Master Assassin
@ Master Assassin 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 20 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 2d6 poison (strength), weapon 2d8 physical, claw 2d6 Amulet theft |
| Base level | 15 |
| Base experience | 503 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 0 |
| Base MR | 30 |
| Alignment | 18 (lawful) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Unique |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 400 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | Stoning resistance |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
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The Master Assassin:
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| Reference | NetHack 3.6.7 - src/monst.c, line 3067 |
The Master Assassin, @, is the Rogue quest nemesis. He is a strong lawful human that guards the Bell of Opening and the Rogue's quest artifact, The Master Key of Thievery. Like most other human monsters, the Master Assassin is omnivorous and can be seen via infravision. As a covetous monster, the Master Assassin is capable of warping and desires the hero's quest artifact—he will also pick up magical items and other items that he comes across, and can follow the hero to other levels if he is adjacent.
The Master Assassin has a weapon attack that is capable of poisoning targets and draining strength, a second weapon attack that deals normal physical damage, and a claw attack that can steal the quest artifact back if it was obtained without killing him. He possesses stoning resistance.
Contents
Generation
The Master Assassin is always generated hostile, and is not a valid polymorph form or genocide target.
For Rogues, the Master Assassin is always generated on the central square of the Rogue quest goal level, where he is placed in a meditating state during level creation with The Master Key of Thievery underneath him.
The Master Assassin is always generated with the Bell of Opening, and has a 5⁄12 chance of generating with any one of the default weapon sets for a strong monster, with an equal probability of each weapon: a two-handed sword, a long sword, a lucern hammer, a battle-axe, or a bow and 3-14 arrows.[1]
Strategy
The most complex task for any Rogue player in preparing to face the Master Assassin is reaching him in the first place, or else drawing him to you: the level is no-teleport and designed so that there is no way to directly reach the quest nemesis while on the level except by phasing through the undiggable walls, though there are much more straightforward ways of garnering the Master Assassin's attention. Once you have the Master Assassin within reach, he is not an especially difficult opponent—outside of lacking poison resistance to deal with his weapon attacks and the usual annoyances associated with covetous quest nemeses, the Master Assassin is unlikely to be more than an annoyance, to the point that a chameleon may randomly pose a bigger threat with its polymorphing.
The Master Assassin's only defenses are the stoning resistance that all nemeses share, half physical damage from carrying the quest artifact, and his middling MR score of 30. A wand of death will make short work of him, and he can also be rendered helpless with a zapped wand of sleep, a wielded or thrown potion of sleeping or paralysis (paired with a source of free action if he is adjacent), or a poisoned weapon of your own such as darts or shuriken—even a thrown potion of sickness itself can significantly weaken the Master Assassin, though he may resist all of these effects other than the wand of death and may warrant a few attempts before the effects stick.
As always, standing on a scroll of scare monster while on the up stair will stop the Master Assassin's attacks and prevent him from escaping, though it may also be worth luring him to another level first so that he cannot take advantage of the goal level's impassable walls. The scroll of scare monster will also amplify the backstab damage a Rogue can deal to him in single-weapon melee combat.
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.
Per commit dc9fe0d8, a scroll of scare monster on the ground no longer scares any unique monster.Awawkening the Master Assassin
The hero can use one of several listed methods to awaken the Master Assassin from the up stair's section, if not from the up stair itself:
- Quaffing a cursed potion of invisibility will reliably alert the Master Assassin to your presence, and is a fairly standard strategy to employ for luring quest nemeses to fight them while blocking the up stair.
- A charge from an applied drum of earthquake has a high likelihood of awakening the Master Assassin from his meditating state, either from the noise or the earthquake itself.
- The mind blast of a peaceful or tame mind flayer (or master mind flayer) can target and damage the Master Assassin from long range.
Instead of reaching him directly, you can also use a drum of earthquake, a cursed potion of invisibility, the shriek of a shrieker, or the psychic blast of a mind flayer to wake him up while you're standing on the upstair. This will cause him to warp to you and attack, while preventing him from escaping to the floor above.
Cross-level entry
While teleportation within the goal level is blocked, a Rogue can level teleport to the goal level from another level in the quest, and may also enter the goal level by dropping down through a hole or trap door on a higher level—both these methods may randomly place the hero within the section where the Master Assassin dwells, and they can use a means of level teleportation or a cursed potion of gain level to exit as necessary. For example, if the Master Assassin gets away before the hero can finish them within the isolated section, they can level teleport or warp to the level above as described and then re-enter through the stairs. A tin of chameleon meat can also be found on the level in the Master Assassin's section of the walled-off areas, and can be useful in order to phase through the undiggable walls when either pursuing the Master Assassin or leaving the level.
Polymorph
A Rogue can also use controlled polymorph in order to reach or awaken the Master Assassin: the many chameleons encountered on the quest levels can possibly provide corpses to eat. For phasing, the only monsters with the ability are the xorn and earth elemental, which necessitate that the hero remove their cloak, suit and shirt beforehand or risk losing it from the transformation, and Rogues that become earth elementals will drop the rest of their armor and their weapon as well. The tin of chameleon meat on the level provides an additional source of polymorph to use in case the hero's transformation expires from HP loss or timing out.
Alternatively, the hero can polymorph into a (master) mind flayer and use the #monster extended command to emit a mind blast and awaken the Master Assassin—the flayer's intelligence-draining tentacle attacks can make him an even easier fight to work through, though remember that they will incur cannibalism penalties for human Rogues once per round of attacks.[2]
History
The Master Assassin first appears with most other quest nemeses in NetHack 3.1.0.
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Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, the Master Assassin's monster difficulty is raised to 22.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, the Master Assassin has poison resistance in addition to his traits in NetHack.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, the Master Assassin's monster difficulty is raised to 23, and he can reach level 30. He has 4 points of AC in the 'dodge' category, and is capable of both performing sneak attacks and tracking the hero's movements.
The Master Assassin's second weapon attack is replaced with an offhand weapon attack that uses the same damage dice as the first and similarly inflicts poison damage, and his claw attack will only target the hero's quest artifact.
The Master Assassin boasts expert prowess in martial combat and a full base attack bonus of +1 to-hit per level, and gains hit dice-based bonuses for physical damage.
xNetHack
In xNetHack, the Master Assassin has poison resistance similar to UnNetHack.
Encyclopedia entry
He strolled down the stairs, followed by a number of assassins.
When he was directly in front of Ymor he said: "I've come for
the tourist." ...
"One step more and you'll leave here with fewer eyeballs than
you came with," said the thiefmaster. "So sit down and have
a drink, Zlorf, and let's talk about this sensibly. _I_
thought we had an agreement. You don't rob -- I don't kill.
Not for payment, that is," he added after a pause.
Zlorf took the proffered beer.
"So?" he said. "I'll kill him. Then you rob him. Is he that
funny looking one over there?"
"Yes."
Zlorf stared at Twoflower, who grinned at him. He shrugged.
He seldom wasted time wondering why people wanted other people
dead. It was just a living.
"Who is your client, may I ask?" said Ymor.
Zlorf held up a hand. "Please!" he protested. "Professional
etiquette."
