Summon nasties
Summon nasties is a monster spell. It is a mage spell that can be used by monsters of level 16 or higher.
If you are in Gehennom, there is a 1/10th chance that a demon is summoned. Otherwise, hostile[1] nasties will be generated around the caster until a random number between one and one-third your experience level of nasties are created. Summoned spellcasters will have a lower difficulty than the caster.[2]
Monsters summoned in this fashion respect genocide, but not extinction. If a genocided monster would be summoned, it is replaced by an ordinary random monster (which is not guaranteed to be hostile). Spellcasting monsters generated this way need not be lower in difficulty than the caster.
Contents
Strategy
Dealing with this spell can require actions both before and after it is cast:
Preventative genociding
One option is to genocide the worst nasties: arch-liches and master mind flayers are good candidates for this. One should be cautious, however, in doing so. If the spell attempts to generate a genocided monster, it will instead generate a random one. Once the player has the Amulet of Yendor and is out of Gehennom, Archons and ki-rin are not unlikely random monster choices.
One good option for a player with a scroll of genocide would be to blessed-genocide L. Liches are by far the most frequently encountered casters of summon nasties, and also the only ones that can be genocided anyway. Doing so will genocide only one nasty, arch-liches, and so will not greatly increase the probability of Archons being generated by the spell.
When meeting a summoner
The worst place to meet monsters with this spell is on large open levels, e.g. Juiblex's swamp. On such levels, a summoner will often sit outside of a ring of monsters it has created around you, and continue summoning even as you attempt to fight off its minions. In this situation the covetous behavior can be helpful: an arch-lich that warps to the upstairs may no longer be in sight, whereas a fleeing demilich will remain in sight and happily fill the level with nasties.
If you are unable to kill the caster, e.g. an arch-lich that warps to the staircase across the map on a no-teleport level, and possess reflection and a permanent Elbereth, it is possible to wait on the Elbereth square for the caster to create a black dragon and wait for the disintegration breath to destroy the summoner, or possibly for a cockatrice to be generated and leave a corpse. This can be a real life saver if any of the demon princes appear as well.
Another way to counter the summon nasties spell is with a ring of conflict. The monsters will fight each other instead of focusing on you. A scroll of taming or spell of charm monster are also effective, although many nasties have a substantial chance of resisting either one.
Messages
- A monster appears from nowhere!
- One monster was summoned.
- Monsters appear from nowhere!
- Multiple monsters were summoned.
- <A monster appears/Monsters appear> around <a spot near you/your displaced image>!
- The summoner was fooled by your invisibility/displacement. The summoned monsters may still be able to find you.
- "Destroy the thief, my pet(s)!"
- The Wizard of Yendor cast the spell while alive. (The Summon Nasties effect that the Wizard uses to harass you in his absence displays no message.)
Nasties
- For the monster flag, see M2_NASTY.
These monsters are "nasties" for the purposes of summon nasties:[3]
- c cockatrice
- H ettin
- E stalker
- H minotaur
- D red dragon
- D black dragon
- D green dragon
- Y owlbear
- w purple worm
- T rock troll
- x xan
- g gremlin
- U umber hulk
- V vampire lord
- X xorn
- z zruty
- @ elf-lord
- @ elvenking
- D yellow dragon
- q leocrotta
- q baluchitherium
- Y carnivorous ape
- H fire giant
- A couatl
- @ captain
- g winged gargoyle
- h master mind flayer
- E fire elemental
- J jabberwock
- L arch-lich
- O ogre king
- T olog-hai
- ' iron golem
- j ochre jelly
- P green slime
- R disenchanter
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, these monsters are also nasties in addition to those above:[4]
- V vampire mage
- L master lich
- : rhaumbusun
- : basilisk
- c pyrolisk
- o demon orc
- q mastodon
- w rot worm
- o snow orc
- D silver dragon
The following monsters were removed from the list of nasties:[4]
- V vampire lord
- z zruty
- L arch-lich
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, Evil eyes have also been added to the list of nasties.
References
This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.4.3. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-343}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.
