Orc (monster class)
- For other uses, see Orc.
Orcs are a monster class that appear in NetHack of monsters represented by a lowercase letter o. All orcs are, unsurprisingly, orcish.
The orc monster class contains the following monsters:
- o goblin
- o hobgoblin
- o orc
- o hill orc
- o Mordor orc
- o Uruk-hai
- o orc shaman
- o orc-captain
Contents
Common traits
Orcs attacking you while you are riding have a 1⁄2 chance of hitting your steed, rather than the standard 1⁄4 chance for other monsters.[1] According to a comment in the source code, this is because orcs "like to steal and eat horses and the like". Unlike player orcs, they lack poison resistance.
Wielding Sting or Orcrist will warn you of any orcs on the current level.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
As part of resolving issue #679 regarding congruence between non-player monsters and their player counterparts, commit b6a3d4b makes it so that polyself into a strong orcish monster caps strength at 18/50 to match that of player orcs, and additionally gives poison resistance to all orcs except the goblin and hobgoblin - this is done in order to distinguish them from the other orcs.Generation
Orcs typically wear orcish armor and ordinarily wield orcish daggers or else orcish bows and orcish arrows, the latter of which are often poisoned. Orcs are also throne room monsters, and many of them can appear among the members of the "court".
A variant of Minetown is overrun by orcs, with the usual inhabitants all killed - this "Orcish Town" contains numerous named hostile orcs within and outside the walls. In a game with Orcish Town, more named orcs will be encountered throughout the Gnomish Mines and the Dungeons of Doom, carrying loot that would normally be found in Minetown: this includes weapons such as armor from the watch, the watch captain's long sword or silver saber, and even candles normally sold by Izchak to ensure there is a source for the Candelabrum of Invocation later on.
Strategy
Individually, goblins and orcs are generally easy targets unless you happen across one with a very powerful weapon or a wand. Orcs often appear in groups, however - even then their strength is not too great, but the poisoned weapons of stronger orcs may catch you unaware and lead to an untimely death. Poison resistance and crowd-control tactics such as the following can make battles against them much easier:
- Lure the orcs into a corridor to avoid being surrounded and fighting more than one or two at a time.
- If weakened, climb the staircase and wait until you heal, then return to the level to kill the remaining orcs.
- Engrave Elbereth and scatter the orcs while you pick them off.
Variants
SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM introduces several new orcs to the monster class:
- o war orc
- o great orc
- o snow orc
- o demon orc
- o Grund the Orc King
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, orcs hold a grudge against elves, and will attack each other if they meet.
The deep orc is introduced as a new orc.
Origin
The orcs of NetHack are derived from Dungeons & Dragons, which in turn are based on their portrayal in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien.
Encyclopedia entry
Orcs, bipeds with a humanoid appearance, are related to the goblins, but much bigger and more dangerous. The average orc is only moderately intelligent, has broad, muscled shoulders, a short neck, a sloping forehead and a thick, dark fur. Their lower eye-teeth are pointing forward, like a boar's.
Female orcs are more lightly built and bare-chested. Not needing any clothing, they do like to dress in variegated apparels. Suspicious by nature, orcs live in tribes or hordes. They tend to live underground as well as above ground (but they dislike sunlight). Orcs can use all weapons, tools and armors that are used by men. Since they don't have the talent to fashion these themselves, they are constantly hunting for them. There is nothing a horde of orcs cannot use.
References
This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.4.3. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-343}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.
