Intrinsic theft
Intrinsic theft is a damage type in NetHack that can remove one or more intrinsic properties from the hero, and uses the flag AD_CURS.
Description
The only monster with the intrinsic theft ability in NetHack is the gremlin: they employ an intrinsic-stealing claw attack that has no damage dice and can steal intrinsics only at night.[1]
If a hero is hit by the intrinsic-stealing attack at night-time, and the attacker is not cancelled, they have a 1⁄10 chance of losing one of the following intrinsic properties:[2]
A property is chosen from this list at random without reference to the hero's current intrinsics or their sources, i.e. it can remove intrinsics granted by the hero's role or race:[3] If the hero does not have the selected intrinsic property, the code checks for all other intrinsics listed below it until it hits an intrinsic that the hero possesses, or else until it reaches the end of the list (in which case no properties are lost). The game tracks intrinsics and extrinsics separately, so if e.g. a gremlin steals intrinsic poison resistance from a hero in an alchemy smock, the hero will still resist poison as long as they do not remove the smock. A hero that is currently polymorphed into the form of a clay golem is instantly "destroyed" if the attack hits and would steal an intrinsic, returning them to normal form (even with unchanging) before rolling an intrinsic to steal.[4]
A monster hit by an intrinsic theft attack from a gremlin or a hero polymorphed into a gremlin is cancelled instead, which instantly destroys clay golems.[5][6]
Strategy
Intrinsic theft is a rare but serious danger: the only other forms of intrinsic loss are curse effects from sitting on a throne, whose routine the damage type calls, and eating the corpse of a disenchanter.[2][7] The threat of intrinsic theft by a gremlin makes it risky to play during in-game night hours, especially if hostile gremlins are located near any body of water on levels such as Medusa's Island (which guarantees a gremlin on one of the maps).
History
Intrinsic theft debuts in NetHack 2.3e, which also introduces the gremlin and the intrinsic loss effect of sitting on a throne. From this version to NetHack 3.0.10, including some variants based on those versions, it is possible for the hero to die if they lose intrinsic fire resistance to a throne or gremlin attack while in Hell and they do not have have another source of the property - any death caused this way is logged as being killed by a "gremlin curse" regardless of how the intrinsic was actually lost.
Messages
- <The gremlin> chuckles.
- It is night and the gremlin attempted to steal an intrinsic from you or destroyed your clay golem form, or else you saw one use its intrinsic stealing attacking on another monster.[8] This can also be printed with a 1⁄4 chance when chatting to a gremlin or any other monster that laughs.[9]
- Some writing vanishes from your head!
- You were polymorphed into a clay golem and hit with an intrinsic theft attack. This will return you to your original form, even with unchanging.
- Some writing vanishes from <its> head!
- You saw a gremlin destroy a clay golem with its intrinsic-stealing attack.
The following messages occur if an intrinsic is lost to the attack:
- You feel warmer.
- You lost intrinsic fire resistance.
- You feel less jumpy.
- You lost intrinsic teleportitis.
- You feel a little sick!
- You lost intrinsic poison resistance.
- Your senses fail!
- You lost intrinsic telepathy.
- You feel cooler.
- You lost intrinsic cold resistance.
- You feel paranoid.
- You lost intrinsic invisibility.
- You thought you saw something!
- You lost the see invisible intrinsic.
- You tawt you taw a puttie tat!
- As above, while hallucinating.
- You feel slower.
- You lost intrinsic speed.
- You feel clumsy.
- You lost intrinsic stealth.
- You feel vulnerable.
- You lost intrinsic protection.
- You feel less attractive.
- You lost the aggravate monster intrinsic.
Variants
Some variants of NetHack alter the gremlin's intrinsic theft abilities, change how the damage type functions and/or give the damage type to other monsters.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, the gypsy has a damaging claw attack that can steal intrinsics.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, phantasms, Glasya and the Avatar of Lolth have intrinsic-stealing attacks.
FIQHack
In FIQHack, gremlins can steal intrinsics from other monsters as well as the hero, and will do regardless of the time of day - the gremlin gains the stolen intrinsic instead of just removing the intrinsic from the victim.
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, Baphomet has a breath weapon that deals damage and can remove intrinsics.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, gremlins can steal intrinsics regardless of the time of day, as in FIQHack.
References
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1526: Intrinsic theft attack against hero; line 1528 checks if it is night and the attacker is a gremlin, and aborts the sequence otherwise
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 src/sit.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 402: attrcurse() function
- ↑ include/prop.h in NetHack 3.6.7, line 136
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1537: hero in clay golem form is forced back to normal before intrinsic is stolen
- ↑ src/mhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1244: Intrinsic-stealing vs. other monsters
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1830: Intrinsic-stealing by hero vs. monsters
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1078: disenchanter case calls attrcurse() in sit.c
- ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1535
- ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 727: MS_LAUGHS() case
