Cleric

This article is about the role withe rank title of "Acolyte". For the quest guardian monster, see acolyte (quest guardian).

For the non-player monsters sometimes found in temples, see aligned cleric.

The Cleric, abbreviated Pri, is one of the roles available for a hero in NetHack. Male and female Clerics are known as Priests and Priestesses respectively. Their corresponding player monster is the @ cleric—they are not to be confused with the @ acolyte monster that serves as their quest guardian. From the guidebook:

Priests and Priestesses are clerics militant, crusaders advancing the cause of righteousness with arms, armor, and arts thaumaturgic. Their ability to commune with deities via prayer occasionally extricates them from peril, but can also put them in it.

Priests and Priestesses can be human or elven, and can start the game as any appropriate alignment.

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 0c3b9642, the role is given the name of Cleric, with the gendered titles "Priest" and "Priestess".

A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:

"Carry out updates to 5.0.0 and be sure to actually integrate the information into the appropriate sections (including historical info)."

Starting equipment

Each Priest starts with the following equipment:

• a blessed +1 mace (wielded)
• a +0 robe
• a +0 small shield
• 4 potions of holy water
• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• 1-2 sprigs of wolfsbane
• 2 random spellbooks for clerical, divination or healing spells of level 3 or lower
• one of the following:
  • an uncursed magic marker (¹⁄₁₀ chance or 10%), otherwise;
  • an uncursed oil lamp (¹⁄₁₀ chance or effectively 9%)

Elven priests are additionally given a random non-magical instrument.

Priests start with knowledge of the potion of water and any applicable racial equipment.

The Priest's default starting pet is a little dog or kitten, with equal probability.

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 9d910773, Priests have a ¹⁄₅ chance (20%) of starting with a magic marker that has 19 to 23 charges, and if not, they have a ¹⁄₁₀ chance of starting with an oil lamp. The absolute probability of starting with an oil lamp is thus 8%.

Intrinsics

Priests gain the following intrinsic properties upon reaching the given experience levels:

• XL 15: warning
• XL 20: fire resistance

Attributes

The Priest's starting attributes are distributed as follows:

Attributes	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma	Remaining
Minimum attributes	7	7	7	7	10	7	30
Distribution percentages	15%	15%	20%	10%	30%	10%
Mean w/ standard deviation (human)	12.21±2.07	11.89±2.01	13.47±2.16	10.28±1.74	17.44±1.08	9.95±1.67

The means and standard deviations were calculated based on a simulation whose source code can be found on the role article's talk page, under the assumption that all given roles are played as humans—non-human races will have different attribute means as a result of different maximums.

Human Priests start with 14 HP and 6-8 Pw. Elven Priests start with 13 HP and 7-9 Pw.

Skills

Priests have the following skills available to them:

Priest skills
Max	Skills
Basic	Weapons: lance, bow, sling, crossbow, dart, shuriken, boomerang Combat: bare hands
Skilled	Weapons: polearms, spear, trident, unicorn horn
Expert	Weapons: club, mace, morning star, flail, hammer, quarterstaff Spells: healing, divination, clerical

Priests start with Basic skill in maces and clerical spells. They use the wisdom attribute in casting spells, and their special spell is remove curse.

Special rules

Priests do not receive multishot bonuses unless they have Expert skill with the given weapon; in practice they cannot reach Expert in any projectile weapon skill, so they are incapable of throwing or firing more than one missile per action.

Priests have inherent knowledge of any item's beatitude, whether or not they can see or even touch it. (The implicit_uncursed option is set by default, so an item with no shown beatitude is uncursed. Setting !implicit_uncursed in your options will display the beatitude of uncursed items.)

Priests only take ¹⁄₅ damage from breaking wands by applying them.

Priests have a +2 bonus to casting emergency spells.

