Aligned cleric

@ aligned cleric / aligned priest / aligned priestess
Difficulty	15
Attacks	Weapon 4d10 physical, kick 1d4 physical, spell-casting 0d0 clerical

@ aligned cleric / aligned priest / aligned priestess
Difficulty	15
Attacks	Weapon 4d10 physical, kick 1d4 physical, spell-casting 0d0 clerical
Base level	12
Base experience	294
Speed	12
Base AC	10
Base MR	50
Alignment	0 (neutral)
Frequency (by normal means)	0 (Not randomly generated)
Genocidable	No
Weight	1450
Nutritional value	400
Size	Human
Resistances	Shock
Resistances conveyed	None
An aligned cleric: has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso. is omnivorous. is not a valid polymorphable form. is a human. is a lord to its kind. is normally generated peaceful. can pick up weapons and food. can be seen through infravision.
Reference	monst.c#line2213

This article is about the monster. For the role, see Cleric.

Religion in NetHack
aligned priests alignment alignment record altars atheism anger gods sacrifice prayer turn undead

An aligned cleric, @, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The aligned cleric is a human that serves the gods and tend to their temples within the dungeon: male and female aligned clerics are referred to as aligned priests and aligned priestesses respectively, and they are shown in-game as a "priest[ess] of <deity>".

Aligned clerics can be seen via infravision, will pick up weapon and other items, and are considered lords to their kind. Like most other humans, they cannot be made tame, and successful taming will render hostile clerics peaceful. An aligned cleric tending to a temple altar will remain within one square of it as much as possible. Aligned clerics can break boulders that block their path once every several turns.

An aligned cleric has a strong weapon attack, a kick attack and will attempt to cast clerical monster spells once per round of combat. Aligned clerics possess shock resistance.

Generation

Aligned clerics are not randomly generated, and are not a valid polymorph form or genocide target. Aligned clerics can grow up into high clerics.

Aligned clerics tending to temples are always generated peaceful, while co-aligned clerics and "renegade" cross-aligned clerics encountered elsewhere are generated peaceful. With the exception of bones files, a temple generated with a cleric will always place them near the altar.

A hostile cleric of Moloch is generated on the locate level of the cleric quest during level creation.

Nine hostile clerics of Moloch are generated around the inner temple of Moloch's Sanctum during level creation. Several assorted aligned clerics are generated on the Astral Plane at level creation: four hostile clerics of Moloch are generated in each of the round rooms, and two clerics of each alignment are generated in each of the three courts—for the latter group, one cleric of each alignment is set to peaceful and one is set to hostile, serving as a placeholder to be changed when the hero arrives on the level.

Aligned clerics cannot be fully revived in any way, and using any revival method on an aligned cleric's corpse or casting stone to flesh on their statue produces a human zombie.

Occurrence of temples with clerics

Every Minetown variant (with the exception of Orc Town) has a temple of a random alignment, and the Valley of the Dead has a temple to Moloch. There are also guaranteed temple areas with accompanying clerics on the locate level of the Knight quest (neutral), the locate level of the Cleric quest (unaligned), and the home level of the Caveman quest (co-aligned).

Starting inventory

Aligned clerics are always generated with a small shield, 20-29 zorkmids, a mace of an enchantment from +1 to +3 that has a ¹⁄₂ chance of being cursed, and one of the following cloaks: a ⁶⁄₇ chance of a robe, a ²⁄₂₁ chance of a cloak of protection, and a ¹⁄₂₁ chance of a cloak of magic resistance. Aligned clerics generated within a temple additionally receive 2–4 spellbooks, and their cloaks are non-cursed if the temple is co-aligned with the hero and made cursed otherwise.

Donations

By chatting to a temple's cleric, the hero can donate gold for a variety of effects. If they have no gold in open inventory and are co-aligned, the cleric will "give you two bits for an ale" (two zorkmids) if they have any gold, or one bit if they only have that—they will "preach the virtues of poverty" if they have no gold. Doing so with a cross-aligned cleric will cause them to ignore you.

If the hero is carrying gold in open inventory, the cleric will prompt the player for a contribution to the temple. The player will be provided two suggested donation amounts, with the second being double the first. These amounts are calculated using a combination of the player's gold in open inventory and their baseline. The accompanying effect will depend on the amount of gold offered:

Offer	Effect
0 or less	Increase cheapskate penalty by 40. If the cleric is co-aligned, lose one alignment point. "Thou shalt regret thine action!"
Positive but less than the first donation amount	If this is less than one third of the hero's visible gold (before donation), increase cheapskate penalty by 40. "Cheapskate." Otherwise, exercise wisdom. "I thank thee for thy contribution."
At least the first donation amount but less than the second donation amount	"Thou art indeed a pious individual." If this is more than one third of the hero's visible gold, they are granted 500*(donation amount / baseline)–1000*(donation amount / baseline)-1 (more) turns of clairvoyance. If the cleric is also co-aligned and the hero's alignment record is -4 or less, they gain one point of alignment. "I bestow upon thee a blessing."
At least the second donation amount but less than 3*first donation amount	Attempts to provide intrinsic protection gold in inventory/(2*baseline) times. For each attempted protection boon, if the hero has no intrinsic protection, earn 2–4 points of protection. Otherwise, if they have less than 9 protection, or less than 20 with a 1-in-current-protection chance, earn an additional point of protection. Note that these limits make no distinction between protection bought and protection granted as a favor. This can be done with a peaceful cleric at a temple to any god, so long as it is not desecrated, and is the preferred way to obtain protection. (See also the article on protection rackets.) "Thou hast been rewarded for thy devotion."
At least 3*first donation amount	"Thy selfless generosity is deeply appreciated." If this is more than one third of the hero's visible gold and the temple is co-aligned: If they have not performed this action in the last 5000 turns, and their alignment is less than 0, it is reset to 0. Otherwise, they gain 2 alignment points.

Baseline calculation

The baseline donation amount is calculated using the following process:

1. Generate a random number between 150-250
2. Add the player's cheapskate penalty
3. Multiply by the player's maximum experience level

The first donation amount is calculated as gold in inventory/(3*baseline)*baseline, with division rounding down, or just baseline if this is zero. The second donation amount is double the first. This has the effect of scaling up the first and second donation amounts to approximately one third and two thirds of the amount of gold in the player's open inventory.

Since donation benefits are calculated from baseline, there's no significant penalty to placing a large quantity of gold into open inventory before donating. For example if your gold in inventory leads to the second donation amount being 8*baseline, the game will attempt to give you protection 4 times to compensate.

The cheapskate penalty starts at 0 and increases by 40 for each cheapskate donation made. The value is tracked per cleric, so cheapskate values for one cleric at one temple will not transfer to other clerics.

Unlike in version 3.6.7, the cost for donation effects is scaled based on the player's maximum experience level, so casting drain life at yourself to decrease your level will not decrease donation costs. In practice, this means that the 3.6.7 standard of carrying 400*XL gold now means there is a 50% chance of gaining protection in 5.0.0, while carrying 500*XL gold guarantees a 100% chance (assuming no cheapskate modifiers and the other conditions are met).

Hostile clerics

A hostile cleric cannot be used for services, and there are several circumstances under which an otherwise peaceful cleric will become hostile:

• If a cleric is not in their temple or the temple has been desecrated, chatting to the cleric will make them hostile. This primarily occurs with temple clerics in bones files and peaceful co-aligned clerics on the Astral Plane—a temple's cleric will become hostile if the hero desecrates the temple themselves, even if they later reconvert the temple's altar to the cleric's religion and pacify them.
• If the cleric is sleeping or cannot move, chatting to the cleric wakes them up from sleep or paralysis and makes them hostile.
• Chatting to a scared cleric (e.g. while standing on a scroll of scare monster) will also make them hostile.

Strategy

Despite lacking much in the way of armor, aligned clerics are deceptively strong with their weapon attack and an arsenal of highly dangerous clerical spells—this includes the ability to confuse, blind or even paralyze an unfortunate player, as well as swarming them with insects. Accidentally angering a peaceful cleric may be a game-ending mistake, especially since a scroll of scare monster cannot save you from their attack. Furthermore, since aligned clerics cannot be "properly" revived, be sure to keep any strong pets away and not activate conflict anywhere near the cleric if you want to obtain their services.

As the earliest a hostile cleric can possibly generate is the locate level of the Cleric quest, the player should ideally have at least one means to address some of the status spells (e.g. a unicorn horn) by then, as well as poison resistance to avoid dying at the hands of Team Ant and the other a they create. A source of magic resistance or a ring of free action is one of the better options to have, as even an otherwise-capable player character can be decimated if the cleric paralyzes them at a bad time.

One of the quickest ways to deal with a hostile cleric is to petrify them with a wielded cockatrice corpse. A strong pet can also aid in killing the cleric, but can just as easily be killed by a powerful swing from their mace unless the pet has good AC and/or HP.

Killing a temple cleric safely

For those looking to convert a temple's altar, in addition to the above information, there are a few major obstacles:

1. Directly attacking a cleric is a Bad Idea, as their god will strike you with lightning (which can be deflected if you have reflection).
2. Attempting to convert the temple's altar will anger the cleric.
3. Killing a cleric that was initially peaceful carries the standard Luck and alignment penalty for murder.

If you wish to kill a temple's cleric yourself and avoid the penalty for murder, polymorphing the cleric into a non-human is an option, although it is quite risky—their god will still strike you with lightning, and their decent monster magic resistance may foul the attempt and simply leave you with an angry cleric. Also note that you will lose any protection obtained from donations if you directly murder a co-aligned cleric.

Still another way is to poison the cleric with a scroll of stinking cloud—the rub is that you need to be able to see the center spot you are targeting the cloud on, but you will also want shelter from the god's lightning, which may originate from positions other than the altar.

If you are playing a chaotic human hero, sacrificing the cleric's corpse will always convert a non-chaotic altar.

