Dwarf (starting race)
Introduction
You can play NetHack or SLASH'EM as a Dwarf h[1]. Dwarves have infravision, good physical attributes, and poor spellcasting attributes. As a dwarf, you will also find the dwarvish inhabitants of the Gnomish Mines to be generally peaceful.
Dwarves are always Lawful. They can be Archaeologists, Cavemen, or Valkyries. Curiously, the there is really no dwarf role that seems especially "dwarvish"--cavemen are primitive, archaeologists are combat-averse scientists, and valkyries are all female! The typical fantasy vision of the warrior/craftsman/miner is therefore not really available to the player of NetHack...at least not at present. The Elven ranger and Orcish barbarian seem much closer to the typical conception of those races.
Playing as a random dwarf is a good way to focus on a small number of roles.
List of dwarf monsters
| Template:Monsym/dwarf (starting race) dwarf (starting race) File:Dwarf (starting race).png | |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 4 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 1d8 |
| Base level | 2 |
| Base experience | 22 |
| Speed | 6 |
| Base AC | 10 |
| Base MR | 10 |
| Alignment | 4 (lawful) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Rare |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 900 |
| Nutritional value | 300 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | None |
| Resistances conveyed |
None
|
In the vanilla 3.4.3 dungeon, you can encounter:
- h dwarf
- h dwarf lord
- h dwarf king
- M dwarf mummy
- Z dwarf zombie
A "dwarf corpse" is dropped by the undead dwarves and is also found in graves left by player dwarves in bones.
The standard dwarf, h, is a monster in NetHack. They are not a serious threat even at low levels, however they can be generated with a very low AC due to their armor, and can turn up unexpectedly by digging.
Dwarvish items
In objects.c, vanilla 3.4.3 also defines several dwarven objects. They are listed below. The weapon damage figures are copied from weap-343.txt, the armor class figures are from armr-343.txt.
- dwarvish mattock (broad pick) - d12/d8+2d6
- dwarvish short sword (broad short sword) - d7/d8
- dwarvish spear (stout spear) - d8/d8
- dwarvish iron helm (hard hat) - AC 2
- dwarvish mithril-coat - AC 6
- dwarvish cloak (hooded cloak) - AC 0
- dwarvish roundshield (large round shield) - AC 2
You can use the above list to identify if any item is dwarvish. No dwarvish artifacts currently exist in the game. Note that dwarvish mattocks have a -1 to-hit penalty.
Dwarvish items are said to be exceptional metalworks. (Those crude orcish items have the opposite reputation.) The mithril-coat will never rust nor corrode, and carries three points of magic cancellation.
The dwarvish mithril-coat gives one more point of AC protection than the elven mithril-coat, however the dwarvish cloak gives one less point than the elven counterpart. The dwarvish shield is quite heavy compared to the elven one, even though they have the same AC.
Footnotes
- ↑ You will see yourself as @ (unless you have showrace on), but you are considered to be both @ and letter h. Therefore, using blessed genocide to eliminate mind flayers is a bad idea, as it will result in an instadeath.
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