Poison

From NetHackWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This article is about the damage type related to the potion of sickness. For sickness from consuming tainted corpses, see food poisoning.

Poison is a damage type that appears in NetHack, and can occur from various hazards, attack methods and items that can all be potentially lethal to both heroes and monsters.

Description

As indicated above, poison damage can occur from several sources:

Poison is capable of weakening a hero or monster with additional HP loss, and for the hero this may be combined with damage to one of their physical attributes.[2] Poison from spiked pits, poisoned weapons, poison clouds, and poisonous attacks from monsters also have a chance of outright killing their victims:[3] The chance of attribute loss and instant death is applied per exposure, rather than per source, and the instadeath chance is always 1⁄5 the chance of attribute loss, with extra HP damage occuring otherwise—said damage will be 1-6 HP for thrown weapons and 6–15 otherwise. The game will print a message indicating when the effects of poison from any source occur.[4]

Poison resistance is a property that protects a hero or monster from poison damage by reducing or nullifying the amount of damage dealt, and it also prevents the possibility of instant death from exposure to poison.[5] Poison resistance also lowers the severity of the effects from other sources of poison, such as quaffing a potion of sickness or being poisoned upon failing to read a spellbook.[1]

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.

Per commit d0b11fd2, poison from weapons, attacks or traps will not instantly kill the hero: severe poison instead deals an additional 6 + 4d6 damage, half of which is subtracted from the hero's maximum HP, and inflicts harsher lowering of attribute points.

Per commit 8f7258dc, Grimtooth is permanently poisoned, and each hit the artifact lands against targets without poison resistance has a 1⁄4 chance of dealing harsher poison damage, with a further 1⁄10 chance of causing instadeath.

Poisonous attacks

Poison attacks can have one of three damage types:

  • Poison that drains strength, which uses the AD_DRST damage type flag[6]
  • Poison that drains dexterity, which uses the AD_DRDX damage type flag[7]
  • Poison that drains constitution, which uses the AD_DRCO damage type flag[8]

A hero that is dealt physical damage by a poison attack which is not blocked by magic cancellation has a 1⁄8 chance of the poison triggering:[9] this has a further 1⁄6 chance of decreasing the affected attribute, a 1⁄30 chance of being fatal outright, and otherwise deals 6–15 extra damage.[10] Poison resistance blocks all of these effects, with a message printed accordingly.[11]

Poison breath attacks leave a trail of poison clouds behind that cover the path of the ray, and any such rays of poison that hit a hero directly have a 1⁄3 chance of draining 2-4 points of dexterity (despite the attack using the AD_DRST flag), with a 1⁄15 chance of being immediately fatal, and will otherwise deal 6–15 extra damage, with all of these effects blocked by poison resistance.[12]

The guardian naga's spitting attack also uses the AD_DRST damage type flag, even though it behaves as non-damaging blinding venom upon hitting a hero or monster—poison resistance therefore does not block this effect. Additionally, the erinys and the Master Assassin both have a weapon attack that is poisonous independent of whether the physical weapon is itself poisoned.

A hero that is polymorphed into a monster with a poisonous attack and successfully lands one against a target without poison resistance has a 1⁄8 chance of the poison taking effect, with a further 1⁄10 chance of being outright fatal and otherwise dealing 6–15 extra damage.[13]

Magic cancellation can block the poison of melee attack types (including weapon attack types with the poison damage type) from taking effect, but it cannot block the effects of breath weapons or spitting attacks.

Poison clouds

Main article: Poison cloud

Poison breath, scrolls of stinking cloud and lava plumes on the Plane of Fire will all produce poison clouds that cause any heroes and monsters caught within them to take constant poison damage unless they have poison resistance or move outside of the clouds, and also causes coughing and blindness even if they have poison resistance.[14][15] See the linked article for more details on poison clouds.

