Demon (monster class)

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The demon is a monster class that appears in NetHack, and is represented by the ampersand glyph (&). Demons are designated internally by the macro S_DEMON.[1]

The class contains the following monsters:[2]

Common characteristics

The demon monster class is composed primarily (but not entirely) of the major demons, who are defined by the M2_DEMON flag and is_demon function - this includes the demon lords and princes, and the monster class is sometimes referred to as major demons. The non-demonic monsters in the monster class consist of the sandestin, djinni and the Riders.

History

The basic demon first appears in Hack 1.21 and Hack for PDP-11, which are based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial bestiary for Hack 1.0. In Hack 1.21, it uses the d glyph; from Hack for PDP-11 and Hack 1.0 on, it uses the & glyph. The mail daemon is introduced in Hack 1.0.2 with a different glyph.

NetHack 1.3d introduces the demon lord and demon prince monsters, which only appear if the HARD compile-time option is defined. The djinni first appears in NetHack 2.3e.

The distinct major demons, demon lords and demon princes are introduced in NetHack 3.0.0, which also moves the djinni and mail daemon to the same monster class and glyph as them - while the generic demon lord and demon prince monsters are phased out in this version, the basic demon continues to appear until NetHack 3.0.10, only generating if the HARD compile-time option is not defined; the option is changed to INFERNO in NetHack 3.0.6.

The Riders make their debut in NetHack 3.1.0, and the sandestin first appears in NetHack 3.3.0.

Variants

SLASH'EM

SLASH'EM introduces several monsters to the monster class:

References