Priest

This article is about the role. For the monster, see aligned priest.

Priest (priestess if female) is one of the roles in NetHack, capable of playing any alignment as a human, or restricted to chaotic as an elf. A priest's religion is chosen randomly from the pantheons of the other roles. A human priest is therefore capable of representing any of the gods in the game (who send mortals after the amulet, that is). According to the guidebook:

              Priests and Priestesses are clerics militant, crusaders  ad-
         vancing  the  cause  of  righteousness with arms, armor, and arts
         thaumaturgic.  Their ability to commune with deities  via  prayer
         occasionally extricates them from peril, but can also put them in
         it.

Abilities

One distinct advantage enjoyed by the clergy is the ability to ascertain beatitude independently of their pets. Priests automatically see the beatitude of all objects. If no BUC is shown, that means uncursed. You can get "uncursed" back with the showbuc option patch.

The main disadvantage of the Priest is his weapon skill set. Priests cannot gain skill in any edged weapons, and can only reach basic skill in ranged weapons. Combined with lack of attack spell-casting skills, this makes it hard for priests to find a good way to kill monsters.

Except for attack spells, Priests are decent spell-casters. They can advance to expert in clerical, divination and healing, but are restricted in other classes. Note that their spellcasting prowess is based on Wisdom, not Intelligence (but the odds of learning a new spell still depend on Intelligence).

Priests can #turn undead, which can be helpful in their quest, but should do so carefully.

Intrinsics

Priests gain the following intrinsics at these experience levels:

• Level 15: Warning
• Level 20: Fire resistance

Priests also have the intrinsics of their race. Elves gain sleep resistance at level 4.

Equipment

The starting equipment is definitely an advantage of the Priest. They get:

• a +1 mace
• a +0 robe
• a +0 small shield (like those of aligned priests)
• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• 1-2 sprigs of wolfsbane
• 2 random spellbooks (suitable for priests: clerical, divination, or healing spells)
• 4 potions of holy water
• a chance at one of the following:
  • an oil lamp (9% chance)
  • a magic marker (10% chance)

Elven priests, like other elvish characters, start with a random non-magical instrument.

Skills

Priest skills
Max	Skills
Basic	Weapons: lance, bow, sling, crossbow, dart, shuriken, boomerang Combat: bare hands
Skilled	Weapons: polearms, spear, trident, unicorn horn
Expert	Weapons: club, mace, morning star, flail, hammer, quarterstaff Spells: healing, divination, clerical

Priests start with Basic skill in Mace and Clerical spells. The spellcasting skill is always Clerical, no matter what spellbooks a character starts with, because the initial spellcasting skills are hardcoded in the function skill_init in weapon.c and are independent of the starting inventory.

Strategy

Early game

Many players see priest as a very weak role. Expert play, however, can make them very easy to ascend for experienced players who know their way around objects in Nethack.

One of the main advantages to being a priest is that one can can identify which weapons, armor, and rings are safe to equip without having to drag everything to an altar, and your robe gives you some leeway in terms of wearing metal items and still being able to cast. Try on every noncursed piece of equipment you find; you may get lucky and find something like speed boots or a +4 ring of gain strength which makes your early game much easier. Even gauntlets of power are worth considering, as your starting spells are rarely so crucial that you don't have time to remove an item to cast them. Beware the helm of opposite alignment, although with your starting supply of Holy water it is generally easy to uncurse, and being identified when worn, you will only need to wear-test it once. Since other classes must watch out for being burdened or making multiple trips this is a huge advantage.

The fact that Priests can tell the beatitude of items and that they start with holy water makes them absolute masters of the bones file. They can simply take whatever items they want, rinse some potions carefully and create more holy water to uncurse other items. They also can cherry pick from a bones file (for instance if they spy gauntlets of Power) and use their starting holy water to uncurse key armor, rings, etc. Priests can easily learn and cast remove curse with their robe (even at unskilled) and may even start with a remove curse spellbook. For this reason priests are far easier to ascend in an environment with many bones files (such as NAO, or a folder you've been using with many deaths on it) rather than a clean, new download of Nethack.

Priests are the best at getting an early Lamp Wish from Minetown. Because they can tell the beatitude of objects and have holy water, they can easily bless magic lamps and rub them the instant they come into their possession by price IDing them in shops. This means that Priests are the class most likely to get an early wish over all other classes, which need to find a co-aligned altar and use a water prayer and to bless a magic lamp and have the best probability for a wish. An early wish obviously increases your chances of ascending dramatically.