Poisonous monsters

Several monsters are poisonous to consume, whether by eating their corpse or glob, or else by consuming them directly with a digestion attack: the M1_POIS monster flag used within monst.c governs whether or not a monster is poisonous to eat.[16] The hero has a 4⁄5 chance of being poisoned from eating a poisonous monster or its corpse, which causes up to 15 HP of damage and drains 1-4 points of strength[17]—this does not apply to tins of poisonous monsters, presumably due to the most edible parts being preserved by the tinning process (including ones the hero makes with a tinning kit). Poison resistance blocks these effects, and pets eating corpses and globs will avoid poisonous ones unless they have poison resistance.

While eating a poisonous corpse or glob does not have a chance of instant death like other sources of poison, HP loss and strength drain always occur if the hero is poisoned and can still kill them as normal. A monster's corpse or body being poisonous is independent of that monster granting poison resistance when eating it, let alone the monster having poison resistance or even an attack that inflicts poison—see the list of poisonous monsters below for details. Additionally, a corpse being poisonous is independent of food poisoning that occurs from eating an old corpse: both hazards are separate and each check for poison resistance versus immunity to sickness respectively, though they can also occur simultaneously, e.g. when eating a kobold corpse left by a kobold zombie or mummy.

The following monsters are considered poisonous to eat or digest directly:

Poisoned weapons

Main article: Poisoned weapon

Various projectile weapons can be poisoned by dipping them in a potion of sickness, and under some circumstances can also generate as poisoned. See the article linked above for more details on poisoning weapons as it functions in NetHack, including changes made in variants.

A hero without poison resistance that is hit by a poisoned projectile has a 4⁄5 chance of losing 1 point of strength, a 1⁄30 chance of the poison being fatal, and otherwise they take up to 6 HP of extra damage, with the chances applied for each individual projectile and all of these effects being blocked by poison resistance.[18][19] A monster without poison resistance that is hit by a hero's poisoned weapon or projectile takes up to 6 more points of damage, with a 1⁄10 chance of the poison being fatal[20]—a monster hit with a poisoned weapon or projectile thrown or shot by another monster takes up to 6 more points of damage, with a 1⁄30 chance of the poison being fatal.[21] Poisoned weapons and projectiles that hit a hero or monster ignore magic cancellation.

A hero's weapon that is poisoned has a weight-based chance (which is always 1⁄10 in practice) of its poison wearing off after each hit.[22] Lawful heroes take a -1 penalty to alignment record for using a poisoned weapon (with a minimum of -10), and Samurai take a separate penalty to alignment record for using poisoned weapons.[23][24] Poisoned weapons that are dipped into a potion of healing, extra healing or full healing will lose their poison and use up the potion.[25]

A metallivore or gelatinous cube (including a hero in the form of one) that eats a poisoned weapon experiences the same effects on strength and HP as eating a poisonous corpse, including both effects being blocked by poison resistance[26]—gelatinous cubes naturally have poison resistance and are thus typically unaffected.

Poison traps

Four different types of trap, including container traps, can poison the hero and sometimes other monsters:[27]

  • Container traps can release noxious gas which abuses constitution, and will deal damage with a 1⁄3 chance of lowering strength, a 1⁄15 chance of being fatal and otherwise dealing 6–15 damage.[28] Poison resistance prevents instadeath and blocks damage to HP or attributes, and there is a luck-dependent chance of the gas blowing away before it can do any harm.[29][30]
  • Container traps can also fire a poisoned needle which abuses constitution, and will deal damage with a 1⁄2 chance of lowering constitution, a 1⁄10 chance of being fatal and otherwise dealing 6–15 damage.[31] Poison resistance prevents instadeath and blocks damage to HP or attributes, and there is a luck-dependent chance of the needle missing.[29][32]
  • Dart traps that activate and fire a dart at a hero or monster have a 1⁄6 chance of the dart being poisoned[33][34][35][36]—as with thrown poisoned darts, they have a further 1⁄6 chance of lowering constitution and a 1⁄30 chance of being deadly, and otherwise deal +1d6 damage.[21] Poison resistance blocks all of these effects.
  • Spiked pits have a 1⁄6 chance of poisoning the victim each time they fall into one, including falling into the same pit repeatedly[37]—the poison from the spikes has a further 5⁄8 chance of lowering strength and a 1⁄8 chance of being fatal, and otherwise deals 6–15 additional points of damage, with strength loss occurring if life saving triggers in response to fatal poisoning or HP damage.[38] Poison resistance blocks all of these effects.

