Attribute

An attribute shows some capability of the player.

There are six basic attributes, as in Dungeons & Dragons.

Strength

Strength corresponds to the ability to have more weight in your inventory. Also, the stronger you are the more damage you do in melee combat and the farther you can throw objects.

Like all attributes, strength ranges between 3 and 25. However, as in early editions of Dungeons and Dragons, strength has the unique property that values between 18 and 19 are given in percentage terms rather than jumping straight from 18 to 19 as with other attributes. For example, a strength of 18/35 means roughly that one is 35% of the way between 18 strength and 19 strength. Depending on race, characters can attain a maximum strength of 18, 18/50 or 18/** (which stands for 18/100) in their natural form, and need Gauntlets of power or a Ring of gain strength to increase strength to 19 or more. However, for gameplay purposes, there are not very many differences between a strength of 18/** and a strength of 25. Specifically, increasing your strength from 18/** to 25 will increase your carrying capacity (but only if your Constitution is less than 17), make objects thrown or kicked by you travel further, and allow you to throw Mjollnir if you have it.

Uses of strength

Strength is required for the following activities:

• To cast spells, you need strength of at least 4.
• To jump or do self-teleportation, you need strength of at least 6.
• To break a wand, you need strength of at least 10.
• To throw Mjollnir, you need strength of 25.

Strength is helpful for the following activities:

• Strength of at least 18 speeds escape from a bear trap.
• Greater strength usually allows you to carry more inventory without being encumbered.
• Greater strength speeds escape from a web.
• Greater strength allows better accuracy when fighting and increases damage per hit, as shown by the following table:

strength	to-hit	damage
3–5	-2	-1
6–7	-1	0
8–15	0	0
16	0	+1
17	+1	+1
18	+1	+2
18/01–18/50	+1	+3
18/51–18/75	+2	+3
18/76–18/90	+2	+4
18/91–18/99	+2	+5
18/**–25	+3	+6

Reference: weapon.c, line 695.

The to-hit adjustment only applies to wielded weapons. The damage adjustment affects wielded and thrown weapons.

Strength in game formulas

Some of the game formulas require Strength to be an integer between 3 and 25 (without percentages). When that is needed, NetHack will map strengths between 18/01 and 21 as follows:

A Strength of...	maps to...
18/01–18/31	19
18/32–18/81	20
18/82–21	21

This mapping is used for:

• Calculating carrying capacity
• Calculating the maximum distance traveled by thrown or kicked objects

For example, the maximum range of a thrown dagger is Str/2 squares. Thus, if your strength is 18/31, you can throw a dagger 9 squares (19/2 rounded down), but if your strength is 18/32, you can throw it 10 squares (20/2 rounded down).

Events that alter strength

Strength may increase when:

• you eat a giant corpse
• you eat non-cursed royal jelly or spinach ("you feel like Popeye!")
• you are at least weak, and eat or pray, and are no longer weak

Strength may decrease when:

• you become hungry to the point of being weak
• you are hit by certain monsters' attacks
• you are poisoned
• you eat cursed royal jelly or spinach

There are many ways to exercise your strength. One popular way is to push boulders around. (One possibility: whenever you need to heal, spend your time pushing a boulder back and forth at one of the higher dungeon levels.)

Messages

When you gain a point in strength by exercising, it will say:

You feel strong! You must have been exercising.

When you lose a point in strength by exercising, it will say:

You feel weak! You must have been abusing your body.

