Giant scorpion

s giant scorpion
Difficulty	15
Attacks	Claw 5d2, Claw 5d2, Sting 3d4 poison

s giant scorpion
Difficulty	15
Attacks	Claw 5d2, Claw 5d2, Sting 3d4 poison
Base level	12
Base experience	285
Speed	15
Base AC	3
Base MR	0
Alignment	0 (neutral)
Frequency (by normal means)	1 (Very rare)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	500
Nutritional value	150
Size	Large
Resistances	poison
Resistances conveyed	poison (80%)
A giant scorpion: has no hands. is an animal. can lay eggs. is poisonous to eat. is carnivorous. is normally generated hostile. does not appear in Gehennom.
Reference	SLASH'EM_0.0.7E7F2/monst.c#line1545

A giant scorpion, s, is a type of monster that appears in SLASH'EM, SlashTHEM and Hack'EM. It is a much stronger relative of the standard scorpion that shares the same glyph, though scorpions can not grow up into giant scorpions. The giant scorpion has the highest difficulty and base level among non-unique arachnid or centipede monsters in the variants it appears in.

A giant scorpion has two claw attacks and a poisonous sting, and possesses poison resistance.

A giant scorpion corpse is poisonous to eat, but eating a giant scorpion corpse or tin has a ⁴⁄₅ chance of conveying poison resistance.

Generation

Randomly generated giant scorpions are always created hostile, and will not be generated in Gehennom.

Giant scorpions appear among the random s that are part of the first quest monster class for Tourists and make up ²⁴⁄₁₇₅ of the monsters randomly generated on the Tourist quest. They also appear among the random s that are part of the second quest monster class for Rangers and make up ⁶⁄₁₇₅ of the monsters randomly generated on the Ranger quest.

Giant scorpions may appear among the random s generated in The Snake Pit of the Lawful Quest at level creation.

Giant scorpions generated at level creation are given a random item to hide under, despite being unable to hide like smaller scorpions.

Strategy

Giant scorpions are usually a major threat: they are as fast as normal scorpions at 15 speed, have far more hit points, and can inflict a large and steady stream of damage that makes them formidable even against characters with poison resistance. Furthermore, since they cannot hide under items, they are much harder to keep at bay.

Giant scorpions should be fought with your best ranged attacks, including projectiles and magic; Elbereth is advisable to keep a giant scorpion out of melee range, and a strong pet with poison resistance can help mitigate their threat. Be very careful not to mistake them for the regular scorpions, and keep some escape items ready to go in case the fight goes against you.

History

A monster known as the giant scorpion appears in Hack for PDP-11, which is based on Jay Fenlason's Hack. The giant scorpion also appears in NetHack-- 3.0.10, NetHack-- 3.1.3, and SLASH 6.