Imp or minor demon
The imp or minor demon is a monster class that appears in NetHack, and is represented by the lowercase i glyph (i). Imps and minor demons are designated internally by the macro S_IMP.[1]
The class contains the following monsters:[2]
Common traits
All monsters in the class except the tengu are vulnerable to silver, taking an extra d20 damage when struck with a silver item[3] - this makes the tengu fairly distinct from other members of its class. The minor demons themselves are distinct from the "major" demons due to lacking the M2_DEMON flag[4][5] - for instance, minor demons do not resist death magic or take damage from holy water.
Generation
The imp or minor demon is the first quest monster class for Knights, and makes up 24⁄175 of the monsters that are randomly generated on the Knight quest. Random imps and minor demons are also generated on some levels of the quest below the home floor at level creation: one each is generated on the locate and lower filler level(s), and two are generated on the goal level.
Random imps and minor demons are also generated on all levels of the Wizard quest at level creation: two are generated on the home level; four are generated on the upper filler level; eight each are generated on the home level and goal level; and three each are generated on the lower filler level(s).
History
The imp, homunculus and quasit first appear in Hack for PDP-11, which is based on Jay Fenlason's Hack - all three are included in the initial bestiary for Hack 1.0 alongside the tengu, which makes its debut in this version. In NetHack 2.3e, the quasit only appears if the KAA compile-time option is not defined, and is otherwise replaced by the quantum mechanic (who is introduced in this version).
The imp or minor demon monster class first appears in NetHack 3.0.0 - the imp, homunculus, quasit, and tengu are moved to the i glyph, the manes and lemure are introduced, and the quasit is made part of the default bestiary.
Variants
SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM introduces a few new monsters to the class:
The imp or minor demon is the second quest monster class for Necromancers, and makes up 6⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Necromancer quest. Several of them are also generated on floors above the goal level of the quest branch at level creation: two are generated on the home level, four are generated on the upper filler level, and five each are generated on the locate and lower filler level(s).
xNetHack
In xNetHack, all minor demons including tengu hate the touch of iron, taking an extra d6 damage when struck with an iron item.
