Guardian naga

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A guardian naga, N, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is an adult naga that has the highest level, speed and difficulty among its monster class, and is the only one to have three attacks.

A guardian naga has a paralyzing bite attack, the ability to spit blinding venom, and a holding attack - the attack usually occurs as a touch attack, since it requires two prior melee attacks to grab you and guardian nagas will not typically use their venom attack in melee range. The attack still contributes to their experience reward, and they will use it in combat against other monsters. A guardian naga possesses poison resistance.

A guardian naga corpse is poisonous to eat, but eating a guardian naga corpse or tin has a 45 chance of conveying poison resistance.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

Guardian nagas can use their hug attack, which is now an eel-style "wrap" attack. The attack cannot drown you, as they cannot inhabit pools or other bodies of water.

Generation

Randomly generated guardian nagas may generate as peaceful towards lawful characters. A guardian naga hatchling can grow up into a guardian naga.

Hostile guardian nagas can be generated via the summon nasties monster spell.

The guardian naga is the second quest monster for Rogues, and make up 24175 of the monsters randomly generated on the the Rogue quest. Several more guardian nagas are also generated on each level below the home floor at level creation: two are generated on each of the upper and lower filler levels, six are generated on the locate level, and eight are generated on the goal level. Guardian nagas also appear among the N that are part of the second quest monster class for Rogues, and make up 6175 of the monsters randomly generated there.

The Wizard of Yendor may create a clone of himself in the guise of a guardian naga via the Double Trouble monster spell.[1]

Strategy

While technically not as dangerous as their golden naga cousins, guardian nagas quick and vicious foes whose paralyzing bite and 16 speed can prove game-ending if you let yourself be surrounded by hostiles, or else are on the wrong end of a hostile lawful spellcaster's summoning. A ring of free action is very useful against them, especially if you lack ranged options to bring faraway ones down before they can close in - in the absence of the property or a spare ring slot, MC3 can suffice.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

Orange dragon scales and orange dragon scale mail also confer free action.

History

The guradian 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.

Variants

dNetHack

In dNetHack, guardian nagas have a 25 chance of generating with appropriately-sized snakeleg archaic plate mail and an archaic helm.

A guaradian naga may be one of the monsters generated within a magic item vault.

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.


References