Poisoned spellbooks

While not mechanically a "trap" in the sense of the above list, one of the failure effects of reading a spellbook for a spell that is level six or higher is the hero being subjected to a "contact poison" on the spellbook:[1] as a randomized failure effect, this poison cannot be detected preemptively, and the hero loses up to 10 HP along with 3–6 points of strength—this is reduced to 1-6 HP and 1–2 points of strength if the hero has poison resistance, and while worn gloves will prevent any damage to the hero, the poison is potent enough to corrode worn gauntlets of power.[1]

Strategy

The threat of an instant and unceremonious death to a poisoned trap or weapon means that poison resistance is a highly critical property to obtain for any hero at the beginning stages of any NetHack game: Uruk-hai, killer bees and soldier ants are among the most common poisonous threats that players can encounter, between the poisoned orcish arrows of the former and the speed, AC and stinging of the latter two. Certain roles have more leeway in how far they can explore the early dungeon versus others without the risk of death to poison, to the point that it is often a defining factor in a role's difficulty.

The Barbarian is one of the most clear examples of this, being a strong melee role that starts with poison resistance; Monks gain the property at experience level 3, and can easily gain the required experience with their martial arts. Orcish heroes in roles that lack poison resistance have somewhat better survival chances early on compared to other races in that same role, though this is also subject to tradeoffs elsewhere (such as lower strength caps and mental stats). Healers start with poison resistance, and while this does give them something of an edge over other casting roles, they are also generally more fragile and restricted in several other aspects.

Intrinsic poison resistance is granted by eating any of a large variety of corpses, but as indicated by the list of poisonous monsters in the table further below, many of these corpses are poisonous themselves, and loss of strength and carrying capacity can spell a hero's doom early on—it is not advisable to eat such corpses without some way of avoiding or curing strength loss. Even monsters that have non-poisonous corpses which grant the intrinsic, such as quasits and puddings, can use poisonous attacks or prove hazardous in other ways.

Corpses of quivering blobs, naga hatchlings, red molds, and brown molds are among the sources that are safest to eat. Tins of monsters that grant poison resistance carry no risk of inflicting poison damage. See the aforementioned table of poisonous monsters or the article on poison resistance for a list of monsters that can grant poison resistance when eaten.

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.

Per commit 47724f01, the killer bee and soldier ant's difficulty are increased to 6 and 7, respectively.

Precautions

There are many precautions a hero can take to make poison less perilous to deal with. For poisonous corpses, applying a tinning kit to a poisonous corpse will remove the risk of poisoning, a worn ring of sustain ability will prevent attribute damage from eating the corpses, and applying a non-cursed unicorn horn, quaffing a potion of restore ability or successfully casting the restore ability spell can repair attribute damage. If all else fails, successful prayer can also potentially restore attributes: a hero being overtaxed while having lost at least four points of strength is considered a major trouble, while having any reduced attributes at all is a minor trouble.

For dealing with other sources of poison, wearing extrinsic sources of poison resistance such as an amulet versus poison is ideal to both significantly reduce poison damage and widen the amount of safely edible corpses available, including ones that you can obtain the intrinsic from—even once you obtain the intrinsic, it may be worth keeping an extrinsic source or two in case you lose it to a throne or a gremlin attack.

