Touch of death

The touch of death is a monster spell cast by powerful spell-casting monsters (of level 21 or higher) in the game, such as arch-liches and the Wizard of Yendor. It has no effect if you are magic resistant or hallucinating, or polymorphed into an undead monster or a demon; it can otherwise fail on a (13 in monster's level) chance. If the spell succeeds, as the name suggests, you die instantly.

The Rider Death has a "deadly touch" attack, which is unrelated other than the chance of instadeath, and an identical message if it fails.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

The touch of death now does 8d6+50 damage and reduces your maximum HP by half of the damage dealt; this also applies to Death's deadly touch if it would have had the instadeath effect. However, if the resulting damage would reduce both your maximum and current HP to zero, you die immediately (with no maximum hp reduction); this is an important distinction for certain cases such as polyself.

Messages

Oh no, (s)he's using the touch of death!

The monster casts the spell. If the spell succeeds, there are no further messages; you see the standard life saving messages if you wore an amulet of life saving, or "Do you want your possessions identified?" otherwise.

You seem no deader than before.

The spell failed because you are undead or a demon.

You have an out of body experience.

The spell was countered by hallucination.

Lucky for you, it didn't work!

The spell was countered by magic resistance or failed by random chance.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

You feel drained...

You were affected by a touch of death.

See also

• mcastu.c#line332 The touch of death spell.