Durin's Bane (dNetHack)
| & Durin's Bane (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 30 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 8d2 fire, Offhand Weapon 8d2 fire, Explode on death 11d11 elemental fire |
| Base level | 24 |
| Base experience | 1160 |
| Speed | 7 |
| Base AC | -14 |
| Base MR | 80 |
| Alignment | -14 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 3000 |
| Nutritional value | 400 |
| Size | large |
| Resistances | fire, poison, petrification
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Durin's Bane:
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- This article is about the monster in dNetHack and its variants. For the monster in UnNetHack, see Durin's Bane (UnNetHack).
Durin's Bane, &, is the Dwarf Noble quest nemesis in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. He is a demon that guards the Bell of Opening. Durin's Bane has 24 points of effective AC, with 8 each in the natural, dodge and protection categories.
Durin's Bane is a strong and unique balrog-like major demon that has many of the same traits: he can fly, see invisible, has infravision, can be seen via infravision, will pick up weapons and other items that he comes across, and can follow a hero to other levels if it is adjacent. Durin's Bane cannot be made tame.
Durin's Bane has a weapon attack and off-hand weapon attack that inflicts fire damage, and on death he unleashes a very powerful fiery explosion.
Durin's Bane is poisonous to consume, which primarily comes up if he is digested by another monster or subjected to Ahazu.
Generation
Durin's Bane is always generated hostile, and is not a valid form for polymorph.
For dwarven Nobles, Durin's Bane is always generated on the Dwarf Noble quest goal level, where he is placed in the middle of the narrow bridge at level creation.
Durin's Bane is always generated with a cursed erosion-proof +9 iron bullwhip, a potion of speed and a potion of paralysis.
Durin's Bane does not leave a corpse upon death.
Strategy
Durin's Bane is not covetous and so will not warp to meet the hero like many other quest nemeses. He is slightly faster and more well-protected than a normal balrog (which is itself significantly buffed compared to NetHack), with a slightly better MR score of 80 and -14 effective AC, but still moves at a slow base speed of 7 (which he can only boost to 9 with his potion of speed). However, he also has three times the HP of most mundane monsters around the same level, which can result in HP values over 700. A dwarf Noble should be prepared for a long battle when putting together a kit to face Durin's Bane, and in particular should beware of his nasty on-death explosion.
Origin
Durin's Bane is a balrog that appears in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, where it attacks the Fellowship as they try to pass through the halls of Moria. It is the only balrog seen and described in Lord of the Rings (though balrogs also figure in some of Tolkien's other writings, such as the Silmarillion) and serves as the model for balrogs in other media, including NetHack: the passage describing the encounter with Durin's Bane is used as the encyclopedia entry for "balrog" in NetHack. This is retained even in some variants that add Durin's Bane, who is naturally a stronger version of vanilla's standard balrog; the balrog in turn is one of the strongest non-unique major demons in the game.
Durin's Bane is described in The Fellowship of the Ring as a vast shadowy creature with a humanoid shape and spreading "wings"—whether these wings are physical or merely a description of its shadow is up for debate. It wields a blazing sword in one hand and a burning whip in the other; the NetHack analogues to this are the broadsword and bullwhip that every balrog starts with.
The balrog that came to be known as "Durin's Bane" was a servant of the evil Morgoth. After Morgoth's defeat, the balrog concealed itself under the Misty Mountains, until it was disturbed or awakened by dwarves mining in their stronghold of Khazad-dûm (Moria). The dwarves gave the balrog its name after it killed their leader Durin VI in battle, which forced them to vacate Moria; the balrog remained in the complex after it was occupied by Sauron's orcs and trolls, and joined the occupying force in trying to kill the Fellowship of the Ring when they attempted to pass through Moria. Durin's Bane proved a powerful foe - it was only defeated after a grueling fight to the death with Gandalf the Grey.