Exercising and abusing strength

Strength is exercised by:

• Being stressed or strained (once every ten turns)
• Having intrinsic regeneration from eating a ring of regeneration (once every five turns) (wearing a ring or wielding the Staff of Aesculapius does not exercise strength)
• Kicking a door, whether or not you succeed in opening it, unless you cause a booby trapped door to explode
• Throwing a heavy iron ball or a boulder
• Pushing a boulder
• Trying to force a lock using a blunt weapon, whether or not you succeed (using a bladed weapon exercises dexterity)
• Attempting to open or close a door, which resists
• Being healed by a nurse (one in three chance)
• Consorting with a foocubus and getting the "You feel restored to health!" message
• Being healed by fire as an iron golem, or by lightning as a flesh golem
• Drinking a potion of extra healing or full healing
• Reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant armor while not wearing armor
• Attacking a monster in melee

Strength is abused by:

• Being weak from hunger (once every ten turns)
• Being hit or dragged by an iron ball while descending stairs
• Hurting your leg by kicking
• Straining a muscle when kicking at empty space
• Kicking a booby trapped door, causing it to explode
• Being hurt in any kind of explosion
• Being choked or crushed by a monster's attack
• While polymorphed into a black or brown pudding, being divided by a monster's attack
• Having your leg pricked by a xan
• Being burned by an acid attack, including an engulfing attack and a breath attack, without acid resistance
• Being subjected to a monster's acid passive attack
• Being digested (without slow digestion)
• Being pummeled by debris (by an air elemental)
• Consorting with a foocubus, and getting the "You feel exhausted" message
• Breaking out of your armor when polymorphing
• Reading a cursed scroll of enchant armor while not wearing armor
• Reading a scroll of destroy armor while not wearing armor, if you are confused, or the scroll is non-cursed
• Sitting while trapped in a spiked pit
• Being choked by an amulet of strangulation (once every turn)
• Being hit by a falling rock
• Falling into a pit, spiked or not
• Zapping yourself with a wand of striking or a force bolt spell
• Being hit by a magic missile (but not if you zapped yourself or the attack is passive)

Dexterity

Dexterity has a multitude of effects, of which the most significant is probably that it affects your chance of hitting monsters, whether in melee combat or with a missile or spell.

There is no direct way to increase your intrinsic dexterity apart from drinking a blessed potion of gain ability (or the corresponding fountain effect) which increases all stats by one. However, there are ways to exercise it, for example repeatedly picking locks. It is also exercised by fighting monsters, disarming traps, and reading a non-cursed Scroll of enchant weapon while not wielding a weapon.

Be aware that dexterity is easy to abuse. If you are trying to train it up, avoid being satiated and do not allow yourself to become strained or overtaxed. Being stunned, paralyzed, or having wounded legs is also bad for dexterity.

A pair of gauntlets of dexterity magically increases (or decreases) your dexterity by the amount of its enchantment, to a maximum of 25.

dexterity	to-hit
3	-3
4-5	-2
6-7	-1
8-14	0
15	+1
16	+2
17	+3
18	+4
19	+5
20	+6
21	+7
22	+8
23	+9
24	+10
25	+11

Reference: dothrow.c, line 1200; weapon.c, line 705.

Messages

When your dexterity changes through exercise or abuse you will receive the message:

You feel agile! You must have been working on your reflexes.

If it goes up, and:

You feel clumsy! You haven't been working on your reflexes.

if it goes down.

Exercising and abusing dexterity

Dexterity is exercised by:

• Successfully kicking a monster
• Uncovering or opening a secret door by kicking
• Uncovering a secret corridor by kicking
• Destroying a throne by kicking it
• Kicking an altar (which is a bad idea)
• Kicking a fountain
• Kicking a sink without hurting your leg
• Kicking fruit out of a tree
• Kicking a closed or locked door
• Successfully catching a returning boomerang
• Hitting a monster by throwing a weapon, weapon-tool, gem, heavy iron ball or boulder
• Trying to move without levitation or flying on the Plane of Air, failing, and getting the "It's hard to walk in thin air" message
• Using an unlocking tool to try to lock or unlock a closed door, box or chest, whether or not you succeed
• Trying to force a lock using a bladed weapon, whether or not you succeed, even if the weapon breaks (using a blunt weapon exercises strength)
• Playing a flute or harp (magic or wooden)
• Spinning a web, when polymorphed into a spider
• Casting the haste self spell or quaffing a potion of speed, or breathing the potion's vapors
• Gaining intrinsic speed from a wand of speed monster
• Attempting to disarm a container or door trap (whether or not you succeed)
• Hitting a monster in melee, unless you are engulfed and would have missed if you had not been engulfed
• Stealing gold from a monster, when polymorphed into a leprechaun
• Reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant weapon, while not wielding a weapon or weapon-tool

