Monster starting inventory
In NetHack, certain types of monsters may be created with objects in their starting inventory appropriate to their species - a monster's starting inventory may also contain a random offensive item, miscellaneous item, and/or defensive item.
The items that spiders and snakes are generated with during initial level creation are not part of their starting inventory, as they are created for the monsters to hide under.
Description
Monster starting inventory is distributed to each applicable monster at level creation, as well as each time a new monster is created.[1] Monsters generated in bones files will have whatever inventory they were carrying at the time of its creation; monsters created by reverse genocide always have empty starting inventories.
A pretty comprehensive spoiler can be found here.
Weapons
A humanoid monster that has a weapon attack and the ability to wield weapons, is not being generated on the Rogue level, and does not have any rulessets governing its starting inventory can be generated with one of the following five weapon sets, with an equal probability of each:[2]
| strong | not strong |
|---|---|
| battle-axe | 3-14 darts |
| two-handed sword | crossbow, 3-14 bolts |
| bow, 3-14 arrows | |
| long sword | 3-5 daggers |
| lucern hammer | aklys |
The size of the die used in rolling for these weapons is determined by whether or not the monster is also a lord to its kind, an overlord to its kind, or is nasty; this is governed by the equation 514 - N, where N is the result of a "bias" variable that is incremented for each applicable property - 1 if the monster is a lord, 1 if the monster is nasty, and 2 if the monster is an overlord - and then multiplied by two:[2]
- A normal monster uses a d14. (5⁄14 ≈ 35.71%)
- Monsters that are either nasty or lords to their kind use a d12. (5⁄12 ≈ 41.67%)
- Monsters that are both nasty and a lord to their kind, or else are an overlord to their kind, use a d10. (5⁄10 = 50%)
- Monsters that are both nasty and an overlord to their kind use a d8. (5⁄8 = 62.5%)
A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:
"List the species-specific rules for monster weapons. If this would be too long, maybe pare it down to the "important" ones."
Armor
In addition to any other items, monsters can also get armor. This includes all mercenaries - members of the Yendorian army, guards, watchmen, watch captains - and mummies.
For mercenaries, armor items spawned are based on a complex mechanism to approximate the target AC of the given creature:
For mummies, there is a unique 6⁄7 chance for a generated mummy to have a mummy wrapping.
Saddle
Ponies, Horses, and Warhorses have a 1% chance of being generated saddled.
Death drops
Monsters killed by the player will drop their inventory, along with random objects that are generated upon their death. Some monsters also leave behind certain non-random body parts, such as unicorn horns or dragon scales.
Strategy
Monster starting inventory can provide valuable hints at the true identities of objects with randomized appearances.
References
- Makemon.c#line1017 a few special cases
- Makemon.c#m_initweap mostly weapons and elven items
- Makemon.c#m_initinv armor and most other objects
- Muse.c#rnd_defensive_item magical defensive item
- Muse.c#rnd_misc_item magical "misc item"
- Muse.c#rnd_offensive_item magical offensive item
- Mplayer.c#mk_mplayer player monsters
