Roles and races (Hack'EM)

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Roles and races

New player roles

  • Re-balanced all SLASH'EM role skills.
  • All spellcasters can reach expert in quarterstaff.

Convict

Convicts present a unique challenge from the standard vanilla roles. Their alignment is always chaotic, regardless of racial background. They start out with some critical disadvantages that the player will have to quickly and creatively overcome to survive.

Convicts start out with negative alignment and punished with a heavy iron ball chained to their leg, and they also start wearing a cursed fireproof striped shirt. The shirt prevents entry into any shop while worn and visible (not covered by a cloak or robe). The shirt is fireproof so one can't simply dip it in a forge to dispose of it. They get no other weapons or armor at the start of the game, and to top it off convicts start on the verge of hunger. However, one of the convict's strengths is that they burn nutrition at half the normal rate while hungry or worse. Be careful before rushing to Minetown because the watchguards are on the lookout for you! If they see your face, they will be angered and pursue you. Wear a blindfold or towel as a quick disguise! Keep in mind that if a shopkeeper sees you with the striped shirt on - they will ban you for life, so make sure to cover it up before getting close to a shop. Another challenge is that Convicts cannot tame domestic pets as normal - they will always be "wary" of you.

Level 1: sickness resistance
Level 7: poison resistance
Level 20: searching
  • Their first artifact gift is Luck Blade.
  • Their starting pet is a sewer rat, and convicts can tame other rats by #chatting them.

Changes from Convict Patch:

  • Replaced convict's quest artifact, The Iron Ball of Liberation, with The Iron Spoon of Liberation.
  • Added secret doors to some of the prison cells on the quest home level, so it's easier for players to navigate.
  • Convicts start with a spoon. Convicts also get backstab bonuses (similar to Rogues) when wielding a spoon.
  • Convicts can use and train up thievery skill. (EvilHack)
  • If you are playing as a doppelganger, your convict will also start out wearing a cursed amulet of unchanging. This is to prevent them from polymorphing into a form that can break or slip out of the striped shirt, but also having the unchanging property prevents liquid leaping out of the chain and ball.
  • Convicts start out knowing all firearms.

Infidel

The Infidel role was created by User:Tomsod (see this link for the original patch and author notes). It has been ported from EvilHack and subsequently to Hack'EM with minimal changes.

If you are looking for something completely different (and evil) - look no further than the Infidel! Infidels don't follow any of the typical alignments, they are worshipers of Moloch and therefore unaligned.

Forget searching for the Amulet of Yendor because you actually start with it! Your primary mission is to travel down to the Sanctum, find the unaligned altar, and sacrifice the Amulet in honor of Moloch. When doing this, you must have your quest artifact in open inventory (the Idol of Moloch). Moloch may then imbue the Idol with the power of the Amulet.

Your secondary mission is to travel back up through the dungeon and make your way to the Astral Plane, where you will attempt to invoke the Idol on the correct altar (to Moloch), thereby giving Moloch dominion over 'heaven' and the other three aligned gods, thus winning you the game.

Like a standard game with the Amulet of Yendor - the correct altar that an Infidel needs to invoke the Idol of Moloch on in the Astral Plane will vary each game. They can discover which is the correct altar by #chatting both their quest leader and the High priest of Moloch in the Sanctum.

Level 1: fire resistance
Level 15: warning
Level 20: shock resistance

Inventory:

Perks

  • Their first artifact gift is Secespita, a copper ritual knife that greatly aids with altar sacrificing, and can drain energy from the monsters it was used to kill, helping to replenish spell power for the Infidel.
  • The Idol of Moloch is the Infidel's quest artifact, a figurine of a horned devil that can be used to easily convert altars to Moloch, and provides magic resistance when carried. It can also be used to summon demons to aid the Infidel. An Infidel cannot win the game without having the Idol in their possession.
  • Crowning - if an Infidel is crowned by Moloch, they transform into a demon, replete with a stinger-tipped tail and large wings, both of which can be used. In demon form, the Infidel can enjoy all of the strengths (and weaknesses) associated with being a demon. Trident skill is unlocked and can be trained all the way up to expert skill. Their crowning gift is a spellbook of fireball.

Gameplay

  • Infidels are considered primary spellcasters.
  • Infidels are either not penalized or will gain alignment for doing things that would normally be detrimental for other roles, such as murdering peacefuls or sacrificing their pets (killing your pet is still viewed as bad).
  • Infidels praying to Moloch outside of Gehennom can expect an 80% failure rate. The only reliable means of praying are standing on an unaligned altar or being in Gehennom. Converting an aligned altar to Moloch is also much more difficult without aid - Moloch's power and influence are weakened outside of hell.
  • Moloch expects an Infidel to perform a sacrifice to him at least once every 6000 turns. Not doing so adversely affects your alignment record, and it will begin to drain at an increasing rate; reaching negative values has a chance of incrementing Moloch's anger as well. Successfully performing a sacrifice delays this effect for 500 turns per point of sacrifice value; this delay is not cumulative, and if the previous remaining delay was higher, it isn't affected. Any sacrifice to Moloch counts, including same-race sacrifice and a sacrifice on a cross-aligned altar (as long as you're actually trying to convert the altar and not yourself). You will be warned when you're due for a sacrifice, both through a message and in the base attributes window.
  • Infidels create unholy water the same way other roles would create holy water, by placing potions of water on a co-aligned altar and praying (Moloch's 'blessings' are actually curses). This can present a unique challenge for the Infidel role, as having certain blessed items is still desirable. They will need to find already blessed potions of water much the same way other roles typically have to find an already cursed potion of water to use.
  • The Amulet suppresses teleportation and drains spell power when casting spells as it always has - this can prove quite challenging, especially in the early game. If you cast without the Amulet in your inventory, the spell will drain hit points instead of power. Healing and extra healing drain extra health so that using them is never a net gain. Hit point regeneration is also suppressed without having the Amulet in inventory. Once the Idol is imbued with the power of the Amulet, Moloch gains control over its power and suppresses the spell power draining and non-hit point regeneration effects (teleportation is still suppressed while holding the Idol).
  • All aligned priests are hostile towards Infidels and will attack them should they enter their temple.


Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 reinforce memory
XP 1 curse
XP 5 draw energy


Flame Mage

The Flame Mage first made its appearance in SLASH'EM - where it was mostly a pseudo-copy of the wizard role but with fire items and spells. In Hack'EM, we have aimed to add more depth to this role and explore the power of their element. Because fire can be viewed as a symbol of divinity and wisdom, Flame mages cast magic (and get spellcasting bonuses) using wisdom and can reach expert in the magic of divination. Their special spell has also been changed to Enlighten, functioning as a play on "light" magic and a result of wisdom. (The reason it is not fireball is that the Infidel has fireball as their special spell, and the flame mage already starts with a spellbook of fireball).

The Flame Mage's quest has been revamped a bit from SLASH'EM. Instead of crusading to conquer the water mage, you will be trying to take down the High Ice Mage, who now doubles as a quest leader and nemesis. The flavor of the quest has also been tilted from water themed to icey cold to take advantage of the Flame Mage's inherent weakness to cold damage.

Level 1: Extrinsic fire resistance (inventory is protected from fire damage)
Level 5: Becomes vulnerable to cold
  • Flame Mage can only be Lawful or Neutral.
  • Flame Mages no longer gain cold resistance at level 13.
  • Flame Mages also "like fire", so fire usually doesn't have an adverse affect on them.

Inventory:

  • Starts with a more fire based inventory:
    • potions of oil
    • fire bombs
    • scrolls of fire
    • fireproof quarterstaff
    • fireproof robe
  • Starts with Fire Bolt instead of Flame Sphere
  • Gets spell-hunger reduction (similar to wizards but a little weaker).
  • For the spells "fire bolt" and "fire ball" they get the same wizard hunger reduction.
  • Flame mages cannot twoweapon and have a multishot penalty.
  • Their skill set has been rebalanced more in favor of blunt weapons (staff, club, etc).
  • fire elementals generate peaceful for Flame Mages
  • They can reach skilled in firearms.
  • Flame mages get severe alignment penalties for genociding red dragons.
  • One major drawback to Flame Mages is that they can never attain 100% cold resistance.
  • When they get vulnerability to cold at level 5 their maximum cold resistance caps at 50%.
  • Flame mages cannot use anything that is decidedly the domain of cold magic:
    • No handling Frost Brand or Deep Freeze.
    • No reading cold based spellbooks (cone of cold, freeze sphere)
    • Will not receive cold based spellbooks or weapons from their god either.

#youpoly

  • At level 8, the Flame Mage gains access to their baby red dragon form via the #youpoly command. Transforming costs 20 MP.
  • At level 15, you can #youpoly into an adult red dragon form. Transforming costs 40 MP.
  • The transformation process takes 2 turns.
  • You get a discount for wearing red dragon scales or scaled armor.

Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 reinforce memory
XP 3 power surge
XP 5 draw energy

Ice Mage

Ice Mages are the masters of cold magic. Like Flame Mages, they also appeared in SLASH'EM. In Hack'EM, they embody the dangerous but strong nature of ice. Their skills have been adjusted to represent mostly piercing weapons (knives, daggers, etc), and they have a few more tricks then they did in SLASH'EM.

  • Can only be Chaotic or Neutral
Level 1: Extrinsic cold resistance (inventory is protected from cold damage)
Level 1: Ice Mages can walk on ice without slipping
Level 5: Becomes vulnerable to fire
Level 15: Gains water walking
  • Ice Mages no longer gain fire resistance at level 13. (Their quest artifact also does not grant fire resistance anymore, it grants shock resistance)
  • Ice mages get severe alignment penalties for genociding white dragons.
  • Intrinsic ice armor AC protection

Inventory:

  • Gets spell-hunger reduction (similar to wizards but a little weaker).
  • For the spells "freeze sphere" and "cone of cold" they get the exact same hunger reduction as wizards.
  • Can now reach expert in riding.
  • Ice mages get the multishot penalty, but it does not apply to knives.
  • Their special spell is now the spell of reflection.
  • ice elementals generate peaceful for Ice Mages.

#youpoly

  • At level 8, the Ice Mage gains access to their baby white dragon form via the #youpoly command. Transforming costs 20 MP.
  • At level 15, you can #youpoly into an adult white dragon form. Transforming costs 40 MP.
  • The transformation process takes 2 turns.
  • You get a discount for wearing white dragon scales or scaled armor.