Dexterity is abused by:

• Being satiated (once every ten turns)
• Being strained or overtaxed (once every ten turns)
• Having wounded legs (unless you are riding), fumbling, or being stunned (once every five turns)
• Missing wildly when kicking a tiny, non-flying monster while levitating
• Hurting your leg by kicking
• Kicking at empty space (whether or not you strain a muscle)
• Levitating over a sink and falling
• Bumping into a closed door
• Trying to move without levitation or flying on the Plane of Air, failing, and getting the "You tumble in place" message
• Losing intrinsic speed through a monster attack or a wand of slow monster
• Being hit by a paralyzing attack, without free action (including a gelatinous cube's passive attack, but not a floating eye's)
• Having your leg pricked by a xan
• Quaffing a potion of paralysis, or breathing the potion's vapors, without free action
• Breathing the vapors of a potion of sleeping, without free action or sleep resistance
• Turning to stone (once every turn)
• Turning to slime (once every turn)
• Being caught in one of the following traps: bear trap, pit (spiked or not), paralysis container trap (without free action) or triggering a land mine
• Reading a cursed scroll of enchant weapon, while not wielding a weapon or weapon-tool

Constitution

Having a high constitution increases your healing rate and the number of HP you gain when levelling up and allows you to carry more weight in your inventory.

Constitution is exercised by keeping from being hungry and is increased when you sleep with a foocubus and "feel good enough to do it again."

Constitution	hp/level bonus
3	-2
4-6	-1
7-14	0
15-16	+1
17	+2
18	+3
>18	+4

Reference: attrib.c, line 649.

Above level 9, higher constitution can also help you regenerate more HP every 3 turns.

Constitution is one of the easier stats to exercise; the easiest way is simply to have a hunger status of "Not Hungry".

Messages

When you gain a point in constitution by exercising, it will say:

You feel tough! You must be leading a healthy life-style.

When you lose a point in constitution by exercising, it will say:

You feel fragile! You haven't been watching your health.

Exercising and abusing constitution

Constitution is exercised by:

• Having a hunger status of "Not hungry"
• Being healed by a nurse (one in three chance)
• Consorting with a foocubus and getting the "You feel raised to your full potential" or "You feel good enough to do it again" message
• Drinking holy water, as a non-chaotic hero, unless polymorphed into an undead or demon
• Drinking unholy water, as a chaotic hero, or polymorphed into an undead or demon
• Drinking or breathing the vapors of a potion of healing, extra healing or full healing
• Reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant armor while not wearing armor
• Digesting a monster (other than a green slime)
• Eating a non-cursed flint stone (but this is impossible in Vanilla NetHack)

Constitution is abused by:

