Knight

The knight is one of the player roles in NetHack. Knights are always lawful humans.

Starting Equipment

• +1 long sword
• +1 lance
• +1 ring mail
• +0 helmet
• +0 small shield
• +0 leather gloves
• 10 to 20 uncursed apples
• 10 to 20 uncursed carrots

Starting pet is always a pony with a saddle.

Abilities

Knights can identify all weapons and non-magical armor from the beginning. They also have a special intrinsic ability to #jump like the knight piece in chess. They are able to #turn undead, and their special spell is turn undead.

• At Experience Level 7 knights gain intrinsic speed.

Skills

Knight skills
Max	Skills
Basic	Weapons: dagger, knife, pick-axe, scimitar, club, flail, hammer, trident, bow
Skilled	Weapons: axe, short sword, broadsword, two-handed sword, saber, mace, morning star, polearms, spear, crossbow Combat: two weapon combat Spells: attack, healing, clerical
Expert	Weapons: long sword, lance Combat: bare hands, riding

Quest

Main article: Knight quest

The quest monster is a quasit. The quest nemesis is a dragon called Ixoth. He is a rather tough opponent, although he can be dealt with by using Elbereth or paralysis. Knights receive the Magic Mirror of Merlin after the quest, which allows them to become powerful spellcasters.

Code of conduct

There are special rules of conduct for a knight:

Honor in combat

"You caitiff!"

Knights take a -1 alignment penalty for attacking sleeping, paralysed or fleeing monsters (even if the monster continues to attack while fleeing).

Frugality in food

"You feel like a glutton!"

There is a -1 alignment penalty for eating while satiated.

Honorable Shopping

"You feel like a common thief."

There is a -1 alignment penalty for digging down in a shop.

Strategy

Difficulty

The knight is perhaps the easiest class in the game if you apply the proper tactics. Unfortunately most people play it as barbarian: fighting on foot, with a sword and accepting to trade blows with monsters. Wrong!!!! You fight with your lance, mounted and by skillful retreats, combined with the lance special abilities you will be able to deal with Minotaurs, Dragons and ArchDaemons without losing a single hit point (ArchDaemons still get an attack when they teleport next to you but that is all).

Before proceeding further read the lance article.

Because it theorically does less damage and there is no relic people playing knights tend to discard the lance and rely on the sword. But the ranged attack of the lance (by applying it) and jousting more than compensate. In fact even when having a relic it is better to use the lance except when you need the relic's special ability (eg Excalibur's protection against level draining. At high skill levels the lance is ideal for dealing with situations where you find youself surrounded: every joust (and you will be getting a lot of them) means a monster who will not be attacking you this round and possibly allow you to slip away. At base skill levels you will rarely succeed in jousting, so when foe gets until adjacent square (after taking blows when you applied lance on him) then if you are in a room jump away. As an aside: you don't get paralyzed when you apply your lance on a floating eye.

For making full use of your lance you need two things: light and speed.

You will be unable to apply your lance if you cannot see your foe. Detecting it by telepathy doesn't work. Thus having a magic candle is important.

Speed is still more important for a knight than for other classes. If you are faster than your opponent and you joust it it will be unable to hit back. You can have a jokari sequence with it without it ever being able to attack. Being encumbered slows you and bars you from jumping: never fight while encumbered: get a bag, put in it everything you don't need to have at hand for a combat and drop it as soon you see a monster. At 7th level you will become fast but becoming very fast (eg by getting boots of speed) will make your jokari sequences much more effective.

Don't charge your opponent unless there is a very good reason: it will probably get an attack before you can begin to joust it.

Become invisible: Monsters will detect you only if they move adjacent. But if you stay at a distance of two you will remain undetected (even if carrying a light!) and they will move aimlessly while you apply your lance on them again and again until they are killed.

Care for your lance: Lances are nearly impossible to replace (short of wishing for one) and +0 lances can break if you joust so until you can get it enchanted at +1 or better, use only its applying ability: avoid using it for close combat (specially at new moon). Also until you can get it rustproofed (or at least covered with grease) don't wear it in places likely to have rusttraps (eg most levels of the Gnome Mines).

Care for your horse: You don't want to mount your pony as soon you enter the dungeon: for one side there is a high probability you will fall and lose 14 of your 16 initial HP and for another side you want your pony kill some newts and jackals in order to build more hit points. Wait until yor are at least second or third level before you mount it (these don't fall). And if you find a harmless monster like a yellow mold or a lichen then dismount and let your pony dispatch it. If your horse has been repeatedly hit then if you are mounted flee, if you aren't but you have magic whistle use it. As soon as possible get a sthetoscope. If your horse is low on hit points then look for a quiet place (telepathy is great for checking there are no monsters around), remove your armor and cast healing spells on him ( direction is ">" if you are mounting it). If monsters are close use a wand: you have very good armor and the healing hands ability in addition to being able to pray, your horse has none of that. As soon as you can see invisible or get telepathy then make your horse invisible: monsters will attack it less. You start with a dozen apples and carrots: these are not for you but for your horse. An apple or carrot will keep you fed for only a few turns while feeding your horse for as long as a full ration for you. Pray if you are starving but don't eat those apples. Feed him apples first as carrots are needed for curing blindness. Happy horses are more likely to steal from shopsand nothing makes a horse happier than an apple or carrot: reward him the first or second time it steals something but no more (your horse will continue stealing anyway): you need to spare your horse food. Don't miss an occasion to tame a second horse (by throwing it an apple). If it is more powerful than yours then dismount, move adjacent to your saddled horse, #loot towards it in order to remove his saddle, then move adjacent to the new one, apply the saddle towards it and ride it.

Take care of your saddle: If your saddle becomes cursed and you are'nt riding you will be unable to mount your horse, if riding then you can't unmount. Reading a spell of remove curse or zapping a wand of cancellation downwards doesn't work. Only a prayer to your god. That is why once you get holy water potions to spare it is a good idea to use one of them to bless your saddle. Anyway use your lance and speed to avoid cursing monsters like ghoul mages ever coming in contact with you. But your saddle's worst nemesis are black dragons: by the time you meet one of them you will be probably immune to disinteration but your horse isn't and the saddle wil suffer his fate. Saddles are nearly as difficult to replace as lances. It is usually a good idea to quickly close with black dragons, joust them and then finish them befor they recover but is still better to genocide them.

External links

• Knight FAQ (unfinished)