Planetar
A Planetar, A, is a type of monster that appears in SLASH'EM, SpliceHack, SlashTHEM, and Hack'EM. The Planetar is a large humanoid angelic being that is the second-strongest of its monster class in terms of monster level and difficulty after the Solar, and is a lord to their kind. Planetars are lawful and possess several abilities that are shared with the Archon of NetHack (which also appears in some of the listed variants): they are strong and capable of flight, regeneration, can see invisible, have infravision, can be seen via infravision, will pick up weapons, armor and magical items that they come across, and can follow a hero to other levels if they are adjacent.
A Planetar has two weapon attacks, a blinding gaze attack that also stuns the target if it blinds them, a claw attack, and the ability to cast one mage monster spell per round of combat. Planetars require a +4 or better weapon to hit, and implicitly hit as +4 weapons themselves. Planetars possess death resistance, fire resistance, cold resistance, shock resistance, sleep resistance, and poison resistance.
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Generation
Randomly generated Planetars are created peaceful towards lawful heroes with positive alignment record, and will not be created in Gehennom, though they can generate in external branches such as Vlad's Tower. They are not a valid target for polymorph or genocide.
A hostile Planetar can be generated as the minion of an angry lawful god, and tame Planetars can be given to lawful heroes by their god via prayer or sacrifice: in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM, they are available from experience levels 22 to 28.[1][2]
Planetars are always generated with a blessed erodeproof long sword, whose enchantment is selected from the higher between its naturally generated enchantment and a rolled enchantment from +0 to +3 (with an equal probability of each):[3][4] the long sword will also be made into Sunsword or Demonbane respectively if the selected artifact has not yet been generated.[5] They are also always generated with a non-cursed erosion-proofed +0 shield of reflection.[6]
A Planetar never leaves a corpse upon death.
Strategy
Planetars boast a base speed of 16, a stellar AC of -10, a high MR score of 80, and access to every mage monster spell available from powerful psi bolts to the touch of death, along with nearly twice the damage output of Archons. They are also so notably rare that you are incredibly unlikely to see one before Gehennom, and will typically not see one at all until the ascension run begins upon obtaining the Amulet of Yendor.
The Planetar is one of the major advantages of playing a lawful hero, particularly in SLASH'EM: they can obtain Planetars as minions and will almost always encounter them as peaceful. For other heroes, hostile Planetars are not a factor to be concerned about until the ascension run as mentioned previously, and are better off avoided in those cases even by the most ascension-ready character builds—the best tools are a source of very fast speed (usually speed boots) combined with either flying or levitation in the event they get a chance to cast the create pool spell at you, and a wand of teleportation to get them out of your path.
Heroes looking to fight a hostile Planetar for bragging rights will want to either utilize a footrice corpse or egg, or heavily maximize their fighting capabilities (e.g. a +7 artifact weapon with Expert in the relevant skill and an AC of around -45). They are immune to many types of damage save for acid, life drain, stoning and disintegration; they can resist death rays and most other spells that are non-elemental; and their guaranteed shield of reflection blocks rays. Even heroes that can exploit their few vulnerabilities should not take that ability for granted, as they will remain formidable opponents regardless.
A hero fighting a Planetar should use the disarm technique or a bullwhip to rob them of their weapon as soon as possible, and employing the drain life spell or the wand of draining can also be useful against them. All these qualities also make Planetars truly formidable pets, second only in power to the Solar: Planetars that are not gifted as tame minions can wear all non-torso armor and be given an amulet of drain resistance to cover one of their few weaknesses.
Origin
The Planetar is based on the new age devas of Dungeons & Dragons, spirits that contribute to the functions of nature and represent the planets.
Encyclopedia entry
These Aasimar seldom associate with mortals. Planetars are
hairless and tall, with green-tinted skin and a wild psionic talent.
[ adapted from Aasimar, by David Roberts and Brynn ]
References
- Jump up ↑ pray.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1167
- Jump up ↑ pray.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 1203
- Jump up ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 660
- Jump up ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 667
- Jump up ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 664
- Jump up ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 673