• Having a nutrition status of "Fainting" or "Fainted" (once every ten turns)
• Being overtaxed (once every ten turns)
• Being sick, including both fatal illness and food poisoning, and non-fatal vomiting (once every five turns)
• Vomiting (every turn, in addition to the abuse from the previous item)
• Being unable to move while encumbered and with low hit points
• Passing out from exertion when heavily encumbered
• Having an object "drop from your grasp" when attempting to throw it while encumbered and with low hit points
• Choking from overnutrition (even if you have magical breathing)
• Drinking from a fountain and getting one of the following effects: contaminated water (without poison resistance), curse items ("this water's no good!")
• Falling onto a sink, if there is a weapon or weapon-tool on the sink
• Being hit by a monster attack that causes lycanthropy,, or by Famine's hunger-inducing attack
• Consorting with a foocubus and getting the "You feel drained of energy" or "You are down in the dumps" message
• Being hit by a silver object thrown at you by a monster, while polymorphed into a silver hater
• Suffering a system shock when attempting to polymorph
• Polymorphing
• Becoming deathly sick, or making your sickness worse, or only partly curing your sickness
• Drinking holy water, as a chaotic hero, or polymorphed into an undead or demon
• Drinking unholy water, as a non-chaotic hero, unless polymorphed into an undead or demon
• Drinking a non-blessed potion of sickness, as a non-Healer
• Drinking a potion of acid (unless acid resistant)
• Breathing the vapors of a potion of sickness (as a non-Healer), or a potion of polymorph
• Being turned back to your natural form, by praying to a non-chaotic god while polymorphed into an undead
• Reading a cursed scroll of enchant armor while not wearing armor
• Reading a scroll of destroy armor while not wearing armor, if you are confused, or the scroll is non-cursed
• Sitting on a throne and getting the electric shock effect
• Being caught in a poison gas or poison needle container trap, or by a booby trapped door or tin
• Being zapped by a wand of lightning, either by yourself or by a monster, while not shock resistant

Intelligence

Intelligence is useful for reading spellbooks, for spellcasting (unless you are a Healer, Knight, Monk, Priest or Valkyrie, in which case it is wisdom that affects your chances of successfully casting a spell) and for encounters with foocubi. Mind flayers have a brain-eating attack that can drain your intelligence; if you are hit by a successful brain-eating attack when your base intelligence is already 3, you die of brainlessness.

Intelligence cannot be exercised but can be increased by drinking a blessed potion of enlightenment or a potion of gain ability. It can also be increased by wearing a helm of brilliance. If you eat a mind flayer corpse, there is a 50% chance your intellegence will be increased by one point (you will get the message "For some reason, that tasted bland." if your intelligence is already at maximum.)

Wisdom

A Healer, Knight, Monk, Priest or Valkyrie requires wisdom to cast spells. Wisdom is not particularly important to other classes, though it affects how fast your power regenerates (hence is fairly important for wizards) and how much power you gain when levelling up.

Wisdom is one of the easiest stats to maximize. Many activities exercise it, including engraving Elbereth and successful searching. It can also be increased by sleeping with a foocubus and getting the "You will always remember the foocubus" message.

Messages

When your wisdom changes through exercise or abuse you will receive the message:

You feel wise!  You must have been very observant.

If it goes up, and:

You feel foolish!  You haven't been paying attention.

if it goes down.

Exercising and abusing Wisdom

Wisdom is exercised by:

