Quasit
i quasit 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 7 |
| Attacks |
Claw poisonous (dexterity) 1d2, claw poisonous (dexterity) 1d2, bite 1d4 |
| Base level | 3 |
| Base experience | 36 |
| Speed | 15 |
| Base AC | 2 |
| Base MR | 20 |
| Alignment | −7 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 2 (Quite rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 200 |
| Nutritional value | 200 |
| Size | Small |
| Resistances | Poison |
| Resistances conveyed |
Poison (20%) |
|
A quasit:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line493 |
A quasit, i, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The quasit is a small minor demon that has infravision, can be seen via infravision, possesses regeneration, and can follow a player character to other levels if they are adjacent.
Quasits have two poisonous claw attacks that drain dexterity instead of strength and a bite attack, and possess poison resistance.
Eating a quasit corpse or tin has a 1⁄5 chance of granting poison resistance.
Generation
Randomly-generated quasits may be created as peaceful for chaotic characters.
The quasit is the first quest monster for Knights, and makes up 96⁄175 of the monsters generated on the Knight quest. Several quasits are also generated on each floor of the quest branch at level creation: twelve are generated on the home level, five are generated on the upper filler level, seventeen are generated on the locate level, four are generated on the lower filler level(s), and sixteenare generated on the goal level. Quasits also appear among the random i that are part of the first quest monster class for the Knight quest and make up 24⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated there.
Quasits also appear among the random i that are generated on each floor of the Wizard quest at level creation.
Variants
With their 15 speed and two poisonous attacks, quasits can be fairly dangerous to characters that have not yet obtained poison resistance. Fortunately, they tend to have low HP, and their 2 AC should be easier for many characters to deal with at that point in the game.
History
The quasit first appears in Hack for PDP-11, which is based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial bestiary for Hack 1.0.
From Hack 1.0 to NetHack 2.3e, the quasit uses the Q glyph - in 2.3e, it only appears if the KAA compile-time option is not defined, and is otherwise replaced by the newly-introduced quantum mechanic. Both monsters are included as part of the default bestiary again in NetHack 3.0.0 - the quasit is also moved to the i glyph as part of the imp or minor demon class.
Origin
Encyclopedia entry
Quasits are small, evil creatures, related to imps. Their
talons release a very toxic poison when used in an attack.
