Healer

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The Healer, abbreviated as Hea, is one of the roles available for a hero in NetHack. The guidebook says of them:

Healers are wise in medicine and apothecary. They know the herbs and simples that can restore vitality, ease pain, anesthetize, and neutralize poisons; and with their instruments, they can divine a being's state of health or sickness. Their medical practice earns them quite reasonable amounts of money, with which they enter the dungeon.

Healers can be humans or gnomes, and are always neutral.

Starting equipment

Each Healer starts with the following equipment:[1]

Healers start with knowledge of the potion of full healing's randomized appearance.[4]

The Healer's default starting pet is a little dog or kitten with equal probability.

Intrinsics

Healers gain the following intrinsic properties upon reaching the given experience levels:[5]

Attributes

The Healer's starting attributes are distributed as follows:[6]

Attributes Strength Dexterity Constitution Intelligence Wisdom Charisma Remaining
Minimum attributes 7 7 11 7 13 16 14
Distribution percentages 15% 15% 25% 20% 20% 5%
Mean w/ standard deviation (human) 9.31±1.46 9.17±1.42 14.55±1.63 9.87±1.57 15.77±1.40 16.56±0.73

Skills

Healers have the following skills available to them:[7]

Healer skills
Max Skills
Basic
Skilled
Expert

Healers start with Basic skill in knives and healing spells. They use the wisdom stat to cast spells, and their special spell is cure sickness.[8]

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.

The scimitar skill is merged into the saber skill.

Special rules

Healers get a +1 alignment record bonus for healing pets and peaceful monsters.[9] They can identify the wand of undead turning by zapping a corpse with it, even if they cannot see the corpse currently.[10]

Healers can only gain a multishot bonus for reaching Skilled in a weapon skill with knives, though they still get the normal multishot bonus for Expert skill with any weapon.[11] This means that gnomish Healers do not get a multishot bonus with crossbows.

Healers only take 1⁄2 damage from breaking wands by applying them.[12]

Healers have a +3 bonus to casting emergency spells.[13]

Healers do not suffer damage or attribute loss from quaffing a potion of sickness and are immune to their vapors, though quaffing the potion will still cure hallucination.[14][15][16]

Nurses will not damage Healers with their attacks.[17]

A Healer is given bonuses and unique outputs when applying a stethoscope:

  • A Healer applying a stethoscope to a statue can determine whether it contains items or is on a statue trap.[18]
  • A Healer applying a stethoscope to a corpse can determine whether it will revive.[19]
  • A Healer can more reliably apply a stethoscope to themself while engulfed by a whirly monster.[20]

Rank titles

The status line displays one of the following ranks for the corresponding experience levels:[21]

  • XL 1-2: Rhizotomist
  • XL 3-5: Empiric
  • XL 6-9: Embalmer
  • XL 10-13: Dresser
  • XL 14-17: Medicus ossium/Medica ossium
  • XL 18-21: Herbalist
  • XL 22-25: Magister/Magistra
  • XL 26-29: Physician
  • XL 30: Chirurgeon

Gods

Main article: Religion

The Healer pantheon is based on the mythology of ancient Greece.[22]

Quest

Main article: Healer quest

The Healer's quest sees them fighting the Cyclops for The Staff of Aesculapius, an artifact quarterstaff. It grants hungerless regeneration and drain resistance while wielded, and deals double damage to all monsters without drain resistance and drains levels from them on each hit - this life-draining applies a further +1d8 damage to the target's current and maximum HP, and restores half of that damage to the wielder's current HP. Invoking The Staff of Aesculapius heals the user by half of the HP needed to return to full health, and cures sickness, blindness not caused by gunk (e.g. from a cream pie) and sliming.

Strategy

While Healers are strong spellcasters and especially proficient with healing spells, they are one of the trickier roles in the game, due to starting with a weak weapon, minimal armor and low strength - they also cannot raise skill in any spell school outside of healing.

