Phantasm
W phantasm 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 16 |
| Attacks |
Touch 1d1 sleep, touch 1d1 Intrinsic theft, touch 1d1 charm |
| Base level | 10 |
| Base experience | 277 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 0 |
| Base MR | 30 |
| Alignment | -10 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 3 (Rare) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 0 |
| Nutritional value | 0 |
| Size | medium |
| Resistances | cold resistance, sleep resistance, poison resistance, stoning resistance
|
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A phantasm:
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| Reference | dNAO 3.25.0 - src/monst.c, 5448 |
A phantasm, W, is a type of monster that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. The phantasm is a female wraith-like humanoid that is demonic as well as undead. Phantasms are unbreathing, unsolid, capable of flight, can sense other living creatures, and can follow a hero to other levels if they are adjacent. They have no natural HP regeneration.
Phantasms have three touch attacks: a sleep-inducing touch, an intrinsic theft touch that is not governed by the time of day as a gremlin's is, and a charming touch that allows them to steal multiple items. Their charming attack makes them immune to charming and seduction themselves, and they possess cold resistance, sleep resistance, poison resistance, stoning resistance, drain resistance, and death resistance.
Phantasms can be warded by the Circle of Acheron or a fourfold-or-better Elder Elemental Eye.
Generation
Randomly-generated phantasms are created hostile and only appear in Gehennom, where they appear in large groups.
Phantasms may appear in the court of a throne room ruled by a vampire lord or vampire lady, with a 1⁄25 chance of a phantasm being selected for each monster.
Phantasms are among the phantoms and flower monsters that can appear in the Anachrononaut quest and Android quest, making up 1⁄21 of the monsters randomly generated on those quests.
Phantasms do not leave a corpse upon death. A monster whose corpse can become a shade has an effective 99⁄1000 (9.9%) chance of turning into a phantasm instead.
Status properties
Phantasms are generated with up to 10 HP and a variety of potential properties and traits.
- A phantasm has a roughly 1⁄2 chance of generating as permanently invisible. She has a roughly 1⁄2 chance of generating as permanently fast, and otherwise has a roughly 1⁄2 chance of generating as slow.
- If the phantasm is created in the future (i.e. the Anachrononaut quest and Android quest), there is a 1⁄100 chance that she will have 1000 HP. There is also a low chance that she is given a monster template: a 1⁄100 chance of the pseudonatural template, a 1⁄99 chance of the dream-leech template if she is not made pseudonatural, a 1⁄98 chance of the fractured template if she is not made a dream leech, and a 1⁄10 chance of the Black Web template if she is not made fractured.
- Otherwise, if the phantasm is created elsewhere, the following traits may be applied:
- She has a roughly 1⁄2 chance of being scared, which will last for up to 10 turns.
- She has a roughly 1⁄2 chance of being blind, which has a 3⁄4 chance of being temporary and lasting up to 29 turns—otherwise, the phantasm will be permanently blind.
- She has a roughly 1⁄2 chance of being either confused (1⁄2 chance), stunned (1⁄4 chance) or crazed.
- She has a roughly 1⁄2 chance of being either temporarily paralyzed for up to 10 turns (3⁄4 chance) or indefinitely paralyzed until she is unfrozen by other means.
- She has a 1⁄9 chance of laughing for 2 to 8 turns.
- She has a 1⁄8 chance of being asleep.
- She has a 1⁄8 chance of generating as peaceful.
Strategy
A source of sleep resistance is vital for dealing with hostile phantasms, since you will otherwise be left at the mercy of their intrinsic-stealing and item-stealing abilities, especially if a large group overwhelms you in Gehennom and they are not generated with enough status problems. If possible, an intrinsic source of sleep resistance may be preferable to an extrinsic one (e.g. orange dragon scale mail) when handling phantasms, since sleep resistance cannot be stolen by their intrinsic theft attack.
Heroes that reach Gehennom should otherwise be more than well-equipped to deal with both insubstantial monsters and groups of hostiles, and should hopefully have some means to cleave through the demonic wraiths and their low HP before they can get into melee-range. While phantasms can be warded by the commonplace Circle of Acheron, remember that blind monsters will not respect wards, and freshly-created phantasms are likely to still be blind even if that blindness has a chance of wearing off.
Origin
A phantasm often simply refers to a ghost, illusion or apparition of some kind. In parapsychology, this is sometimes referred to as an "apparitional experience", which describes an anomalous experience characterized by the apparent perception of either a living being or an inanimate object, without there being any material stimulus for one to appear. This term is preferred to "ghost" in academic discussion, since firsthand accounts differ in many respects from their fictional counterparts in literary or traditional ghost stories and films—apparitional experiences can also occur with animals, humans and inanimate objects alike.
