Healer (dNetHack monster)

@ healer
Difficulty	13
Attacks	Weapon 1d6 physical, cast 0d0 clerical

@ healer
Difficulty	13
Attacks	Weapon 1d6 physical, cast 0d0 clerical
Base level	10
Base experience	266
Speed	12
Base AC	10
Base MR	1
Alignment	0 (neutral)
Frequency (by normal means)	0 (Not randomly generated)
Genocidable	Only if hero is a Healer
Weight	1450
Nutritional value	400
Size	medium
Resistances	poison resistance, immunity to sickness (creation only)
Resistances conveyed	none
A healer: has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso. is omnivorous. is not a valid polymorphable form. is a human. is strong. can pick up weapons and food. can be seen through infravision.

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, the healer, @, is significantly altered as a monster from its appearance in NetHack.

As with NetHack, the healer is a neutral human player monster corresponding to a Healer hero: they will have the role's appropriate rank title for their monster level, and they can reach level 30 like heroes can.

A healer has a single weapon attack and can cast one monster spell clerically during each of its turns. Like Healer heroes and other 'healer' monsters, they have poison resistance (both intrinsically and from monster creation) and immunity to sickness (from monster creation only). They boast basic prowess in martial combat and have a halved base attack bonus of +0.5 to-hit per monster level.

Generation

Healers are not generated randomly, and are normally created as peaceful towards neutral heroes before specific adjustments are made. They are only a valid form for doppelgangers to polymorph into, and can only be targeted for genocide if a Healer hero reads a scroll of genocide—such a hero reading a cursed scroll while confused will instead create several healer monsters adjacent to themselves. An attendant can grow up into a healer.

Healer corpses can generate in graveyards and within the Valley of the Dead. Healer statues can generate in cockatrice nests and on Medusa's Island. A Healer hero killed by HP damage from a cockatrice or chickatrice, or else killed by any form of stoning, will leave a named healer statue behind containing their inventory rather than a named ghost and named corpse if a bones file is created. Statues and figurines of healers cannot be wished for by any means.

Live locations

Healers can appear among the default pool of random prisoners (i.e. before ruler-specific rules are applied) that are kept in throne rooms, with twice the chance compared to other prisoners in that group—this is done to represent male and female player monsters with one entry each. They can also appear among the prisoners of the throne room on the Neutral Quest branch level and the Castle, and may also appear among the prisoners of any throne room ruled by a deepest one, vampire lady, or vampire lord—with the exception of the latter two, healers have twice the chance of appearing compared to other prisoners in those groups.

Healers can appear among the group of hostile player monsters that collectively constitute the second quest monster slot for Binders and make up ¹⁸⁄₁₇₅ of the monsters randomly generated on the Binder quest.

Hostile healers can appear among the various player monsters placed on the Astral Plane during level creation.

Names

Named healers that are placed outside of the Astral Plane are named for notable ancient Greek physicians, healers, and deities of medical domains and their relatives:

• The masculine names that can be chosen from are "Herophilus", "Aristotle", "Theophrastus", "Erasistratus", "Galen", "Dioscorides", "Herodicus", "Paean", and "Telesphorus".
• The feminine names that can be chosen from are "Agnodice", "Eileithyia", "Epione", "Aceso", and "Aegle".

Inventory

A healer is always generated with a healer uniform, a pair of low boots and a potion of extra healing. Their weapon has a ³⁄₄ chance of being a quarterstaff, and otherwise they have a ¹⁄₂ chance (effective ¹⁄₈ chance) of being given either a unicorn horn or a scalpel with roughly equal probability.

Healers generated on the Madperson quest are generated with golden trephination kits in addition to their normal inventory.

Healers generated as prisoners in the Castle will have the above items and a ³⁄₄ chance of either a helm of brilliance or a helm of telepathy (with roughly equal probability) among their belongings that are placed in the chest near the throne.

Healers generated on the Astral Plane are subject to the same armor and weapon replacement odds as other player monsters.

Encyclopedia entry

See the encyclopedia entry for healer.