One drawback to playing Ice Mages is that they can never attain 100% intrinsic fire resistance.

  • When they get vulnerability to fire at level 5 their maximum intrinsic fire resistance caps at 50%. However, any extrinsic source of fire resistance will provide 100% protection.
  • Ice mages cannot use anything that is decidedly the domain of fire magic:
    • No handling Fire Brand or Firewall.
    • No reading fire based spellbooks (fireball, flame sphere)
    • Will not receive fire based spellbooks or weapons from their god either.

Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 reinforce memory
XP 3 ice armor
XP 5 draw energy
XP 12 power surge

Necromancer

With inspiration from aosdict, the Necromancer role has been overhauled with a new approach.

Inventory:

  • Removed starting quarterstaff, starts with 2 daggers instead. They still start with a (blessed) +1 pick-axe.
  • Starts with a wand of fear and a wand of draining.

Gameplay:

  • Necromancers cast necromancy spells as if their skill level was one higher.
  • Necromancers can cast drain life hungerlessly and at a cost of 4 power.
  • Necromancers now receive a +1 alignment bonus when digging graves, and will exercise wisdom if they find a corpse.
  • The necromancer's starting ghoul has the ghoulname option available.
  • Their special spell is summon undead.
  • Undead will never betray Necromancers (lots of undead are treacherous in Hack'EM, so charm monster isn't as reliable as it used to be.)
  • Like convicts, necromancers now cannot tame anything other than undead. Instead of taming, the best result that occurs will be pacifying the target.
  • Necromancers can #chat with zombies to pacify or tame them.
  • Like Priests, necromancers automatically know the beatitude of all items.
  • Necromancers don't get a penalty for invoking the Hand of Vecna.


Spirits

  • When playing as a necromancer, monsters that die drop "spirits". These are auto-collected as you walk over or adjacent to them.
  • Spirits show up as a light-blue '~' symbol.
  • Spirits in shops will not be auto-collected since it will be in the possession of the shopkeeper.
  • Nonliving monsters do not leave spirits.
  • Spirits cannot be picked up by you or other monsters, they will disappear as soon as anything tries to pick them up. If wished for, they will be absorbed immediately into your being.
  • Spirits will fade away quickly, so don't let them sit around. On graveyard levels, they have a much higher timeout.
  • Very rarely, spirits will sometimes turn into will-o'-the-wisps when they fade. On swamp levels this is much more common.
  • Spirits generate when graves are dug up.
  • Spirits generate in morgues (on the corpses of dead players).
  • Multi-headed monsters drop more spirits (hydras, ettins, two-headed trolls).
  • Some classes and specific monsters will also want your spirits so try to collect them before they do!
    • All L, W, A, & will consume spirits.
    • Valkyries, Necromancers, shades, specters, weredemons, aloons also will try to get your spirits.
    • Tame undead will not try to eat your spirits.

Spirits heal HP:

Level 1: Spirits heal 1HP
Level 4: Spirits heal (monster's level / 2) + 1 HP
Level 8: Spirits heal (monster's level) + 1 HP

Spirits renew magical power:

  • Necromancers do not regenerate magical power as other roles do. They also cannot benefit from items or artifacts that grant energy regeneration (like the mana cloak or Eye of the Aethiopica.)
  • To renew your MP, you will have to collect spirits or find some other means (potions of gain energy, confused scroll of charging, etc).
  • A new necromancer starts with 0 energy, but a max of 99, so you can stock up.
Level 1: Spirits grant (monster's level / 2) MP (minimum of 1).
Level 7: You get the monster's full level value in MP.
Level 13: You get the 1.5x monster's level value in MP.

Necromancer intrinsics

Level 1: Drain resistance
Level 1: Immunity to sickness
Level 1: Fearlessness
Level 3: Undead warning

Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 Reinforce memory
XP 2 whistle undead
XP 3 raise zombies
XP 5 blood magic
XP 8 soul eater
XP 10 power surge
XP 14 revivification
XP 17 spirit tempest

Undead Slayer

Remember Simon from the Castlevania games, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer? This role takes cues from both of those characters and more. Are you sick of the Evil zombie constantly eating your brains and dying from illness? Well, now is your turn to kick some zombie butt. The Undead Slayer is your answer to zombies, vampires, and all sorts of things that crawl in the night. Originally from SLASH'EM, we have retooled the Slayer a bit for the challenges in Hack'EM. Starting out slow is no longer an option, so that has been discarded. They have more strength in actually slaying undead and their skills and intrinsics have been rounded out. Warning and Clairvoyance kick in at higher levels, and when speed is gained at level 7 it means more than overcoming the old slowness.

Level 1: Stealth
Level 1: Drain resistance
Level 1: Immunity to sickness
Level 1: Undead warning
Level 7: Speed
Level 9: Poison resistance
Level 15: Warning
Level 21: Clairvoyance

Inventory:

  • Missiles and weapons will now be silver
  • Elven slayers can start with silver elven daggers or a silver elven spear.
  • Crossbow bolts and bullets will be silver.
  • If playing as a tortle slayer, your trident will also be silver.

