Naga
The naga is a monster class that appears in NetHack, and is represented by the uppercase N glyph (N). Nagas are designated internally by the macro S_NAGA.[1]
The monster class contains the following monsters:[2]
- N red naga hatchling
- N black naga hatchling
- N golden naga hatchling
- N guardian naga hatchling
- N red naga
- N black naga
- N golden naga
- N guardian naga
Contents
Common traits
Nagas are slithy, limbless monsters that have the head of a human and the body of a snake; their young are referred to as naga hatchlings. All nagas are strong, oviparous and thick-skinned, and primarily attack via bites - all hatchlings are neutral-aligned, while all adults have a secondary attack of some kind. Nagas are capable of consuming meat and, with the exception of black nagas, are also omnivorous. Nagas have poison resistance, and eating their corpses or tins may grant the intrinsic.
All naga hatchlings are large, while all adult nagas are huge. Nagas are considered kebabable, and grant a +2 to-hit bonus when attacking them with a weapon that uses the spear skill. Nagas are capable of wearing helms and amulets, but cannot put them on due to a lack of limbs.
Chatting to a naga or naga hatchling causes them to "mumble incomprehensibly".
Generation
The naga monster class is the second quest monster class for Rogues, and makes up 6⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the the Rogue quest; three random nagas are generated on the locate and goal levels within the quest branch at level creation. The nagas will be adults in all cases.
Naga hatchlings do not randomly generate outside of aligned levels or branches such as Minetown, the Oracle level and Sokoban. They can also hatch from corresponding naga eggs, and are sometimes generated as peaceful towards neutral characters.
History
All nagas are introduced in NetHack 3.0.0.
Origin
The Nāga (feminine "Nagi") are a supernatural race of half-human half-serpent beings that can occasionally take human form, and hold cultural significance in the folkloric traditions of many South Asian and Southeast Asian cultures over the past two millennia. Nagas also appear in Dungeons & Dragons.
Their most common depiction is that of a snake with a human head, which the default tileset of NetHack draws from—other iconographic depictions portray them as human from the waist up and snake from the waist down, wholly human with snakes on the heads and necks, or even as common serpents. Various south and southeastern Asian cultures also portray Nāgas as having multiple usually-serpentine heads.
Variants
UnNetHack
UnNetHack adds two new monsters to the monster class:
dNetHack
dNetHack adds one new monster to the monster class:
Nagas are capable of wearing snakeleg-shaped armor. The Wings of Garuda is a ward that can scare off nagas.
notdNetHack
In addition to dNetHack details, notdNetHack adds two other new monsters to the monster class:
SlashTHEM
SlashTHEM adds some new monsters to the monster class, including two from other variants:
Encyclopedia entry
The naga is a mystical creature with the body of a snake and the head of a man or woman. They will fiercely protect the territory they consider their own. Some nagas can be forced to serve as guardians by a spellcaster of great power.
