Kobold lord
k kobold leader / kobold lord / kobold lady 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 3 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 2d4 |
| Base level | 2 |
| Base experience | 22 |
| Speed | 6 |
| Base AC | 10 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | -4 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 500 |
| Nutritional value | 200 |
| Size | Small |
| Resistances | Poison |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
|
A kobold leader:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line583 |
A kobold leader, k, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is a lord to kobolds: male kobold leaders are known as kobold lords, while female kobold leaders are known as kobold ladies. It has the strongest weapon attack among kobolds, and possesses poison resistance.
A kobold leader corpse is poisonous to eat.
Generation
Randomly-generated kobold leaders are always hostile. A large kobold can grow up into a kobold leader.
Kobold leaders may appear among the hostile kobolds that generate in throne rooms, as well as the various monsters that can be randomly generated by looting a throne while confused and carrying gold (provided there is no chest on the level).
A kobold leader has a 1⁄4 chance of generating with a stack of darts.[1]
Strategy
Though they are the strongest type of kobold a character will encounter, kobold leaders are still not especially strong overall; the strength of their weapon attack's dice, however, means that they can pose trouble for careless early game characters with their darts or a found weapon, especially ones that have not yet found a viable set of armor.
History
The kobold leader first appears as the kobold lord in NetHack 3.0.0. NetHack 5.0.0 makes changes to monster titles and growth via commit 0c3b9642 so that kobold lords and several other monsters have female counterparts, and implements gender-neutral terms for such monsters as a whole.
Origin
Kobolds are creatures that appear in many fantasy-themed works and media, which often borrow significantly from Germanic folklore - Germanic kobolds are a form of sprite that are generally benevolent if treated with kindness, but will respond to disrespect with anything ranging from pranks to even outright attacking and killing offenders.
Dungeons & Dragons in particular - and by extension, NetHack and many of its variants - depicts the kobold as a race of small reptilian humanoids with long tails, distantly related to dragons; earlier editions gave kobolds more dog-like features, which lead to many depictions of kobolds in Japanese media leaning harder in that direction after the popularity of the anime franchise Record of Lodoss War. Fantasy kobolds are often considered weak "cannon fodder" monsters that can be cunning and strong in groups, similar to goblins.
Variants
Some variants of versions prior to NetHack 5.0.0 make adjustments so that female counterparts to the kobold lord are properly named and generated.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, two kobold lords are generated alongside Kroo the Kobold King in the room-and-corridors variant of the kobold level at level creation.
GruntHack
In GruntHack, kobold lords are replaced by racial monster lords and ladies, which kobolds are eligible to generate as.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, kobold lords and other kobolds have a mutual grudge with elves.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, kobold lords are lawful, and become an invalid form for polymorph.
A kobold lord may appear as the ruler of a randomly-generated throne room - his court can contain kobold shamans, large kobolds, kobolds, lemures, and imps.
xNetHack
In xNetHack, the monster is known as a kobold leader, with females referred to as kobold ladies.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, the monster is referred to as a kobold noble, with females referred to as kobold ladies.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, the monster is also known as a kobold noble as in EvilHack.
Encyclopedia entry
The race of kobolds are reputed to be an artificial creation
of a master wizard (demi-god?). They are about 3' tall with
a vaguely dog-like face. They bear a violent dislike of the
Elven race, and will go out of their way to cause trouble
for Elves at any time.
