack, and can be defeated with much of the same tactics. Pursuing any orcs you encounter during a game with Orcish Town is generally a good idea in order to nab the candles and gloves they may be carrying.

History

The orc is one of the many monsters present in hack121 and Hack for PDP-11, variants of Jay Fenlason's Hack. Orcs also appear in the initial bestiary for Hack 1.0, and were present in each version up to NetHack 2.3e. In its appearances, orcs often generated in hordes similar to hill orcs in modern NetHack. In NetHack 3.0.0, the various types of orcs were introduced, alongside orc zombies and mummies, and the base orc was used for the purpose of generating corpses left by undead orcs; they are also used to represent the bones of player orcs once starting races were introduced in NetHack 3.3.0.

In hack121, orcs used the o glyph as in modern NetHack; in Hack for PDP-11, and from Hack 1.0 to NetHack 2.3e, orcs instead used the O glyph.

Starting in NetHack 3.6.2, named orcs begin appearing with Minetown loot in a dungeon where Orcish Town is generated, due to changes in how the loot-carrying monsters are generated.

Origin

The orcs in NetHack are derived from Dungeons & Dragons, which in turn are based on their portrayal in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien.

Variants

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, seventeen plain orcs are placed randomly around the outside of Grund's Stronghold at level creation.

In NetHack-- 3.0.10, an ancestor of SLASH'EM, plain orcs could appear via random generation; this was not retained for NetHack-- 3.1.3, but was made possible again in SLASH 6.

Encyclopedia entry

Orcs, bipeds with a humanoid appearance, are related to the
goblins, but much bigger and more dangerous. The average orc
is only moderately intelligent, has broad, muscled shoulders,
a short neck, a sloping forehead and a thick, dark fur.
Their lower eye-teeth are pointing forward, like a boar's.
Female orcs are more lightly built and bare-chested. Not
needing any clothing, they do like to dress in variegated
apparels. Suspicious by nature, orcs live in tribes or
hordes. They tend to live underground as well as above
ground (but they dislike sunlight). Orcs can use all weapons,
tools and armors that are used by men. Since they don't have
the talent to fashion these themselves, they are constantly
hunting for them. There is nothing a horde of orcs cannot
use.

[ het Boek van de Regels; Het Oog des Meesters ]