• Completing the study of a spellbook (and more so if it refreshes memory of an already known spell)
• Successfully casting a spell
• Chatting to a coaligned priest with a good alignment record but no money
• Donating more than half your gold to a priest, but less than 200 times your level
• Being weak with hunger as a monk (once every ten turns)
• Being clairvoyant (once every five turns)
• Zapping a wand (except at yourself) or casting one of the following spells that duplicates a wand effect (except at yourself): force bolt, sleep, magic missile, knock, slow monster, wizard lock, dig, turn undead, polymorph, teleport away, cancellation, finger of death, light, detect unseen, healing, extra healing, drain life, and also stone to flesh (which the relevant source claims is a duplicate of a wand effect, even though it isn't).
• Zapping or engraving with a wand of enlightenment (if it is zapped, this is in addition to the exercise from the previous item)
• Attempting to polymorph into a genocided species
• Succeeding in polymorphing into a monster
• In a lycanthropic form, calling upon your brethren for help
• Touching your quest artifact for the first time
• Failing to enter the quest due to being too low a level or (except if you are locked out of the quest as a result) too low an alignment
• Unlocking the quest
• Discovering a trap on an object or door
• Quaffing holy water while not chaotic, nor in an undead or demonic form
• Quaffing a noncursed potion of enlightenment, or getting the effect from a fountain
• Sensing at least one monster or object with the appropriate detection potions, or the equivalent spells
• Detecting gold, food, or the map layout via any means
• Quaffing a potion of gain energy, even if cursed
• Quaffing burning oil, when polymorphed into a monster that likes fire
• Removing erosion from an object using a potion of oil
• Successfully refilling an oil lamp
• Being told a true rumor (more so if it came from the Oracle)
• Getting a non-cheapskate major consultation
• Kicking fruit out of a tree
• Finding a ring in a sink, by kicking or quaffing
• Succeeding in writing a scroll or spellbook, or failing merely because the marker dried out in the process
• Giving a name to all objects of a given type, via #name or when you see the object break
• Being told the amount you will have to pay for using an unpaid item in a shop
• Reading a non-blank scroll
• Getting the "You will always remember the foocubus…" (in addition to the Wisdom gain) or "That was a very educational experience!" result from sex
• Sacrificing a corpse
• As a demon, sacrificing a corpse of your own race
• Successfully converting an altar
• Gaining an artifact from your god or from a fountain
• Attempting to turn undead with a receptive god (regardless of whether the attempt succeeds or fails for other reasons)
• Calling demons as a side-effect of melee attack when polymorphed
• Eating a brain, when polymorphed into a (regular or master) mind flayer
• Finding a gem or coins in a fountain
• Gaining abilities from a magical fountain
• Gaining the see invisible intrinsic from a fountain
• Detecting monsters using a fountain
• Casting the teleport away spell using ctrl + t
• Engraving Elbereth with the correct capitalisation
• Trying to open the Castle drawbridge using music (even if the wrong tune is played)
• Finding a trap (except a statue trap that fails to activate), secret door, secret corridor, or unseen monster via searching
• Eating a non-cursed trident

Wisdom is abused by:

• Casting a spell at a location (such as skilled fireball or cone of cold) while engulfed
• Forgetting a spell due to amnesia
• Being hit by divine lightning when attacking an aligned priest
• Being satiated as a monk (once every ten turns)
• Being confused or hallucinating (once every five turns)
• Trying to saddle a foocubus
• While trapped, sitting in the trap to extend the length of time you are trapped
• Accidentally triggering a trap while trying to untrap it
• Quaffing a potion of booze
• Quaffing a cursed potion of enlightenment
• Quaffing a potion of oil, except when it's burning and you are polymorphed into a monster that likes fire
• Dipping an object into oil, unless it removes erosion from that object
• Trying to refill an oil lamp while either it or the oil is burning
• Trying to buy a major consultation from the Oracle without enough money
• Trying to write on paper which already has something written on it
• Reading a scroll of amnesia
• Being hit by a mind flayer's intelligence-draining attack
• Receiving the "your senses are dulled" message from an attempt to have sex, in addition to the Wisdom drain
• Being blasted by an artifact
• When not chaotic, sacrificing a corpse of your own race
• Failing in an attempt to convert an altar (in addition to the luck penalty)
• In a demonic or undead form, calling upon a non-chaotic god to turn undead (or any sufficiently angry god in any form)
• Throwing an egg at a monster (except if it's a cockatrice egg or it turns to stone upon impact)
• Dipping for Excalibur when not lawful, if you would have got the artifact if you were lawful
• Losing money bathing in a fountain
• Robbing a grave
• Creating undead by engraving on a gravestone
• Attempting to pick up or otherwise acquire a Rider corpse
• Using (non-tonally) a tooled horn, bugle, or leather drum
• Being told a false rumor

Charisma

Charisma is mostly useful for obtaining better prices at shops. It also helps with foocubus encounters, both by increasing the chance of a positive result and by giving more control over whether they remove your armor.

