Bat or bird

The bat or bird is a monster class that appears in NetHack, and is represented by an uppercase B glyph (B). Bats and birds are designated internally by the macro S_BAT.

The class contains the following monsters:

• B bat
• B giant bat
• B raven
• B vampire bat

Common traits

Bats and birds are neutral animals that are typically hostile towards you with the exception of the standard bat, which may generate as peaceful if you are neutral. They are visible via infravision and capable of flying, and generally move erratically - a player polymorphed into any bat or bird monster is intrinsically stunned.

Tame bats and birds are capable of consuming meat.

History

The standard bat appears in Hack121, a variant of Jay Fenlason's Hack, where it uses the b glyph; in PDP-11 Hack and Hack 1.0, it begins using the B glyph. The giant bat and vampire bat first appear in NetHack 3.0.0, while the raven first appears in NetHack 3.3.0.

Variants

SLASH'EM

SLASH'EM introduces several new monsters to the bat or bird monster class:

• B rhumbat
• B athol
• B hellbat
• B mongbat
• B mobat
• B harpy
• B byakhee
• B nightgaunt