Difference between revisions of "Watchman"
Scorchgeek (talk | contribs) (merge with separate information in section of Minetown article) |
|||
| Line 45: | Line 45: | ||
'''Watchmen''' and '''watch captains''' are the peacekeepers of [[Minetown]]. They are always generated peaceful, but can become hostile through a number of [[player]] actions. | '''Watchmen''' and '''watch captains''' are the peacekeepers of [[Minetown]]. They are always generated peaceful, but can become hostile through a number of [[player]] actions. | ||
| − | *Attacking a peaceful watchman | + | There is no difference in AI between watchmen and watch captains, but watch captains have a higher base level and hit over twice as hard. A watchman can [[growing up|grow up]] into a watch captain. |
| − | *Attacking a peaceful [[shopkeeper]] | + | |
| − | *Killing the [[aligned priest|priest]] | + | == Offenses == |
| − | *Cutting down [[tree]]s | + | The Watch will become hostile and try to kill you if you perform any of the following actions ("Halt! You are under arrest!"). This message is somewhat deceiving, as the last thing a player should do in this situation is halt—the best thing for a low-level character to do is to run away from Minetown and come back later. |
| − | *Destroying [[fountain]]s ( | + | |
| − | *Stealing from [[shop]]s | + | *Locking or unlocking doors. The watch will not object if you finish (un)locking the door in one turn; this is more likely to happen with a skeleton key for all roles except Rogues. |
| − | *[[Dig]]ging through [[wall]]s or doors | + | *Attacking a peaceful watchman. (Killing a watchman indirectly via pet or drowning in an overflowing fountain is fine.) |
| − | *Kicking down [[door]]s | + | *Attacking a peaceful [[shopkeeper]]. |
| − | + | *Killing the [[aligned priest|priest]]. | |
| + | *Cutting down or kicking [[tree]]s. | ||
| + | *Destroying [[fountain]]s (from use or otherwise). | ||
| + | *Stealing from [[shop]]s. | ||
| + | *[[Dig]]ging through [[wall]]s or doors. | ||
| + | *Kicking down [[door]]s. | ||
*Improvising with a [[bugle]]. | *Improvising with a [[bugle]]. | ||
| − | Some of these actions will not anger a watchman as long as he isn't in eyesight. | + | You will receive one warning before angering the Watch for kicking down or unlocking doors. Digging through walls or doors with a pickaxe will receive a warning, but using a spell or wand will cause them to become hostile immediately (as it cannot be interrupted). You will usually receive a warning before a fountain dries up, either from a watchman or from the fountain's flow "reducing to a trickle." However, if you dip for Excalibur and successfully receive it, the fountain will dry up without warning and the watch will become hostile whether or not they are in sight. |
| + | |||
| + | Attempting to unlock a trapped [[door]] will give no warning, and getting warned will cause the [[door]] to become trapped. This is because NetHack stores the data "the player has been warned about this door" and "this door is booby trapped" in the same piece of memory. Worse still, the developers actually left a note in the code noting the problem.{{refsrc|rm.h|278}}{{refsrc|rm.h|247}} | ||
| + | |||
| + | Some of these actions will not anger a watchman as long as he isn't in eyesight. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The watch does not care if you attack inhabitants of the town other than the priest, shopkeepers, and watch, whether they are peaceful or not. | ||
| + | |||
| + | == Getting the watch out of your way == | ||
| + | If you don't want to commit murder but the watchmen are getting in your way, there are several ways to get rid of them: | ||
| + | |||
| + | * Buy a key from a Minetown shop (if you don't already have one) and use it to lock the watchmen inside some of the empty rooms. They won't see you locking it from inside the door, so as long as there are no other watchmen in sight, this is fairly safe. | ||
| + | * Lure the watchmen to other levels by having them follow you to an up or down stair. If they are adjacent to you when you use the stairs, they will follow you to the next level, at which point you can lose them in the new level and return to Minetown alone. | ||
| + | * Get a pet to kill them. A large cat or dog can kill watchmen fairly easily. Watch captains can be more dangerous, but if you have a healing spell or are confident the pet has high hitpoints, it can probably take out the captain too. | ||
| + | |||
| + | == Recovering from angering the watch == | ||
| + | If you anger the watch as a low-level character, you are probably best off running. | ||
| + | |||
| + | However, if you're strong enough to handle them but just don't want to kill them and commit [[murder]], pacifying shopkeepers by paying them off will also pacify any watchmen, whether or not your original offense was stealing. So you can try stealing something inexpensive (such as a gold piece) from a shop, then paying for it when the angry shopkeeper comes after you. | ||
| + | |||
| + | A [[scroll of taming]] or spell of charm monster will also pacify watchmen. Watchmen have 0 MR; watch captains have 15. | ||
| − | + | == Killing watchmen == | |
| + | Attacking a peaceful watchman or a shopkeeper with a spell or wand does not anger all the guards, only the target of the attack. The watchmen are quite easy to kill (even easier than [[shopkeeper]]s), and they have some potentially useful [[Monster_starting_inventory|items in their inventory]] (in particular, watch captains have a 50% chance of a [[silver saber]], and all watchmen are likely to have gloves), although they often have a cursed item, so take the regular precautions first. | ||
| − | + | The watch captains are much harder to kill, but not as hard as [[shopkeeper]]s, so avoid doing anything that will anger all the watchmen. | |
| − | |||
| − | + | It can be bad to kill watchmen to sacrifice them, even if you are a chaotic non-human: angering and killing them gives you a huge alignment hit because they count as "peaceful monsters of always-peaceful type", much larger than the alignment regained from sacrificing them. Early in the game, when you typically reach [[Minetown]], your [[alignment record]] cap is low, and you could convert yourself and make your game [[unwinnable]]. However, for chaotics after turn 1000 with maximized [[alignment record|alignment]], it is usually harmless to kill just one - but get it back up before killing any more of them. It always is fine to have your pet or (with conflict) the watch captain or priest kill them, though. | |
| − | + | Keep in mind that killing watchmen is considered [[murder]] whether they are peaceful or not. | |
== Encyclopedia entry == | == Encyclopedia entry == | ||
{{encyclopedia-redirect|human (monster)|human}} | {{encyclopedia-redirect|human (monster)|human}} | ||
[[Category:Monsters]] | [[Category:Monsters]] | ||
Revision as of 02:22, 24 February 2013
@ watchman 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 8 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 1d8 |
| Base level | 6 |
| Base experience | 78 |
| Speed | 10 |
| Base AC | 10 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | -2 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 400 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | None |
| Resistances conveyed |
None |
|
A watchman:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line2453 |
@ watch captain 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 12 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 3d4, Weapon 3d4 |
| Base level | 10 |
| Base experience | 221 |
| Speed | 10 |
| Base AC | 10 |
| Base MR | 15 |
| Alignment | -4 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 400 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | None |
| Resistances conveyed |
None |
|
A watch captain:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line2461 |
Watchmen and watch captains are the peacekeepers of Minetown. They are always generated peaceful, but can become hostile through a number of player actions.