Character creation

A common early-game goal for a Healer is to run the protection racket and reach the Minetown temple to buy protection from its aligned priest, while gaining as few experience levels as possible and optionally increasing their gold via credit cloning. A gnomish Healer's relatively peaceful Mines and infravision make this goal significantly easier to achieve, and a skilled (or lucky) gnomish Healer can reach the temple without landing a single blow - conversely, a human Healer has a much harder Mines, but can reach the maximum strength bonus without wearing gauntlets of power, which impose a significant spellcasting penalty unless worn with a robe.

Early game

Although healers have excellent HP growth, their initially poor fighting skills make the very early game quite difficult for most players - the Healer's starting scalpel is equivalent to a rustproof, half-weight orcish dagger and is not a particularly good weapon. Healers are also the role best suited for the pacifist conduct by far. Fortunately, the starting equipment includes several combat aids: the stethoscope is a good way to read an enemy's HP and gauge whether to fight or retreat; the wand of sleep is helpful both offensively and defensively; and the healing potions can make up for otherwise lethal mistakes.

The starting money can be used to buy solid weapons and armor if you are lucky enough to happen upon an early shop that sells them. For early Healers not attempting the protection racket or the atheist conduct, one possible strategy is to fight until damaged to the critical HP threshold at any point after turn 100, then pray - success will fully restore HP and boost maximum HP. Another strategy is to immediately quaff the starting potions of extra healing, which will boost maximum HP by 2 (or 5 for blessed potions).

In terms of primary weapons, a short sword, aklys, dagger, or elven dagger all have better average damage versus small monsters, and are generally worth seeking out as soon as possible. For ranged weapons, a Healer has four options:

  • Knives are easily trained with the starting scalpel and can be advanced to Expert, making them the only ranged weapon that Healers can multishot 3 of. However, the base damage for a knife is low, and knives are unlikely to be generated in large quantities; monsters such as soldiers, barrow wights, Mordor orcs, and orc-captains can all carry knives, but appear far enough into the dungeon that assembling a reasonable stack can be time-consuming.
  • Darts are far more plentiful, can be poisoned by dipping them into a potion of sickness, and Healers can advance them to Expert, but they have the same low base damage as knives and are breakable.
  • Daggers are similarly plentiful, re-usable and deal slightly more damage - they are also heavier, cannot be poisoned, and Healers are capped at Skilled.
  • The aklys can be tethered and thrown as a re-usable weapon, and is plentiful early in the Gnomish Mines due to the strength restrictions of the resident gnomes - though it can fail to return or slip loose of its tether upon reaching the thrower. Healers can reach Skilled in clubs, and it can be trained up quickly since it doubles as a melee weapon.

An unusual technique for training a Healer's skills is to find a gas spore with sufficient HP, maneuver it into a corridor, and hit it with the unskilled weapon. Apply the stethoscope to see when its hit points are close to zero, then cast a healing spell at the gas spore before resuming combat. Be very careful when training a skill this way - a gas spore's explosion frequently wipes out a low-level Healer. Conversely, pets are the best aid in developing skill in healing spells, since Healers that cannot find reliable equipment may depend on them to stay alive, and a starting or found pet can quickly surpass them in damage output. Regularly monitoring and healing a pet both trains the skill and ensures its survival against particularly troublesome foes.

At experience level 3, Healers can reliably cast stone to flesh, which converts boulders into huge chunks of meat. This can remove troublesome boulders from passageways, and alleviates the threat of starvation, allowing players to act slower and more cautiously - it also typically results in being "oversatiated", which is still displayed on the status line as "Satiated". While oversatiated, it is best to avoid eating anything until your nutrition returns to normal in order to avoid choking (unless you are wearing an amulet of life saving or magical breathing). Stone to flesh can also convert rocks into meatballs to tame carnivorous domestic pets and train their apport.

