Attribute

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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#line695.

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:

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:

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

Exercising and abusing strength

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.)

Strength is exercised by:

Strength is abused by:

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.

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#line1200,Weapon.c#line705.

Messages

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

You have been abusing your dexterity, and you lost one point of it.

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

You have been exercising your dexterity, and you gained one point of it.

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#line649.

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

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.

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:

Wisdom is abused by:

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#line1910.

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#line405.

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: SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2/weapon.c#line900.

Other traits of the player

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

Source code references

  1. attrib.c#line338
  2. attrib.c#line339
  3. attrib.c#line354
  4. dokick.c#line1056
  5. dokick.c#line1060
  6. dothrow.c#line1348
  7. dothrow.c#line1362
  8. hack.c#line237
  9. lock.c#line142
  10. lock.c#line576
  11. lock.c#line692
  12. mhitu.c#line1405
  13. mhitu.c#line2347
  14. polyself.c#line1291
  15. potion.c#line813
  16. read.c#line680
  17. uhitm.c#line379
  18. attrib.c#line325
  19. ball.c#line777
  20. ball.c#line784
  21. dokick.c#line1003
  22. dokick.c#line1031
  23. dokick.c#line1051
  24. explode.c#line364
  25. trap.c#line3686
  26. trap.c#line3855
  27. potion.c#line1671
  28. zap.c#line1841
  29. zap.c#line3940
  30. mhitu.c#line930
  31. mhitu.c#line960
  32. mhitu.c#line1175
  33. mhitu.c#line1458
  34. mhitu.c#line1175
  35. zap.c#line3175
  36. uhitm.c#line2176
  37. mhitu.c#line1713
  38. mhitu.c#line1727
  39. mhitu.c#line2314
  40. polyself.c#line579
  41. read.c#line680
  42. read.c#line789
  43. read.c#line800
  44. sit.c#line83
  45. timeout.c#line108
  46. trap.c#line726
  47. trap.c#line938
  48. zap.c#line1895
  49. zap.c#line3082
  50. spell.c#line336
  51. spell.c#line355
  52. spell.c#line808
  53. priest.c#line472
  54. priest.c#line493
  55. attrib.c#line327
  56. attrib.c#line353
  57. zap.c#line1862
  58. spell.c#line859
  59. spell.c#line869
  60. zap.c#line2454
  61. zap.c#line1802
  62. polyself.c#line340
  63. polyself.c#line565
  64. polyself.c#line918
  65. quest.c#line90
  66. quest.c#line249
  67. quest.c#line261
  68. quest.c#line266
  69. trap.c#line3504
  70. trap.c#line3570
  71. potion.c#line480
  72. potion.c#line529
  73. fountain.c#line243
  74. potion.c#line647
  75. potion.c#line653
  76. detect.c#line282
  77. detect.c#line384
  78. detect.c#line951
  79. potion.c#line858
  80. potion.c#line878
  81. potion.c#line1824
  82. potion.c#line1855
  83. rumors.c#line129
  84. rumors.c#line170
  85. rumors.c#line373
  86. dokick.c#line918
  87. dokick.c#line988
  88. fountain.c#line561
  89. write.c#line179
  90. o_init.c#line319
  91. shk.c#line3919
  92. read.c#line655
  93. mhitu.c#line2342
  94. pray.c#line1116
  95. pray.c#line1170
  96. pray.c#line1383
  97. pray.c#line1481
  98. fountain.c#line384
  99. pray.c#line1690
  100. uhitm.c#line1180
  101. uhitm.c#line1560
  102. fountain.c#line145
  103. fountain.c#line487
  104. fountain.c#line225
  105. fountain.c#line305
  106. fountain.c#line311
  107. teleport.c#line536
  108. engrave.c#line373
  109. music.c#line541
  110. detect.c#line1136
  111. detect.c#line1232
  112. detect.c#line1193
  113. detect.c#line1203
  114. detect.c#line1211
  115. eat.c#line1635
  116. spell.c#line989
  117. spell.c#line1017
  118. priest.c#line661
  119. attrib.c#line322
  120. attrib.c#line357
  121. steed.c#line93
  122. sit.c#line75
  123. trap.c#line3066
  124. potion.c#line508
  125. potion.c#line519
  126. potion.c#line878
  127. potion.c#line1824
  128. potion.c#line1838
  129. rumors.c#line373
  130. write.c#line105
  131. read.c#line1119
  132. mhitu.c#line1114
  133. mhitu.c#line2300
  134. artifact.c#line545
  135. pray.c#line1173
  136. pray.c#line1407
  137. pray.c#line1680
  138. uhitm.c#line799
  139. fountain.c#line373
  140. fountain.c#line450
  141. fountain.c#line469
  142. dig.c#line770
  143. engrave.c#line541
  144. pickup.c#line1324
  145. music.c#line424
  146. music.c#line429
  147. music.c#line462
  148. rumors.c#line129

See Also

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


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