User:Umbire the Phantom/Monk

Monk strategy drafting goes here.

Strategy

Monks are much different in design from the other roles of NetHack: they are arguably "intended" for weaponless and vegan or vegetarian play and commonly used in conduct-heavy ascensions, but are just as often played and ascended with artifact weapons and worn body armor like other roles, relying on maximized luck and a luckstone as well as strategies like long-term polymorph in order to overcome to-hit penalties. While The Monk FAQ is written with older versions of NetHack in mind, it illustrates many of the rationales behind specific choices for a given play-style of Monk, which will similarly be covered throughout this section and its sub-headers.

The Monk is considered one of the more difficult roles on average: their skill set, combined with their role's to-hit penalties and bonuses, incentivizes relying on martial arts and makes "standard" kits much harder (but not impossible) to utilize. The Monk's martial arts deal a lot of damage for the early game, and their casting provides a critical combat edge - but the mid-game becomes incredibly difficult around the time of their Quest, and the limitations of martial arts and a lack of body armor become very apparent for Monks in the late game.

While their magical prowess pales beside that of the Wizard (especially without reduced-hunger casting), and managing energy and nutrition is more difficult, Monks are still very capable casters that can train every spell school. Their starting robe can help make higher-level spells more viable, though Monks choosing to avoid body armor will likely prefer to reserve their cloak slot for a cloak of magic resistance - even then, they have the means to make superb use of spells like magic missile, which Basic skill in attack spells is more than sufficient for.

Character creation

There are two primary considerations behind a player's choice of alignment: the first is the selection of sacrifice gifts and other artifacts for Monks planning to switch to a weapon, and the second is the overall ease of the ascension run, including the presence of the mysterious force.

Lawful Monks are most likely to receive a viable artifact weapon sooner: three of their four first gift candidates are long swords, which unrestricts the skill for the use of Excalibur, and the fourth candidate is the stellar double-damage Grayswandir. Neutral sacrifice gifts are less consistent, thouhh they have Magicbane and Mjollnir among their stronger options; Vorpal Blade is also acceptable, if much less impressive in comparison. The only particularly useful chaotic artifact weapon is Stormbringer, but chaotic Monks have a means to guarantee it by crowning, and Stormy is a powerful artifact in its own right. In all cases, Monks can receive an artifact weapon by crowning while carrying a spellbook of restore ability (their normal crowning gift) or wielding an artifact.

For those planning to maintain weaponless conduct, chaotic Monks will have an easier time dealing with the mysterious force, and chaotic gods also grant more prayer timeout reduction from sacrifice, making it easier to farm spellbooks from an altar. Neutral Monks have a stronger pool of artifact wishes, especially in regards to sources of magic resistance.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

Demonbane is changed to a mace, making it much less useful as a first gift for a lawful Monk - they have an 89% chance of obtaining Grayswandir or unrestricting the long sword skill in at most two gifts.

Early game

Monks can breeze through much of the early game with martial arts and their starting inventory alone, making weapons and suits of armor of little use outside of certain conducts (e.g. a pacifist maximizing AC) - helms and boots are worthwhile to wear, and the starting robe can mitigate penalties from metallic armor. Even if a Monk is not committed to weaponless conduct, they have few weapon skills to train outside of sacrifice gifts, and will need to significantly raise their luck to compensate for the loss of the to-hit bonus from fighting unarmed and unarmored. Each of the three possible starting spells are incredibly useful alongside a Monk's martial arts:

• Healing is a powerful survival tool to have for any role in the early game, especially with the Monk's poor HP growth.
• Sleep prevents hostile monsters from fighting back or fleeing, and can trivialize otherwise problematic encounters, particularly against faster monsters.
• Protection can make up for armor deficiencies when cast prior to combat, and the energy spent per cast is usually recovered by the time that the effect expires (assuming an unburdened Monk).

Finding additional spellbooks is a good priority, and blessing them is typically necessary since many Monks start with low to middling intelligence: price identification is useful to this end, and a ring of slow digestion heavily lowers the nutritional burden. Heading to Sokoban early is a good idea due to the plentiful loot there there, including food, wands and a possible amulet of reflection that is likely to be their primary reflection source throughout the game.

Beyond casting, the starting food generally provides enough nutrition for a Monk to at least find additional permafood (especially with early general stores or food shops), and rations should suffice even when not observing vegetarian or vegan conduct. Though gaining intrinsics from corpses versus maintaining alignment record can be an early dietary conflict, in practice Monks can obtain many of their necessary properties by raising experience levels or by eating vegetarian and vegan corpses, such as certain molds and gelatinous cubes; crowning early for resistances is an option as well unless a player expects to pray frequently (e.g., while observing foodless conduct). Monks not observing dietary conducts will usually accept alignment penalties to get telepathy from floating eyes and experience levels from wraiths, though there are alternatives to these as well for Monks that are stricter vegans or more cautious overall.

