Lizard (monster class)
- For the monster, see lizard.
The lizard is a monster class that appears in NetHack, and is represented by the colon glyph (:). Lizards are designated internally by the macro S_LIZARD.[1]
The monster class contains the following monsters:[2]
- : newt
- : gecko
- : iguana
- : baby crocodile
- : lizard
- : chameleon
- : crocodile
- : salamander
Common traits
Lizards are almost entirely composed of carnivorous and neutral animals that lack hands. The salamander is distinct from other lizard monsters in many aspects, all of which exclude a chameleon that is shapeshifted from their base form:
- Salamanders are chaotic and intelligent humanoids that have a slithy lower body, lacking legs rather than hands.
- Salamanders are the only lizard to be inediate, and the only ones that attack through means other than bites, utilizing weapons as well as bearhug and touch attacks.
- Salamanders are the only lizard that have more than one intrinsic resistance property and one of only two to have any at all, with the other being the "namesake" lizard monster that has stoning resistance.
Furthermore, only two of the lizards have any form of MR score, with the chameleon and lizard possessing a fairly low 10 MR.
Appearance
"Lizard" is a category that includes all form of non-snake reptile and amphibian monsters, encompassing both the mundane types and the fantastic types with the exception of the humanoid salamander.
Generation
Randomly-generated lizards are always created as hostile.
Strategy
Most early lizards are unremarkable and easy to handle, including the lizard monster itself. Of the few that can actually trouble players, the chameleon's difficulty is entirely dependent on what it shapeshifts into, and it is fairly likely you may encounter it in an easy-to-dispatch form—conversely, the salamander will not appear in a game under normal circumstances until a player reaches Gehennom. The crocodile is capable of inflicting severe damage to a hero unless fought with care, but players can take advantage of its lower movement speed.
History
The chameleon first appears in Jay Fenlason's Hack, and appears alongside the lizard in Hack 1.21 (which is based on Jay Fenlason's Hack)—the chameleon is the only monster of the pair to appear in Hack 1.0, and through all of its appearances it uses the colon glyph, :, while the lizard uses the l glyph for its appearance in Hack 1.21.
NetHack 3.0.0 introduces the lizard monster class and makes the chameleon part of it, and the chameleon remains the sole monster of the class until NetHack 3.0.6 introduces the newt, gecko, iguana, lizard, and crocodile, with NetHack 3.0.7 adding the baby crocodile as well. The salamander first appears in NetHack-- 3.1.3, as well as SLASH 6, and makes its vanilla NetHack debut in NetHack 3.2.0.
Origin
Most of the lizards are based on real-world animals. While the chameleon and salamander are also named for real-world animals, the former is portrayed in a much more fantastic fashion, and the latter is based on a monster from Dungeons & Dragons despite having a tile based on the animal.
Variants
SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM adds a few monsters to the monster class:
- : gila monster
- : rhaumbusun
- : basilisk
- : komodo dragon
SporkHack
SporkHack adds one monster to the monster class:
UnNetHack
UnNetHack adds one monster to the monster class from SporkHack:
DynaHack, which is based on older versions of UnNetHack, also adds the giant turtle as :.
dNetHack
dNetHack adds some monsters to the monster class:
The Cartouche of the Cat Lord and The Wings of Garuda are wards that can scare off lizards.
xNetHack
In xNetHack, version 3.0 changed the glyph for this monster class to l (lowercase L) to avoid using a punctuation glyph, and leprechauns were merged into the i imp or minor demon class—this is reverted in version 6.0.[3]
SpliceHack
SpliceHack adds some monsters to the monster class:
- : velociraptor
- : killer croc
- : T-Rex
- : hydra
notdNetHack
notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack retain the monsters added in dNetHack and adds a few other monsters to the monster class:
EvilHack
EvilHack introduces several monsters to the monster class:
- : tortle
- : sea tortle
- : tortle shaman
- : giant turtle
- : cave lizard
- : frost salamander
- : large cave lizard
- : giant crocodile
GnollHack
GnollHack adds many monsters to the monster class, including hydras and various dinosaurs:
- : hydra
- : pyrohydra
- : Lernaean hydra
- : pteranodon
- : ankylosaurus
- : tyrannosaurus rex hatchling
- : iguanodon
- : pachycephalosaurus
- : quetzalcoatlus
- : stegosaurus
- : triceratops
- : allosaurus
- : juvenile tyrannosaurus rex
- : infernal pteranodon
- : tyrannosaurus rex
- : gigantosaurus
SlashTHEM
SlashTHEM retains the monsters added in SLASH'EM and adds a few other monsters to the lizard monster class:
- : deminewt
- : master newt
- : giant turtle
The lizard is the second quest monster class for Firefighters, and makes up 6⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Firefighter quest.
Hack'EM
Hack'EM adds many monsters to the monster class, including several from other variants:
- : tortle
- : compsognathus
- : sea tortle
- : tortle shaman
- : rhaumbusun
- : velociraptor
- : giant turtle
- : gila monster
- : komodo dragon
- : T-Rex
- : frost salamander
- : giant crocodile
