Ancient of ice

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The ancient of ice is a slow but powerful demon in dNetHack. It has a more powerful variant in the ancient of death.

In addition to a high-damage weapon attack, it uses cold-themed monster spells and a gaze attack that deals cold damage. When destroyed, it explodes in a freezing blast. Unlike most other demons, ancients of ice will summon groups of nupperibos instead of additional major demons.

Ancients of ice breathe in heat and breathe out cold. If a non-fire-resistant target is within 4 squares of an ancient of ice, the ancient will suck some heat out of it, dealing level/3 d8 damage (i.e., between 5d8 and 10d8). After inhaling heat, if one or more non-cold-resistant targets are within 8 squares and lined up with the ancient, it will exhale a blast of cold breath towards a chosen target. Hostile ancients will target the player character with high priority, unless the character is immune to cold. If the character is not a valid target, the ancient will choose the closest valid target instead.

Tame ancients of ice make powerful pets, in large part due to the rarity of targets able to resist both fire and cold. Additionally, ancients of ice are humanoid (though of large size) and therefore can use all types of equipment. Ancients can reach a maximum of 30th level.

At most 8 ancients of ice will appear per game.