Gameplay:

  • Can now #turn undead
  • Immune to fear attacks from undead or ghosts.
  • Slayers get an alignment penalty for eating wraith corpses.
  • Undead slayers get +2 to-hit bonus against undead/demons and inflict +d4 damage (like hitting as a blessed weapon (this also stacks with the blessed weapon bonus.)
  • Undead slayers obliterate zombies to the point that they don't leave corpses. 2 in 3 chance of this happening every time you kill a zombie.
  • Their special spell is protection
  • Undead slayers do NOT have a multishot penalty.
  • Undead Slayers are able to attain Grand Master in Bare Handed combat.
  • Undead Slayers can reach basic in two-weaponing.
  • Undead slayers cannot poly into undead or demons.

The vampiric undead slayer

  • As a throwback to Blade, you can also play as this combination.
  • Instead of a wooden stake, you start with a steel longsword.
  • Instead of the regular armor, you get gloves and a jacket of fire resistance.


Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 turn undead
XP 1 weapon practice

Yeoman

The Yeoman is another role from SLASH'EM that we have retooled a bit. In SLASH'EM the Yeoman closely resembled the Knight, maybe too closely. We have given them a few more tools and a dashing green coat to get them started. Like the Undead Slayer, they also had their starting slowness removed. Other races like tortle and giant have slowness, so that trait isn't totally lost with this change.

Level 7: Speed
Level 15: Swimming

Inventory:

Gameplay:

  • Can reach skilled in daggers and axes.
  • Their special spell is knock.
  • Can also play will the neutral alignment, and the centaur race.

Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 calm steed


Pirate

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! If it's a pirate's life ye want, then it's the pirate role for ye! This role offers a fun immersive experience into the pirate role where most of the game messages will be translated into pirate speak for you. You'll also start with a pet monkey or parrot, and what pirate would leave home without a few bottles of rum?

This role offers a few twists on the standard NetHack experience. Most notably, the pirate can only gain one gift from altar sacrifice gifts - the Marauder's Map - after that, they will receive no further gifts from their god. After that, you have to rely on randomly generated artifacts. Luckily, pirates have improved odds: artifacts generate four times as often as for other roles when you're a Pirate! Although they can't get weapons from sacrifice gifts, they do get an artifact cutlass from being crowned - the Reaver, which will handily steal items from enemies when it hits them. Finally, their quest artifact is the Treasury of Proteus - a powerful chest that has mysterious powers. Once you have possession of the chest, you are considered "King of the Hill", and will attract the attention of pirates far and wide, dead and alive.

Level 1: Swimming
Level 7: Stealth
Level 11: Speed

Starts with a pet monkey or parrot.

Inventory:

  • +0 cutlass (scimitar)
  • 3 +1 knives
  • flintlock and bullets
  • +0 leather jacket
  • +0 high boots
  • Two sea biscuits (cram ration)
  • Three bananas (25% chance of kelp fronds)
  • Three potions of rum (potion of booze)
  • A random ring
  • 10% chance of a 0:1 wand of death (from the Pirate YANI)
  • +0 oilskin sack or grappling hook

Gameplay:

  • Changed Pirate's special spell to haste self (Barbarians already had Cause Fear)
  • Parrots are now tameable and feedable by pirates.

Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 tumble
XP 5 sunder

Jedi

The Jedi role has been ported from SlashTHEM. The Jedi have a delicate relationship with their lightsabers - the lightsabers provide offense, defense, and utility, but they demand attention and maintenance. As a master of the force, you will have to balance your use of the lightsaber to make sure you don't exhaust its charges when you need it most. The Jedi skill set is narrowly focused on swords and sabers, so you will have to make the most of your offensive capabilities and use your techniques to get out of tight spots.


Inventory:

  • +1 robe,
  • +0 leather gloves,
  • Chance of either a +1 red, green or blue lightsaber,
  • 50% chance of a blindfold.


Gameplay:

  • Jedi can reach skilled in enchantment spells.
  • Jedi's can reach Expert in bare-handed combat.
  • Jedi can reach basic in firearms.
  • Receives Deluder as their first guaranteed sacrifice gift.
  • Jedi have Charm Monster as their special spell.
  • Jedi start out knowing all plasteel items and lightsabers instead of all armors.

Droid pet:

  • The jedi also starts with a droid pet. The droid is quite powerful, albeit slow, but will prove a very useful companion to have around. It has resistances to almost everything, regenerates, and flies, so it should be very durable. The droid does not leave a corpse, so onces it's gone - it's gone, you will want to protect it from destruction! Keep in mind its main vulnerability is shock damage. If it runs into a web - it has a tiny saw that it can cut away web traps with.
  • For offensive capabilities, it has a strong melee zap touch.
  • However, one of the main features of the droid is it's ability to automatically BUC test and property test any items it walks over. Since it's a robot - it also never hungers, and it's tameness will never expire. So you can leave it in Sokobon forever as a item processing tool, or you can level it up and bring it out into the wild. Note that since it doesn't have hands it cannot pick up items like other pets - it probably would not be very good at stealing from shops anyway since it's so slow. A good first goal for the jedi will be finding a wand of speed monster to bump up its speed, or even better, a magic whistle.


Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 jedi jump
XP 5 charge saber
XP 8 telekinesis
XP 14 force push

Existing role changes

Archeologist

  • Starts with 1 spellbook
  • Can start with torch or lamp
  • Archeologists can highly enchant fedoras (xnh)
  • Archeologists get a +1 luck bonus from wearing fedoras.
  • Archeologists start with a scroll of knowledge

Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 appraisal
XP 3 research

Barbarian

  • Barbs start with 2 food rations
  • Two-weapon – Barbarians go from basic to skilled
  • Riding skill increased from basic to skilled.
  • Attack spell school removed. Special spell changed to cause fear.
  • Barbarians get a +1 multishot and +3 to-hit bonus for throwing throwing-axes.

Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 berserk
XP 5 rage

Caveman/Cavewoman

  • Gets expanded night-vision radius of 2 tiles (from SLASH'EM).
  • All spell schools removed, has 20% chance of failing to read any spellbook, regardless of its BUC status.
  • Can bang rocks together to make flint.
  • Can lash flint to arrows, making them more deadly with a +1 bonus. Simply (a)pply a flint stone when you have some arrows, and select the arrows to upgrade. The arrows can only get a maximum of +1 this way.
    • Your wisdom is also exercised on each level up that you remain illiterate on.
  • Are the only role that can successfully tame and ride saber-toothed cats and saber-toothed tigers.
  • Starting pet is a wolf (from UnNetHack). wolfname option can be set in the options file.
  • First sacrifice gift is Skullcrusher (from SLASH'EM).

Cavefolk are the only role that will see some unique dinosaurs generate in the dungeon!

  • compsognathus: These can appear early and in very large groups. Be on your guard not to be overwhelmed by these little menaces.
  • raptors: Quick, fast, and deadly. Raptors are smart - and will attempt to outflank you.
  • T-Rex's: Need I say more?

Staying illiterate can increase maximum hit point gain per level-up

    • XP 2-3, you can get a 1 max HP bonus.
    • XP 4-7, you can get a d2 max HP bonus.
    • XP 8+, you can get a d3 max HP bonus.

Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 primal roar

Healer

  • Now receives the Drowsing Rod as a first sacrifice gift
  • Gets poison resistance intrinsic at experience level 3 instead of experience level 1.
  • Instead of getting the warning intrinsic at experience level 15, they gain sickness resistance
  • Can sense how wounded a monster is when attacking it, can also sense the wounded status of its pets.
  • Healers get +1 blessed scalpel now.

Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 surgery

Knight

  • Numerous weapon skills adjusted:
  • Knights can not tame dragons unless they are both the same alignment (they are natural enemies),
  • Knights are also not afraid of dragons or their roars.

Lawful Knight Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 turn undead
XP 1 healing hands
XP 1 weapon practice

Dark Knight Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 soul eater

Monk

Intrinsics changes:

  • Monks now receive extra intrinsics as they level up into the higher experience tiers
  • When wearing loose armor (just robes), Monks can enjoy the AC bonuses from SLASH'EM. These bonuses have been slightly lessened since we have other sources of bonus AC, but will still make a significant impact on the Monk's defense.
XL 1: see invisible, sleep resistance, and speed
XL 3: poison resistance
XL 5: stealth
XL 7: warning
XL 9: automatic searching
XL 11: fire resistance
XL 13: cold resistance
XL 15: shock resistance
XL 17: teleport control
XL 20: telepathy
XL 23: water walking
XL 25: stoning resistance
XL 27: disintegration resistance
XL 30: sickness resistance


  • At master level and higher monks gain an extra kick attack (random) using martial arts skill.
  • At grand master level, monks gain an extra fist attack per round using martial arts skill.
  • Because of the extra random kick attack, players will need to be mindful of wearing boots of some sort, as kicking a footrice/basilisk barefoot equals instant petrification.
  • Can break boulders and statues using martial arts skill at skilled level or higher (press shift + f and then a movement key in the desired direction).
  • Monks get a 1AC bonus for being drunk/confused (from UnNetHack).
  • Their first sacrifice gift is now The Gauntlets of Defense.
  • Monks are the only role that start with a robe of power
  • Monks get a magic marker for their crowning gift instead of a spellbook of restore ability
  • Monks with intrinsic water walking can now enter into and stay in pools/moats (from EvilHack)

Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 air dash
XP 1 pummel
XP 1 chained blitz
XP 1 break rock
XP 2 chi strike
XP 4 chi healing
XP 6 elemental fist
XP 8 draw energy
XP 10 ground slam
XP 13 uppercut
XP 17 spirit bomb
XP 20 power surge

Priest

  • Gets a +2 shield.
  • All slash and pierce weapons removed; can only train with blunt-type weapons.
  • Priests incur a substantial to-hit penalty, abuse wisdom, and get alignment penalties when trying to use an edged weapon (wielded or thrown).
  • Their first sacrifice gift is now Disrupter.
  • Their crowning gift is Mjollnir.
  • Priests reduce the chance of zombie revival by 50% (DynaHack).

Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 turn undead
XP 1 blessing
XP 10 healing hands
XP 30 revivification

Ranger

  • If playing as a gnome, their quest artifact becomes the Crossbow of Carl. Its properties mirror that of the Longbow of Diana, except that it is a crossbow instead of a bow.
  • At XL10, rangers automatically see ammo enchantments.
  • Ranger quest artifact, if blessed, has a chance of producing ammo with an object property when invoked. (EvilHack)

Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 missile flurry

Rogue

Inventory changes:

  • Rogues get scrolls of teleport and gold detection (2 each) and an oilskin sack
  • Has a chance of starting with a pistol and bullets instead of darts.
  • New trainable skill known as 'thievery', which allows the rogue to pickpocket a target and steal items from their inventory (must be bare-handed to use, press shift + f and then a movement key in the direction of the target). If the target is peaceful, there is a chance the target will not notice depending on the players' skill in thievery.
  • Critical strike from behind works while two-weaponing.
  • Rogues get backstab bonus on many other monster statuses (xnh).
  • The backstab formula has been adjusted: bonus is based on skill with a cap (xnh).
  • Unlike in SLASH'EM, rogues do not start with the Bat from Hell.
  • Rogues start with +1 short sword (DynaHack).

Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 pickpocket
XP 1 critical strike
XP 15 cutthroat

Samurai

  • The samurai quest artifact The Tsurugi of Muramasa, now grants half physical damage, and has its chance of bisection increased to 15% per hit.
  • Samurai alignment abuse ceases below -10 when attacking peacefuls.
  • Samurai gets Kiku-ichimonji as a first sacrifice gift instead of Snickersnee (from SlashTHEM).
  • Samurai start with a +3 wakizashi (DynaHack)

Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 kiii

Tourist

  • Tourists get automatic type identification for shop items; as soon as they enter a shop they will have all items in the shop auto-identified.
  • Tourists get extra magic maps and food
  • Tourists start with all of their optional equipment.
  • The magic marker that a tourist starts with is always 0:0.
  • Tourists receive at most 1 PW per level up (they do not have any innate magic ability.)
  • Tourists can reach expert in boomerang skill.
  • Changed Tourist's special spell to create familiar.

No techniques.

Valkyrie

  • Special spell changed to repair armor.
  • Dwarven valkyries will start with a dwarvish bearded axe instead of a long sword, and are quite proficient with it when using it to disarm weapons/shields.
  • Valkyries are able to obtain the powerful Gungnir. Simply get a spear, enchant it up to +5, then pray while you have "pious" alignment. Your god will turn the spear into Gungnir for you.

Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 weapon practice

Wizard

  • Removed numerous weapons from being trained (axe, short sword, club, mace, polearms, spear, trident, shuriken).
  • Can sense if objects are magical in nature, much the same way a priest knows the beatitude of all objects.
  • Wizards start with most magical tools identified.
  • New starting pet, the pseudodragon.

Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 reinforce memory
XP 3 draw energy
XP 5 power surge

New player races

  • All races can wear dragon scales.

Centaur

Centaurs are strong and fast, and can be just the thing if you are looking for a new twist on an old role. They have increased carrying capacity that matches the giant player race. Centaurs' strength and dexterity can be maxed to 20, but intelligence maximum is 12, wisdom is 14, and charisma is 16 (They may not make the best spellcasters but they sure can fight). Centaurs generate slightly more hit points per level vs a human player, and they start with intrinsic speed and the ability to jump (not like a Knight, but like wearing a pair of jumping boots). Centaurs know all bow and crossbow weapons automatically, and get a multishot bonus with either type.

Centaurs cannot wear boots, for hopefully obvious reasons. They can wear all other forms of armor (as can now their monster counterparts). Centaurs cannot ride anything as a steed due to them being quadrupedal.

Because they are a steed - centaurs have the unique position of being able to melee with polearms and lances as a mounted character would.

Racial abilities:

Level 1: Fast
Level 1: Jumping
Level 10: Warning

No techniques

Tortle

Main article: Tortle (starting race)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Tortles! These turtles, err, tortles... are a tanky new addition from EvilHack. Tortles are a humanoid reptilian race that resembles an upright tortoise, complete with a large protective shell on their back. They are larger than humans, and a bit stronger and wiser, but move slower and aren't quite so nimble. Tortles are typically of lawful alignment, but can be neutral as well if the role they chose allows it.

Strength can get as high as 19 naturally, and they have a slightly increased weight carrying cap. Wisdom can go as high as 20, with dexterity capped at 10, and charisma capped at 14.

Racial abilities:

Level 1: Swimming
Level 1: Magical Breathing
Level 5: Warning
Level 12: Hungerless regeneration

Tortles have a unique ability - they can hide inside their shell for up to 200 turns at a time, using the #monster command. While inside their shell, they are blind, cannot move or attack, and basically can't do much of anything except regenerate hit points/power and pray. But, while in their shell:

  • they receive a massive 40 point boost to their AC, and only take half physical damage.
  • the bite attacks of monsters that are large or smaller won't do any damage.
  • they are impervious to stinger attacks, and being grabbed and crushed.
  • They can come out of their shell early if they so chose (same command used to enter), and will have to wait 300-400 turns before being able to hide in their shell again.

Tortles start with a natural AC of 0 due to their shells, but are limited in what kind of armor they can wear. They can wear:

  • hats (you can wear rigid helmets, but if cursed they will prevent you from shelling)
  • gloves (you can wear rigid gloves, but if cursed they will prevent you from shelling))
  • shields
  • robes (only type of body armor allowed)
  • mummy wrapping and dragon scales (only types of cloak allowed)

As a tortle 'grows up' and gains experience, their shells grow thicker and become better able to repel attacks, giving the tortle an extra point of AC every three levels - this caps off at 10 points total for experience level 30.

Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 shell


Giant

Make way! Here comes somebody who means business: The Giant. This race was craft in EvilHack and presents a nice balance of strengths versus weaknesses. This is Yet Another Race that can bring a fresh take to old roles, or be combined with new roles for an exciting adventure into the dungeons of doom.

Giants can be any of the four alignments (role restrictions enforced) and either gender. Giants have increased initial and maximum cap carrying capacity, with strength and constitution able to reach 25. Intelligence and dexterity are capped at 14, charisma at 16. Giants movement speed is slightly slower than other races due to their size.

  • Giants have innate knowledge of certain gems, can ID touchstones and can dig as well as a dwarf.
  • Other things in-game that require strength to accomplish are easier for Giants.

Giants can ride one creature and one creature only – the woolly mammoth.

Offense for giants:

  • Giants can pickup and throw boulders (the boulders stack and can be quivered). In Sokoban, the player is asked before picking up or moving aside a boulder.
  • Boulders have a little bit of weight (8 aum instead of 6000 aum) when carried by giants. This prevents player giants from carrying hundreds of stacked boulders without penalty.
  • Giants excel in bare-handed combat or with a club, and have a greater chance of stunning an opponent or shattering their wielded weapon.
  • Giants can wield two-handed weapons in one hand.
  • Giants take extra damage from slings (think 'David and Goliath').
  • Giants wearing stomping boots can stomp medium sized monsters (1 in 40 chance)

Defense for giants:

  • Hit point generation is significantly greater for giants per level vs a human player.
  • They have an innate lower armor class (AC 6 vs AC 10 when naked).
  • Giant wizards start with an amulet of magic resistance.

Giants cannot wear body armor, cloaks, or shirts - with a few exceptions:

  • For armor, giants can only wear large robes or large splint mail
  • For the cloak slot, giants can only wear mummy wrappings or dragon scales.

Racial abilities:

Level 1: aggravate monsters and never stealthy
Level 12: hungerless regeneration

No techniques

Hobbit

Is it time for second breakfast yet?? The hobbit was originally a race in SLASH'EM, but thankfully it had some fantastic updates in EvilHack that Hack'EM inherited. Hobbits are small and humble - but don't underestimate them, just because they are small doesn't mean they are incompetent in the dungeon, quite the contrary.

Hobbits' alignment choices are lawful or neutral (role restrictions enforced). Hobbits can max dexterity, wisdom and constitution to 20, but strength, intelligence and charisma are capped at 16.

  • Hobbits receive a multishot bonus with slings, knives, and daggers (if their role is capable of multishot).
  • Everyone knows hobbits are all about food and when they can eat next. They start with the new 'food sense' intrinsic but are also innately hungry. Because of this, they start with extra food (if not a Convict) and a tinning kit (if not a Convict or an Archeologist). They can also eat more than twice the amount of food other races can eat before becoming satiated.
  • Hobbits prefer elven gear over anything else, and will start with said gear if it's available.
  • All hobbits start out knowing Elbereth.

Racial abilities:

Level 1: food appraisal
Level 1: hunger
Level 4: speed
Level 7: searching

Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 blink

Illithid

Illithid is the formal name for a mind flayer. This ancient race has psychic abilities and are natural spellcasters, but are physically weak compared to other races. Illithids can only be of chaotic alignment (unless playing as an Infidel), and can be both male or female.

Intelligence and wisdom can go as high as 22, and dexterity as high as 20, but their strength, constitution and charisma are capped at 10/12/16 respectively. Power generation per level gained is slightly higher than that of the elven player race.

Illithids have a natural psionic attack that can confuse and kill, and is tied to spell power use (but is not considered a spell for the purposes of Amulet of Yendor interactions). If your race is changed (e.g. by getting crowned as an infidel), this ability is lost.

  • Levels 1-25: Deals 2d6 psychic damage
  • Level 26+: Increases to 4d6 psychic damage.

Illithids have a single extra tentacle attack that behaves exactly like the tentacle attack from a mind flayer. This attack is set up in such a way that it will automatically not be used if attacking something the player should not touch unprotected (read: cockatrice). This attack does not work on a mind flayer. Conversely, illithids are immune to the mind flayer tentacle attack and zombie brain eating attacks.

Racial abilities:

Level 1: psychic resistance
Level 1: infravision
Level 1: telepathy
Level 1: flying

No techniques.

Vampiric

Vampires have an interesting history in the NetHack world. They first surfaced in SLASH'EM, then in UnNetHack, then dNethack, and SpliceHack. Each one was implemented a little differently, so we aimed to take the best of each and release a vampire that is fun but balanced. Our "vampiric" race starts you off strong, you won't have any cheesy poison or GWAWOD deaths, nor will you have to worry about sleeping gas traps (because you're breathless) or any of the floor traps that you can just fly over. What you *will* have to worry about is your new worst enemies: silver and fire.

You'll also have to move quickly and attack aggressively to keep draining blood for food. The corpse draining mechanic from SLASH'EM has been removed. It created quite a few bugs in the nutrition code, it resulted in tedious draining of corpses (which often are wasted anyway), and a better alternative was found in SpliceHack, which was simply doubling the nutrition from feeding on life blood during combat. The main drawback to this approach is that now vampirics cannot gain intrinsics or benefits from eating corpses. To compensate, you start off with almost all the intrinsics a regular vampire enjoys.

