Jabberwock
J jabberwock 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 18 |
| Attacks |
Bite 2d10 physical, bite 2d10 physical, claw 2d10 physical, claw 2d10 physical |
| Base level | 15 |
| Base experience | 489 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | -2 |
| Base MR | 50 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 1300 |
| Nutritional value | 600 |
| Size | Large |
| Resistances | None |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
|
A jabberwock:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line1463 |
- This article is about the monster. For the monster class, see jabberwock (monster class).
A jabberwock, J, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The jabberwock is the only utilized monster in the jabberwock monster class—the vorpal jabberwock is also a part of the monster class, but is deferred.
A jabberwock is a strong and carnivorous animal that is capable of flight, can be seen via infravision, will pick up and collect items that they come across while hostile, and can be saddled for riding while tame.
A jabberwock has two bite attacks and two claw attacks. Hitting a jabberwock with Vorpal Blade will always behead them.
Chatting to a jabberwock will cause it to "burble".
Contents
Generation
Randomly generated jabberwocks are always created hostile. Jabberwocks that are placed at level creation or generated via normal monster creation will be asleep 4⁄5 of the time unless the hero has the Amulet of Yendor.[1]
Hostile jabberwocks can be generated by the summon nasties monster spell.
Two jabberwocks are generated on the Plane of Air at level creation.
Strategy
Jabberwocks possess a solid -2 AC and base movement speed of 12, which are decent but not remotely insurmountable—however, their attacks are strong enough that even some melee-focused heroes may have second thoughts about engaging them directly, and it may occasionally be wiser to leave sleeping jabberwocks undisturbed. The jabberwock's MR score of 50 makes many spells and wands unreliable against it, though it thankfully has no elemental resistances.
Unfortunately, by the time that jabberwocks can be encountered normally, most heroes will also likely encounter hostile spellcasters that can either use the aggravate monster spell to wake sleeping monsters, or else summon nasties and generate one directly adjacent to them. In any event, even a stealthy hero should be prepared to fight a jabberwock directly at some point, and should not count on any jabberwocks that generate asleep to remain so for long.
Polymorph traps and shapeshifters such as chameleons can present an unwelcome and possibly game-ending obstacle if they take the form of a jabberwock while closing in on you, and both events can occur well before jabberwocks would generate normally. A hero that has access to Vorpal Blade can easily dispatch any jabberwock they come across, and other characters that are prepared for the lower dungeons or Gehennom can usually fight one off with some difficulty, especially if they can prevent it from breaching melee range.
As a polyform
The jabberwock is a very strong polyform due to its flight, strength, four attacks that have high damage output and enable weapon use, and the ability to wear non-torso armor. While not sought out in many circumstances due to the transformation destroying worn cloaks, suits and shirts, a jabberwock polyform is among the better ones that a hero can end up with if they are randomly polymorphed. As it has two bite attacks, beware of cockatrices and chickatrices: attacking them in melee will result in instant stoning, though you can still wield their corpses safely with worn gloves.
As a pet
Jabberwocks are very strong pets, and are among the most powerful flying monsters that can serve as steeds. Relative to dragons, they are significantly faster and deal much more melee damage, but their lack of resistances and reflection leaves them vulnerable to a variety of instadeaths.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.
Pets can gain resistances by eating corpses. A properly-fed and hasted jabberwock may have survivability comparable to the inediate ki-rin.History
The jabberwock first appears in NetHack 3.0.5.
Origin
The jabberwock is based on the titular creature featured in Jabberwocky, a famous nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll, and its encyclopedia entry is an excerpt from the poem. This poem is also the inspiration for the artifact Vorpal Blade in NetHack, which is based on the unnamed adventurer's weapon within the poem that is used to behead the jabberwock—this is also the basis for the jabberwock's weakness to Vorpal Blade.
Jabberwocky is first printed in Carroll's 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass, the sequel to the 1865 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In Through the Looking-Glass, Alice finds herself in a looking-glass world and encounters the poem as part of a book written in a seemingly unintelligible language; she shortly discovers the text and the world at large is in fact inverted (or mirrored), and holds a mirror to the poem to read it, finding it as puzzling as the odd land she is now in.
The original illustrations by John Tenniel accompanying the poem (and the rest of the two novels) depict the titular jabberwock as a bipedal creature that vaguely resembles a dragon: it has bat-like wings, a long serpentine neck, a long tail, a weird head with rabbit-like teeth, hands with three long spidery talons, and a waistcoat. Some of the jabberwock's more particular traits may reflect the contemporary Victorian obsession with natural history and the then-fast-evolving sciences of paleontology and geology.
Messages
- The jabberwock burbles.
- You chatted to a jabberwock.
Variants
Many variants of NetHack implement the vorpal jabberwock in some manner, while comparatively few make significant changes to the jabberwock itself.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, jabberwocks hit as +1 weapons.
GruntHack
In GruntHack, a jabberwock can grow up into a vorpal jabberwock.
Weapons with the vorpal object property can instantly behead jabberwocks.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, jabberwocks have an increased base level and damage dice that matches those of the deferred vorpal jabberwock in vanilla NetHack. A jabberwock can also follow the hero to other levels if it is adjacent, and will not randomly generate in Gehennom.
A jabberwock may be one of the monsters generated within a magic item vault.
Encyclopedia entry
Jabberwocks and Vorpal Blade share the same encyclopedia entry:
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
References
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1262: chance of jabberwocks being generated asleep