If you lack even an informally known source of poison resistance, high magic cancellation can protect against poisonous melee attacks, and it is already wise to avoid randomly using unknown scrolls and potions to minimize the odds of quaffing a potion of sickness or randomly reading a scroll of stinking cloud; in the latter case, the scroll can be discharged harmlessly by selecting a far away square out of range. Dip-testing using projectiles such as arrows and darts can reveal the identity of a potion of sickness without the risk of quaffing it, though this will use up the potion in the process, and some other potions such as oil can also be used up this way. While dart traps and spiked pits can be difficult to find without tripping them, early dart traps in particular are often marked by corpses of their previous victims, and other monsters that walk into the traps can serve as indicators, especially if the trap killed them.

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.

Per commit 43d331c4, unicorn horns cannot restore drained attributes, with some alternatives already mentioned above.

As discussed prior, poison cannot cause instant deaths upon taking effect: though poison damage is still deadly enough that it can wipe out a lower-HP or lower-level hero, those who make it further without a source of poison resistance are more likely to find a means of surviving encounters with poisonous monsters and recovering from any attribute loss that occurs—while this means a hero can dive deeper into the dungeon on average without as much fear of their game ending prematurely, this does not completely remove poison's threat (especially with severe enough attribute loss).

Statistics

The table below is a quick review of general poison sources and which ones can be deadly:

Source Chance of extra damage Chance of deadly poison Chance of stat damage
Monster melee attack 4 in 5 successful attacks that are not blocked by magic cancellation 1 in 30 poisoned attacks 1 in 6 chance of damaging strength, dexterity or constitution
Monster ranged weapon 4 in 5 1 in 30 successful hits 4 in 5 chance of damaging strength
Poisoned dart trap 4 in 5 1 in 30 poisoned hits 1 in 6 chance of damaging constitution
Poisoned spiked pit 1 in 4 1 in 8 'poisoned' falls 5 in 8 chance of damaging strength
Noxious gas container trap depends on luck 1 in 15 chance 1 in 3 chance of damaging strength
Poisoned needle container trap depends on luck 1 in 10 chance 1 in 2 chance of damaging constitution
Poison blast attack from an iron golem or green dragon 3 in 5 1 in 15 chance 1 in 3 chance of damaging dexterity
Poisonous corpse 4 in 5 none always damages strength, deals d15 HP damage

List of poisonous monsters

This more detailed table lists monsters that are either poisonous or have poisonous attacks, and whether they also possess poison resistance, grant poison resistance, or have some combination of the aforementioned traits:

Monster name and glyph Poison attacks? Poisonous corpse? Poison resistance? Grants intrinsics? Notes
a killer bee Sting 1d3 (drains strength) Yes Yes Poison resistance (30%) Very fast and appears in groups
a soldier ant Sting 3d4 (drains strength) Yes Yes Poison resistance (20%) Very fast and appears in groups
a giant beetle None Yes Yes Poison resistance (33%)
a queen bee Sting 1d8 (drains strength) Yes Yes Poison resistance (60%) not randomly generated
normally appears only in beehives
@ / d werejackal None Yes Yes causes lycanthropy
@ / d werewolf None Yes Yes causes lycanthropy
g gremlin None Yes Yes Poison resistance (33%) Can remove poison resistance
i manes None Yes Yes None corpseless
i homunculus None Yes Yes Poison resistance (6%)
Sleep resistance (6%)		 bite can inflict sleep
i lemure None Yes Yes Sleep resistance if digested corpseless, only generates randomly in Gehennom
i quasit Claw 1d2 (drains dexterity) x2 No Yes Poison resistance (20%)
k kobold No Yes Yes None
k large kobold No Yes Yes None
k kobold lord No Yes Yes None
k kobold shaman No Yes Yes None
r rabid rat Bite 2d4 (drains constitution) Yes Yes None
@ / r wererat None Yes Yes causes lycanthropy
s centipede Bite 1d3 (drains strength) No Yes Poison resistance (13%)
s giant spider Bite 2d4 (drains strength) Yes Yes Poison resistance (33%)
s scorpion Sting 1d4 (drains strength) Yes Yes Poison resistance (50%)
x xan None Yes Yes Poison resistance (~46%)
A couatl Bite 2d4 (drains constitution) Yes Yes None corpseless
B vampire bat Bite 0d0 (drains strength) Yes Yes None may be shapeshifted vampire
D baby green dragon None Yes Yes None only randomly generated in aligned branches
cannot be engulfed
D green dragon Breath 4d6 (drains strength) Yes Yes Poison resistance (100%) will not use breath in melee range
cannot be engulfed
F yellow mold None Yes Yes Poison resistance (6%)
causes hallucination
L lich None Yes Yes Cold resistance if digested corpseless
L demilich None Yes Yes Cold resistance if digested corpseless
L master lich None Yes Yes Fire resistance or cold resistance if digested corpseless
L arch-lich None Yes Yes Fire resistance or cold resistance if digested corpseless
M kobold mummy None Yes Yes None corpseless, leaves behind old kobold corpse
M gnome mummy None Yes Yes None corpseless, leaves behind old gnome corpse
M orc mummy None Yes Yes None corpseless, leaves behind old orc corpse
M dwarf mummy None Yes Yes None corpseless, leaves behind old dwarf corpse
M elf mummy None Yes Yes Sleep resistance (66%, see note) corpseless, leaves behind old elf corpse
M human mummy None Yes Yes None corpseless, leaves behind old human corpse
M ettin mummy None Yes Yes None corpseless, leaves behind old ettin corpse
cannot be engulfed
M giant mummy None Yes Yes Increases strength (50%, see note) corpseless, leaves behind old giant corpse
cannot be engulfed
N guardian naga Spit 1d6 (drains strength) Yes Yes Poison resistance (80%) spitting attack behaves as blinding venom (i.e. no poison)
cannot be engulfed
P green slime None Yes Yes Causes sliming, cures stoning Acidic
corpseless, leaves behind glob of green slime
digestion causes sliming
Q quantum mechanic None Yes Yes Toggles intrinsic speed
S snake Bite 1d6 (drains strength) Yes Yes Poison resistance (26%)
S water moccasin Bite 1d6 (drains strength) Yes Yes Poison resistance (26%) only generated when dipping into or quaffing from fountains
S pit viper Bite 1d4 (drains strength) x2 Yes Yes Poison resistance (40%)
S cobra Bite 2d4 (drains strength) Yes Yes Poison resistance (40%)
V vampire None (see note) Yes Yes None corpseless, leaves behind old human corpse
has poisonous bite in vampire bat form
V vampire lord None (see note) Yes Yes None corpseless, leaves behind old human corpse
has poisonous bite in vampire bat form
V Vlad the Impaler None (see note) Yes Yes None unique