When looking for armor, remember that the stethoscope reveals a monster's AC, which will give some idea of whether it has any enchanted armor. As an example, a dwarf in the Gnomish Mines with 4 AC or better probably has either a dwarvish mithril-coat or at least one enchanted piece of armor. Early metallic armor can interfere with your casting success, though it is usually possible to retreat to relative safety and remove the armor before healing yourself and/or your pet(s). Taking off body armor to cast healing spells is best done with a mithril-coat, which only requires one turn to put on or take off compared to other armors. All but one of the emergency spells are healing spells, and Healers get a +3 bonus towards successfully casting them, which can somewhat offset spellcasting penalties. Gauntlets of power may be especially worthwhile, since they provide such a huge boost to damage and carrying capacity for an early Healer.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.

Per commit 33556788, Healers and other characters that start with a level 1 spell will always have a minimum of 5 power in order to enable casting it.

Mid game

The Healer quest has a large number of dragons, making it dangerous to visit without reflection, particularly if there are any black dragons with disintegration breath. The abundance of moats also makes crossing difficult if you have not obtained a reliable means to do so - depending on circumstances, it may be more ideal to get the Castle wand prior to attempting the Quest. However, the Quest also represents a chance at silver dragon scale mail or gray dragon scale mail for a Healer skilled and savvy enough to out-maneuver and successfully kill a dragon, even if they have not yet reached the appropriate experience level to continue beyond the home level.

The Healer's quest nemesis, the Cyclops, can be incredibly tough. It is unwise to melee him while he is wielding the Staff of Aesculapius, and the wand of lightning that generates on his starting square is dangerous as well. Fortunately, the Cyclops respects Elbereth and the scroll of scare monster, and has no MR score, making him especially vulnerable to wands of death or wands of sleep (which Healers always start with) if they hit through his AC.

For their primary weapon, Healers may consider switching to a unicorn horn, or to The Staff of Aesculapius after clearing their Quest. The Staff itself does double damage to monsters without drain resistance and has additional life draining powers along with the ability to significantly heal the user when invoked. Healers may also find it useful to conserve skill slots, e.g. by not advancing their unicorn horn skill to Expert and leaving the slot free for the Staff later. As for spellcasting, long-term spell usage is somewhat limited, outside of their namesake school: despite the Healer's great natural spellcasting ability, they are restricted in all non-healing spell schools, making it difficult to cast any non-healing spell of level 3 or higher. Thankfully, spells such as magic missile, sleep and drain life can be reliably cast and are more than powerful enough for their level.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.

The scroll of scare monster on the ground no longer scares any unique monster.

The spell of sleep is raised to level 3, making it more difficult to cast, while the spell of confuse monster is lowered to level 1, making it a useful utility spell. The spell of chain lightning is added as a level 2 spell and can be incredibly powerful against groups of hostile monsters.

As a quarterstaff, The Staff of Aesculapius provides a small boost to spellcasting per commit 780d30ec, making it a more ideal weapon option upon completing the quest.

Late game

Some players in the late game prefer a silver saber or other silver weapon for their Healer while within Gehennom - The Staff of Aesculapius can end up cursed, severely restricting a Healer's options, though as an intelligent quest artifact it resists being cursed 4⁄5 of the time. For those sticking with their quest artifact, access to curse removal such as holy water or a blessed scroll of remove curse is vital. A silver weapon in the hands of a suitable pet can compensate for the lower damage output, as most of Gehennom's residents have drain resistance, and the Staff's hungerless regeneration and other properties are valuable for survival. Other good non-silver weapons include Magicbane or a highly-enchanted crysknife.

Because of their low base spellcasting penalty, Healers can wear metal boots and cast reliably, or wear a metal helm and cast with a failure rate of ~3% - when casting emergency spells, Healers can even wear gauntlets of power and still have 0% failure rates.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.

Per commit 42a6a5df, a cursed quarterstaff no longer impedes spellcasting.

History

The Healer is introduced in NetHack 1.3d.