Priests can utilize the #turn extended command to turn away undead. Chaotic priests have a chance of pacifying them, or destroying them if this fails. As obtusely alluded to by the guidebook, the command leaves the Priest immobilized for a few turns.

Rank titles

The status line displays one of the following ranks according to the current experience level, which are also used by player monsters of the same role and monster level:

• XL 1-2: Aspirant
• XL 3-5: Acolyte
• XL 6-9: Adept
• XL 10-13: Priest/Priestess
• XL 14-17: Curate
• XL 18-21: Canon/Canoness
• XL 22-25: Lama
• XL 26-29: Patriarch/Matriarch
• XL 30: High Priest/High Priestess

Gods

The Priest as a role does not have their own pantheon of gods, as the game instead randomly chooses a pantheon from among the other roles.

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 b1a5a9c3, Demonbane is the Priest's first sacrifice gift.

Quest

The Priest's quest pits them against Nalzok for The Mitre of Holiness, an artifact helm of brilliance. The Mitre of Holiness grants fire resistance while carried, and while worn it provides extrinsic protection (akin to a ring of protection) in addition to the normal effects of a helm of brilliance. Priests wearing the artifact also take half physical damage from undead monsters and demons. Invoking The Mitre of Holiness restores energy up to half the difference between the hero's current power and maximum power, with a minimum of 12 and a maximum of 120.

Strategy

Priests are a moderately difficult role: they are restricted in most edged and/or piercing weapon skills that other roles take for granted, cannot multishot ranged weapons, and are not guaranteed to start with immediately useful spells. Conversely, the pool of starting spells can offer significant early boons and pay dividends well into the late game, and the Priest's intrinsic knowledge of item beatitude and starting holy water also provide tremendous advantages in assembling kits, particularly for weapon and armor selection.

The Priest is, somewhat ironically, the role most suited to the atheist conduct, since their starting inventory and special abilities supersede many benefits provided by altars. As the #turn command breaks the conduct, smart use of garlic, attention to movement and equipment selection can help in dealing with early undead, while the starting wolfsbane can cure lycanthropy, and maintaining a cache of holy water allows reliable uncursing. The hardest boon to replicate atheistically is the intrinsic protection that can otherwise be bought from temple priests.

Character creation

The restriction of most weapon skills for Priests limits their offensive choices, and in general Priests are quite fragile in the early game. Elven Priests tend to be the most fragile, needing specific equipment to reach the maximum strength damage bonus or even maximum carrying capacity. Their higher maximums in mental attributes provide useful boosts to energy growth, but the difference for spellcasting success is usually negligible by the time the hero can actually reach those limits. Human Priests will have better strength and constitution on average, but not always enough to lend them significant combat advantages, and they lack the elven Priest's chance of starting with an instrument that can be used to play the passtune or scare monsters.

Lawful priests have the least perilous trip through the Gnomish Mines early on, but will have the most trouble with the mysterious force during the ascension run; chaotic Priests, conversely, will have far more hostile encounters throughout the early game, and cannot use turn undead to clear out their quest levels quickly since it will pacify undead monsters rather than destroy them. On the other hand, chaotic Priests can more easily take advantage of prayer timeout reduction to farm spellbooks at altars, and on the ascension run they will face less resistance from the mysterious force.

Priests that are lawful have the best chance of obtaining a viable artifact weapon as their first sacrifice gift; possibilities include the double-damage Grayswandir and three artifacts that use the long sword skill. At worst, they will have the skill unrestricted for Excalibur (which can outperform many other options even at Unskilled or Basic). Neutral Priests have less reliable options, though Magicbane and Mjollnir are solid first gifts, and Priests can train hammers to Expert. While chaotic Priests naturally have the weakest options for a first sacrifice gift, they also have access to Stormbringer, and elven Priests can reliably force it to be the first gift by naming Sting and Orcrist beforehand.

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.