Because they start with holy water and can see the beatitude of objects, priests can get better use out of scrolls sooner such as genocide, enchant armor and especially enchant weapon. Priests can easily collect and price id scrolls of identify and bless them, getting a full identify. This further identifies key scrolls which they can also bless. They can do this without an altar (to check scroll status) or a co-aligned altar (to do a water prayer).

For an early wish, SDSM or GDSM are great choices for a priest as this allows them superior AC, magic defense (either reflection or magic resistance) along with allowing spellcasting. Along with their robe and small shield, and a pair of cloth boots, their AC will be -4 and they will be able to cast spells with no penalty. Picking up some enchanted armor (by checking each piece as above) will put them in the -10 range and will provide some level of melee safety along with still being able to cast spells.

Priests have several other attractive options for a wish, such as spellbook of identify or spellbook of magic mapping as well as remove curse (for bones files) or the spell of polymorph (which they can cast after completing their quest and enchanting the miter of holiness).

Mid Game

Priests should do minetown first, trying for an early wish from one of the lamps. They should likely wish for GDSM, hoping to get reflection from Sokobon. If the Minetown altar is co-aligned they should sacrifice their to get an artifact weapon. If not, After minetown they should look for an altar back up in the regular dungeon. If they find one they should camp at the altar until they can sacrifice for an artifact, and if they run out of food head to Sokobon. Hopefully by then they will get the bag or amulet of reflection and then finish up mines end. If they have still not found a co aligned altar they should continue in the dungeon until they find one or are turned back by a monster that is too strong. If they are turned back they should then finish up mine's end, identify scrolls and try to find Enchant Weapon and use it on their mace (making it +2-+4), or higher if they have more scrolls or have found a magic marker. They should continue down trying to find an altar, until the reach the quest level.

The easy quest levels are a big advantage to the Priest, and the quest is simply a boon. They contain tons of treasure (moreso than any other quest) and the monsters are relatively easy. This means it's a source for anything the priest needs with very little risk. Make sure to (U)ntrap chests. If gaining levels is desired, the priest can lead wraiths away from the graveyard to normal dungeon where they are more likely to leave corpses for eating.

The availability of holy water and knowing the beatitude of items makes finding a source of levitation somewhat easier. A full identify can be gleaned from a stack of scrolls of identify which are blessed. They can also dig down below medusa and come back up to find the cursed boots of levitation (which they can easily uncurse with their holy water or the spell Remove Curse). They can also test uncursed rings to find ring of levitation. Failing all that they can also find boots of jumping, or even identify potions of levitation, blessing them to increase duration.

Because of this the priest should enter the castle while levitating from the rear, allowing more difficult monsters to advance and drop through the trap doors to the Valley of the Dead, while killing the easier ones, get the wand of wishing, and use it to fill any needs. A blessed magic marker can be wished for and used to dispatch the harder monsters that were dropped in the Valley of the Dead. A powerful artifact weapon can be wished for, etc.

Knowing beatitudes also helps with Polypiling in the mid game, and after the castle and enchanting the mitre, the spellbook of Polymorph is an excellent wish for Priests. Magic Mapping and Identify are also excellent wishes for the Priest but can be obtained by using the spell Polymorph on other books.

Weapon policy

Many players are worried about the "sword problem". Namely that Priests are restricted in edged weapons which makes them seem inferior.

However with careful analysis and play it's possible to minimize this weakness. First of all the +1 mace you start with is nearly equal in damage to a sword wielded by others. The damage for a NORMAL mace is1d6+1 but your starting mace is magically +1. This means your damage vs small creatures is 1d6+2 vs 1d8 for a starting longsword in other classes. But the +1 is also to-hit, which pushes the starting mace to better than a longsword vs small creatures. You are at a huge disadvantage with a mace vs large creatures, 1d6+1 with your mace vs 1d12 for a longsword. But larger creatures such as trolls and giants don't usually appear till the midgame by which time you should have an artifact weapon. Priests may have to play defensively (use Elbereth, their pet, etc) against these larger creatures if encountered before they have an artifact weapon.

The mace you get in the beginning works fine in the early game, but is certainly insufficient later.