The starting robe is a Monk's most critical armor, as the spellcasting bonus for wearing one is twice that of any other role, and grants them a better total bonus than even a Wizard; robes are also very rarely generated, making one very hard to replace early on. Polymorph traps are the biggest threat to a worn robe by far: in particular, be extremely careful when advancing beyond dungeon level 7 in either the main branch or the Gnomish Mines; a Monk that finds a cloak of magic resistance may have to choose between casting reliability and a vital defensive property. Items such as the ring of polymorph control or amulet of unchanging can be ideal solutions depending on the situation, and the ring of searching and wand of secret door detection can also help uncover polymorph traps, especially with high luck - a Monk also obtains automatic searching at experience level 9.

Monks that feel a pressing need for a non-magical ranged weapon can try a crossbow and some bolts or a stack of spear weapons: crossbows are plentiful in the Gnomish Mines, but require more than 18 strength to multishot, and weaponless users risk breaking the conduct; spears are heavier and trickier to assemble stacks of, but can be more safely thrown for weaponless play. Shuriken are a superior option to both, but are vanishingly rare in the early stages of the game, and they are hard to maintain without a combination of high luck, enchantment and a means of blessing them.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

As mentioned previously, Monks can no longer start with the spellbook of sleep, whose spell is raised to level 3, but can start with the spellbook of confuse monster, whose spell level is lowered to 1. The spell and scroll of confuse monster also apply more uses of the ability if used while no charges are currently stored. The confuse monster ability works naturally with a Monk's unarmed fighting, and can easily daze hostile monsters into missing attacks repeatedly, granting the Monk a significant combat edge.

Per commit 39a7dc1c, monsters cannot drop food items besides their corpse upon death, unless they are carrying food at the time of death, or else are of a monster type that picks up and collect food items. To compensate for the decrease in generated food, ae3e5d281f333f4d2f7f22dda14adb6665babc8c

adds bonus items to some early game levels to encourage pressing forward in the early game. commit 87f3b480 adds food rations to the Monk quest's home level, while

Mid game

In the mid-game, the Monk's needs diverge significantly depending on a player's aims and build considerations. The Monk quest has a well-earned reputation as one of the toughest in NetHack: Master Kaen is a legendarily difficult melee fighter that can also cast clerical monster spells, usually requiring magic resistance and/or a means of ensuring a quick and painless fight; Monks that grapple with difficulties in armor choice will often want to clear the Castle before embarking on the Quest either way, unless they opt for particular strategies.

The Monk's quest is also full of xorns and earth elementals, which have phasing and can reliably swarm a Monk at almost any location, and the xorn's strong attacks can chew through their often-low HP pool. Master Kaen has thankfully-low MR score, leaving him vulnerable to sleep and other statuses, and is often (but not always) vulnerable to a wand of death - he and other hostiles can also be held back by a scroll of scare monster on the ground. See Master Kaen's article for precise details on taking him down.

High-priority goals for Monks include maintaining alignment record, maximizing luck and obtaining a luckstone, especially if they are planning to use or wish for weapons and/or body armor. Martial arts are still very effective for weaponless Monks, especially at Grand Master, though they may have to mix in smart spell-work and/or item usage against some of the mid-game's nastier hostiles. Gauntlets of dexterity are a good choice of armor for Monks weaponless and otherwise, due to the to-hit bonuses from dexterity; Monks not concerned with casting frequently during combat (or in general) may consider gauntlets of power. A worn ring of increase damage and/or ring of increase accuracy that is at least +2 can be potentially useful as well.

Monks foregoing body armor should augment AC and magic cancellation by any other means possible, such as buying protection and heavily enchanting their other armor - magic resistance can be difficult to fit into a kit of this type, especially due to the conflict between the cloak of magic resistance versus the robe's casting bonuses. The protection spell can pay dividends, especially with higher skill in clerical spells; a ring of protection can provide some extra points of AC, and more importantly grants MC3 if worn alongside a robe. Particularly daring Monks may choose to drain themselves to level 1 and buy extremely cheap protection in the hopes of maximizing the bonus - a blessed potion of restore ability will restore all lost levels.

Melee weapon Monks should invest in shields, since they do not further penalize weapon usage: the small shield has the most lenient spellcasting penalty, and the shield of reflection provides reflection and opens up the amulet slot in return for much stiffer casting penalties. The most ideal suits for armored Monks are generally gray dragon scale mail and silver dragon scale mail, which are the only ones worth the downsides: the choice between them depends on which extrinsics they have covered from other sources. Monks wearing body armor and/or wielding weapons often polymorph before especially-demanding fights and tasks (such as facing Master Kaen), and the more daring may even remove their body armor if they have enough AC to compensate otherwise; both types of character build also benefit significantly from the to-hit improvement methods above.

