Death resistance
Death resistance is an "informal" property that appears in NetHack, and protects against most magical sources of instant death.
Contents
Description
Monsters with death resistance are immune to the instant death effect of the touch of death monster spell, rays from a wand of death and rays from the finger of death spell. This property does not have its own flag like other resistances, and is instead governed by various other sections of code tied to those attacks and spells.
If a monster is nonliving, a major demon, a vampire in one of their shapeshifter forms, or has player-style magic resistance (either from possessing a magic missile attack or an extrinsic source of magic resistance), they are unaffected by the above spells and attacks[1] - monsters will not actively use the touch of death or other monster spells against other monsters. Death is not special-cased to resist death magic in this manner, but will instead absorb it and restore up to half their HP.[2]
The hero resists death magic if they are polymorphed into a death-resistant monster;[3][4][5] magic resistance will block the effects of the touch of death and death rays zapped at them, but unlike death resistance it will not protect them from a death ray that they zap directly at themselves.[6][7]
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, death resistance is a "formal" property governed by the MR_DEATH flag in monflag.h - this also applies to SlashTHEM. A monster that has the death resistance property and is hit by a touch of death or a death ray (referred to as death magic) will resist the instant death effects of those attacks, but will still take damage.
This property can be found on various monsters in the dungeon, including some of the more powerful ones. As in NetHack, the hero cannot obtain this specific property as an intrinsic from a corpse or through any external source, but can polymorph into a monster that has the property; death resistance will not protect the hero from a death ray zapped at themselves.
The following SLASH'EM monsters possess death resistance, and are listed in rough order of their appearance in monst.c:
- g Statue gargoyle
- all angelic beings except the A couatl and A Aleax
- F Shrieker
- H Titan
- H Minotaur
- P Gray ooze
- P Brown pudding
- P Moldy pudding
- P Black pudding
- ' Rope golem
- ' Leather golem
- ' Wood golem
- @ Gypsy
- @ Black marketeer
- & Spined devil
- & Bearded devil
- & bar-lgura
- & chasme
- & babau
- & nabassu
- Some quest nemeses:
- Defunct monsters:
- @ Transmuter
- @ Lareth
- @ Sir Lorimar
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack, and notnotdNetHack, the spirit Ose grants a hero that binds her immunity to death effects, including from zapping a wand of death at themselves - a hero that also has Berith bound can grant this immunity to a steed they are riding.
In addition to the same monsters as NetHack, various other monsters are made immune to death magic, and some are even empowered by it:
- Metroids: metroid monsters that are hit by death magic will not die and instead divide from absorbing the ray; if you zap a death ray at yourself while in the form of a metroid, you are healed for 3d10 HP.
- All lawful angels
- All neutral angels
- All chaotic angels
- All Keter Sephiroth
- All golems except the ford guardian and grove guardian
FIQHack
In FIQHack, death resistance is one of the properties that can be conferred by quaffing or dipping into a potion of wonder.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, magic resistance still prevents the instadeath effects of death rays or death touches, but no longer offers complete protection against them: the target will still take significant damage and have their maximum HP drained. Half spell damage combined with magic resistance can reduce this damage further. The Gauntlets of Purity offer complete protection from death magic while worn.
In addition to the same monsters from NetHack, the following monsters in EvilHack are also immune to death magic:
- All angelic beings
- All quest leaders
- Cerberus
- Baby and adult celestial dragons
- Death
SlashTHEM
SlashTHEM also features death resistance as a property, with the same effects as in SLASH'EM.
In addition to the listed SLASH'EM monsters, the following monsters introduced in SlashTHEM have death resistance:
- A weeping angel
- A weeping archangel
- P tapioca pudding
- @ watch leader
- Quest nemeses:
- & Jaquio
- @ Student Leader
- @ Sir Lorimar (no longer deferred)
- @ The Champion of Pompeji
- @ Archnemesis
- D Alduin
- Deferred and defunct monsters:
- T Tara Gilesbie
- @ Master Sabrina
- @ Master Brain
- B Ho-Oh
References
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3671: monster qualities that confer immunity to death rays
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4156: Death is empowered by death magic
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2449: zapping self with death while in nonliving/demon form
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3841: death rays while in nonliving/demon form
- ↑ src/mcastu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 380
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3485:
antimagicis checked here, but not when zapping self - ↑ src/mcastu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 391
