Noble/dNetHack/Hedrow Noble
| Roles in dNetHack |
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| Roles in notdNetHack |
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, the male drow Noble is referred to as the hedrow Noble, rarely as the drow Nobleman, and is abbreviated by the game as Nhd. Hedrow Noble 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. Though they are drow, they will always start the game as neutral rather than being chaotic.
Female drow Nobles (or drow Noblewomen) are treated as radically different from hedrow Nobles, with their own article in the provided link.
Starting equipment
Each hedrow Noble starts with the following equipment:
- a +2 rapier
- a +0 ruffled shirt
- a +2 consort's suit
- a +1 pair of stilettos
- a +1 droven cloak
- 10-20 uncursed tripe rations
- 3-6 uncursed food rations
- a potion of sleeping
- a black signet ring with 30 charges of sleeping poison
- a random ring
- 6 shadowlander's torches
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.
Hedrow Nobles start the game with knowledge of all droven racial equipment.
The hedrow Noble's default starting pet is a saddled small cave lizard.
Intrinsics
Hedrow Nobles gain intrinsic sleep resistance property upon reaching experience level 4, and do not gain any intrinsics from their role.
Attributes
Hedrow Nobles have 75 points to distribute among their starting attributes, while descendant hedrow Nobles have -10 points for a total of 65 to distribute.
The hedrow Noble'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
Hedrow Nobles have most of the same skills available to them as other Nobles:
| Hedrow Noble skills | |
|---|---|
| Max | Skills |
| Basic | |
| Skilled |
|
| Expert |
|
Hedrow 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: Wiu
- XL 3-5: Wanre
- XL 6-9: Glenn
- XL 10-13: Elg'hasek
- XL 14-17: Beldrar
- XL 18-21: Helothann
- XL 22-25: Linthar
- XL 26-29: Kas'ka
- XL 30: Zil
Gods
The hedrow Noble's deities are derived from the drow deities of Dungeons & Dragons. Their first sacrifice gift is The Death-Spear of Keptolo, an artifact silver droven spear that favors hedrow Nobles.
- Lawful: Ver'tas
- Neutral: Keptolo
- Chaotic: Ghaunadaur
The pantheon's crowning title and gift are dependent on the hero's alignment: lawful hedrow Nobles will be dubbed "the Blade of Ver'Tas" and given Liecleaver, neutral hedrow Nobles will be dubbed "the Hand of Keptolo" and given Lolth's Fang, and chaotic hedrow Nobles will be dubbed "the Hammer of Ghaunadaur" and given The Ruinous Descent of Stars.
Kiaransali serves as the unholy deity for vampire heroes that worship within the pantheon.
Quest
The hedrow Noble has a different quest from other Nobles: the hero faces A'salom for The Cloak of the Consort, an artifact droven cloak. While carried, the Web of the Chosen grants cold resistance, and while worn it also grants half physical damage and drain 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. However, drow Noblemen start the game with inferior equipment to their Noblewomen counterparts, with an effective AC of 9 as opposed to a Noblewoman's 2 and cannot ride their small cave lizard until it grows up into a cave lizard. Noblemen also only receive shadowlander's torches, a valuable resource in the early game that they must manage with care until they find a permanent source of dark-light. 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
For the most part, Noblement can rely on their rapier's sleep-inducing poison to deal with susceptible monsters, though this strategy will quickly become superceded once monsters with sleep resistance start generating. Once the coating wears off, a Nobleman is better served by switching to their signet ring if they wish to make use of a sleep effect, since coatings will usually wear off much faster than the fixed 30 uses a ring offers. Noblemen should take note of any altars they can use to make sacrifices, since their first sacrifice gift, The Death-Spear of Keptolo, is a major upgrade from their starting rapier and grants magic resistance while wielded. The spear's invoke is incredibly powerful and can be used to engage monsters far above the hero's level.