Charisma is a difficult stat to increase, as it cannot be exercised. You can gain charisma by triggering a magic trap, so some players deliberately trigger magic traps until they explode, a strategy known as the "magic trap boogie". However, this can be dangerous - many monsters will be summoned, and the towers of flame will reduce your maximum HP unless you have fire resistance.

Charisma	Price
3-5	×2
6-7	×1.5
8-10	×1.33
11-15	×1
16-17	×0.75
18	×0.67
19-25	×0.5

Reference: shk.c, line 1910.

Maximum attributes

You can increase strength, dexterity, constitution and wisdom through exercise, and adjust all six stats through other means such as potions of gain ability. Some magic items, like the helm of brilliance, gauntlets of power and gauntlets of dexterity, allow you to exceed these maximums. In fact, such items are common in ascension kits.

The maximum stats for each race are:

Race	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
Human	18/**	18	18	18	18	18
Elf	18	18	16	20	20	18
Dwarf	18/**	20	20	16	16	16
Gnome	18/50	18	18	19	18	18
Orc	18/50	18	18	16	16	16

Reference: role.c, line 405.

NetHack brass

You can ignore this section unless you play the variant called NetHack brass.

NetHack brass implements different maximum attributes per role. Find your maximum attributes by looking for your role in the next table, then applying the racial modifiers. Humans have +2 to strength. All heroes have a minimum of 3 for each attribute. The entries with the exclamation marks are the spellcasting stats for each role.

Role	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
Archeologist	16	10	17	19!	18	19
Barbarian	18/**	18	20	12!	16	10
Caveman	18/**	18	20	14!	16	15
Healer	12	19	19	19	19!	18
Knight	18/50	13	18	17	19!	19
Monk	10	20	20	18	20!	18
Priest	18	15	18	17	20!	18
Ranger	17	21	13	19!	16	19
Rogue	18	20	17	17!	17	16
Samurai	18/50	20	19	15!	15	15
Tourist	17	15	18	19!	19	19
Valkyrie	18/**	16	20	12	17!	16
Wizard	10	19	16	20!	20	18

Reference: src/role.c in NetHack brass 040923.

Racial modifiers

To find your maximum attributes in NetHack brass, after finding your role in the above table, you must apply the racial modifiers of the below table. These racial modifiers apply only to the maximum attributes of each player, not the initial attributes.

An elven Ranger of NetHack brass, for example, can reach 19+1 = 20 in charisma by increasing charisma one more time after a human Ranger would have maxed at 19.

For strength modifiers only, a +1 raises 18 to 18/50, while a +2 raises 18 to 18/** or 17 to 18/50.

Race	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
Human	+2	0	0	0	0	0
Elf	0	0	-2	+2	+2	+1
Dwarf	+2	+2	+2	-2	-2	-2
Gnome	+1	0	0	+1	0	0
Orc	+2	0	0	-2	-2	-3

Wizard mode

The wizard mode of NetHack brass supplies the #rrllududab extended command, a code that gives your maximum attributes to you, a reference to the Konami code.

SLASH'EM

You can ignore this section unless you play SLASH'EM.

SLASH'EM, mainly due to the changed behaviour of the Gauntlets of power, handles strength between 18/** and 25 differently than vanilla NetHack.

strength	to-hit	damage
3-5	-2	-1
6-7	-1	0
8-15	0	0
16	0	+1
17	+1	+1
18	+1	+2
18/01-18/99	+1	+3
18/**	+2	+4
19	+2	+5
20	+3	+6
21	+3	+7
22	+4	+8
23	+4	+9
24	+5	+10
25	+5	+11

Reference: weapon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 900.

Other traits of the player

These are important, though you might choose to avoid calling them attributes.

• hit points
• inventory
• purse
• encumbrance
• weight
• intrinsic

See Also

• Drain for gain involves manipulating your attributes, and the article discusses how to do so.

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.

It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.4.3. Information on this page may be out of date.

Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-343}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.