User:Umbire the Phantom/sandbox

Sebastian Klein

This'll probably get merged into the NetHack: The Next Generation article whenever I rewrite that.

Sebastian Klein is the creator of NetHack: The Next Generation, a NetHack 3.1.3 variant which he released in 1994. Very little information is known about him - he has a personal site found here, and posts from Klein can be found in rec.games.roguelike.nethack as late as 2000.

Doppelganger (starting race)

Strategy

Remember that the minimum required XL is the experience level at which the form would have the same check as a controlled #youpoly attempt, e.g. there is always a set ¹⁄₂₀ of feeling like a new doppelganger rather than achieving the desired polyform.

Common polyform traits

• The various medium-sized humanoids can wear most if not all available armor and use weapons.
• Demons have natural fire resistance and poison resistance, and bare-handed melee attacks can gate in other demons. However, they are weak to silver and blessed weapons, you cannot pray as a demon, and tame demons are usually traitorous, making them dangerous to keep around if they have more HP than you.
• Vampiric monsters are inediate and usually possess intrinsic regeneration and breathlessness - most of them are medium-sized humanoids, and they can feed and increase nutrition through their bite attacks. However, many of them are also weak to silver and blessed weapons and/or cannot access prayer due to being undead.

The Polyform List

SLASH'EM polyforms
Monster	Monster level	Base AC	#monster ability	Traits	Uses
death dog	2	7	None	Two 1d10 hit dice 12 speed	Combat Deals decent damage, accessible early Very low carrying capacity, no hands
hill orc	2	10	None	Medium-sized humanoid Strong 9 speed	Combat Earliest accessible humanoid form Strength bolsters damage and carrying capacity
rhaumbusun	2	9	Gaze at monsters	Tiny animal 9 speed Paralyzing gaze Oviparous	Taming Can create more by laying eggs Slow and weak, but pets with paralysis can be an edge against some early-game threats
water nymph	3	9	Remove iron chains attached to you	Medium-sized humanoid Sets charisma to 18 Sets carrying cap to max (1000 aum) Two hit dice - one theft attack and one seduction attack Teleportitis Swimmer Hits as +1	Combat Escape Travel Inherent charisma makes shopping easier Can carry far more without encumbrance Can use weapons, allowing you to inflict damage and possibly steal multiple items in one attack Random teleports can be very inconvenient Can teleport at-will, which can serve various purposes especially with teleport control
pixie	3	3	Remove iron chains attached to you	Tiny 15 speed Sets charisma to 18 Sets carry cap to max Hits as +1	Casting Defense Travel Does not become invisible like NPC pixies Size prevents you from wearing armor or wielding weapons Cannot interact with doors Can only attack by casting spells and use wands Natural AC with bonuses can compensate for lack of armor Can use speed and squeeze past boulders to evade monsters Form can be used briefly to shrink out of cursed armor
barrow wight	3	5	None	Medium-sized humanoid Cold resistance, poison resistance, sleep resistance Breathless Undead 12 speed Level-draining melee attack	Combat Early form with natural AC and some good immunities, including drain resistance Can weaken foes in melee Lower carry cap than the average character
spined devil	5	1	None	Demon Winged flier 18 speed Two hit dice	Combat Cannot wear body armor or helms Natural AC compensates for fewer choices in armor Very fast with decently strong attacks
energy vortex	6	2	None	Whirly Resists shock, stoning, disintegration, poison and sleep 20 speed Engulfing attack Passive shock damage Blind Inediate	Cannot wear armor Decent natural AC Very fast form that benefits from doppelganger AC bonuses Can pick up items Telepathy may be required to overcome blindness
succubus/incubus	6	0	N/A	Medium-sized humanoid Demon Sets charisma to 18 Flier 12 speed Infravision Infravisible Seduction/theft attack Resists fire and poison	Combat Defense Can seduce opposite-gender monsters and steal items Solid natural AC, can wear all non-silver armor Silver weakness may be deterrent to some Undead Slayers
With polymorph control (at experience level 9)
Monster	Monster level	Base AC	#monster ability	Traits	Uses
Fire vampire	12	0	None	Medium-sized humanoid Flier Inediate Strong Hungerless regeneration 24 base speed Five hit dice with bloodsucking bite and fiery attacks	Combat All-around powerful form that can level drain monsters and set them aflame Stellar base AC, flight and double base speed Can use all armor and weapons Not undead, and thus lacks intrinsic drain resistance Not a fiery monster, thus vulnerable to sliming Fire attacks can destroy loot Draining corpses for nutrition leaves them intact for tinning/sacrifice Dangerous to attack monsters with high-damage passives or deadly effects when eaten

