Feline
The feline, usually short for "cat or other feline", is a monster class that appears in NetHack, and is represented by the lowercase f glyph (f). Cats and felines are designated internally by the macro S_FELINE.[1]
The class contains the following monsters:[2]
Common traits
Felines are quadrupedal and carnivorous animals that possess infravision and can be seen via infravision. Felines are all neutral in alignment, except for the chaotic displacer beast. The neutral felines can be broadly separated into two categories:
- Domestic felines—the kitten, housecat and large cat
- Wild felines, or "big cats"—the jaguar, lynx, panther, and tiger
Felines primarily attack via bites, as well as claws for the big cats and displacer beasts). Chatting to a tame domestic feline monster can be used to gauge its current condition.
Felines that eat mimic corpses may assume the form of a tripe ration for the duration of the meal if they do not assume a monster-specific form.[3]
Generation
Randomly-generated domestic felines are sometimes created as peaceful towards neutral heroes, while other felines are always created hostile.
A random feline is always generated on the College Town map of Minetown, where it is placed in the southwest room between the rooms for the hardware store and delicatessen during level creation.[4]
Strategy
Most felines have high movement speed, allowing them to deal surprising amounts of damage to an unprepared hero in the early game—the displacer beast in particular is a mid-game terror due to its incredible -10 AC and intrinsic displacement abilities.
History
The jaguar first appears in Hack 1.21 (based on Jay Fenlason's Hack), where it uses the J glyph; from Hack for PDP-11 and Hack 1.0 to NetHack 2.3e, it uses the j glyph. The feline monster class is introduced in NetHack 3.0.0, which adds the kitten, housecat and large cat and moves the jaguar to the monster class alongside them.
The tiger is added to the monster class in NetHack 3.0.6. The panther originates in NetHack-- 3.0.10, while the lynx originates in SLASH 6, and both monsters make their vanilla debut in NetHack 3.3.0.
The displacer beast first appears in Jay Fenlason's Hack, where it uses the d glyph, but does not make its vanilla NetHack debut until it is added in NetHack 5.0.0 via commit 7817e69c: this same commit gives all felines infravision. The displacer beast's stats, glyph and attributes are derived from its appearances in SLASH 6 and SLASH'EM.
Variants
SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM adds several monsters to the monster class:
- @ / f werepanther
- f kamadan
- f displacer beast
- f caterwaul
- @ / f weretiger
- f sabre-toothed cat
- f hellcat
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, the feline is the second quest monster class for Cavepeople, and makes up 6⁄175 (3%) of the monsters randomly generated on the Caveman quest.
dNetHack
dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack add several monsters to the monster class:
- f manticore
- f serpent-necked lioness
- f displacer beast
- f son of Typhon
- f hellcat
- f saber-toothed cat
The Cartouche of the Cat Lord is a ward that can pacify hostile felines which see it, returning them to full health if successful. The toustefna stave can scare off felines if carved into a wood weapon placed on the hero's square.
SpliceHack
SpliceHack adds several monsters to the monster class:
A pinch of catnip thrown at any feline will tame and confuse them, and a hero eating catnip while in the form of a feline will be confused for 2d8 (more) turns.
EvilHack
EvilHack adds two monsters to the monster class:
SlashTHEM
SlashTHEM retains the monsters added in SLASH'EM, and adds two monsters to the monster class:
The feline is the first quest monster class for Zookeepers, and makes up 24⁄175 (14%) of the monsters randomly generated on the Zookeeper quest. The feline is also the second quest monster class for Cavepeople as in UnNetHack, and makes up 6⁄175 (3%) of the monsters randomly generated on the Caveman quest.
Liontamer is an artifact bullwhip that deals extra damage against felines.
Hack'EM
Hack'EM adds several monsters to the monster class, including many from other variants:
- f serval
- f caterwaul
- @ / f werepanther
- @ / f weretiger
- f saber-toothed cat
- f lion
- f serpopard
- f fat cat
- f kamadan
- f saber-toothed tiger
- f displacer beast
- f hellcat
As in SpliceHack, a sprig of catnip thrown at any feline will tame and confuse them, and eating catnip while in the form of a feline will confuse the hero for 2d8 (more) turns.