Demonbane's base item is changed, first to a mace by commit b1a5a9c3, then to a silver mace by commit 67d58202, and it is now the first gift to Priests. This means that lawful Priests can no longer deterministically unrestrict long sword skill, nor can elven Priests force Stormbringer. Lawful Priests are still likely to get a long sword as their second gift.

Per commit e9fab48a, the mysterious force's effects are weakened.

Early game

A Priest's starting +1 mace at Basic skill is slightly better against small monsters than a long sword of the same skill level, but their skill set and lack of multishot bonuses lock them out of many standard early-game weapons. Their spellcasting skill set is heavily tailored towards defensive and utility options, and they cannot train skill in attack spells, though this is not a concern for lower-level spells such as magic missile, drain life or even force bolt—Priests will not reliably match other casting roles in offensive prowess, nor should they necessarily aspire to. The #turn command can help against the stronger groups of early undead, but caution and awareness are required to prevent the immobile Priest being swarmed by non-undead hostiles; some early undead monsters such as zombies are also weak enough to be beaten in melee.

With all this in mind, a Priest should focus on melee combat options and improving AC while keeping their robe intact if possible, and work towards armor that is lighter, ideally non-metallic, and without heavy AC tradeoffs. A Priest that obtains an early wish should consider dragon scale mail over a weapon, both for the reason stated and to preserve artifact generation odds. Priests will also generally favor gray dragon scale mail as the most flexible choice in the long run, though they may opt for silver dragon scale mail if they are worried about early wands. See GDSM versus SDSM for more details on which to choose.

The aklys is one of the Priest's best weapon choices by far: despite its low base damage, Priests can reliably use the aklys in melee and at short ranges; they can train the club skill to Expert; and gnomes in the Mines are a plentiful source of the weapon; skill and enchantment investments in an aklys can be useful through the entire game. A unicorn horn is also a sufficient weapon that typically lasts until the hero reaches the Castle, especially if it is also enchanted. Even if a Priest opts for an early artifact weapon, the aklys's ranged capabilities make it a highly useful secondary option.

Since most of a Priest's spells are geared towards defense and utility, the protection and healing spells are among their best overall options, especially if these can be reliably cast in combat. For spells that do not need to be cast quickly, the hero can find a safe place to remove any metallic armor beforehand. The identify spell is especially powerful in the hands of an early Priest, particularly if they are able to train up divination spells, which include light, detect monsters and other spells that can become powerful in their own right. A Priest who is well-stocked in food and encounters an altar can engage in altar farming by repeatedly casting create monster, resulting in gifts of spellbooks and artifacts.

The inherent knowledge of item beatitude simplifies the process of gauging what items are safe to bless, wear and/or use, and also makes salvaging any bones encountered a breeze. The Priest's starting holy water can serve various purposes as well: uncursing items generally, blessing spellbooks for easier reading (as Priests often start with middling intelligence), blessing magic lamps for early wishes, and obtaining the more useful blessed effects of certain scrolls. Regardless of what a Priest uses them for, stashing one potion of holy water is generally worthwhile to prevent it being lost to fire or cold damage, even if this means just leaving it in an unlocked container—a hero can reliably maintain a cache as long as they have that one potion in reserve and a means of procuring water to dip into it.

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.

As Priests' first sacrifice gift, the revamped Demonbane is simply a slightly better mace against most monsters, though as a silver weapon it provides an important combat edge against imps and werecreatures, and Priests hunting for fountain wishes can invoke Demonbane to banish any hostile water demons they encounter.

Mid-game

Like many other spellcasting roles, Priests advancing towards the mid-game should upgrade their armor wherever it is reasonable and possible to do so. A Priest's weapon restrictions means that skill slots are usually not in short supply: divination spells in particular can be safely left at Skilled level if so desired, as the only benefit from Expert skill in those spells is reduced failure rates. Priests should also begin seeking out artifact weapons such as Stormbringer, Mjollnir, Magicbane, or Excalibur to serve as their primary offense if they have not yet obtained the one they want. Some Priests may brave the Castle before their quest and play the passtune on a tonal instrument to crush stronger hostiles: elven Priests have a ²⁄₃ chance of starting with a tonal instrument, and any Priest can probably obtain a bugle from a Yendorian Army sergeant or officer en route.