As a crowning gift, the Monk's spellbook of restore ability is generally worthless: unicorn horns supersede it entirely, and blessed potions of restore ability have the same function while additionally restoring lost levels; Monks that want to be crowned and find the spellbook elsewhere can use it to obtain an artifact weapon instead if they choose. Artifact selection in general for a Monk should prioritize magic resistance first (ideally from a slotless source), then follow up with sources of half physical damage and/or half spell damage if possible - both are generally useful and good for low-HP casting roles in particular, and are especially important considerations for body armor-less Monks. The following artifacts of each alignment are all potential options for a Monk to pursue:

• Lawful Monks can gain slotless magic resistance and telepathy from wishing for The Magic Mirror of Merlin; The Orb of Detection is heavy, but grants both properties alongside half spell damage. No lawful artifacts grant half physical damage.
• Neutral Monks may consider wishing for The Orb of Fate, which is quite heavy but grants both half damage properties. Monks that are heavy spellcasters, or else plan to use a shield of reflection or silver dragon scale mail, should consider The Eye of the Aethiopica for its magic resistance, half spell damage and energy regeneration boosts. They can also sacrifice for Magicbane, which grants magic resistance while wielded.
• Chaotic Monks have no access to magic resistance or half spell damage from co-aligned artifacts, but can obtain half physical damage by wishing for The Master Key of Thievery.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

The scroll of scare monster no longer works on Master Kaen, and similarly does not work against any human or elf or unique monster.

Unicorn horns no longer restore reduced attributes, making the spell of restore ability somewhat more useful.

Per commit 87f3b480, extra food rations are placed on the Monk quest's home level to compensate for the food generation changes mentioned in the previous section and better support vegetarian Monks. Per commit c2894a42, tins of spinach are added to the quest's home and locate levels as a similar aid to vegetarian Monks.

Monks and polymorph

As mentioned prior, controlled polymorph can circumvent complications involving body armor, to-hit and AC while granting access to even more powerful melee attacks. For example, one common method of dealing with Master Kaen is to polymorph into a black dragon and disintegrate him. Polymorph also allows Monks to eat rings and amulets by turning into a gelatinous cube or xorn (which may violate vegetarian or vegan diets depending on the ring material) and obtain otherwise-tricky intrinsics such as telepathy, unbreathing, and even boosts to damage, accuracy or AC.

• For Monks that do not care much about vegetarian or vegan diets, the master mind flayer is among one of the best forms to utilize: they have a base AC of 0, can wear all armor and fly, and are capable of hitting multiple times per turn with tentacle attacks that can inflict significant damage against non-mindless targets (with +d10 damage per successful brain-sucking). Beware of attacking cockatrices and other monsters with dangerous passives!
• Vampire lords have a base speed of 14, a base AC 0, and are capable of flight and regeneration as well as being breathless. A hero in the form of a vampire lord is also warned of any human or elf monsters on the level. However, they have similar weaknesses with regards to contact attacks as described above, and are also silver-hating, preventing them from wearing or wielding any silver items (though throwing is still possible) - make sure your ring of polymorph control isn't silver!
• Elvenkings have a base speed of 12 and base AC of 10, and have a lower level and fewer intrinsic abilities than vampire lords and master mind flayers - they are also strong, possess no material aversions and can hit twice per attack, with the 2d4 base damage added to any weapon attacks made in that form.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

Per commit 486ed290, blessed potions of polymorph grant a controlled polymorph when quaffed, but lasts for a much shorter duration.

Late game

Monks rounding out their ascension kit might consider silver weapons for fighting demons and shades within Gehennom, as well as polypiling and/or wishing for stacks of shuriken to enchant. The magic missile spell is one of a Monk's best assets as it is for many a casting hero, and both it and other ray spells like cone of cold deal solid damage when rebounded.

Monks wearing body armor should have enough luck and experience levels at this stage to overcome the to-hit penalty entirely, especially if they have access to controlled polymorph as discussed above. Monks using melee weapons are restricted to Basic skill even in artifact weapons that they unrestrict, but this is still sufficient for highly-enchanted options such as Excalibur, Stormbringer, Frost Brand, or Grayswandir; within their default skillset, a highly-enchanted silver spear can also be especially effective.

Weaponless Monks generally start feeling the limits of martial arts around this stage - the lack of damage output means that even with superb play and sufficient supplementary damage e.g. from shuriken, rays of cold and the like, they may experience many close calls within Gehennom. Those Monks willing to go the distance regardless can still find ways to put out significant offense, e.g. by wearing highly-charged rings of increase damage to augment damage, or by polymorphing and either eating rings of increase damage or using stronger humanoid monster forms. When attacking shades in particular, weaponless Monks can either remove their gloves and wear a silver ring, or wield a silver non-weapon such as the Bell of Opening.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

Martial Arts has been buffed to allow additional attacks at higher skill levels - this makes the skill much more viable later in the game, though it is still outshined by high-damage artifact weapons.