Misc info:

  • Vampirics get an extra attack – a drain life bite. This is how you will "eat" as a vampire.
  • Vampirics get a bonus to feeding if their victims are sleeping, paralyzed, trapped, or confused. They will have twice the chance of draining blood as normal. To maximize nutrition, you'll want to manipulate your victims into these vulnerable states.
  • Vampiric players don't get alignment penalties for attacking and killing most peacefuls.
  • Normally, vampirics don't use their bite attack on monsters that will obviously kill them. This includes petrifying monsters, disintegrators, and illness causing monsters. However, if you are impaired (stunned/confused/hallucinating), you will bite anything.


  • All vampirics start with a medical kit so they can use their draw blood technique.
  • They start with knowledge of the potion of blood and potion of vampire blood.
  • Vampires who wear an opera cloak get a +1 charisma bonus
  • Can be chaotic or neutral.
  • In most variants the vampire race has classically been restricted in two-weaponing, but in Hack'EM your role will determine your two-weaponing ability.
  • Genociding vampires also counts as genociding vampirics and vice versa. For clarification - just the regular Vampire counts, not others. So a vampiric ice mage is safe to genocide a vampire lord.
  • Player vampires will only polymorph into vampire bats or fog clouds if they hit a random polymorph. This can provide some protection against polymorph traps since you won't risk breaking out of your armor.

Racial abilities:

Level Ability
Level 1: Regeneration
Level 1: Hunger
Level 1: Breathless
Level 1: Flying
Level 1: Poison resistance
Level 1: Drain resistance
Level 1: Wither resistance
Level 1: Immune to death magic
Level 9: Sleep resistance
  • Because the player vampirics don't get sleep resistance until later, regular vampires have had their sleep resistance removed. Higher level vampires still retain their resistance to sleep.


Weaknesses:

  • Starts with a small penalty to luck (-1) and alignment (-5)
  • Vulnerable to silver.
  • Vulnerable to lycanthropy (can't eat wolfsbane to cure it!)
  • Vulnerable to blood draining from other vampires.
  • Vulnerable to undead turning (wands and spell)
  • Extremely vulnerable to wooden stakes (monsters will have a 5% chance of instakill on you!) Undead Slayer mplayers usually start with a stake - so watch out for them.
  • Since vampirics cannot eat food, they can't gain intrinsics or resistances from eating corpses, even polymorphed.
  • Vampires can wield and wear silver items, but it damages them and blocks their natural regeneration. If it's a wielded weapon, gloves will protect you from the silver irritation.

Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 dazzle
XP 1 draw blood
  • Because the dazzle technique has a complicated algorithm for success, a pokedex helper has been added in the monster lookup info. The chances of dazzling a monster at is base level is shown as a percent. Keep in mind that monsters frequently generate above or below their base level, so this should only be used as a rough guide.

Doppelganger

How can you trust something that is constantly changing? Ask a doppelganger, better yet - play as one! The Doppelganger is a strange race, capable of taking on any form that it is familiar with. As you level up with a doppelganger, you will gain access to a greater variety and strength of forms.

Originally from SLASH'EM, this race gives the player the option to flex their knowledge of monsters. Being able to turn into the right monster at the right time is a key skill to success with playing doppelgangers. When you eat a monster, you gain memory of it so you can reliably polymorph into that form for the rest of the game.

  • Added a list of all monsters doppelgangers have eaten to the stats menu (^X).
  • Doppelgangers can lose memory of eaten monsters if hit with amnesia effects.
  • Eating tinned corpses also added to eaten memory for doppelgangers.
  • Every other race is hostile to doppelgangers (except were-foo).
  • Doppelgangers know about polymorph items.
  • More roles can be doppelgangers: Con, Mon, Pri, Rog, Und, Wiz.

Racial abilities:

Level Ability
Level 1: Acid resistance
Level 5: Vulnerable to fire
Level 5: Vulnerable to cold
Level 15: Polymorph control

Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 liquid leap

Draugr

Main article: Draugr (starting race)

This is very close to the Evilhack implementation of draugr.

One minor exception is that Draugr can wear an amulet of life saving without preventing their innate life saving ability from functioning.

Existing race changes

Elf

  • Elves always start out knowing Elbereth.
  • Elves can use musical instruments without risk of breaking them.
  • Elves can always squeeze between two trees
  • Elves and rangers get alignment penalty for cutting down trees
  • Elves can only be lawful.

Elves have an aversion to iron – wearing or wielding anything made of iron that touches the players skin will prevent hit point regeneration, and will cause 1d8 physical damage on initial contact. Being hit with any weapon made of iron will do the same amount of extra damage. Elf-based monsters are affected the same way when being attacked with weapons made of iron and will avoid using items made of iron. Wielding an iron weapon without gloves incurs a -1 luck penalty.

No techniques for elves.

Dwarf

  • Dwarves get an alignment bonus for cutting down trees
  • All dwarven roles (except convict) have a chance of starting with a pick-axe.

Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 rage

Gnome

Techniques:

Level Technique Gained
XP 1 vanish
XP 7 tinker
  • Gnomes get a tinkering bonus when they reach level 10.

Orc

  • Orcs can never use Elbereth
  • Orcs have an aversion to mithril – the same conditions above for elves and iron exists for orcs and mithril. They are also the only player race that can tame and ride a warg.
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