Werejackal
@ werejackal (human)  
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 3 |
| Attacks | |
| Base level | 2 |
| Base experience | 22 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 10 |
| Base MR | 10 |
| Alignment | -7 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 400 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | poison resistance, drain resistance |
| Resistances conveyed | causes lycanthropy |
|
A human werejackal:
| |
| Reference | NetHack 5.0.0 - include/monsters.h, line 2618 |
d werejackal (animal) 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 4 |
| Attacks |
Bite 1d4 lycanthropy |
| Base level | 2 |
| Base experience | 22 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 7 |
| Base MR | 10 |
| Alignment | -7 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (normally created in human form) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 300 |
| Nutritional value | 250 |
| Size | Small |
| Resistances | poison resistance, drain resistance |
| Resistances conveyed | causes lycanthropy |
|
An animal werejackal:
| |
| Reference | NetHack 5.0.0 - include/monsters.h, line 220 |
A werejackal, @ / d, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The werejackal is an omnivorous human werecreature that can shift between human and canine form, and their shifting to canine form is signified by howling that can wake up sleeping monsters.[1] Werejackals possess enhanced regeneration and can be seen via infravision in both forms, while werejackals in human form will also seek out and collect items.
A werejackal in human form that is not subjected to protection from shape changers will transform into their animal form with a chance dependent on whether it is night and if the full moon is out:[2] they have a 1⁄30 chance on each turn during nighttime, a 1⁄30 chance on each turn during the full moon, a 1⁄3 chance on each turn if the full moon is out at night, and a 1⁄50 chance on each turn otherwise. Werejackals in animal form have a 1⁄30 chance each turn of returning to their human form, and will always change back if the hero has an active source of protection from shape changers.[3]
A werejackal can summon other jackals and canines on nearby squares when in melee range of the hero.[4] They have a weapon attack while in human form, and they have a bite attack while in jackal form that can cause lycanthropy in the hero. Werejackals possess poison resistance and drain resistance, and have a weakness to silver.
A werejackal corpse is poisonous to eat, and a hero eating a werejackal corpse or tin will develop lycanthropy upon finishing the meal. Eating jackals, coyotes, foxes, or other werejackals is considered cannibalism for any hero that has contracted lycanthropy from a werejackal.[5][6]
Contents
Generation
Randomly-generated werejackals are always created hostile, and are normally generated in their human form unless they were created from a figurine that depicts their animal form. They are not a valid genocide target, and only a hero with lycanthropy from a werejackal can polymorph into one.
An inaccessible closet generated during level creation may contain the aged corpse of a werejackal.[7]
A werejackal summoning help will generate up to 5 hostile monsters on a square adjacent or close to it, and each monster has a 6⁄7 chance of being a jackal, a 2⁄21 chance of being a coyote, and a 1⁄21 chance of being a fox[4]—heroes that get lycanthropy from a werejackal can summon the above monsters as pets with the #monster extended command by using 10 power.
Werejackals that leave corpses upon death will always leave corpses of their human form.
Strategy
Werejackals are often the first type of lycanthrope a hero can encounter: they are somewhat weak, with both forms having poor AC and an unimpressive MR score of 10, but their regeneration makes them somewhat tricky to kill if an early hero cannot damage them consistently. Contracting lycanthropy from one will eventually cause the hero to involuntarily shift into a much-weaker jackal form, which shrinks out of their armor and forces them to drop their weapon along with most of their inventory, so it is prudent to either cure the condition or at least find a way to control it before the first transformation occurs. In addition to lycanthropy, being pinned on multiple sides by a werejackal and the relatively-weak canines they summon can still lead to the hero's death fairly quickly unless you can engrave Elbereth, so it is generally prudent to take them out as quickly as possible.
A hero that finds a silver weapon early on will want to keep it on hand until they can reliably take out werecreatures with little trouble, since the silver damage alone can dispatch them quickly even for weapons whose skill the hero is restricted in. Pets can help deal with werejackals since they cannot catch lycanthropy, and werecreatures will only summon help in their animal form while attacking the hero. Pulling a werejackal into a hallway is also somewhat viable: summoning in hallways makes it easier for the hero to be completely surrounded, but can significantly limit the amount of monsters they have to fight simultaneously, and the monsters on the other end are somewhat more likely to move away and give you a bit of breathing room.
If possible, avoid engaging werejackals and other lycanthropes in melee while they are in animal form, unless you can quickly defeat them or cure any infections that result. Eating sprigs of wolfsbane and quaffing holy water can each cure lycanthropy, as will performing a successful prayer, and putting on an amulet of unchanging or ring of polymorph control can prevent transformations (but not the infection itself). A ring of protection from shape changers will outright prevent werejackals from transforming, summoning monsters or infecting you.
History
The werejackal first appears in NetHack 3.0.0. From this version to NetHack 3.0.10, their animal forms are referred to as jackalweres—a monster known as the jackalwere also appears in SLASH 6.
From NetHack 3.0.0 to NetHack 3.6.7, including some variants based on those versions, werejackals are subject to some software bugs and other adjustments to the code.
- In versions up to NetHack 3.4.3:
- Heroes that have both lycanthropy from a werejackal and polymorph control cannot toggle between forms by specifying the other form they are not currently in, and a hero transforming from lycanthropy has a 1⁄10 chance of changing their sex. This is fixed in NetHack 3.6.0 via commit 3c58c3b2 to prevent lycanthropy from changing a hero's sex, and allows lycanthrope heroes that are changing shape while they have polymorph control to specify their alternate werecreature form while in either form and choose closely-related monsters to enter their were-animal form.[8][9][10]
- It is possible for a lycanthrope hero in animal form (or any hero polymorphed into an animal) to throw projectiles and other items—this is bug C343-243, and is fixed in NetHack 3.6.0 via commit 187b8dec so that a hero's polymorph form must have hands in order to throw items.[11]
- In versions up to NetHack 3.6.0:
- Werejackals summoning help will only generate other jackals[12]—their ability to summon allied coyotes and foxes as well is introduced in NetHack 3.6.1 via commit 1f4574b6, which also makes it cannibalism to eat those animals while the hero has lycanthropy from a werejackal.[13][14][15]
- In versions up to NetHack 3.6.7:
- The howling of a werejackal does not awaken sleeping monsters. This is fixed in NetHack 5.0.0 via commit 91257e00.
