Elvenking
@ elvenking 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 11 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 2d4, weapon 2d4 |
| Base level | 9 |
| Base experience | 196 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 10 |
| Base MR | 25 |
| Alignment | -10 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 800 |
| Nutritional value | 350 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | Sleep |
| Resistances conveyed |
Sleep (60%) |
|
An Elvenking:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line2346 |
An Elvenking, @, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is the strongest of the elves, and like all elves have intrinsic sleep resistance. The Elvenking shares a colored glyph with the Wizard of Yendor.
Eating an Elvenking's corpse or tin have a 60% chance to grant sleep resistance, which is the second-most among elves.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
The Elvenking has been renamed to the elven monarch; female elven monarchs are called Elvenqueens.Contents
Generation
Randomly-generated Elvenkings will be peaceful towards chaotic elven players, and occasionally are also peaceful towards chaotic humans.
Elvenkings can be generated with any type of elven equipment, and are eligible for offensive, defensive and miscellaneous items. They have a 2⁄3 chance to be generated with a pick-axe, and have a 1⁄50 chance of generating with a crystal ball.[1] Elf-lords can grow up into Elvenkings.
Outside of normal generation, Elvenkings can be found in throne rooms occupying the throne itself, and are more likely to be found in much deeper throne rooms within the dungeon; an Elvenking with a pick-axe is guaranteed to appear on the Plane of Earth. Elvenkings can also be created via the summon nasties monster spell.
Strategy
Elvenkings represent a nasty threat for an early game player that stumbles upon a throne room with one presiding over it - such a room can rarely appear as early as the fifth dungeon level, and throne room Elvenkings can deal surprising amounts of damage with the mace they are given. Furthermore, they will ignore Elbereth like most elves, requiring players to maintain a distance and pick them off with projectiles, spells or wands. In the latter half of the dungeon where Elvenkings are more typically encountered, you are more likely to be more prepared for one - the threat of later Elvenkings lies in the fact that monster spellcasters can summon them, and it is common to employ Elbereth to avoid being surrounded.
When dealing with the Wizard of Yendor, if he summons nasties, far look any @ that appear to ensure you are targeting Rodney himself and not an Elvenking; as it is common practice to zap the Wizard with a death ray at the first opportunity, it especially helps to make sure you don't squander a valuable charge on the wrong target.
The pick-axe from the Elvenking on the Plane of Earth can be used to navigate through the plane, but only consider this if there are little to no other options available - most players should have several wands of digging handy alongside a pick-axe or mattock of their own by the time they reach the Elemental Planes, and the minotaur that also appears will provide still another wand.
As a polyform
Elvenkings are solidly powerful polyforms for non-elven players - they are strong (which boosts player strength to 18/**), can wear all armor and have two weapon attacks that add +2d4 damage, enabling twoweaponing in that form.[2][3]
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
As part of resolving issue #679 regarding congruence between non-player monsters and their player counterparts. commit b6a3d4b makes it so that elven monarchs and other elven polyforms are capped at 18 strength as player elves are.History
The Elvenking first appears in NetHack 3.0.0.
Origin
The rare possibility of Elvenkings generating with a crystal ball is an allusion to the palantír, a magical artifact from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth novels. Palantíri are indestructible crystal balls used for communicating and viewing past and future events in other parts of the realm, and were made by the Elves of Valinor in the First Age. Elves are the only player-usable race in the game that can naturally reach an Intelligence of 20, which allows them to apply crystal balls with no chance of failure.
Messages
- You feel very comfortable here.
- You sat on a throne while polymorphed into an Elvenking or other "royal" monster.
Variants
GruntHack
In GruntHack, Elvenkings are replaced by the racial king and queen monsters, which can be elven.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, the monster is renamed to an elven monarch, with male monarchs called "elven kings" and female monarchs called "elven queens".