corpseless
has poisonous bite in vampire bat form
Z kobold zombie None Yes Yes None corpseless, leaves behind old kobold corpse
Z gnome zombie None Yes Yes None corpseless, leaves behind old gnome corpse
Z orc zombie None Yes Yes None corpseless, leaves behind old orc corpse
Z dwarf zombie None Yes Yes None corpseless, leaves behind old dwarf corpse
Z elf zombie None Yes Yes Sleep resistance (66%, see note) corpseless, leaves behind old elf corpse
Z human zombie None Yes Yes None corpseless, leaves behind old human corpse
Z ettin zombie None Yes Yes None corpseless, leaves behind old ettin corpse
cannot be engulfed
Z ghoul None Yes Yes None corpseless
Z giant zombie None Yes Yes Increases strength (50%, see note) corpseless, leaves behind old giant corpse
cannot be engulfed
' iron golem Breath 4d6 (drains strength) Yes Yes None corpseless, leaves behind iron chains
@ Medusa Bite 1d6 (drains strength) Yes Yes Poison resistance (100%)
causes instant stoning		 has passive stoning gaze
digestion causes stoning
& water demon None Yes Yes None corpseless, only generated when dipping into or quaffing from fountains
& incubus / succubus None Yes Yes None corpseless
& horned devil None Yes Yes None corpseless, only generates randomly in Gehennom
& erinys Weapon 2d4 (drains strength) Yes Yes None corpseless, only generates randomly in Gehennom
& barbed devil None Yes Yes None corpseless, only generates randomly in Gehennom
& marilith None Yes Yes None corpseless, only generates randomly in Gehennom
& vrock None Yes Yes None corpseless, only generates randomly in Gehennom
& hezrou None Yes Yes None corpseless, only generates randomly in Gehennom
& bone devil Sting 2d4 (drains strength) Yes Yes None corpseless, only generates randomly in Gehennom
& ice devil None Yes Yes None corpseless, only generates randomly in Gehennom
& nalfeshnee None Yes Yes None corpseless, only generates randomly in Gehennom
& pit fiend None Yes Yes None corpseless, only generates randomly in Gehennom
& balrog None Yes Yes None corpseless, only generates randomly in Gehennom
& Juiblex None Yes Yes None unique
corpseless, can generate via demon gating or same-race sacrifice
appears within his lair in Gehennom
& Yeenoghu None Yes Yes None unique
corpseless, can generate via demon gating or same-race sacrifice
& Orcus Sting 2d4 (drains strength) Yes Yes None unique
corpseless
appears within his lair in Gehennom
cannot be engulfed
& Geryon Sting 2d4 (drains strength) Yes Yes None unique
corpseless, can generate via demon gating
cannot be engulfed
& Dispater None Yes Yes None unique
corpseless, can generate via demon gating
& Baalzebub Bite 2d6 (drains strength) Yes Yes None unique
corpseless
appears within his lair in Gehennom
& Asmodeus None Yes Yes None unique
corpseless
appears within his lair in Gehennom
cannot be engulfed
& Demogorgon None Yes Yes None unique
corpseless, can generate via demon gating
cannot be engulfed
& mail daemon None Yes Yes None unique
corpseless
& djinni None Yes Yes None corpseless, not generated randomly
; jellyfish Sting 3d3 (drains strength) Yes Yes Poison resistance (20%) not generated randomly
only occurs on certain watery levels (e.g. Medusa's Island)
: salamander Sting 3d3 (drains strength) Yes Yes Fire resistance (53%) only randomly generates in Gehennom
appears on Plane of Fire
& Minion of Huhetotl None Yes Yes None Archeologist quest nemesis
corpseless
D Chromatic Dragon Breath 6d6 random Yes Yes Fire resistance (16%)
Cold resistance (16%)
Sleep resistance (16%)
Disintegration resistance (16%)
Shock resistance (16%)
Poison resistance (16%)
cures stoning		 Caveman quest nemesis
acidic
cannot be engulfed
& Nalzok None Yes Yes None Priest quest nemesis
corpseless
s Scorpius None Yes Yes Poison resistance (100%) Ranger quest nemesis
@ Master Assassin Weapon 2d6 (drains strength) No No None Rogue quest nemesis

