Noble/dNetHack/Drow Noble

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Roles in dNetHack
Roles in notdNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, the drow Noblewoman (sometimes simply drow Noble, and abbreviated by the game as Ndr) is a combination of race and role that is available to the hero, and it is one of the many Noble combinations to have a distinct skill set, Quest branch and set of artifact gifts. As drow, they will always start the game as chaotic.

Hedrow Nobles (or male drow Nobles) are treated as radically different from drow Noblewomen, with their own article in the provided link.

Starting equipment

Each drow Noblewoman starts with the following equipment:

Any ring that is generated with an enchantment of +0 or lower is given a random enchantment from +1 to +3. All applicable starting equipment bears the seal of the hero's house.

Drow Noblewomen start the game with knowledge of all droven racial equipment.

The drow Noblewoman's default starting pet is a saddled giant spider.

Intrinsics

Drow Noblewomen gain the following intrinsic properties upon reaching the given experience levels:

Of note is that two of the three intrinsics are from the Priest, since drow nobility is tied to the priestess-hood of Lolth.

Attributes

Drow Noblewomen have 75 points to distribute among their starting attributes, while descendant drow Noblewomen have -10 points for a total of 65 to distribute.

The drow Noblewoman's starting attributes are distributed as follows:

Attributes Strength Dexterity Constitution Intelligence Wisdom Charisma Remaining
Minimum attributes 10 10 7 10 7 7 24
Distribution percentages 20% 20% 15% 18% 10% 17%

Skills

Drow Noblewomen have the following skills available to them:

Drow Noblewoman skills
Max Skills
Basic
Skilled
Expert

Drow Nobles start with Basic skill in bare-handed combat and whips. They use the intelligence stat to cast spells, and their role's special spell is protection, while their race's special spell is sleep.

Special rules

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Rank titles

The status line displays one of the following ranks for the corresponding experience levels, which are shared with drow in some other roles:

  • XL 1-2: Ligrr
  • XL 3-5: Wenress
  • XL 6-9: Kyorl
  • XL 10-13: Venta'kyorl
  • XL 14-17: An'kin
  • XL 18-21: Jallil
  • XL 22-25: Sil'in
  • XL 26-29: Qu'ess
  • XL 30: Val'sharess

Gods

Main article: Religion

The drow Noblewoman's deities are derived from the drow deities of Dungeons & Dragons. Their first sacrifice gift is The Sceptre of Lolth, an artifact silver khakkhara that favors Nobles.

The pantheon's crowning title and gift are dependent on the hero's alignment: lawful drow Noblewomen will be dubbed "the Blade of Ver'Tas" and given Liecleaver, neutral drow Noblewomen will be dubbed "the Hand of Kiaransali" and given the Claws of the Revenancer, and chaotic drow Noblewomen will be crowned "the Hand of Lolth" and given The Web of Lolth.

Kiaransali also serves as the unholy deity for vampire heroes that worship within the pantheon.

Quest

Main article: Drow Noble quest

The drow Noble has a different quest from other Nobles: the hero faces an illithid colony that has taken over a life-cavern colony near their house's fortress and must kill the colony's elder brain while simultaneously seeking out the Web of the Chosen, an artifact droven cloak. While carried, the Web of the Chosen grants shock resistance, and while worn it also grants reflection, half spell damage, and acid resistance, and doubles the normal AC bonus given from its enchantment.

Strategy

Drow Nobles of both genders predominantly play a classic melee-focused role and are, at least early on, similar in many ways to the Knight. Drow Noblewomen start the game with much better equipment, with an effective AC of 4 as opposed to Noblemen's 8, and are also immediately able to ride their loyal giant spider while Noblemen must first manage to get their small cave lizard to grow up before they can be ridden. Noblewomen also receive a permanent source of dark-light and do not need to manage their torch usage like Noblemen do. This initial differentiation is usually surpassed by the time a character reaches the mid game, but does favour Noblewomen, who can take on the gnomish mines without much worry.

Early game

A Noblewoman has few worries in the early game and can focus on tackling the mines, sokoban, or even delving down to the alignment quest branch levels, if they are careful. For the most part, they can rely on the viperwhip's sleep-inducing poison to neutralize susceptible monsters but must redouble their care around difficult monsters, especially if they possess sleep resistance. Unlike Noblemen, they do not benefit from rushing to the Law Quest and are better suited to slowly amassing experience to be allowed entry to their quest and looking for an altar they can use for sacrificing. While their starting viperwhip will serve perfectly well against most monsters in the early game, save the occasional piercing-damage resistant foe, a Noblewoman will want to obtain their first sacrifice gift, The Sceptre of Lolth, at the first opportunity. The Sceptre's most damaging form is the droven greatsword, though a hero may wish to use the droven lance form while riding, especially if they are fighting a particularly nasty enemy that they wish to keep pinned down with repeated jousts. Even without the Sceptre, though, Noblewomen are well equipped to rush the windowless tower's first two levels as soon as they are capable of crossing the tower's main entrance and have learned the circle of Acheron ward to facilitate fighting Cerberus. A hero may opt to engage Vlad the impaler and his three wives if they feel confident in their odds or have the patience to sit on an engraved Acheron ward.

The Noblewomen quest contains a great deal of psychic monsters, so if they obtain the telepathy intrinsic, they will be subject to mind blasts much more often, making their quest much more dangerous. A tinning kit can be used to store the source of telepathy for later if they come across an early floating eye. Unless they are currently of an alignment that is different from their starting one, murder cannot be used to later lose intrinsic telepathy if they obtain it now.