Noblemen start better equipped than most drow to immediately delve into the gnomish mines, so long as they take care not to get cornered. As drow are iron-hating monsters, gnomes and dwarves are far more dangerous to them, especially since their starting AC is quite poor. Iron projectiles are particularly nasty during the early game, and Noblemen should avoid line of sight with crossbow wielding gnomes. Droven characters suffer a penalty for every piece of iron equipment in direct contact with their skin, which will negatively affect their hit point regeneration and should be avoided. Pieces of body armor and cloaks are not considered to be in direct contact with a hero's skin if they are wearing a shirt. A Noblemen should be on the lookout for armor pieces not made of iron, especially dwarvish mithril-coats, mithril dwarvish helms and dwarvish roundshields and for elven equipment. With better AC, they will be much better prepared to tackle the rest of the dungeons and will be threatened much less by any monster wielding an iron weapon.
Noblemen who have reached mines end will be well equipped to brave the windowless tower's first three 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, especially if they have obtained the Death-Spear and feel confident in their odds, or if they have the patience to sit on an engraved Acheron ward.
Noblemen do not have the benefit of a permanent dark-light source like Noblewomen do, and may wish to rush to the Law Quest to find a chunk of fossil dark there. If they are careful to avoid the spellcasting quinons and quatons, they can avoid almost all combat on the Law Quest branch level, and should only take care of any alkilith generating hidden behind the veil in the Paths of Law, as they may summon high-level demons while remaining unseen.
Mid game
Around this point, a Nobleman 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 that they may consider taking their first steps towards completing their quest. Noblemen are ready to embark on their quest as soon as they have obtained their first gift, or another source of magic resistance, and have gathered enough experience to be allowed entry, and can gather droven plate mail and droven chain mail over the course of the quest, as they are worth a fair amount of gold that can be used to buy shopkeeper services. The quest leader is located in a hidden closet in the top middle room on the quest's home level.
The first few levels of their quest will not pose any threat to an adequately prepared Nobleman, and the lower levels of their quest are similarly non-threatening. Once they have passed through the last filler level, however, they must be careful of carelessly descending to the goal level before they are ready for it. 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.
A'salom isn't a particularly dangerous foe, even when fought head-on, possessing two weapon attacks and casting a clerical spell on each of her turns. The main issue, however, is that she always generates with a worn amulet of life saving and a wand of death with 1–4 charges. If they have access to a thief doll, or are capable of polymorphing into a form with a theft attack, a hero may be able to repurpose her amulet for themselves. A'salom is not immune to the Death-Spear's invoke, but is also not much more threatening than the average aligned priest. The fort she has hidden away in, however, is also swarming with dangerous hedrow blademasters and hedrow wizards, which makes the safest approach to just teleport next to her, where she guards the Cloak of the Consort, which lies stowed away in a chest. 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.
Within their quest, a Nobleman will find guaranteed altars to Eddergud, the lawful god of the hedrow shared pantheon, Pen'a, the neutral god of the drow Healer pantheon, and Ghaunadaur, the Noblemen's own chaotic god. The altars to Pen'a and Ghaunadaur will both be located on the locate level, while the altars to Eddergud generate on the "filler-B" levels.
Late game
Noblemen 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 three alignment keys to advance. Since their first gift already provides magic resistance, and seeing 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 Nobleman who becomes crowned under their starting alignment will receive Lolth's Fang, an artifact silvered droven short sword that benefits backstab builds most: if they wish so, they may also crown for The Ruinous Descent of Stars, which is an insight-scaling morning star, or for Liecleaver, an artifact droven crossbow by converting themselves at the appropriate altar inside their quest.
While Noblemen around this stage of the game have a great variety of play styles they may follow, they can generally specialize in either melee combat or crossbows. For crossbow Noblemen, finding a misotheistic fragment in the library of Zenodach in the Sum of All is especially valuable. Reading a fragment teaches the hero Nudzirath's seal, which will further boost their droven bolt's damage when fired from a shining Liecleaver while bound. Noblemen who stay true to their starting alignment are free to become a Yog-Sothoth cultist and benefit from its energy regeneration boon and spell memory recall. A hero that wishes to make the most of the Ruinous Descent of Stars will need to explore the Neutral Quest, and may wish to delve down to N'kai or even all the way down to R'lyeh to reach the necessary insight threshold to cause stars to fall.