History

Poison has been present in the game since Hack 1.21 and Hack for PDP-11, which are based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and also appears in Hack 1.0. From these versions to NetHack 2.3e, strength is the hero's sole attribute and thus the only one that poison can affect—the other five attributes are introduced in NetHack 3.0.0.

From NetHack 2.3e to NetHack 3.6.0, including some variants based on those versions, poison breath simply poisons targets hit by the ray unless they have poison resistance. NetHack 3.6.1 introduces poison breath attacks leaving behind trails of poison clouds via commit da0e6601, which is based on an original patch by Leon Arnott—NetHack 3.6.1 also introduces immunity to gas clouds for monsters that breathe poison gas via commit f5c157cb, with the iron golem already being immune as a non-breathing monster.

Messages

The monster's <attack> was poisoned!
The poisonous effects of a non-weapon monster attack triggered and dealt extra damage to the target, as well as possibly draining attributes if you were the victim.
The poison was deadly...
A poisoned attack killed you or a monster.
The poison doesn't seem to affect <you/the monster>.
A poisoned weapon hit you or a monster, but the victim had poison resistance.
This <corpse> smells like it might be poisonous! Eat it anyway?
You were warned of a poisonous corpse by food appraisal.
Ecch - that must have been poisonous!
You ate a corpse or item that was poisonous, and suffered HP damage and strength loss as a result.
You seem unaffected by the poison.
This is appended to the above if you did so with poison resistance, which prevents the HP damage and attribute loss.
The book was coated with contact poison!
You were subjected to poison from failing to reading a spellbook. You lose d10 HP and 3d2 strength, which is lowered to d6 HP and d2 strength if you are poison resistant.

Variants

NetHack variants often add several other sources of poison damage, including various attacks and even object properties, and may also adjust or remove its ability to instantly kill monsters and/or heroes. They may also add additional methods of poisoning weapons and expand which weapon types can be poisoned—see the variant section in the article on poisoned weapons for more information.

SLASH’EM

In SLASH'EM, poison breath attacks and poison in general both behave as they do in NetHack 3.4.3.

Several of the monsters introduced in SLASH'EM have poisonous attacks, such as baby deep dragons, rutterkins, rabid rabbits, platypuses, and babaus. These attacks have no effect on monsters that require attacks or weapons of a certain enchantment to be hit, unless the attacking monster hits as a high enough enchantment.

The poison blast spell can be cast to fire rays of poison at monsters. There are also various other items that can inflict poison, not counting the wider range of eligible poisoned weapons:

  • Gas grenades inflict poison damage with their explosions.
  • A poisonous cloak inflicts standard poison damage on the hero upon their wearing it, with a 1⁄3 chance of instant death.
  • Mushrooms and pills can poison a hero that eats them.
  • Plague is an artifact dark elven bow that grants poison damage to arrows fired from it.
  • Serpent's Tongue is an artifact dagger that does not inflict actual poison damage, but deals higher damage against targets that lack poison resistance and has a similar chance of causing instant death.

GruntHack

GruntHack adds the posion blast spell, which functions similarly to how it does in SLASH'EM and can also be cast as a monster spell.

SporkHack

In SporkHack, green dragon scales and green dragon scale mail grant poisonous passive attacks to the wearer, with the exception of green dragons themselves.

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, the chance of an instadeath from poison is replaced with a "very toxic" poison that damages max HP and does strength damage, reducing the chance of poison causing frustrating deaths (though it is still nearly always fatal to low level characters). The other detriments of being poisoned remain the same.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, more types of poisonous attack are introduced:

  • The poison spray spell can be cast by the hero to fire rays of poison, similar to the poison blast spell in other variants—it can also be combined with the eldritch knightly stance for a chance of dealing bonus poison damage with the hero's wielded weapon (which treats it as a poisoned weapon accordingly).
  • Some attacks can cause intense pain that drains strength and possibly also constitution with a chance of being outright fatal, as well as making the victim scream for a few rounds after. Monsters with such attacks include the jellyfish and the ancient of thought.
  • Poison
  • Elemental poison is a form of poison damage that drains constitution and is only partly reduced by poison resistance. The only monsters with elemental poison attacks are the poison paraelemental and Naome—these are not to be confused with the poison attacks used by Bael and the Great Cthulhu.
  • Pyroclastic damage can inflict poison as one of its four possible effects. The only monster with a pyroclastic attack is the pyroclastic vortex.
  • Severe poison damage functions similar to standard poison damage, but can partially 'pierce' poison resistance. Monsters with severe poison attacks include the daughter of Naunet, vermiurge and apocalypse angel.

Some artifacts and other items can deal poison damage, not counting the wider range of poisoned weapons available:

  • Plague is a chaotic bow that grants bonus poison damage to arrows fired from it, and such arrows will always be treated as poisoned.
  • The Scorpion Carapace grants the wearer an additional poison sting attack, which can be upgraded to automatically target hostiles.

