Elemental

The elemental is a monster class that appears in NetHack, and is represented by the uppercase E glyph (E). Elementals are designated internally by the macro S_ELEMENTAL.

The monster class contains the following monsters:

• E stalker
• E air elemental
• E earth elemental
• E fire elemental
• E water elemental

Common traits

All elementals are strong, inediate and neutral-aligned monsters. Except for the stalker, they are mindless and amorphous, and possess an MR score of 30.

Generation

Excluding the stalker, each of the elementals has a corresponding Elemental Plane that is considered their 'home plane', where they will be generated three times the normal amount of hit points, and their maximum HP-gain threshold is similarly multiplied by 3.

Minus the stalker, elementals do not leave behind corpses upon death.

History

The elemental monster class is introduced in NetHack 3.0.0 with the exception of the stalker: it first appears in Hack for PDP-11 (a variant of Jay Fenlason's Hack) but is not moved to the monster class until NetHack 3.3.0, which is the first version to repurpose its former I glyph to indicate the last known position of any invisible monster.

Variants

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, at least one elemental of each type is generated on a specific square within the Cloud Bank of the Lawful Quest at level creation, with a ³⁄₅ chance of a second one of that type being placed nearby - four other random elementals are placed as well.

SpliceHack

SpliceHack introduces many new monsters to the monster class:

SpliceHack also adds the scroll of elementalism, which can summon a random elemental.

SlashTHEM

In addition to SLASH'EM details, SlashTHEM adds the following monsters to the monster class:

• E ice elemental
• E greater air elemental
• E greater earth elemental
• E greater fire elemental
• E greater water elemental

The four elementals from NetHack cannot grow up into their "greater" counterparts.

Each set of elementals has a quest artifact that can be invoked to summon a tame elemental, including the artifacts carried over from SLASH'EM:

• The Flame Mage quest artifact, The Candle of Eternal Flame, for fire elementals
• The Ice Mage quest artifact, The Storm Whistle, for ice elementals (changed from SLASH'EM)
• The Electric Mage quest artifact, The Harp of Lightning, for air elementals
• The Acid Mage quest artifact, The Flute of Slime, for earth elementals
• The Firefighter quest artifact, the Fire Chief Helmet, for water elementals

The invoke effects for the Acid and Electric Mage quest artifacts are based on the associations between particular elements in Dungeons & Dragons.

Each invoke effect ³⁄₄ chance of generating a standard elemental of that type and a ¹⁄₄ chance of generating a greater elemental - for The Storm Whistle, it instead has a ¹⁄₄ chance of creating an ice elemental, and will otherwise create an ice vortex.

Encyclopedia entry

Elementals are manifestations of the basic nature of the
universe. There are four known forms of elementals: air, fire,
water, and earth. Some mystics have postulated the necessity
for a fifth type, the spirit elemental, but none have ever
been encountered, at least on this plane of existence.