Traitor

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A traitor is a monster attribute that appears in SLASH'EM, SlashTHEM, dNetHack, notdNetHack, and notnotdNetHack, and describes a tame monster that can turn against the hero.

Description

Any monster that is considered a traitor has a chance of spontaneously rebelling against the player while it is tame and becoming hostile. Traitorhood is denoted by the M3_TRAITOR monster flag in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM, while dNetHack and its variants use MT_TRAITOR.

The check for betrayal occurs with a 1850 chance during each of that pet's moves, as well as whenever the hero abuses the pet.[1] The betrayal check will always fail if the pet is a spell being, is further than 3 squares away, is mindless, or if they have fewer hit points than the hero. If those checks pass, then there is a (21-tameness)(abuse+1)/66(abuse+2) chance that the pet will turn traitor.[2] Monsters that have turned on the hero will additionally have the text "traitor" added when examined with a stethoscope or wand of probing.

Strategy

Increasing a pet's tameness and not abusing them will decrease the chance of rebellion, but the only "certain" way to eliminate any chance of it occurring is for a hero to raise their HP as high as possible.

Messages

<foo> turns on you!
A tame monster with the "traitor" flag has spontaneously become hostile.
You feel uneasy about <foo>.
As above, but outside of your sight.

References