There is no difference in AI between watchmen and watch captains, but watch captains have a higher base level and hit over twice as hard. A watchman can grow up into a watch captain.
Contents
Offenses
The Watch will become hostile and try to kill you if you perform any of the following actions ("Halt! You are under arrest!"). This message is somewhat deceiving, as the last thing a player should do in this situation is halt—the best thing for a low-level character to do is to run away from Minetown and come back later.
- Locking or unlocking doors. The watch will not object if you finish (un)locking the door in one turn; this is more likely to happen with a skeleton key for all roles except Rogues.
- Attacking a peaceful watchman. (Killing a watchman indirectly via pet or drowning in an overflowing fountain is fine.)
- Attacking a peaceful shopkeeper.
- Killing the priest.
- Cutting down or kicking trees.
- Destroying fountains (from use or otherwise).
- Stealing from shops.
- Digging through walls or doors.
- Kicking down doors.
- Improvising with a bugle.
You will receive one warning before angering the Watch for kicking down or unlocking doors. Digging through walls or doors with a pickaxe will receive a warning, but using a spell or wand will cause them to become hostile immediately (as it cannot be interrupted). You will usually receive a warning before a fountain dries up, either from a watchman or from the fountain's flow "reducing to a trickle." However, if you dip for Excalibur and successfully receive it, the fountain will dry up without warning and the watch will become hostile whether or not they are in sight.
Attempting to unlock a trapped door will give no warning, and getting warned will cause the door to become trapped. This is because NetHack stores the data "the player has been warned about this door" and "this door is booby trapped" in the same piece of memory. Worse still, the developers actually left a note in the code noting the problem.[1][2]
Some of these actions will not anger a watchman as long as he isn't in eyesight.
The watch does not care if you attack inhabitants of the town other than the priest, shopkeepers, and watch, whether they are peaceful or not.
Getting the watch out of your way
If you don't want to commit murder but the watchmen are getting in your way, there are several ways to get rid of them:
- Buy a key from a Minetown shop (if you don't already have one) and use it to lock the watchmen inside some of the empty rooms. They won't see you locking it from inside the door, so as long as there are no other watchmen in sight, this is fairly safe.
- Lure the watchmen to other levels by having them follow you to an up or down stair. If they are adjacent to you when you use the stairs, they will follow you to the next level, at which point you can lose them in the new level and return to Minetown alone.
- Get a pet to kill them. A large cat or dog can kill watchmen fairly easily. Watch captains can be more dangerous, but if you have a healing spell or are confident the pet has high hitpoints, it can probably take out the captain too.
Recovering from angering the watch
If you anger the watch as a low-level character, you are probably best off running.
However, if you're strong enough to handle them but just don't want to kill them and commit murder, pacifying shopkeepers by paying them off will also pacify any watchmen, whether or not your original offense was stealing. So you can try stealing something inexpensive (such as a gold piece) from a shop, then paying for it when the angry shopkeeper comes after you.
A scroll of taming or spell of charm monster will also pacify watchmen. Watchmen have 0 MR; watch captains have 15.
Killing watchmen
Attacking a peaceful watchman or a shopkeeper with a spell or wand does not anger all the guards, only the target of the attack. The watchmen are quite easy to kill (even easier than shopkeepers), and they have some potentially useful items in their inventory (in particular, watch captains have a 50% chance of a silver saber, and all watchmen are likely to have gloves), although they often have a cursed item, so take the regular precautions first.
The watch captains are much harder to kill, but not as hard as shopkeepers, so avoid doing anything that will anger all the watchmen.
It can be bad to kill watchmen to sacrifice them, even if you are a chaotic non-human: angering and killing them gives you a huge alignment hit because they count as "peaceful monsters of always-peaceful type", much larger than the alignment regained from sacrificing them. Early in the game, when you typically reach Minetown, your alignment record cap is low, and you could convert yourself and make your game unwinnable. However, for chaotics after turn 1000 with maximized alignment, it is usually harmless to kill just one - but get it back up before killing any more of them. It always is fine to have your pet or (with conflict) the watch captain or priest kill them, though.
Keep in mind that killing watchmen is considered murder whether they are peaceful or not.
Encyclopedia entry
- See the encyclopedia entry for human.
