Elf
- "You feel awake!"
Introduction
You can play NetHack or SLASH'EM as an Elf @. The most significant traits of elves are that they have infravision, they receive sleep resistance at experience level 4, and that their strength is capped at 18, far below what other races can reach. This alone makes elves more difficult to play than other races.
In vanilla 3.4.3, elves have infravision and 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.[1]
- 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 Elf, in SLASH'EM you play as a Drow.
You can also encounter various elves randomly generated in the dungeon. If you are an Elf, most other elves will be peaceful.
List of elf monsters
In the vanilla 3.4.3 dungeon, you can encounter:
All of the above are @. You might also find an elf mummy, which is M.
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.
- 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
- 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[2].
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-armor gives one more point of AC protection than the elven mithril-armor. Dwarves seem to work metal better than elves do.
- This page is a stub. Should you wish to do so, you can contribute by expanding this page.
A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:
"Some spoilers suggest that elven items can be enchanted more than others... add that info?"
Elves and strength
Strength is that 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 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.
It feels so great to have gauntlets of strength. 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.
Footnotes
- ↑ In an older version of vanilla NetHack, "Elf" was actually a separate role. All other roles belonged to humans. The Quest artifact of an Elf was a crystall ball called the Palantir of Westernesse; it does not exist in the current version.
- ↑ A runed broadsword is normally an elven broadsword, however the "runesword" Stormbringer is also a runed broadsword. With the exception of Stormbringer, runeswords are never generated.
