Goblin
o goblin 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 1 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 1d4 |
| Base level | 0 |
| Base experience | 6 |
| Speed | 9 |
| Base AC | 10 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | −3 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 2 (Quite rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 400 |
| Nutritional value | 100 |
| Size | Small |
| Resistances | None |
| Resistances conveyed |
None |
|
A goblin:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line661 |
The goblin, o, is a common monster that appears in NetHack. It is likely to be the very first orcish monster you meet, if not one of the first monsters overall.
Goblins are the only orcish monster that do not have the strong monster attribute.
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.
Orc shamans also lack the "strong" monster attribute as of commit b6a3d4b.Contents
Generation
Goblins may generate as peaceful towards chaotic, non-elven player characters.[1]
A goblin has a 1⁄2 chance of being generated with an orcish helm like other orcish monsters, and a separate 1⁄2 chance of receiving an orcish dagger.[2] [3]
Various named goblins may appear in Minetown and other branches of the dungeon in a game where Orcish Town is generated.
Strategy
While fairly weak overall, goblins can be an early threat if their randomly generated helm and/or dagger turn out to be decently enchanted, or else they come across a wand that they can zap at you. Thankfully, goblins are too small to take advantage of body armor, and their HP is generally low enough that one or two hits will dispatch them easily. Their leftover orcish daggers can be used as early weapons to train in dagger, or serve as a way to force open locked containers until an unlocking tool is found.
Neutral players should make sure to kill goblins themselves - as a early chaotic spawn, the alignment record gain ensures that successful prayer is possible after turn 300. This is essential for strategies like the protection racket (which relies on gaining alignment while avoiding killing coaligned monsters and keeping experience low) and conducts that require frequent prayer (like foodless).
If there are altars nearby, orcish characters can kill hostile goblins or sic pets on peaceful ones and use their corpses to convert them (if necessary), then raise Luck and generate peaceful foocubi from further sacrifices. The altar to Moloch in Orcish Town is a good candidate for this, though be sure to convert it with a non-orcish corpse first - same-race sacrifice will not convert an unaligned altar, and you will take a -2 Luck penalty.
Origin
The goblin has its origins in the folklore of multiple European cultures, first appearing in stories from the Middle Ages; their abilities, temperaments and appearances depend entirely on the story and country of origin. Goblins are almost always portrayed as small and grotesque, varying from mischievous to outright malicious, and are usually greedy (especially for gold and jewelry). Many folkloric goblins have magical abilities similar to a fairy or demon.
In Dungeons & Dragons and other modern fantasy fiction, "goblinoids" refer to goblins and related creatures such as bugbears and hobgoblins, the latter of which are also orcish monsters in NetHack; their goblins are also derived from the orcs of J. R. R. Tolkien, who in his Middle-earth works used "orc" and "goblin" for the same race of creatures. Most fantasy-based role-playing games also employ goblins as standard beginner-level enemies for the player.
History
The goblin is included in the bestiary for hack121, a variant of Jay Fenlason's Hack, and makes its vanilla debut in NetHack 3.0.0; the hobgoblin generally occupied the niche of the "weaker orc" in versions prior to 3.0.0.
From versions 3.1.0 to 3.2.3, several goblins could be encountered in the Elf quest branch, including the Elf's quest nemesis, the Goblin King. Many goblins would also appear in the Hobbit quest as well.
Variants
dNetHack
In dNetHack, the defunct Elf quest is retooled as the Elvish Racial Quest, which has several goblins on the home, locate and lower filler levels. The Chaos Temple Quest also has twelve goblins randomly generated in the grassy forest of the Ruined Temple map at level creation, and half of the randomly generated monsters on that level will be goblins.
xNetHack
In xNetHack, goblins have poison resistance like all orcish monsters.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, goblins have poison resistance like other orcish monsters. EvilHack also adds three stronger types of goblin: the goblin shaman, the goblin outrider, and the goblin-captain.
Encyclopedia entry
Now goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted. They make
no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones. They
can tunnel and mine as well as any but the most skilled
dwarves, when they take the trouble, though they are usually
untidy and dirty. Hammers, axes, swords, daggers, pickaxes,
tongs, and also instruments of torture, they make very well,
or get other people to make to their design, prisoners and
slaves that have to work till they die for want of air and
light.