Some spirits also grant the ability to deal poison damage as well:

  • Chupoclops grants the hero a 2d4 poisonous bite attack while bound.
  • Ymir grants the hero the ability to use a poison-elemental gaze attack while bound.
  • Miska grants the hero a 2d4 poisonous bite attack while bound at experience level 10 or higher, along with a second one at experience level 18 or higher.

FIQHack

FIQHack removes poison instadeath and replaces it with permanent attribute damage, which cannot be fixed via restore ability or applying a unicorn horn. Additionally, poison resistance only halves poison damage, ensuring that it is never completely safe to eat a poisonous corpse; the chances of attribute reduction from being poisoned or eating a poisonous corpse with poison resistance are lowered to 1⁄3, and the attribute loss itself is reduced by 1⁄3.

Since intrinsic poison resistance only partially protects the hero in FIQHack, the amulet versus poison and the ring of poison resistance are even more useful as they completely protect a hero wearing them from the effects of poison.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, poison functions differently against the hero based on how much intrinsic poison resistance they have: a hero that has less than 35% poison resistance can still die instantly if they are poisoned. Otherwise, if their poison resistance level is 35% or higher but not 100%, they take a significant amount of physical damage based on how much poison resistance they have.

Some items can have the "venom" object property (not to be confused with the venom object or attacks that spit venom): weapons with the "venom" property deal +1d2 poison damage with a 1⁄10 chance of 6-15 extra poison damage and a 1⁄10 chance of inflicting instant death, unless the target has poison resistance. Armor with the venom property provides poison resistance while worn.

Worn green dragon-scaled armor grants the wearer a poisonous passive attack similar to SporkHack, and green dragons also possess this ability naturally.

EvilHack also adds the poison blast spell, which functions similar to the green dragon's breath weapon in current versions of NetHack.

Crowned Infidels that become major demons gain a poisoned sting attack.

SlashTHEM

In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, the chances of a polymorphed hero inflicting fatal poison with their form's attacks is reduced to 1⁄100.

Hack'EM

In Hack'EM, poison functions similarly to how it does in EvilHack, though the threshold of intrinsic poison resistance required to avoid instant death is lowered to 25%. Hack'EM also includes the "venom" object property from EvilHack, as well as the passive poison attack of green dragon-scaled armor and green dragons.

Encyclopedia entry

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.

The following entry is added for venom and poison (including the potion of sickness) via commit f5bd6950.

Fate intervened. Some of us, that day, she led inexorably
through the gates of death. Some of us, innocent and unsuspecting,
took, unwillingly, that one last step to oblivion. Some of us took
very little sugar.

[ We Have Always Lived in the Castle,
by Shirley Jackson ]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 src/spell.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 147-L160
  2. ↑ src/attrib.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 273: poisoned() function
  3. ↑ src/attrib.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 312
  4. ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 113
  5. ↑ src/attrib.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 292
  6. ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1126
  7. ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1129
  8. ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1132
  9. ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1136
  10. ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1139
  11. ↑ src/attrib.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 295
  12. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3870
  13. ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1887
  14. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4562
  15. ↑ src/region.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 979
  16. ↑ include/monflag.h in NetHack 3.6.7, line 98
  17. ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1649
  18. ↑ src/mthrowu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 285
  19. ↑ src/mthrowu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 628
  20. ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1135
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 src/mthrowu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 374
  22. ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1117
  23. ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1122
  24. ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1125
  25. ↑ src/potion.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2125
  26. ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2579
  27. ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4797
  28. ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4905
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 src/trap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4814
  30. ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4837
  31. ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4905
  32. ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4831
  33. ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 997
  34. ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1002
  35. ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2239
  36. ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3989
  37. ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1261
  38. ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1268
Retrieved from "https://nethackwiki.com/index.php?title=Poison&oldid=202285"