Pauper

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.

Pauper is a roleplay option that starts the game with the hero in an extremely disadvantaged state, which is tracked as a conduct.

It must be enabled by starting the game with the pauper option set to true.

Unlike most other conducts, it is not possible to break the pauper conduct after starting the game as one - its difficulty lies in surviving long enough to overcome the adversity of beginning without items.

Description

Beginning a game as a pauper has the following effects:

• You have no starting items. (This means your game will be eligible for nudist conduct if you choose never to wear any armor, even though you may not have specified nudist in your options.)
• You do not know any spells.
• You are Unskilled in all your role's non-restricted skills.
• You do not know the identity of any items, with a few exceptions:
  • Healers know the spellbook of healing.
  • Priests, Knights and Monks know the spellbook of protection.
  • Wizards know the spellbook of force bolt.
  • Archeologists know touchstones.
  • Cavemen know flint stones.
  • Tourists and Rogues know sacks.
• You may still have a pet, but if you are a Knight, your pony lacks a saddle.
• The conduct summary will display "You are without possessions." If you pick up some items, this will change to "You started without possessions."
• You get a slightly different introduction text:

 You, an untrained (title), have been unable to adequately
 prepare to be the instrument of (your god).  Nevertheless, you
 are destined to recover the Amulet for your deity, or die
 in the attempt.  Your hour of destiny has come.  For the
 sake of us all:  Go bravely with (your god)!

Strategy

The difficulty of playing as a pauper depends a lot on the role, but it is at most only moderately challenging on its own. The main problems one will face are finding gear and training weapon skills, and it is possible to just let the pet do the killing in the mean time.

The true difficulty arises when combining pauper with other conducts: even best players may struggle to get a petless elbereth-less pauper human healer off the ground.

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