Imp

i imp
Difficulty	4
Attacks	Claw 1d4

i imp
Difficulty	4
Attacks	Claw 1d4
Base level	3
Base experience	32
Speed	12
Base AC	2
Base MR	20
Alignment	-7 (chaotic)
Frequency (by normal means)	1 (Very rare)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	20
Nutritional value	10
Size	Tiny
Resistances	None
Resistances conveyed	None
regenerates HP quickly. does not eat. (*) wanders randomly. can follow you to other levels. has infravision. can be seen through infravision.

The imp, i, is a minor demon in NetHack. While not very dangerous, its fairly low AC can make it difficult for low-level players to hit. Additionally, its speed and ability to follow you between levels can make it difficult to escape. A dust-written Elbereth is good for scaring an annoying imp off.

Imps tend to taunt you with random demonic maledictions, either randomly when fighting them, or when #chatted to.

Encyclopaedia entry

 ... imps ... little creatures of two feet high that could
gambol and jump prodigiously; ...

[ The Charwoman's Shadow, by Lord Dunsany ]

An 'imp' is an off-shoot or cutting. Thus an 'ymp tree' was
a grafted tree, or one grown from a cutting, not from seed.
'Imp' properly means a small devil, an off-shoot of Satan,
but the distinction between goblins or bogles and imps from
hell is hard to make, and many in the Celtic countries as
well as the English Puritans regarded all fairies as devils.
The fairies of tradition often hover uneasily between the
ghostly and the diabolic state.

[ A Dictionary of Fairies, by Katharine Briggs ]

References

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