Gnoll

The gnolls are a group of monsters that appear in many variants of NetHack, with their implementation varying widely depending on the variant in question. In almost all instances, they are related in some significant manner to Yeenoghu, who is considered the demon lord of gnolls: in vanilla NetHack, his encyclopedia entry state that he still exists despite his followers being "wiped off the face of the earth".

Gnolls first appear in the Lethe patch designed for NetHack 3.3.1.

List of gnolls by variant

Below is a list of each implementation of the gnolls as a distinct group of monsters, the variants they appear in, and the common characteristics that they share amongst each other.

• Gnoll (SLASH'EM): The first implementation of gnolls as monsters occurs in SLASH'EM, and these gnolls also appear in SlashTHEM. All gnolls in SLASH'EM are a part of the gnome monster class, as in the Lethe patch, and do not use their own monster flags or any similar flags to distinguish them from gnomes, instead simply lacking the gnome monster attribute. A comment in monst.c indicates that SLASH'EM gnolls were part of the humanoid monster class in SLASH and other versions prior to incorporating the Lethe patch. The gnoll monsters of SLASH'EM are:
  • G gnoll
  • G gnoll warrior
  • G gnoll chieftain
  • G gnoll shaman
• Gnoll (dNetHack): The implementation of gnolls in dNetHack is also used in notdNetHack. These gnolls are entirely different from the ones used in SLASH'EM and other variants - they are scattered across a few monster classes, and are defined by is_gnoll in mondata.h. The gnoll monsters of dNetHack are:
  • h gnoll
  • Z gnoll ghoul
  • H gnoll matriarch
  • h anubite
  • & Yeenoghu
• Gnoll (SpliceHack): Unlike most other variants, the implementation of gnolls in SpliceHack provides the monsters with their own monster class and an accompanying glyph, 9. The monsters themselves are otherwise identical to those in SLASH'EM, with the exception of the newly-added marrashi. The gnoll monsters of SpliceHack are:
  • 9 gnoll
  • 9 gnoll warrior
  • 9 gnoll chieftain
  • 9 gnoll shaman
  • 9 marrashi
• Gnoll (EvilHack): The implementation of gnolls in EvilHack is also distinct from other variants, and places all of the live gnolls in the humanoid monster class, incidentally the same as older versions of SLASH'EM. EvilHack also gives gnolls a zombie form that is unique among their monster type for the ability to induce withering. The gnoll monsters of EvilHack are:
  • h gnoll
  • h gnoll hunter
  • h gnoll cleric
  • h flind
  • Z gnoll witherling
• Gnoll (GnollHack):
• Gnoll (Hack'EM): The implementation of gnolls in Hack'EM combines the versions of the monsters from SLASH'EM with the ones introduced in SpliceHack and EvilHack. The gnoll monsters of Hack'EM are:
  • G gnoll
  • G gnoll warrior
  • G gnoll chieftain
  • G gnoll shaman
  • G flind
  • G marrashi
  • Z gnoll witherling