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 has intrinsic sleep resistance. The Elvenking shares its colored glyph with the Wizard of Yendor.
Eating an Elvenking's corpse or tin has 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 are occasionally peaceful towards chaotic humans. Elf-lords can grow up into Elvenkings.
Outside of normal random generation, hostile Elvenkings can be found in throne rooms occupying the throne itself, which becomes more likely the deeper the throne room is within the dungeon. Elvenkings can also be created via the summon nasties monster spell. A hostile Elvenking with a pick-axe is guaranteed to appear on the Plane of Earth.
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] Elvenkings that rule over throne rooms will always have a mace. As Elvenkings are overlords to their kind, any weapons they generate with will be at least +1, and any armor will be at least +0.
Strategy
Elvenkings represent a nasty threat for an early game player that stumbles upon one presiding over a throne room - this can occur as early as the fifth dungeon level, and throne room Elvenkings can deal surprising amounts of damage with their mace. Furthermore, they ignore Elbereth like most elves, requiring players that cannot match them in melee to pick them off with projectiles, spells or wands. In the later stages of the game, you are more likely to both encounter random Elvenkings and be prepared for them; their primary threat comes from the summon nasties spell generating an Elvenking that ignores the Elbereth engravings typically used to drive off other nasties.
If the Wizard of Yendor summons nasties while you are fighting him, be sure to far look any @ that appear to identify potential Elvenkings; as it is common practice to zap the Wizard with a death ray at the first opportunity, it is wise to ensure you have the right target.
The pick-axe from the Elvenking on the Plane of Earth can be used to navigate through the level, but only consider this if there are little to no other options available - most players should have several digging wands on hand 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 another wand of digging.
As a polyform
Elvenkings are solidly powerful as polyforms for non-elven players - they are strong (which sets 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 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 royal, with male monarchs called "elven kings" and female monarchs called "elven queens".
