Slowing attack
A slowing attack is a damage type in NetHack that can remove intrinsic speed from a target, and is defined by the flag AD_SLOW within the source code.[1]
Description
A hero that is hit with a slowing attack has a 1⁄4 chance of losing intrinsic speed and any temporary boosts to speed (e.g. from the potion of speed or haste self spell), which also abuses dexterity.[2][3] Extrinsic speed from worn items (i.e. speed boots) is unaffected.
A monster that is hit with a slowing attack will always have their speed affected: they are returned to normal speed if they are fast, and will become abnormally slow if they are at normal speed.[4][5]
Magic cancellation can block the effects (but not damage) of slowing attacks if they also block the attack type.
List of monsters
A very small handful of monsters have slowing attacks:
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 76de4f6e, ice devils have a slowing touch attack.Strategy
Slowing attacks are incredibly rare to encounter throughout most games outside of the guaranteed trek through Orcus-town, where shades and skeletons are normally generated at level creation. Their presence in the level is enough to merit a hero having spare sources of speed on hand, such as a wand of speed monster or a tin of quantum mechanic meat, among other countermeasures in case their intrinsic speed is sapped by the attack.
Messages
Variants
Variants of NetHack may add new monsters with slowing attacks, including ones of different attack types.
References
- Jump up ↑ include/monattk.h in NetHack 3.6.7, line 50
- Jump up ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 131: u_slow_down() function
- Jump up ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1567
- Jump up ↑ src/mhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1197
- Jump up ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1995
- Jump up ↑ src/mhitu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2326