- Werejackal corpses and tins cannot be wished for properly, due to a bug involving their animal forms being designated as corpseless, and a figurine of a werejackal that is applied or brought to life via stone to flesh will always create the monster in their animal form. Both are fixed in NetHack 5.0.0 via commit 2337252a.
Origin
The concept of humans shapeshifting into animals has been a common concept in folklore among various human eras and cultures, while "therianthropy" and related terms as a means of describing specific forms of human-animal shapeshifting have been in use since the early 20th century. Werejackals are a much less common form of therianthrope in fantasy media, appearing much more rarely compared to mainstays such as werewolves and even the quite-rare wererats—all of these werecreatures do appear alongside other therianthropes in Dungeons & Dragons, though the introduction of werejackals is much later in comparison to some of the others.
In Dungeons & Dragons, werejackals are first mentioned in the 1994 Monstrous Compendium titled "Ravenloft Appendix III: Creatures of Darkness". More common in the franchise's media are their "opposite" number, the jackalwere: these jackals are able to assume the form of a human, and are innately linked to a trickster deity. This means that jackalweres are not only natural-born deceivers, but even attempting to be truthful will cause them literal pain.
Jackalweres are not especially strong in humanoid form, which prevents them from using their claws as effective weapons and limits them to biting and using whatever weapons they can find—this is rarely a problem, since like most other lycanthropes they are immune to weaponry that is not magical, silvered or made of cold iron. Jackalweres do possess a dangerous gaze ability that is capable of lulling unsuspecting victims into a ten-minute-long trance, though it has several major limitations: for example, the gaze only works on those that are in a state of calm, and cannot affect other jackalweres or any charm-resistant beings. Even so, jackalweres are still treacherous and should be treated with caution, as they often use their humanoid forms to appear outwardly helpless, lowering their victim's guard before using their gaze or otherwise attacking.
Messages
- You hear a <jackal> howling at the moon.
- A werejackal shifted into animal form on the current level while it is outside of your sight, and you are not deaf.[16][17][18]
Variants
Some NetHack variants based on NetHack 3.6.0 and previous versions may not include the ability to summon allied foxes or coyotes for werejackals, or count eating the monster types they can summon as cannibalism for heroes given lycanthropy by a werejackal.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, werejackals hit monsters as +1 weapons, can only summon other jackals and will only summon up to two at a time.[19][20] Eating jackals, coyotes, and foxes will not be considered cannibalism for a hero that has contracted lycanthropy from a werejackal.
Like other polymorphed monsters, they can revert to the form they are generated in, making them much more dangerous—however, they also have a chance of undergoing system shock, typically when killed in human form.
Werejackals can appear among the @ generated within the Chamber of Junk in the Lawful Quest during level creation.
All of the above also applies to SlashTHEM.
GruntHack
In GruntHack, werejackals can only summon other jackals, and all werecreatures are generated as racial monsters. Eating jackals, coyotes, and foxes will not be considered cannibalism for a hero that has contracted lycanthropy from a werejackal.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, werejackals can summon allied foxes and coyotes alongside jackals with the same odds as in NetHack—eating those monsters also counts as cannibalism for any hero that has lycanthropy from a werejackal.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, werejackals are demihumans that can only summon other jackals, and are capable of tracking the hero and other target through normal vision and scent—seeing a werejackal can lower the hero's sanity. Werejackals are the only werecreature from NetHack that has no changes to their existing stats in any of the three variants.
Werejackals do not generate randomly, and can only be summoned by anubites: the anubite is a much stronger type of werejackal that can take the form of an anuban jackal, and can cause werejackal lycanthropy by biting a hero while in their jackal form.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, each monster generated by a hero or monster werejackal calling for help has a 6⁄7 chance of being a jackal, a 2⁄21 chance of being a coyote, a 1⁄42 chance of being a fox, and a 1⁄21 chance of being a rabid dog. Eating jackals, coyotes, foxes, rabid dogs, and other werejackals is considered cannibalism for a hero with lycanthropy from werejackals.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, werejackals can only summon other jackals, but eating jackals, coyotes, foxes, rabid dogs, and other werejackals is considered cannibalism for a hero with lycanthropy from a werejackal as it is in EvilHack. Werejackals are always generated as peaceful to a doppelganger hero.
As in SLASH'EM, werejackals may appear among the @ generated within the Lawful Quest's Chamber of Junk during level creation.
Encyclopedia entry
- See the encyclopedia entry for werecreature.
References
- ↑ src/were.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 55-L58
- ↑ src/were.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 14-L40: conditions for shapechanging
- ↑ src/were.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 41-L44
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 src/were.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 164-L169
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 770-L777
- ↑ src/were.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 78-L82
- ↑ src/mklev.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 785-L788
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 2801-L2804
- ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 438-L441
- ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 516-520
- ↑ src/dothrow.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 248
- ↑ src/were.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 144-L149
- ↑ src/were.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 148-L153
- ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 657-L659
- ↑ src/were.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 78-L82
- ↑ src/were.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 20
- ↑ src/were.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 27
- ↑ src/were.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 34-L38
- ↑ were.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 119
- ↑ were.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 129
