Golden naga
N golden naga 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 13 |
| Attacks |
Bite 2d6 physical, Spell-casting 4d6 mage |
| Base level | 10 |
| Base experience | 239 |
| Speed | 14 |
| Base AC | 2 |
| Base MR | 70 |
| Alignment | 5 (lawful) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 2600 |
| Nutritional value | 400 |
| Size | Huge |
| Resistances | Poison |
| Resistances conveyed | Poison (66%) |
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A golden naga:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line1642 |
A golden naga, N, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is an adult naga that is the sole monster of the class with the ability to cast monster spells.
A golden naga has a bite attack and will attempt to cast one mage spell during each of its turns, and possesses poison resistance.
Eating a golden naga corpse or tin has a 2⁄3 chance (66%) of conveying poison resistance.
Generation
Randomly-generated golden nagas may be created as peaceful towards lawful characters. A golden naga hatchling can grow up into a golden naga.
Golden nagas appear among the N that are part of the second quest monster class for Rogues, and make up 6⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the the Rogue quest.
Strategy
Golden nagas are quick-moving monsters that can outpace an unhasted character, and are fairly dangerous spellcasters: their available spells usually include destroy armor, curse items and drain strength, and it may cast haste self and/or disappear before you can catch sight of it. Magic resistance can blunt the worst of their spells' impact.
Lawful characters are likely to encounter peaceful golden nagas, which is often an advantage versus characters of other alignments.
History
The golden naga first appears in NetHack 3.0.0.
Origin
The Nāga (feminine "Nagi") are a supernatural race of half-human half-serpent beings that can occasionally take human form, and hold cultural significance in the folkloric traditions of many South Asian and Southeast Asian cultures over the past two millennia. Nagas also appear in Dungeons & Dragons.
Their most common depiction is that of a snake with a human head, which the default tileset of NetHack draws from—other iconographic depictions portray them as human from the waist up and snake from the waist down, wholly human with snakes on the heads and necks, or even as common serpents. Various south and southeastern Asian cultures also portray Nāgas as having multiple usually-serpentine heads.
Encyclopedia entry
The naga is a mystical creature with the body of a snake and the head of a man or woman. They will fiercely protect the territory they consider their own. Some nagas can be forced to serve as guardians by a spellcaster of great power.
