Archeologist/dNetHack

In dNetHack, the Archeologist is one of the roles available to the hero.

Archeologists can be of lawful or neutral alignment, and can be a human, dwarf, gnome, clockwork automaton, vampire, or half-dragon.

Starting equipment

Each Archeologist starts with the following equipment:

• +2 bullwhip (wielded)
• +0 jacket
• +0 fedora
• +0 pair of high boots
• 3 to 6 uncursed food rations
• +1 uncursed pick-axe (alternate weapon)
• uncursed tinning kit (30 to 99 charges)
• uncursed touchstone
• uncursed sack
• 3 to 6 uncursed +0 torches
• uncursed tin opener
• uncursed oil lamp

Intrinsics

Archeologists gain the following abilities upon reaching the following experience levels:

• XL 1: Stealth
• XL 1: Speed
• XL 10: Searching

Skills

Archeologists have the following skills available to them:

Archeologist skills
Max	Skills
Basic	Weapons: dagger, knife, short sword, dart, farm implements Combat: riding, shields, two weapon combat Spells: attack, healing, matter
Skilled	Weapons: scimitar, club, quarterstaff, firearm, sling, unicorn horn Spells: wand damage
Expert	Weapons: pick-axe, saber, spear boomerang, whip Combat: bare hands Spells: divination

Archeologists start with Basic skill level in whips, pick-axes and slings; touchstones are classed as sling ammunition, and bug C343-355 is incorporated as a feature.

Special rules

Archeologists can apply uncursed touchstones as if they were blessed to formally identify any gem.

Archeologists suffer a −1 penalty to alignment record for breaking a historic statue.

Non-chaotic archeologists suffer a −3 penalty to alignment record for digging up a headstone, while chaotic archeologists get a +3 bonus for doing the game.

Rank titles

The status line shows you to be one of the following ranks when you reach the specified experience level:

• XL 1–2: Digger
• XL 3–5: Field Worker
• XL 6–9: Investigator
• XL 10–13: Exhumer
• XL 14–17: Excavator
• XL 18–21: Spelunker
• XL 22–25: Speleologist
• XL 26–29: Collector
• XL 30: Curator

Gods

The Archeologist pantheon is based on Central American mythology, specifically the Aztecs. Their first gift is Xiuhcoatl.

• Lawful: Quetzalcoatl
• Neutral: Camaxtli
• Chaotic: Huhetotl

Quest

The redesigned Archeologist quest sees an Archeologist fight The Minion of Huhetotl for Itlachiayaque, an artifact roundshield. While carried, it confers magic resistance, telepathy and half spell damage, and while worn it also grants fire resistance and dragonbreath reflection. Invoking Itlachiayaque allows the character to create a mass of poison clouds, similar to a read scroll of stinking cloud.

Strategy

With the changes to twoweaponing in dNetHack, Archeologists are a lot less capable of leaning on the skill to compensate for their lack of offense, and remain one of the harder roles to get off the ground - thankfully, they become proficient spear users due to the skill set changes and their new first gift in Xiuhcoatl, and can also make decent use of shields; their good mental stats can also lend themselves to spellcasting builds.

A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:

"Elaborate further on role strategy and its differences from vanilla."