Monsters to review

Before gaining polymorph control

• Medium-sized humanoids can wear all armor and use weapons.
  • Human mummies are inediate and normal speed, although not guaranteed until level 6. They make a good form if you want to wait around an altar and sacrifice. Human mummies have greater carrying capacity than their elven counterparts, and are available at the same level.
  • Salamanders (guaranteed at level 8) are humanoid with good AC and speed, and have 2 weapon attacks, a fire touch, and a fire crushing attack.
  • Doppelgangers can start polymorphing into mind flayers with a reasonable chance of success at level 6 or 7; the brain-eating attack will make short work of most monsters, but is useless against those without heads or brains, and downright dangerous against monsters with passive attacks. Mind flayers will not be stoned when attacking a cockatrice; the tentacle attack is instead turned off.
• Demons
  • Chasmes are guaranteed at level 8, and attack quickly with 4 hit die that can put foes to sleep. Great for killing shopkeepers (though this will come at the cost of -5 alignment record if you kill the shopkeeper without having them become angry with you due to not waking up).
  • Mariliths, guaranteed at 7, have normal speed, decent base AC, and attack 5 times. The multiple attack makes demon gating very effective.
• Although not guaranteed until level 8, a level 5-7 character has a reasonable chance of polymorphing into a basilisk. They are essentially stronger cockatrices, with the same passive attacks. As such, they can be very handy for getting through the Gnomish mines. Nutrition can be a problem since you can't eat statues. Also, the similar asphynx may look appealing, being faster, but it can carry very few items, and cannot pick any up at all.
  • If you're trapped by a single monster, chickatrices are guaranteed at 4 and will stone an attacking monster. However, they have extremely low base HP, can carry very little, and are slow, so they should only be used as an instakill in case of emergency.
• Unicorns are guaranteed at level 4. They have high speed and a decent attack, and can use #monster to remove some bad effects.
• Mumakil are guaranteed at level 5. They have comparatively very strong attacks, but somewhat low speed. Especially good if you are fast or, better still, very fast.
• Leocrottas are guaranteed at level 6. They are moderately fast and quite powerful, although unable to use any weapons or armor.
• Oviparous monsters can provide some highly useful pets via egg laying, especially in the early game:
  • Gargoyles and winged gargoyles can sit and lay eggs that will hatch has gargoyles; normal gargoyles can wear armor, but the flying winged gargoyles cannot. Both forms also have excellent natural AC.
  • Soldier ants are guaranteed at level 3, and as pets, can if anything be almost too effective - they can often close in, kill and devour weak foes in the time taken for an unhasted player to make even a single move. Creating an army may be tempting, but this can lead to nutrition problems if you can't reach corpses in time. Spawning 2 or 3 is generally more than sufficient.

Table tweaking

		Shopkeeper's race
		Human	Elf	Dwarf	Orc	Gnome	Illithid	Centaur	Nymph	Giant
Your race	Human				×4⁄3		×10	×3⁄2		×4⁄3
	Elf		×4⁄5	×4⁄3	×3		×10
	Dwarf		×4⁄3	×3⁄4	×5⁄3		×10	×3⁄2		×3⁄2
	Orc	×4⁄3	×2	×2	×2⁄3		×10	×3⁄2
	Gnome	×4⁄3					×10	×3⁄2		×4⁄3
	Illithid		×2	×2				×3⁄2		×4⁄3
	Centaur	×3⁄2					×10	×3⁄4
	Hobbit				×3		×10			×4⁄3
	Giant			×3⁄2			×10			×3⁄4

Special notes:

• If the shopkeeper is of some other monster species not listed here, they behave as the Human column indicates.
• Gnomish shopkeepers additionally increase price ׳⁄₂ if your Intelligence is less than or equal to 14, or ×⁴⁄₃ if it is greater than 14 but less than 18.
• Nymph shopkeepers base their prices on your Charisma with no regard for your race: ×⁴⁄₃ if your charisma is 15 or higher and ×⁵⁄₃ otherwise.

	Shopkeeper's race
	Human/Other	Elf	Dwarf	Orc	Gnome	Illithid	Centaur	Nymph	Giant
Giant			×3⁄2		×3⁄2 if INT is <=14 ×4⁄3 if INT is 15-17	×10			×3⁄4