Samurai/dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, the Samurai is one of the roles from NetHack that is available to the hero.
Samurai can be humans, clockwork automata, half-dragons, or yuki-onna, and are always lawful.
Starting equipment
Each Samurai starts with the following equipment, depending on their gender:
- a +0 katana for male Samurai, or a +0 naginata for female Samurai
- a +0 wakizashi for male Samurai, or a +0 knife for female Samurai
- a +0 yumi
- 26-45 ya
- a +0 rustproof splint mail
- a +0 rustproof pair of armored boots
- a +0 rustproof pair of gauntlets
- a +0 rustproof helmet
- an uncursed blindfold
- an iron mask of a human
Yuki-onna Samurai are given human masks made of mithril rather than iron.
Samurai start with knowledge of all non-magical weapons and armor.
The Samurai's default starting pet is a little dog named Hachi.
Intrinsics
Samurai gain the following intrinsic properties upon reaching the given experience levels:
Attributes
The Samurai's starting attributes are distributed as follows:
| Attributes | Strength | Dexterity | Constitution | Intelligence | Wisdom | Charisma | Remaining |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum attributes | 10 | 10 | 17 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 17 |
| Distribution percentages | 30% | 30% | 14% | 10% | 8% | 8% | |
| Mean w/ standard deviation (human) | 15.90±1.94 | 15.54±1.75 | 17.91±0.32 | 9.94±1.37 | 8.56±1.27 | 7.37±1.20 |
Skills
Samurai have the following skills available to them:
| Samurai skills | |
|---|---|
| Max | Skills |
| Basic |
|
| Skilled | |
| Expert |
|
| Master |
|
Samurai start with Basic skill in bows and martial arts, along with long swords and short swords for male Samurai, and polearms and knives for female Samurai. They use the intelligence stat to cast spells, and their special spell is clairvoyance.
Special rules
Samurai get a +1 bonus to multishot and damage when firing ya from a yumi.
Samurai can perform a shattering blow while wielding a katana without either wearing a shield or two-weaponing.
Samurai that use both hands to wield a weapon using the long sword or two-handed sword skill have their to-hit and damage bonuses from that skill doubled, if they perform an attack in the same direction or the opposite direction from their previous attack.
Samurai can perform a "kiai shout" that adds morale to pets and allied monsters equal to the hero's rank plus a bonus equal to 1d(CHA - 13), i.e. +1d5 for 18 charisma and +1d12 for 25 charisma), while also making noise and temporarily granting the aggravate monster intrinsic. This uses the same free action allotted to the hero as e.g., applying a stethoscope does.
Samurai are expected to adhere to a role-specific code of conduct, detailed in the section below.
Code of conduct
The Samurai code of conduct is designed after bushido, and those following it must behave honorably—dishonorable acts will incur an alignment record penalty and display a guilt message:
- You disturb the honorable dead!
- You incurred a -1 penalty to alignment record from digging up a grave.
- You dishonorably attack the innocent!
- You incurred a -1 penalty to alignment record from attacking peaceful or tame monster.
- You dishonorably use a poisoned weapon!
- incurred a -1 penalty to alignment record from attacking with a poisoned weapon.
Japanese names for items
On top of normal language-specific changes for some game dialogs while the hero is a Samurai, certain items also use Japanese names in place of their regular English names, which is expanded from NetHack and can be disabled via options. The Japanese names are divided into 2 lists, which are enabled by the options role_obj_names (enabled by default) and obscure_role_obj_names (disabled by default). All of the items enabled by the former option are also enabled by the latter, but some of them have different names. The naginata, nunchaku, and wakizashi are made into distinct items, rather than simply being Japanese names for existing items.
Both lists of renamed items are presented for easy lookup below, with the items alphabetized by Japanese name (ignoring English prefixes)—the "obscure" names shown in bold override the common name if both are enabled:
| Enabled by both options | |
|---|---|
| Japanese | English |
| bo-shuriken | dart |
| dou-maru | splint mail |
| gunyoki | food ration |
| jingasa | war hat |
| kabuto | helmet |
| kote of fumbling | gauntlets of fumbling |
| kote of power | gauntlets of power |
| koto | wooden harp |
| kunai | dagger |
| osaku | lock pick |
| potion of sake | potion of booze |
| shito | knife |
| hira-shuriken | shuriken |
| sugegasa | sedge hat |
| yugake | leather gloves |
| Only enabled by role_obj_names | |
| Japanese | English |
| bo staff | quarterstaff |
| tanko | plate mail |
| crystal tanko | crystal plate mail |
| Only enabled by obscure_role_obj_names | |
| Japanese | English |
| bisento | halberd |
| bo | quarterstaff |
| chokuto | long sword |
| dai tsuchi | war hammer |
| kamayari | guisarme |
| jo | club |
| jodai no katchu | archaic plate mail |
| magari yari | trident |
| ninja-to | broadsword |
| no-dachi | two-handed sword |
| ono | battle axe |
| o-yoroi | plate mail |
| jade o-yoroi | crystal plate mail |
| yari | spear |
| uma-yari | lance |
| dwarvish zaghnal | dwarvish mattock |
Rank titles
The status line displays one of the following ranks for the corresponding experience levels:
- XL 1-2: Hatamoto
- XL 3-5: Ronin
- XL 6-9: Ninja/Kunoichi
- XL 10-13: Joshu
- XL 14-17: Ryoshu
- XL 18-21: Kokushu
- XL 22-25: Daimyo
- XL 26-29: Kuge
- XL 30: Shogun
Gods
The Samurai pantheon is based on the pantheon of Japanese mythology. The role's first sacrifice gift is Kiku-ichimonji for men and Jinja Naginata for women.
- Lawful: Amaterasu Omikami
- Neutral: Raijin
- Chaotic: Susanowo
Quest
The Samurai's quest sees them fighting Ashikaga Takauji for the Tsurugi of Muramasa, an artifact tsurugi. The Tsurugi of Muramasa grants automatic searching and acts as a luckstone while carried, and while wielded it is bloodthirsty and deals double damage against all monsters, with a 1⁄10 chance (10%) of bisection. Both bloodthirsty weapons and bisection function much differently from vanilla NetHack.
Strategy
A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:
"Detail to match the layout of other NetHack and dNetHack role strategy sections if possible."
Samurai now get an artifact yumi as a crowning gift, Yoichi no yumi. It grants +1d20 to hit, 2x damage to fired ya, and can be #invoked to create ya.
Snickersnee is relegated to a nameable artifact, which can be named by Tourists who are either at least level 19 or have completed their quest. It cannot be named by Samurai, but it still favors Samurai. It's now an intelligent knife. Like Vorpal Blade, it has a chance of beheading targets, and doubled and exploding base dice with +1 damage per dice: 2d5+2 versus small and 2d3+2 versus large, and each explosion adds 1d5+1/1d3+1 damage. It also has +1d3 to hit and +1d10 bonus damage. Both Tourists and Samurai can twoweapon Snickersnee in the off-hand, but will suffer a -20 to-hit penalty unless they are Skilled in twoweapon.
Lastly, the Kusanagi no Tsurugi can be named by Samurai at level 22, but only used as a weapon at 30. It's an intelligent long sword with +1d20 to hit and +1d12 to damage. In addition, it may behead targets and will instantly kill elementals. It grants energy regeneration while wielded, and searching and luck while carried.
