GnollHack/Resistances and Saving Throws
In GnollHack, the way many special attacks and effects are resisted is different from vanilla NetHack. Armor Class and reflection are functionally unaltered, but resistances and Magic Cancellation are significantly changed.
Resistances
- For further details about changes to magic resistance, see Magic Resistance (GnollHack).
GnollHack resistances are divided into full resistances and partial resistances. A full resistance provides complete immunity to the damage type or effect it's set against, while a partial resistance provides a percent damage reduction instead.
In addition to the list of resistances already in NetHack, There is also:
- bisection resistance (against The Tsurugi of Muramasa and similar effects)
- charm resistance (against seduction and the nymph's item-stealing)
- curse resistance (against "curse items" and similar effects)
- death resistance (against "touch of death" and similar effects)
- lycanthropy resistance (against being given lycanthropy by a werecreature)
- magic missile resistance (against magic missiles and other "pure magic" damage)
- "mind shielding" (against mind blasts)
- polymorph resistance (against polymorph traps)
A number of more-obscure resistances are also easier to obtain in GnollHack; for example, you can get blindness resistance by wearing sunglasses.
One important change in GnollHack is that player magic resistance is changed; it no longer protects against item-cursing effects, death attacks such as touch of death, or attacks that use the "magic missile" damage type. (It still protects against psi bolt and open wounds, however.)
Monster magic resistance is mostly parsed back in favor of the saving throws system, and doesn't protect against cancellation unless the monster is unique.
Magic Cancellation
Magic Cancellation (MC) in GnollHack stacks, up to 25. Compared to how it works in vanilla NetHack, it also protects against gold-stealing, seduction, stoning, leg attacks, and disease; but it no longer protects against fire/cold/shock damage, sticky attacks, or poison.
MC is more common in GnollHack than in vanilla NetHack; for example, every three enchantment levels on a piece of armor increases its MC by 1. However, individual levels of MC are less effective and have diminishing returns:
| NetHack MC | Effect probability | Equivalent GnollHack MC |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 100% | 0 |
| 1 | 70% | 3 |
| 2 | 40% | 7 |
| 3 | 10% | 16 |
Saving Throws
Some effects in NetHack offer a saving throw to resist, even if the player or monster does not have the matching resistance. This replaces monster MR's role in protecting monsters from some of the things players can do to them.
A saving throw has a base success chance of minus-30%, plus 5% for each point of the relevant attribute it has.
- Fear effects, paralysis, sleep, slowing, magical taming, and some other mind-altering effects offer Wisdom saving throws.
- Appropriate skill levels can apply modifiers to the target's saving throw chance. Certain monsters (such as overlords) also reduce the target's saving throw chance, when applying these effects with their own magic or wands.
- GnollHack's spells that reduce monster MR will also reduce the target's Wisdom saving throw bonus.
- Potions of sickness, GnollHack's potion of poison, and GnollHack's "word" spells offer Constitution saving throws.
- GnollHack's "flesh to stone" spell offers Dexterity saving throws, though other sources of petrification are not as courteous.
- GnollHack's "silence" spell, which prevents a monster from noise-making or spellcasting, offers Charisma saving throws.