Pet (dNetHack)

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, several systematic changes are made in regards to pets and how taming them is handled, as well as how many pets a hero can have.

List of changes

• Ranged combat and spellcasting is enabled for pets.
• Pets and hostile monsters will more actively seek out and attack each other.
• The total number of pets on the current dungeon level is limited to ¹⁄₃ the character's charisma score. If this limit is exceeded, the lowest-level pets will quickly untame, typically returning to the same status (peaceful or hostile) as they were before they were tamed.
  • Some pets do not count towards this limit and will not untame: loyal pets, temporary summons, temporarily tamed ("friendly") pets, and "suicidal" monsters (monsters whose attacks require killing themselves).
  • "Loyal" pets also won't lose tameness from being left on other dungeon levels.
  • If two pets have the same current level, then the tiebreakers, in order, are tameness, species maximum level, and species monster difficulty.
  • Whenever a pet gains max HP (by killing a monster), it has a chance to decide to stay peaceful if it later untames, even if it was hostile before it was tamed. This chance depends on your beast mastery skill (see below) and your charisma.
  • Monsters that are tamed by certain methods will always remain peaceful if they untame: monsters that decided to become tame on their own, monsters that were tamed by music (including dolls of friendship), and starting pets.
  • Pets on other dungeon levels don't count towards the limit and won't untame.
• Charm monster and scrolls of taming are now single-target spells.
• The character can now take any item from a pet using the #loot command, and may equip pets with armor using the #equip command.
  • Armor now has an intrinsic size. Most pieces of armor must be the same size as the creature you want to wear the armor. Armor of unspecified size is Medium (human) sized.
    • Most armor found randomly in the dungeon is sized for humans.
  • Body armor and helms also have an intrinsic shape.
    • Most armor and helms found randomly in the dungeon are shaped for humanoids (no modifier displayed).
    • Barded armor fits roughly animal-shaped creatures, such as dogs, cats, horses, lizards, and spiders.
    • Barded helms fit creatures with long heads, such as dogs, cats, horses, lizards, and snakes.
    • Segmented armor fits roughly-snake shaped creatures, mostly snakes and most nagas.
    • Snakeneck helms fit creatures with snake-like heads and necks attached to non-snake bodies. Examples are serpent men of Yoth, serpent-necked lionesses, bandersnatches, and jabberwocks.
    • Centaur armor fits creatures with humanoid torsos attached to roughly animal-shaped lower bodies, which includes proper centaurs as well as driders (sprow, however, have humanoid bodies).
    • Snakeleg armor fits creatures with humanoid torsos attached to serpentine lower bodies. Examples include mariliths, salamanders, and ancient nagas.
    • Snakeback armor fits creatures with combined serpentine and animal-like body plan. Deep Wyrms and Deep Wyrmlings are the only such creatures.
• Two new commands, #wait and #come allows you to tell a pet to stay on the current level or follow you between levels as normal. These are useful if you want to have a pet not follow you but find it difficult to do so because of the increased follow range due to high beast mastery skill.
• Several 'storage' levels are implemented; pets left there won't lose tameness from being away from the player, even if they don't have the "loyal" tag. These include the first level of Sokoban and the first level of dNethack's Neutral Quest branch, and possibly others.

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

"List the other effects of pets being loyal. There are some levels where pets don't lose tameness (or get hungry?) while you're off-level - list those levels. Split in-depth changes into their own subheaders as with beast mastery."

Beast mastery

A new skill, beast mastery, is implemented. Higher skill improves pets' AC and increases their chances to-hit in combat. It also increases the range from which pets will follow you when going up or downstairs. The skill is trained by witnessing your pets engaging in combat. The following roles can train beast mastery:

• Basic: Convict, female droven Priest, Madman, dwarven Noble, dwarven Knight, Wizard
• Skilled: android Anachrononaut, default Knight, elven and droven Noble, Tourist
• Expert: Bard (Troubadour), default and droven Healer, default (human, vampire, incantifier, and male half-dragon) and female half-dragon Noble, Ranger

Strategy

• If wishing for a pet, the strongest non-unique angels are the best candidates.
  • The counterpart of the vanilla Archon is the Throne Archon, a high-damage spellcaster that favors the lightning bolt spell and can buff itself. Its large size makes it harder to find equipment for.
  • A Light Archon fires volleys of 3 (magically created) silver arrows for high potential damage against demons. Its large size makes it harder to find equipment for.
  • A Surya Deva frequently casts mass cure, healing all nearby peaceful monsters as well as the player. Independent dancing blade means it can attack multiple targets per turn. It also casts fire pillar and fires (magically created) +57 phasing silver arrows. Its large size makes it harder to find equipment for, and each component of the Surya has a lower damage output than other choices. Fire damage is less useful than lightning.
  • A Mahadeva deals very high single-target melee damage and has the highest base level (30). However, it's also incredibly dangerous to have as a pet. Its weapon attack will make repeated attacks until it finally misses, and conventional wisdom would be to give it gauntlets of dexterity maybe and a weapon with good to-hit. This is a really awful idea. If the Mahadeva gets confused you can very easily find yourself dead in a single turn unless you've got excellent AC (as in, "good even for end-game AC"). If you do, be careful to stay at range from your pet whenever possible.
  • A Tulani Eladrin casts cold, shock, and fire damage spells, and its medium size means you can easily find and enchant a full set of armor for it. However, it can catch the player in fireball explosions. It has a lower base level (18) and chooses spells randomly, so damage drops off against targets with resistances. It only uses one weapon attack per turn, unless it is level 30.
  • An Ara Kamerel comes with a Kamerel Vajra and casts open wounds in combat, resulting in high single-target damage. It resists shock damage, acid damage, sleep, poison, magic, petrification, and has intrinsic reflection. It reincarnates using gold golems, though it reverts to level 15 in the process. Its large size makes it harder to find equipment for, and its speed of 9 is rather slow. It can be permanently killed by some enemies.
  • An ancient of death inhales life and exhales death once per round, and is able to affect enemies through walls. However, its speed of 4 is very slow.
  • An ancient of ice is a less useful version of the ancient of death, since more targets resist fire and ice.
• If searching the dungeon for endgame-capable pets:
  • Lady Oona has a decent base level (20), and her medium size means you can easily find and enchant equipment for her. She can wield weapons and casts a strong elemental damage spell. However, she is slow (speed 9), and her elemental damage spell is either fire, lightning, or cold, chosen randomly at the start of the game.
  • Medusa has a decent base level (20), and her medium size means you can easily find and enchant equipment for her, though her snake-like lower body does complicate matters. She can wield weapons and has numerous natural attacks. She constantly petrifies anything able to see her, though MC3 armor will block this effect.
  • Grue has a decent base level (20) and is very fast in the dark, with very high damage. It has a digestion attack and can be ridden. Its nonstandard body-type makes it unable to equip most types of armor, however. It can sometimes get itself killed by using its digestion attack.
  • A strong Darkness given hunger can be a surprisingly effective pet in the end game, particularly for players with a high pet cap, as enemy monsters with iron weapons will constantly divide your pet to create a small army around you. You will most likely want a means of mass healing your pets to keep them in good condition, such as the Troubadour's Meditative Healing song or the mass healing spell, and you will also need a ring of slow digestion to ward off engulfing attacks from any confused pets or pets that turn on you as pudding division causes you to exceed your pet cap.

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