Mid game

Around this point, a Noblewoman will most likely already have reached the Neutral Quest branch level or similar level and set up a permanent stash. It is at this point they may consider taking their first steps towards completing their quest. Note that, compared to the Noblemen quest, the Noblewomen quest is incredibly difficult and requires much more preparation and planning to pull off, though all but the goal level will be fairly easy-going. The quest's home level may be of particular interest to a hero that has obtained a spare chunk of fossil dark, as the shadowmith located there can duplicate certain magical weapons and armor for them, for a price. A hero that is short on cash can trade in droven items, especially the noble's dresses worn by the sisters and droven plate mail collected over the course of the quest, as they are worth a fair amount of gold that can also be used to buy shopkeeper services. A character that has already advanced their riding and wishes to continue the game with a steed may want to switch their starting spider for one of the two driders located there, who are strong arachnid demihumans that possess two strong weapon attacks, a poisonous bite attack and a kick attack and spitting attack that spread webs on a hit. They can be equipped with a strong weapon to provide not only a strong offensive advantage but also invoke darkness, saving the hero the trouble of darkening rooms themselves. Alternatively, their starting spider may eventually grow up into a mirkwood elder, though this requires exceptional patience on the player's part.

The first few levels of their quest will not pose any threat to an adequately prepared Noblewoman, though care must be taken that their steed is not digested by any purple worms, especially on the locate level. Many of the enemies encountered here can be warded with an elder sign, and a hamsa ward can be used to avoid being confused by an umber hulk's gaze. The lower levels of their quest are similarly non-threatening, though once they have passed through the last filler level they must be careful to not carelessly descend to the goal level before they are ready for it, as it may very well cost them the run. If they have not done so already, naming Claideamh now is a good idea, as it will allow them to see all enemies on the level while it is wielded before they enter line of sight, preventing the hero from getting ambushed by mind flayers. If they possess an amulet versus evil eyes, it is a good idea to put it on so long as the damage from the mind blasts does not put them in danger of dying, as the ward is less preferable here since they must move around the level and because they otherwise run the risk of moving directly next to a mind flayer while confused by an umber hulk.

Knowledge of the elder sign ward and a quick engraving method, a source of magic resistance and a source of blindness, a blessed unicorn horn, some healing consumables, a wand of striking for A'gone's cell, a wand of death for the elder brain, a wand of cold or scroll of earth to recover the bell and a quick escape item, such as a cursed scroll of teleportation, are all highly recommended items to carry to the goal level. If they have already braved the top of the Law Quest and fought Oona, it is recommended that they take on the Tulani Eladrin to obtain a crystal helm, which will make this part of the quest significantly safer. They may also make use of a ring of sustain ability to avoid death by brainlessness, though this method doesn't protect against amnesia. Orange dragon scale mail or shields make for particularly compelling wishes if they don't already have a different one in mind, since both hallucination and paralysis are threats they'll face during their quest. While by no means necessary, the Apotheosis Veil and Enforced Mind artifacts will make a Noblewoman's quest a fair deal easier.

The elder brain is a tough foe and is not easily defeated. While their clerical spellcasting is the most annoying to deal with, merely disabling it with a source of misotheism is not enough, as it will still be capable of casting psionic spells that can deal upwards of 50 damage per cast, halved by magic resistance, and still has two intelligence draining 2-square reach attacks. The central area of the goal level where the elder brain sits is surrounded by various pillars which can be used to limit the line of sight the brain has, and with a careful dash and good accuracy, the nemesis can be taken out without suffering any major damage. The Bell of Opening must be recovered from the bottom of the pool the elder brain occupied once it is dead, and can easily be done by simply freezing the square, which makes the bell surface to the top. A hero may also choose to not engage the elder brain at first, or even at all if they opt for the Silver Key, and simply take the quest artifact from A'gone. Once they formally complete the quest by showing the quest leader the artifact, they are free to claim their two free wishes from the thrones in the quest home and quest locate levels.

Late game

Noblewomen have a much easier time putting together their ascension kit due to the two extra guaranteed wishes from the thrones in their quest. Once they have all of their important intrinsics and other gear they will need for Gehennom, if they have not already done so, they will need to collect the three alignment keys to advance. Since their quest artifact already provides magic resistance and as they will likely already have most of the skills they need, this makes both the Mordor Ruins Quest and Chaos Temple Quest much less appealing objectives to complete fully, but still carry the benefits of an AC and attribute increase for the former, or half physical damage and double lifesaving for the latter. A Noblewoman that becomes crowned under their starting alignment will receive an artifact elven mithril-coat that benefits casters most: if they wish, they may also crown for the Claws of the Revenancer, which are a more broadly useful pair of gauntlets of dexterity, or for Liecleaver, an artifact droven crossbow.

While Noblewomen around this stage of the game have a great variety of play styles they may follow, Noblewomen can generally specialize in either melee combat, crossbows, or offensive spellcasting. For spellcasters and crossbow Noblewomen, finding a misotheistic fragment in the library of Zenodach in the Sum of All is especially valuable. Otherwise, if they have managed to convert themselves to Neutral, they are free to become a Yog-Sothoth cultist and benefit from its energy regeneration boon and spell memory recall. The Book of Lost Names and Necronomicon may yield the spirit Naberius, which will further boost their spellcasting. Crossbow-focused Noblewomen will want to find the misotheistic fragment and learn Nudzirath's seal, which will further boost their droven bolt's damage when fired from a drooled Liecleaver.


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