Ancient of blessings

& ancient of blessings File:Ancient of blessings.png
Difficulty	23
Attacks	Deva Arms 1d7 disenchant, Offhand Weapon 1d7 disenchant, Multiarm Weapon 1d7 disenchant, Multiarm Weapon 1d7 disenchant, Passive 0d0 disenchant, Explode on death 77d1 fireworks

& ancient of blessings File:Ancient of blessings.png
Difficulty	23
Attacks	Deva Arms 1d7 disenchant, Offhand Weapon 1d7 disenchant, Multiarm Weapon 1d7 disenchant, Multiarm Weapon 1d7 disenchant, Passive 0d0 disenchant, Explode on death 77d1 fireworks
Base level	15
Base experience	592
Speed	17
Base AC	-7
Base MR	77
Alignment	14 (lawful)
Frequency (by normal means)	0 (Not randomly generated)
Genocidable	No
Weight	0
Nutritional value	0
Size	huge
Resistances	fire, cold, shock, poison, petrification, disease
Resistances conveyed	fire, cold
An ancient of blessings: can fly. has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso. regenerates HP quickly. can see invisible creatures. is poisonous to eat. does not eat. (*) is not a valid polymorphable form. is a demon. is normally generated hostile. can follow you to other levels. is nasty. is strong. can pick up weapons and food. appears only in Gehennom. never leaves a corpse. resists death magic. cannot be tamed.

Ancients of blessings are a possible inhabitant of an ancient-nupperibo-hellish seal. They are notable for the high potential melee damage from their many weapon attacks, the high potential damage to your armor and weapon enchantments, and their difficult-to-resist breath attack.

Consuming breath

An ancient of blessings inhales blessings and exhales misfortune.

Inhalation: blessings

"Tiny light-blue sparks rise around you."

The inhalation affects any random non-demonic monster within 4 squares of the ancient that has some form of "blessing". For the player, the following qualifies as blessings:

1. They have at least one blessed item in their inventory
2. Luck is greater than -7.
3. Protection is greater than -7.
4. Intrinsic to-hit bonus is greater than 0.
5. Intrinsic damage bonus is greater than 0.
6. Intrinsic carry-cap bonus is greater than 0.
7. Monsters are considered to be blessed if their encouragement bonus is greater than -7.

The ancient attempts to consume one blessing per 3 levels (5 blessings for a typical ancient). Consuming a blessing from the player, in order of preference:

1. Curses one blessed item in open inventory.
2. Reduces luck by 1 point per blessing to be consumed.
3. Reduces protection by 1 point per blessing to be consumed.
4. Reduces intrinsic to-hit bonus by 1 point per blessing to be consumed.
5. Reduces intrinsic damage bonus by 1 point per blessing to be consumed.
6. Reduces intrinsic carry-cap bonus by 10 aum per blessing to be consumed.

Consuming a blessing from a monster curses one blessed item in open inventory or reduces encouragement bonus by 1.

Exhalation: misfortune

"The ancient of blessings's halo flares and casts blades of light in all directions!"

The ancient casts open wounds on all hostile targets in line-of-sight. How unfortunate.

Origin

dNetHack ancients are very loosely based on D&D Ancient Baatorians. Only two examples of ancient baatorians were actually encountered during the period in which they were introduced: a nupperibo with constitution-draining tentacles (stated to be a metamorphosing, larval baatorian) and a shapeless thing that inhales light/reflectivity and life and exhales darkness. There were also said to be spined creatures frozen deep under the ice in Cania. A later source claimed that Zargon was another ancient baatorian, but Zargon originated over a decade before the later idea of ancient baatorians (and over two decades before the source tying them together) and is obviously unrelated.