Devil's Snare (UnNetHack)
| X Devil's Snare (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Attacks |
Hug 4d6 drowning |
| Base level | 14
|
| Speed | 10 |
| Base AC | 3 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | −2 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 2 (Quite rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 40 |
| Nutritional value | 200 |
| Size | large |
| Resistances | cold resistance, poison resistance |
| Resistances conveyed | none |
|
A Devil's Snare:
| |
| Reference | UnNetHack commit f76e980 - src/monst.c, line 3907 |
- For the monster in dNetHack and its derivatives, see devil's snare (dNetHack).
A Devil's Snare, X, is a type of monster that appears in UnNetHack. The Devil's Snare is a form of harmful vegetation that belongs to the xorn monster class: it is unbreathing, mindless, inediate, stationary, and lacks eyes, limbs or a head. As a form of vegetation, the Devil's Snare is immune to explosions, and is one of the few monsters to not have a grudge (mutual or otherwise) against the spores of the various dungeon ferns.
A Devil's Snare has a single holding attack that will always hit and crushes victims, and can also drown them if the Snare is stationed on or near enough to a moat or pool. Devil's Snares possess poison resistance and cold resistance, as well as a weakness to light and a severe vulnerability to fire. A flash of light, e.g. from an expensive camera or broken wand of light, deals 4d8 damage to the Devil's Snare (which can kill them, unlike with gremlins) and will paralyze them for 5–14 turns, also causing the Snare to release the hero if it was holding them. Striking a Devil's Snare with Fire Brand will always be instantly fatal to it.
Generation
Randomly generated Devil's Snares are always created hostile, and cannot be randomly generated in Sheol. They are not a valid polymorph form.
A Devil's Snare never leave a corpse upon death.
Strategy
Devil's Snares are quite dangerous to approach, especially over water, but can be reliably avoided if the plant is not obstructing the hero's path. The also act somewhat slowly at 10 speed, so a hero that is caught by one and not in danger of drowning can usually cut them down before they are fatally crushed. Fire damage, e.g. from a wand of fire, can hasten the demise of a Devil's Snare, but the fireball spell and scrolls of fire are not viable at all against them due to their immunity to explosions.
History
The Devil's Snare is first introduced in version 5.1.0 via commit 58c1ef1f21.
Origin
The Devil's Snare is a fictional type of flora from Harry Potter, a franchise originating from a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author Joanne Rowling (who is sometimes known by "Joanne Murray" and the pen name "J. K. Rowling"). The novels chronicle the lives of the titular young wizard as he attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and learns of his connection to Lord Voldemort, a dark wizard who intends to become immortal and subjugate the wizarding world and "mundane" world alike.
Within the setting of Harry Potter, the Devil's Snare is a sentient plant that attacks those who touch it by wrapping its vines around the "aggressor" to strangle them. It prefers damp, dark environments and is repelled by fire or bright light, so those caught in Devil's Snare can use spells that produce light or fire to force the plant to release them. The Devil's Snare's strangling is specifically stimulated by struggling, meaning that a victim can actually escape from the plant by relaxing themselves, which causes the plant to release them.
The fictional Devil's Snare coincidentally shares its name with the common name of a real plant, Datura stramonium, which is also known as "thornapple", "jimsonweed" (or "jimson weed"), or "devil's trumpet"—D. stramonium is a poisonous flowering plant in the Daturae tribe of the nightshade family Solanaceae that likely originated in Central America, and is an aggressive invasive weed in temperate climates and tropical climates across the world. D. stramonium has frequently been employed in traditional medicine to treat a variety of ailments, and has also been taken as a hallucinogen of the anticholinergic/antimuscarinic, deliriant type to cause intense, sacred or occult visions; the tropane alkaloids responsible for the psychoactive effects may be severely toxic as well.
Messages
- The Devil's Snare shrivels.
- A Devil's Snare was paralyzed by light.
- The Devil's Snare falls away from you.
- As above, while the Devil's Snare was also holding you and you could see it.
Encyclopedia entry
"Stop moving!" Hermione ordered them. "I know what this is --
it's Devil's Snare!"
"Oh, I'm so glad we know what it's called, that's a great help,"
snarled Ron, leaning back, trying to stop the plant from curling
around his neck.
"Shut up, I'm trying to remember how to kill it!" said Hermione.
"Well, hurry up, I can't breathe!" Harry gasped, wrestling with
it as it curled around his chest.
"Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare . . . what did Professor Sprout
say? -- it likes the dark and the damp --"
"So light a fire!" Harry choked.
"Yes -- of course -- but there's no wood!" Hermione cried,
wringing her hands.
"HAVE YOU GONE MAD?" Ron bellowed. "ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?"
