Fireball (monster spell)

Fireball is a monster spell that appears in NetHack, and behaves somewhat similar to the basic version of the fireball spell available to the hero.

Though the fireball spell is fully coded in mcastu.c, no monsters currently use the spell, essentially rendering it a deferred feature.

Description

The spell has two different effects that deal fire damage, depending on whether it is used against the hero in melee range or at a distance:

• When used while adjacent to the target, it deals damage based on the monster's level plus any additional damage dice provided.
• When zapped at range, it deals damage according to the dice specified by the monster using it in their monst.c entry—like the fireball spell, it can boil potions and destroy scrolls and spellbooks in the inventory of any monsters it hits, and cannot be blocked by reflection.

Half spell damage halves damage inflicted by the spell in either form, and fire resistance completely negates damage to the hero from the spell in either form.

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 6b8079a1, the fireball spell burns items on the floor and melts ice at the target square.

History

The fireball monster spell is introduced in NetHack 3.0.0.

Messages

You are enveloped in flames!

You were hit by the fireball spell in melee range.

But you resist the effects.

This is added to the above if you resisted the spell.

Variants

Variants of NetHack often add monsters that use the existing fireball spell and/or give it to existing monsters.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, the fire vampire uses a 2d12 fireball spell.