Elf

Racial benefits and restrictions

You can play NetHack or SLASH'EM as an Elf @. In vanilla 3.4.3, Elves are always Chaotic. They can be Priests, Rangers, or Wizards. Playing as a random Elf is a good way to focus on a small number of roles.

In SLASH'EM, Elves are always Lawful or Neutral, and they have access to far more roles than in vanilla. If you want a Chaotic version of the Elf, in SLASH'EM you play as a different race, the Drow.

The most significant traits of Elves are that they have intrinsic infravision and they receive sleep resistance at experience level 4. From an attribute perspective, Elves excel mentally, with the highest Intelligence and Wisdom of all races. For every bonus there is a penalty, however, as their Strength is capped at 18, the lowest of all races. They also have the lowest Constitution of all races, capped at 16. These reasons alone makes Elves more difficult to play than other races. The following table outlines their maximum (unaided) attribute levels.

Character Race	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
Elf	18	18	16	20	20	18

List of Elf monsters

You can also encounter various Elves randomly generated in the dungeon. If you are an Elf, most other Elves will be peaceful.

In the vanilla 3.4.3 dungeon, you can encounter:

• @ Woodland-elf
• @ Green-elf
• @ Grey-elf
• @ elf-lord
• @ Elvenking

You might also find an Elf mummy, which is M, or an Elf zombie, which is Z.

The source file monst.c, which defines all monsters, also defines a plain "Elf", however those are not generated. They only exist for their corpses. The "Elf corpse" is dropped by the Elf mummy and is also found in graves left by player Elves in bones.

Elven items

In objects.c, vanilla 3.4.3 also defines several Elven objects. They are listed below. The weapon damage figures are copied from weap-343.txt, the armor class figures are from armr-343.txt.

Weapons:

• Elven arrow (runed arrow) - d7/d6
• Elven spear (runed spear) - d7/d8
• Elven dagger (runed dagger) - d5/d3
• Elven short sword (runed short sword) - d8/d8
• Elven broadsword (runed broadsword) - d6+d4/d6+1
• Elven bow (runed bow) - d2/d2

Armor:

• Elven leather helm (leather hat) - AC 1
• Elven mithril-coat - AC 5
• Elven cloak (faded pall) - AC 1
• Elven shield (blue and green shield) - AC 2
• Elven boots (random appearance) - AC 1

You can use the above list to identify if any item is Elven, except for the Elven boots. All runed weapons are Elven except for Stormbringer .

Elven items have a reputation for high quality. (Those crude Orcish items have the opposite reputation.) For example, the Elven dagger does more damage than a normal dagger. Elves also make their blades from wood (others are iron), so Elven daggers and swords will never become rusty or corroded, but they might be burnt or rotted.

As an exception, the Dwarvish mithril-coat gives one more point of AC protection than the Elven mithril-coat; however, the Elven coat can be enchanted two points higher than the Dwarvish equivalent without the risk of item destruction, for one net point of superior protection.

Elven armor can be safely enchanted if its current enchantment is +5 or less, compared to +3 or less for most other armor.

Elves and strength

Strength is one attribute that allows players to carry more weight and hit monsters with more damage.

Long after an Elf reaches their cap, other players will be eating giant corpses and otherwise raising their strength far above 18, toward 18/50 or 18/**. Meanwhile, the weight limit will tempt the Elf to leave that unicorn horn and pick-axe in the blessed bag of holding, and to leave all of their spellbooks and surplus artifacts in a chest somewhere.

Therefore it is beneficial to have gauntlets of power. They boost Strength to 25, and might make a good wish, but they are not an option for those who like to wear gauntlets of dexterity, such as some Elf Wizards.