History

The aligned cleric first appears in NetHack 3.0.0—from this version to NetHack 3.6.7, including some variants based on those versions, they are known as "aligned priests".

Temple conversion

In these versions, a good way to convert a temple is to use a scroll of earth (which can be obtained from Sokoban) and ideally some form of reflection (which can be found in Sokoban if the prize is an amulet of reflection):

• Stand in the temple so that the priest is not adjacent to you, then read the scroll; optionally, push the boulders to confine the priest to one particular square. Then, drop a scroll of scare monster on your fighting spot to protect yourself from any summoned ants.
• Now you can blind yourself and zap or fire things at the priest without the risk of being paralyzed or getting hit with the mace; be sure to have telepathy so you can aim properly, and remember to have reflection for the god's lightning strikes!
• If you lack reflection and/or shock resistance, but have a ray attack, you might want to bounce them off the temple's walls towards the priest from outside instead—keeping the walls between you and the altar will help avoid the lightning. Once the priest is killed, you can start sacrificing.

Trapping an aligned priest with boulders

In versions prior to NetHack 5.0.0, it is possible to trap a temple priest using a scroll of earth so that you can convert the altar safely without committing murder or dealing with lightning strikes. This varies somewhat depending on the temple size and the location of the altar—additionally, the priest needs to be able to see you, so wear a mummy wrapping if you are invisible. Beware that a dwarf or other digging monster may free the priest, though the priest will usually stay inside the temple area (including the diggable walls).

Once you have converted the altar, you can read a confused scroll of taming for a chance of pacifying the priest (still behind the boulders) after converting the altar, or you can cast sleep at them to make it safe to approach and use charm monster on them. Remember that you cannot buy protection from that priest afterward, as chatting with them will merely anger them.

NetHack 5.0.0 grants the ability for aligned clerics to break boulders via commit 200cc21f, rendering this strategy far too risky to be worthwhile.

Instructions

To understand why these step-by-step instructions work, keep in mind that a priest tending to an altar moves according to two rules:

1. When the priest wants to move, they will pick a random adjacent spot on a 3×3 grid centered on the altar.
2. A priest will not move into your line of fire unless they are already in it.

By taking advantage of the second rule, you can try to steer the priest around.

Step 1 To trap the priest, first step onto the altar. (In the images below, you are green and the priest is white.)

-+----
|....|
|....|
|..@.|
|.@..|
------

Step 2 Pick a spot where you want to priest to go two spaces from the altar, marked with an x below. Wait on the altar by pressing '.' until the priest moves to a spot one diagonal step from the x. Then step off the altar onto a spot a knight's move away from both the x and from the priest.

-+----
|....|
|..@.|
|x._.|
|.@..|
------

Step 3 Wait until the priest moves to the x. If they move somewhere else, start over with step 1. With the priest on the x, move back onto the altar. If the priest doesn't move, then read an uncursed (or preferably blessed) scroll of earth. Otherwise, start over with step 1.

-+----
|....|
|.000|
|@0@0|
|.000|
------

Step 4 Now you probably want to trap the priest in a corner. Move the boulder as shown in the left image, and then as shown in the right image.

-+----
|..0.|
|.0@0|
|@0_0|
|.000|
------

-+----
|..0.|
|0@.0|
|@0_0|
|.000|
------

Step 5 Then, wait until the priest moves away from you. Then move as shown in the left image, and then push the boulder as shown in the right image. The priest is now trapped.

-+----
|@.0.|
|0..0|
|.0_0|
|@000|
------

-+----
|..0.|
|@..0|
|00_0|
|@000|
------

You may be able to use this method in larger temples if you first place walls of boulders two or three steps from the altar, with additional scrolls of earth.

Variants

NetHack variants based on versions prior to NetHack 5.0.0 may refer to aligned clerics as aligned priests.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, an aligned priest of Moloch will always be generated as hostile, meaning that the temple priests in the Priest quest and the Valley of the Dead cannot be used for services.

The Lawful Quest contains a coaligned priest in a room with a coaligned altar, but it is not a temple: this is a trap designed to trick a hero into chatting with the priest, which will make them hostile.

All of the above information applies to SlashTHEM and Hack'EM.

SpliceHack

In SpliceHack, donating an amount greater than (but not equal to) 900 times the hero's experience level to a temple cleric will teach the hero the blessing technique if they do not already know it.

Encyclopaedia entry

[...] For the two priests were talking exactly like priests, piously, with learning and leisure, about the most aerial enigmas of theology. The little Essex priest spoke the more simply, with his round face turned to the strengthening stars; the other talked with his head bowed, as if he were not even worthy to look at them. But no more innocently clerical conversation could have been heard in any white Italian cloister or black Spanish cathedral. The first he heard was the tail of one of Father Brown's sentences, which ended: "... what they really meant in the Middle Ages by the heavens being incorruptible." The taller priest nodded his bowed head and said: "Ah, yes, these modern infidels appeal to their reason; but who can look at those millions of worlds and not feel that there may well be wonderful universes above us where reason is utterly unreasonable?"

[ The Innocence of Father Brown, by G.K. Chesterton ]