If wishing for an artifact, dragon armor should be considered first since it is so helpful especially to spellcasting priests. However if dragon armor has already been obtained, or other armor or items has made it less valuable, lawful priests should wish for the Sceptre of Might. Neutral priests are very likely to be granted Mjollnir and thus may not want to waste a wish on it. Chaotics should wish for mojo if wishing for an artifact weapon, but master key of thievery is also attractive for half physical damage.

The Sceptre of Might and Mojo both end the "sword problem" of Priests since both can be advanced to expert. The Sceptre does comparable damage to other swords when fully enchanted (x2 damage to all non-lawfuls, which is pretty much everyone), and mojo unenchanted is the most damaging weapon in the early game (1d4+1+1d24, average damage 15 per hit!)

All alignments can also get an artifact sword and unrestrict swords when getting a sacrifice gift or being crowned, circumventing the "sword problem". Priests gain a lot from being unrestricted, so sacrificing for an artifact weapon is very important.

Chaotic Elven priests can "name" Orcrist and Sting, before sacrificing, guaranteeing that their first sacrifice gift is Stormbringer (and it unrestricts longswords!). Stormbringer is one of the most powerful swords both enchanted and early unenchanted.

Chaotic priest is obviously the most flummoxed in this situation but they can name Orcrist and Sting and keep sacrificing until they get a sword. Lastly all Chaotics are guaranteed Stormbringer (and it's unrestricted) when crowned, thus all alignments have a way around the "Sword Problem."

Priests can become skilled in polearm; it may be worth training this skill against large, slow monsters (like mumakil), whom you can outrun as they close to attack range, and sea monsters, who cannot hit you if you are not next to the water.

Spellcasting

One of the best ways to spend your starting holy water set is to bless any spellbook you find and learn new spells (unless you've got the identify spell, which makes this easier, or you are playing SLASH'EM, in which even uncursed spellbooks are guaranteed to be read successfully). But it is a good idea to keep at least one holy water in reserve for manufacturing more holy water. This, combined with your built-in knowledge of BUC, makes altars in the early game relatively unimportant for a Priest.

You should not have any problems with skill slots, as you don't learn many weapon skills and can advance them quickly in the quest thanks to all the wraith corpses. Hence you can advance spell-casting skill slots as soon as possible. If you run into problems, clerical spells should take precedence, since those are the spells most useful to you.

In the late game you can learn simple attack spells (like force bolt or drain life) and cast them with 0% failure rate, especially with the Mitre of Holiness. Magic missile is especially useful at high levels, as its damage scales up with your level (and, due to the wraiths in the quest, it is easy, if a little tedious, to increase your level to deal more damage).

You should turn undead only if you are 100% positive that there are no non-undead monsters nearby.

Quest

Nalzok, the Priest quest nemesis, is quite tough, but he respects Elbereth and the scroll of scare monster. Beware the bullwhip-wielders (you may lose your weapon). Most of the quest is, however, rather boring and extremely profitable. All the levels contain several graveyards with wraiths (lure them out), and chests full of goodies. The Locate level may also contain several sleeping foocubi, which you should not disturb until you are able to utilize them without the risk of negative effects. Given all the graveyards and sleeping monsters, some source of stealth is advisable before attempting this quest.

The quest artifact is The Mitre of Holiness. While even an ordinary helm of brilliance is a great thing, the mitre additionally allows you to regain your power, gives fire resistance and halves damage from the undead and most demons. However, unlike many quest artifacts, it doesn't confer magic resistance, so you have to get that from a different source.

Atheist conduct

Priests are well suited to the Atheist conduct, regardless of how contradictory this may seem. For those that need a logical explanation for this, consider that the Priest(ess) believes that they have been given all the powers that they need by their deity, and it would be an affront to same to ask for further favours.

Advantages

• Auto-BUC detection (no need to use altars for this)
• Starting holy water

Consider stashing at least one of your starting potions of holy water as early as possible, to keep from losing it to cold/fire/lightning attacks. As long as you keep one starter potion, you can make more at will.

Other uses of altars - obviously forbidden to atheists - are increasing luck and obtaining artifact weapons. If luck is a problem it can be had by tossing gems to unicorns. Artifact weapons available by sacrifice are generally not very useful for priests, so foregoing them is not so much of a problem. Tridents and silver spears, suitably buffed, are good choices, or consider wishing for the Sceptre of Might or the Staff of Aesculapius.