The Priest quest's home level is filled with undead, primarily zombies that should be easy to handle for a mid-game Priest, and the stronger monsters are typically encountered on the levels below—only a few undead monster types will prove annoying or even threatening, indivdually, by the time the hero is quest-ready. The main challenge will be fighting through large groups of them. A Priest hero that is short on experience levels can use the create monster spell to farm for wraiths on the quest home level, then lure them through the magic portal into the main dungeon to raise the odds of obtaining corpses from them. The unaligned altar in the desecrated temple at the center of the home level can be converted and used for sacrifices, but most of the monsters generated there will be non-wraith undead; kicking the trees there can summon killer bees to be used for sacrifice, and a chaotic Priest may be able to procure same-race corpses from the undead as well once the altar has been converted.

The Priest's quest has more treasure than that of any other role, containing several graveyards with boxes of loot on each floor—the graveyards also contain major demons, wraiths and vampires, and the locate level also has a hostile aligned priest mixed with the graveyard monsters; hostile priests can be serious trouble if you are unprepared or not confident in your ability to handle clerical monster spells. Drain resistance, MC3 and/or viable ranged attacks are ideal for preventing or minimizing the impact of level drain attacks; stealth is also ideal to allow Priests to clear the graveyards without awakening the denizens too quickly, especially if there are foocubi to gain attributes and experience levels from.

The Priest nemesis Nalzok is quite tough, but respects Elbereth and the scroll of scare monster. A smart and cautious priest with AC around −15 can use magic such as wands of cold or the magic missile spell against Nalzok, along with an enchanted and skilled silver weapon and/or a decently-enchanted artifact weapon, such as one of those mentioned above or Frost Brand, Grayswandir or even Demonbane. The Mitre of Holiness is not especially impressive among quest artifacts, but as a helm of brilliance that lowers damage from undead and demons, and restores power when invoked, it can be a solid resource for a spellcasting-focused Priest.

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 dc9fe0d8, the scroll of scare monster no longer works on any unique monster.

Late game

In the late game, Priests should at least be Skilled in divination spells, which include many useful spells for Gehennom: magic mapping in particular saves on magic marker ink and makes mapping and navigation trivial on mappable floors, while casting the detect monsters spell repeatedly lets a Priest track hostiles across the entire level. Obtaining the magic missile spell is a good idea if you have not done so since its damage scales with experience level, and the remove curse spell is invaluable against hostile casting monsters, especially demon lords and princes and the Wizard of Yendor. Wearing a well-enchanted Mitre and a robe may even allow a Priest to cast the polymorph spell for polypiling purposes.

Managing the Mitre's invoke timers in general should keep a smart Priest full of energy to cast when needed. Neutral Priests can wish for The Eye of the Aethiopica if they desire even more power regeneration. A Priest should have their artifact weapon of choice blessed and highly enchanted by this point, Frost Brand naturally being one of the best options for Gehennom. A blessed and enchanted aklys can prove a solid ranged-weapon option, and a blessed and enchanted silver spear, while not strictly necessary, can also be a tempting secondary. Lawful Priests who have spare wishes may want to consider wishing for The Sceptre of Might, a fairly good mace that can toggle hungerless conflict. Chaotic Priests who want to engage in melee combat regularly should consider wishing for The Master Key of Thievery, which causes the owner to take half physical damage.

Given the potential for wraith farming, it shouldn't be difficult for Priests to hit level 30. Doing so increases the difficulty of enemies, but you'll have more hit points and power, and casting high level spells will be easier. Genociding the nastiest monster classes such as liches and humanoids (which contain mind flayers and master mind flayers) goes a long way toward making this less dangerous. Gaining levels also gives the hero more flexibility with skills, though Priests shouldn't need to spread too many skill slots around.

