Dispater

& Dispater
Difficulty	40
Attacks	Weapon 4d6, spell-casting

& Dispater
Difficulty	40
Attacks	Weapon 4d6, spell-casting
Base level	36
Base experience	1923
Speed	15
Base AC	-2
Base MR	80
Alignment	15 (lawful)
Frequency (by normal means)	Unique
Genocidable	No
Weight	1500
Nutritional value	500
Size	Medium
Resistances	Fire, poison
Resistances conveyed	None
Dispater: can fly. has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso. can see invisible creatures. is poisonous to eat. does not eat. (*) is not a valid polymorphable form. is a demon. is an overlord to its kind. is male. is normally generated hostile. can follow you to other levels. is nasty. can pick up weapons and food. wants the Amulet of Yendor. has infravision. can be seen through infravision. appears only in Gehennom. never leaves a corpse.
Reference	monst.c#line2704

Dispater, &, is one of the many demon princes that can appear in NetHack. Like all other demon princes, he is covetous and will attempt to steal the Amulet of Yendor if you possess it.

Generation

Dispater is one of three demon princes without his own lair, the other two being Geryon and Demogorgon. He can only appear if summoned via the summon nasties in Gehennom or gated in by another lawful demon (e.g., Asmodeus, Baalzebub or Geryon).

He is always generated with a wand of striking.

Strategy

Dispater has a lot of hit points, great magic resistance, and powerful spell attacks - but he will generally not use them until after uses up his relatively harmless wand of striking. This makes it a very good idea to kill him as quickly as possible.

Origin

NetHack's incarnation of Dispater is based on the unique archdevil found in Dungeons & Dragons source books, who is in turn based on Dīs Pater, a Roman god of the underworld later subsumed by Pluto or the Greek Hades. Originally a chthonic god of riches, fertile agricultural land, and underground mineral wealth, he was later commonly equated with the Roman underworld deities Pluto and Orcus.

In Dungeons & Dragons, Dispater's appearance is that of a handsome human about 2 meters (ca. 7 feet) tall, with two small horns, a tail and a cloven left hoof - Dispater's portrayal in NetHack retains just the former trait.

The "City of Dis" mentioned in the encyclopedia entry is based on the portrayal of the deity in the Inferno, where it was the infernal city that the sixth circle of Hell consisted of. While this city does not appear in NetHack itself, some variants add a lair inspired by it.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, all demon princes have lairs. Dispater's lair is located between levels 10-15 of Gehennom.

Encyclopaedia entry

The Roman ruler of the underworld and fortune, similar to the
Greek Hades. Every hundred years, the Ludi Tarentini were
celebrated in his honor. The Gauls regarded Dis Pater as
their ancestor. The name is a contraction of the Latin Dives,
"the wealthy", Dives Pater, "the wealthy father", or "Fater
Wealth". It refers to the wealth of precious stone below the
earth.

[ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]