Jabberwock
J jabberwock 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 18 |
| Attacks |
Bite 2d10, bite 2d10, claw 2d10, claw 2d10 |
| Base level | 15 |
| Base experience | 489 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | -2 |
| Base MR | 50 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 1300 |
| Nutritional value | 600 |
| Size | Large |
| Resistances | None |
| Resistances conveyed |
None |
|
A jabberwock:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line1576 |
A jabberwock, J, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is the only utilized member of the jabberwock monster class in the game - the vorpal jabberwock is also a part of the monster class, but is deferred.
Jabberwocks are considered kebabable, granting a +2 to-hit bonus when you use a weapon with the spear or javelin skill against it. They are strong, capable of flight, and have two bite attacks and two claw attacks, all of which hit very hard and can catch unwary adventurers off guard - however, a jabberwock will be instantly beheaded if hit by Vorpal Blade.
Contents
Generation
Two jabberwocks are generated on the Plane of Air.
Jabberwocks are generated asleep 4⁄5 of the time unless you have the Amulet of Yendor.[1] They are also valid forms for polymorph, e.g. from polymorph traps.
Strategy
Though you will usually be able to hit through its -2 AC and outpace its 12 speed, a jabberwock is best left undisturbed if you find a sleeping one. Unfortunately, by the time they start generating normally, you are likely already encountering monsters that can cast the aggravate monster spell - in any event, even with stealth do not count on a jabberwock to remain asleep for long.
In the early stages of the game, shapeshifters such as chameleons may present a unwelcome and possibly game-ending obstacle if they take the form of a jabberwock while closing in on you. A character that has access to the Vorpal Blade can easily dispatch any jabberwock they come across; other characters that are prepared for the lower dungeons can usually fight one off with some difficulty, and should take as much care as possible not to let it breach melee range. The jabberwock's MR score of 50 makes certain types of spells and wands unreliable against it, though it thankfully has no elemental resistances.
As a pet
Jabberwocks are very strong pets, and are among the most powerful flying monsters that can serve as steeds. Relative to dragons, they are significantly faster and deal much more melee damage, but their lack of resistances and reflection leaves them vulnerable to a variety of instadeaths.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
Pets can gain resistances by eating corpses. A properly-fed and hasted jabberwock may have survivability comparable to the inediate ki-rin.History
The jabberwock first appears in NetHack 3.0.5.
Origin
The jabberwock is a creature featured in Jabberwocky, a famous nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll, and its encyclopedia entry is an excerpt from the poem. Jabberwocky is first printed in Carroll's 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass, the sequel to the 1865 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Alice finds herself in a looking-glass world and encounters the poem as part of a book written in a seemingly unintelligible language; she shortly discovers the text and the world at large is in fact inverted (or mirrored), and holds a mirror to the poem to read it, finding it as puzzling as the odd land she is now in. The poem is also the inspiration for the artifact weapon Vorpal Blade, based on the unnamed adventurer's weapon that is used to behead the jabberwock - this is also the basis for the jabberwock's weakness to Vorpal Blade.
The original illustrations by John Tenniel accompanying the poem (and the rest of the two novels) depict the titular jabberwock as a bipedal creature that vaguely resembles a dragon: It has bat-like wings, a long serpentine neck, a long tail, a weird head with rabbit-like teeth, hands with three long spidery talons, and a waistcoat. Some of the jabberwock's more particular traits may reflect the contemporary Victorian obsession with natural history and the then fast-evolving sciences of paleontology and geology.
Messages
Variants
Most variants do not change the jabberwock significantly, though several of them do also implement the vorpal jabberwock.
Encyclopedia entry
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
References
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1262: chance of jabberwocks being generated asleep
