Ring of Thror
| = Ring of Thror | |
|---|---|
| Base item | granite or gold ring |
| Affiliation | |
| When carried | none |
| When worn |
|
| When invoked | none |
| Base price | 0 zm |
| Weight | 6 |
The Ring of Thror is an artifact that appears in dNetHack and notdNetHack. It is unaligned and dwarf-favoring, and its base item is a ring with the randomized appearance of a "granite ring". If the granite ring is a ring of polymorph in the current game, then it will appear as a gold ring instead.
Generation
Both Narya and the Ring of Thror have the same fallback appearance, but since they will both only become gold rings if their primary ring appearance is used for the ring of polymorph, at most one of the two artifacts will be a gold ring in a given game.
Description
While worn, the Ring of Thror has the usual effects conferred by the ring whose appearance it matches, and additionally confers aggravate monster, along with doubling the amount of gold generated in the dungeon (which is done at time of the gold's creation while wearing the ring). Each attack made in melee or with a thrown/fired weapon while wearing the Ring of Thror adds +1d6 physical damage.
Strategy
The Ring of Thror is not a particularly impactful artifact, but can be nice when it's found. The bonus damage is most likely not worth the hassle of better monster pathfinding due to the aggravate monster property, unless it is being used to better manage the character's line of sight or other quirks related to monster movement. Aggravate monster is not a deal-breaker on its own, so the ring may be worth using for a character that lacks better options for their ring slots.
The main benefit is the doubled gold, which can also be a bit of a let-down: Due to it doubling gold only on generation, the best option to take advantage is often to wear the ring when entering a new dungeon level and then remove it immediately after. If a character manages to find the portal to Fort Ludios, wearing it before entering is most likely the largest impact the effect will provide get in a game. However, since granite (or gold) rings are a rather rare base item type, it's unlikely to randomly find the Ring of Thror on the ground in the early game, and finding the artifact after already reaching the Castle usually means there are few un-visited levels remaining where it can provide any benefit.
Even without the hypothetical benefits being limited, it is very unlikely to be worth avoiding exploration on the infinitesimal chance that a character can happen upon the Ring of Thror, and there are very few things in the game to actually spend massive amounts of money on: the only uses for the tons of gold found by a character that is fortunate enough to obtain the Ring of Thror very early are to pay off a kuker, buy some living doll wares, or buying copious amounts of intrinsic protection and clairvoyance. An early Ring of Thror is probably the only way to consistently sanctify two different items via kukeri, but this is of middling use as it requires finding two kukeri in the first place.
