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).

If monster is a weak one then it is a good idea to dismount and let your horse finish it: your horse will get an additional HP.

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

The Lance

The knight is perhaps the easiest class in the game if you apply the proper tactics. There are more tactics you can use than just fighting on foot with a sword and trading blows with monsters. Knights should joust by fighting mounted with a lance, using skillful retreats and the lance's special abilities. Using this tactic, you should be able to deal with Minotaurs, Dragons and ArchDaemons without losing a single hit point.

Since in the weapon charts lance seems to do less damage than the long sword and there is no lance artifact weapon, people playing knights tend to discard the lance and rely on the long sword. However, when you account for the effects of jousting the lance causes significantly more damage than the sword: against a normal sized opponent the long sword does 1d8 that is on average 4.5 hp of damage, the lance causes 1d6 (3.5 on average) but a successful joust causes an additional 2d10 (11 on average) hp of damage. Thus at Unskilled level the averrage damage is 3.5+11*0.2=5.7, at Basic 7.9, at Skilled 10.1 and at Expert it is 12.3. In contrast Excalibur does 1d8+1d10 HP of damage for an average of only 10. Against a large oponnent the sword does 1d12 (6.5) on average versus 1d8 (4.5 on average for the lance but after factoring jousting we find 6.7 at Unskilled level of expertise, , 8.9 at Basic, 11.1 at Skilled and 13.7 at Expert. Excalibur does on average only 12 HP against large opponnents. It is true that Excalibur gets a +5 to hit bonus but this is irrelevant for high level characters, with enchanted weapons and Expert level of expertise since they hit every round anyway. In addition the lance allows attacking non adjacent opponents (Pounding) and a successful joust pushes the opponent one square away (possibly for another round of Pounding) and stuns him thus making him fight at a severe disadvantage. In fact an unencumbered Knight with boots of speed and a lance is possibly the only character who can kill Demogorgon in loyal combat without resorting to tricks like polymorphing into basilisk: just joust him: he will not be able to attack a second time or teleport before the Knight finishes him. The only case where the Knight should use Excalibur in combat is when there is a risk of being level drained. 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) will push a monster one square away, meaning there is one less monster who will attack you this round and possibly allowing you to slip away. At base skill levels you will rarely succeed in jousting, so if foes get next to you, jump away. As an aside: you don't get paralyzed when you apply your lance on a floating eye.

To make 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, so having a light source is important.

Caring for your Lance

Lances are nearly impossible to replace (short of wishing for one) and lances can break. If your luck is good, the probability of it breaking is very low. At the beginning use it only for pounding, not for close combat (especially on Friday the 13th) until you can increase your luck. You can switch weapons with no time penalty by using the command 'x'. Once you get to Expert skill level with the lance there is no point in using it on weak monsters; shift to the sword to avoid breaking your lance. Until you can get it rustproofed (or at least covered with grease) don't wield it in places likely to have rusttraps (eg most levels of the Gnome Mines), unless you have a supply of potions of oil.

Speed

Speed is 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. In this way, you can attack a monster without it ever being able to attack. Being encumbered slows you down and bars you from jumping. Never fight while encumbered; get a bag, put everything you don't need to have on hand for a combat into it, 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 jousting 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 squares 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.

The Horse

You don't want to mount your pony as soon you enter the dungeon, because there is a high probability you will fall. This causes you to lose up to 20 HP, which could be fatal to a level 1 Knight. Wait until you are at least level 2 or 3 before you mount it, and whatever your level, do not mount it when your current HP is 20 or less. You also want your pony to kill some newts and jackals in order to build more hit points. 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 and you are mounted, flee. If you aren't mounted but you have a magic whistle, use it to get your horse out of danger. Get a stethoscope as soon as possible. If your horse is low on hit points then look for a safe place (telepathy is great for checking if there are no monsters around), remove your armor and cast healing spells on it (direction is ">" if you are riding it). As soon as you can see invisible or get telepathy then make your horse invisible; monsters will attack it less.

Keeping the horse fed

Because pets feed mostly on the corpses of fallen monsters and few of them are vegetable, horses are harder to keep fed as other pets. One of the two primary sources of food for a horse is the carrots and apples the knight gets in his initial equipement. A carrot or apple will feed a horse for much longer then it will do for you. For that reason don't eat your carrots and apples (exc: eating a carrot cures blindness). Try to find other sources of food until you become weak and then pray. You should eat your carrots and apples only in desperate situations: weak and unable to pray. Carrots and apples can be used to reward a horse who has stolen and item in shop thus prompting it to steal more items. Because knights have around twenty of those treats it is much easier for them to steal from shops than for other characters. However don't reward your horse for every stealing. Wait until it no longer picks items.

The other primary source of food for horses comes from the lichens and molds generated through the decomposition. Notice that this source is far less abundant than for carnivorous monsters: monster must generate a corpse, this must generate a plant (most corpses do but not all), this plant must not be a yellow mold (horses don't eat them), you must come back, plant must be killed and in most cases it will not generate a corpse. Finally if the corpse provides an intrinsic the knight still doesn't have (eg red molds provide resistance to fire) the knight will try to eat it first. Thus the first step is keep a steady supply of putrefying flesh-made corpses: unless they provide an intrinsic or you are hungry don't eat corpses and don't tame carnivorous pets: they will eat every non poisonous flesh-made corpse . If you are in danger of being killed by a cat or dog don't tame it by throwing it a tripe ration or a cookie but make it peaceful by throwing it an apple.

Monitor your horse's hunger status by chatting to it regularly. If it whickers, it is fine, but if it whinnies it is hungry. If it ever comes close to starvation ("you feel worried about your horse" or "your horse is confused from hunger"), it will also accept "people food" such as food rations. You must heal it as soon as possible after feeding it; a starving horse has its maximum HP reduced to one quarter from the original. Feeding it restores its maximum HP but not its current HP which remains at the very low amount it had.

It is not necessary to dismount to chat with your horse, just chat in the down direction (">").

Taming another horse by throwing it an apple is tempting but the food problem will become more still more more acute. Taming a third horse is definitely unwise.

While the difficulty of keeping horses fed can be a deterrent to play a knight there is a cpostive side: because horses don't eat eggs a knight who refrains from taming carnivorous monsters is virtually guaranteed to end with the strongest pet in the game: a dragon.

The Saddle

If your saddle becomes cursed and you aren't riding you will be unable to mount your horse, and if you are riding then you can't dismount. Reading a spell of remove curse or zapping a wand of cancellation downwards doesn't work. Only praying to your god will dismount you. Once you get holy water potions to spare it is a good idea to use one of them to bless your saddle. It is best to use your lance and speed to keep monsters that curse from ever coming in contact with you. Your saddle's worst nemesis is black dragons. By the time you meet one of them you will probably be immune to disintegration, but your horse won't be, and the saddle will suffer its 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 before they recover.

External links

• Knight FAQ (unfinished)