The additional feedback for Healers when using stethoscopes is added in NetHack 3.6.0 via commit 29f21b48.

Origins

Wikipedia
Wikipedia has an article about:

While the concept of a healer is ubiquitous in most forms of gaming, particularly those based on fantasy works, the Healer of NetHack is based on the idea of "Western" medicine as originating in ancient Greece, combined with modern stereotypes associated with doctors and physicians. The origins of the role's rank titles are as follows:

  • A rhizotomist is an archaic term for a person who collects herbs and roots to make medicine, and is likely based on the epithet used for the physician Crateuas.
  • In medicine, an "empiric" can refer to either of the following:
    • A physician who bases their theories on experience (as in the empiric school of classical medicine)
    • A practitioner of "quack" medicine who favors unproven or disproven theories.
  • An embalmer is someone who preserves human remains e.g. for burial - the practice of embalming involves a significant amount of medical science.
  • A dresser is a surgeon’s assistant who is tasked with properly covering wounds.
  • "Medicus" is the Latin and Dutch term for a doctor.
  • A herbalist is someone who treats diseases with the use of medical herbs.
  • "Magister" and "Magistra" refers to a type of educational degree that originated in medieval European universities and was originally equal to the doctorate (which at the time was given for medicine).
  • A physician is a health professional who practices medicine.
  • "Chirurgeon" is an archaic term for a surgeon.

Variants

SLASH'EM

Main article: Healer/SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, Healers start with a wand of healing and a medical kit in exchange for their spellbook of extra healing, and also possess knowledge of some other healing and ailment-inflicting potions as well as the newly-added healthstone - they can get much better use out of the medical kit compared to other roles, especially with their starting surgery technique. Healers are also given a sacrifice gift in Mirrorbright, an artifact shield of reflection that grants hallucination resistance and adds to their defensive prowess, but makes obtaining artifact weapons more difficult as a tradeoff.

xNetHack

In xNetHack, the Healer benefits from two universal changes:

  • Scalpels are improved to 1d5/1d7 damage.
  • Quarterstaves give the hero a bonus to spellcasting success rates like a robe, and a cursed staff doesn't prevent them from casting spells, making it safer for Healers to wield their quest artifact.

FIQHack

In FIQHack, Healers gain similar staff bonuses to casting as with xNetHack, and have a health regeneration bonus of 0.33 HP per turn.

Encyclopedia entry

I swear by Apollo the physician, and Aesculapius, and Health,
and All-heal, and all the gods and goddesses, that, according
to my ability and judgment, I will keep this Oath and this
stipulation -- to reckon him who taught me this Art equally dear
to me as my parents, to share my substance with him, and relieve
his necessities if required; to look upon his offspring in the
same footing as my own brothers, and to teach them this art, if
they shall wish to learn it, without fee or stipulation; and
that by precept, lecture, and every other mode of instruction,
I will impart a knowledge of the Art to my own sons, and those
of my teachers, and to disciples bound by a stipulation and oath
according to the law of medicine, but to none others. I will
follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and
judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain
from whatever is deleterious and mischievous. [...]

[ Hippocrates' Oath, translated by Francis Adams ]


PHYSICIAN, n. One upon whom we set our hopes when ill and our
dogs when well.

[ The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce ]

References

  1. ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 59
  2. ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 697
  3. ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 699
  4. ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 701
  5. ↑ src/attrib.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 40
  6. ↑ src/role.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 180: Hea attributes and distributions
  7. ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 307
  8. ↑ src/role.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 192
  9. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 389
  10. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2034
  11. ↑ src/dothrow.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 117
  12. ↑ src/explode.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 74
  13. ↑ src/role.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 189: Hea emergency spell value
  14. ↑ src/potion.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 859
  15. ↑ src/potion.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 867
  16. ↑ src/potion.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1681
  17. ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1518
  18. ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 279
  19. ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 250
  20. ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 307
  21. ↑ src/role.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 154
  22. ↑ src/role.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 164

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