Wizard of Yendor
@ wizard of Yendor 
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|---|---|
| Difficulty | 34 |
| Attacks |
Claw 2d12 amulet-stealing, spell-casting |
| Base level | 30 |
| Base experience | 1386 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | -8 |
| Base MR | 100 |
| Alignment | -128 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Unique |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 400 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | Fire, Poison |
| Resistances conveyed |
Fire, Poison, Teleport control |
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Wizard of Yendor:
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| Reference | monst.c#line2481 |
The Wizard of Yendor is the guardian of the Book of the Dead. He resides in his tower in Gehennom. You must get the Book of Dead from him before you can descend to Moloch's Sanctum and get the Amulet of Yendor from the high priest of Moloch.
Once killed, the Wizard of Yendor will be causing trouble to you for the rest of the game. He resurrects as a little stronger incarnation every time you kill him, level teleports after you, summons nasties, will curse your items, and will try to steal the Amulet of Yendor if you have it. Perhaps the most menacing spell the wizard can cast is Double trouble, which creates a clone of the wizard himself.
The wizard can and will follow you up to the Elemental Planes. However, he will not appear in the Astral Plane.
Strategy
Many players choose to zap a wand of death at the wizard instantly every time he reappears. However, if you are low of charges on your wands, you may want to take him out by conventional means or, for example, stone him. Watch for the Elvenkings the wizard likes to summon — they are represented by the same @ symbol as the wizard. It is annoying for one to realize that one has squandered a charge of the wand of death on the wrong monster.
If you manage to steal the Book of the Dead from the Wizard without killing him, and then escape the level without him following, he will not hassle you until you perform the Invocation ritual[1].
It is possible to dig into the Wizard's tower without waking him up: standing in a corner of the room, zap a wand of digging diagonally at the tower. this will remove a bit of the tower, but will not wake up the Wizard. If you then shoot a death ray in through this newly created gap you will kill him without giving him the chance to cast spells at you. If you dig in any other way, you will wake him up.
History
The Wizard of Yendor first appeared in Hack 1.0.2.
Through NetHack 2.3e, he appeared in a 1x2 room in the center of the maze, which also contained a hell hound (that did not have a breath weapon) and the Amulet of Yendor. The room had no doors and was surrounded by a moat. His symbol was 1, rather than @.
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Fake Wizard rooms had a demon (generic in this version) instead of the Wizard, and a fake Amulet.
From NetHack 3.0.0 through 3.0.10, the Wizard lived in a larger tower, now also accompanied by a vampire lord.
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Fake Wizard rooms had a randomly chosen demon prince, or demon lord if no demon prince was available, or a random demon if demon lords are also gone. (All eight modern named demons existed, and occurred only in fake Wizard rooms or when summoned.)
Starting with NetHack 3.1.0, the Amulet is now given to the high priest of Moloch, and the Wizard instead carries the Book of the Dead. The 3.0.x-style Wizard room still exists as the room in which the Wizard lives, and as the two "fake Wizard" levels.
Encyclopedia entry
No one knows how old this mighty wizard is, or from whence he came. It is known that, having lived a span far greater than any normal man's, he grew weary of lesser mortals; and so, spurning all human company, he forsook the dwellings of men and went to live in the depths of the Earth. He took with him a dreadful artifact, the Book of the Dead, which is said to hold great power indeed. Many have sought to find the wizard and his treasure, but none have found him and lived to tell the tale. Woe be to the incautious adventurer who disturbs this mighty sorcerer!