Problems

Not being able to pray to get out of a tight situation is probably the biggest problem, especially in the early game. Food can be a problem, so stay aware of your nutrition level. Encountering a footrice prior to obtaining a lizard corpse can be fatal; consider lugging around an acid blob corpse or something else acidic to guard against this. Lycanthropy can be dealt with using your starting wolfsbane. Escape methods are more important when you cannot pray to restore lost hitpoints - keep aware of these as well.

No divine protection means two things - it's more important to enchant up armor items, and gold is almost worthless (except for score purposes) after the early game when you need it for shops. You can buy some experience from the Oracle, and keep a little on hand for bribing demons (if you want to). Other than that it is just a burden.

Using #turn will break atheist conduct! So will using #chat to a priest under any circumstances.

Rank titles

The status line shows you to be one of the following ranks when you reach the specified experience level:

• XL 1-2: Aspirant
• XL 3-5: Acolyte
• XL 6-9: Adept
• XL 10-13: Priest/Priestess
• XL 14-17: Curate
• XL 18-21: Canon/Canoness
• XL 22-25: Lama
• XL 26-29: Patriarch/Matriarch
• XL 30: High Priest/High Priestess

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, Priests can be doppelgangers, drow, elves, hobbits, or humans.

Starting equipment

• blessed +0 mace
• blessed +0 robe (note that in SLASH'EM, an ordinary robe does not enhance spellcasting; that requires a robe of power)
• blessed +2 small shield
• 1-2 blessed cloves of garlic
• 1-2 blessed sprigs of wolfsbane
• spellbook of healing
• spellbook of force bolt, sleep, resist poison, resist sleep, detect food, detect monsters, light, knock or wizard lock
• random blessed scroll
• 4 potions of holy water
• 10% chance of magic marker, otherwise 10% chance of light source (50% chance of oil lamp, 50% chance of torches)

Skills

Priest spell skills are different than in Vanilla. Also of note, they can become skilled in long sword.

Priest skills
Max	Skills
Basic	Weapons: lance, bow, sling, crossbow, dart, shuriken, boomerang Combat: bare hands Spells: attack, enchantment, body, matter
Skilled	Weapons: long sword, polearms, spear, javelin, trident, unicorn horn Spells: protection
Expert	Weapons: club, paddle, mace, morning star, flail, hammer, quarterstaff Spells: healing, divination

Techniques

Level	Technique
1	Turn undead
1	Blessing

Strategy

In SLASH'EM priests get the Disrupter (Mace) as their first sacrifice gift, which is very useful in their quest as it grants +5 to hit and +30 to damage against the undead. It is not terribly useful as a main weapon, but makes a good secondary weapon to use against liches and vampire mages. Make sure to enchant it to be able to hit undead with enchantment resistance!

Lawful priests can try to use the Skullcrusher (Club) that can be gotten by sacrifice. If you are good at unmounted polearm tactics, the Reaper (Halberd) can be another option. The previously-good wish, the Sceptre of Might, is a much weaker weapon in SLASH'EM. It now does a flat +3 to hit and +5 to damage against cross-aligned, instead of double damage.

Neutral priests do not get any new options, and should go for Mjollnir (now a Heavy Hammer) or the Staff of Aesculapius (still a Staff).

Chaotic priests can use the Bat from Hell (Club) which can by gotten by sacrifice. They can also use the Plague bow or the Hellfire crossbow, both may be obtained through sacrifice. All the arrows shot by the Plague are poisoned and all bolts shot by the Hellfire explode dealing fire damage.

Encyclopedia entry

[...] For the two priests were talking exactly like priests,
piously, with learning and leisure, about the most aerial
enigmas of theology. The little Essex priest spoke the more
simply, with his round face turned to the strengthening stars;
the other talked with his head bowed, as if he were not even
worthy to look at them. But no more innocently clerical
conversation could have been heard in any white Italian cloister
or black Spanish cathedral. The first he heard was the tail of
one of Father Brown's sentences, which ended: "... what they
really meant in the Middle Ages by the heavens being
incorruptible." The taller priest nodded his bowed head and
said: "Ah, yes, these modern infidels appeal to their reason;
but who can look at those millions of worlds and not feel that
there may well be wonderful universes above us where reason is
utterly unreasonable?"

[ The Innocence of Father Brown, by G.K. Chesterton ]

References

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