When assembling their ascension kit, Priests have many viable options. Consider spell failure rates when choosing equipment, but remember that Priests have 'guaranteed' access to a helm of brilliance, and they are good at casting emergency spells. This is important if you need to cast something like cure sickness immediately, e.g. when fighting Pestilence, and your unicorn horn has become cursed. Priests who intend to regularly cast spells they are not proficient in should generally avoid metallic armor.

A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:

"Flesh out late game strategy."

History

The Priest is introduced in NetHack 1.3d.

Origin

A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion; in particular, they act as a mediator between humans and one or more deities during rites of sacrifice and propitiation. Their office or position is the "priesthood", a term which also may apply to such persons collectively. A priest may have the duty to hear confessions periodically, provide prenuptial and marriage counseling, give spiritual direction, teach catechism, or visit those confined indoors, such as the sick in hospitals and nursing homes.

The Priest as a role is modeled after the "church militant" archetype of cleric featured in Dungeons & Dragons: the restriction on weapon type is influenced by a popular interpretation of the Bayeux Tapestry where Odo of Bayeux is depicted with a mace in hand; Odo is sometimes conflated with Archbishop Turpin of the Chanson de Roland (or "Song of Roland"), who actually wields a spear and a sword. The cleric is also partially modeled after the holy fighters of the Crusades, as well as the archetype of vampire-hunting clergy seen in Bram Stoker's Dracula and "Hammer Horror" B movies. Dracula in particular coined the popular term 'undead' and established a vampire hunter's ability to turn away vampires by the presentation of a holy symbol such as a crucifix.

Variants

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, Priests are given as a first sacrifice gift Disrupter, an artifact mace that deals major damage against undead.

The Priest's skill set is expanded to allow a wider spell repertoire, and they can also train in long swords. However, Priests will typically want another artifact to serve as their main weapon, especially as their starting mace is weakened. Additionally, all body armor incurs spellcasting penalties in SLASH'EM, although the starting robe is among the few exceptions: this robe also does not actively boost spellcasting rates; only the robe of power serves this purpose. Fortunately, Disrupter can still assist Priests significantly against the tougher undead introduced in SLASH'EM, and the blessing technique is a powerful resource that can save potions of holy water.

FIQHack

FIQHack priests can be orcs.

Priests get a +20 bonus to effective XL when writing scrolls. Thus at XL30 they can always write unknown scrolls.

Turning undead has been buffed compared to vanilla.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, the Priest leans much more heavily into the "church militant" archetype, with their weapons further restricted so that they are not only unable to train skills for anything other than blunt weapons, but are severely penalized in accuracy and risk alignment record penalties for trying to use them. In exchange, the selection of blunt weapons is much wider and significantly improved, with edged weaponry still usable as forging material—their quest artifact is also buffed to allow prayer in Gehennom.

SlashTHEM

In addition to the race options in SLASH'EM, Priests can also be dwarves, gnomes, orcs and the new races of clockwork automaton, giant, incantifier and nymph.

Encyclopedia entry

For the two priests were talking exactly like priests, piously, with learning and leisure, about the most aerial enigmas of theology. The little Essex priest spoke the more simply, with his round face turned to the strengthening stars; the other talked with his head bowed, as if he were not even worthy to look at them. But no more innocently clerical conversation could have been heard in any white Italian cloister or black Spanish cathedral. The first he heard was the tail of one of Father Brown's sentences, which ended: "... what they really meant in the Middle Ages by the heavens being incorruptible." The taller priest nodded his bowed head and said: "Ah, yes, these modern infidels appeal to their reason; but who can look at those millions of worlds and not feel that there may well be wonderful universes above us where reason is utterly unreasonable?"

[ The Innocence of Father Brown, by G.K. Chesterton ]