Spellbook of create monster
| spellbook of + create monster 
| |
|---|---|
| Appearance | random |
| Abundance | 3.56% |
| Base price | 200 zm |
| Weight | 50 |
| Turns to read | 3 |
| Ink to write | 10–19 |
| Spell type | clerical |
| Level | 2 |
| Power cost | 10 Pw |
| Direction | non-directional |
| Equivalent | scroll of create monster wand of create monster |
In NetHack, the spellbook of create monster allows you to learn the spell of create monster. It is a level 2 clerical spell, and the spellbook takes roughly 3 turns to read.
Generation
Randomly generated spellbooks have a ~3.56% chance of being a spellbook of create monster.
Priests may begin the game with a spellbook of create monster as one of their two starting spellbooks, while Wizards may begin the game with this spellbooks as their starting non-force bolt spellbook.
Aligned priests have a chance of being generated with a spellbook of create monster.
Description
When cast, the spell of create monster has a 72⁄73 chance of creating a single monster or horde, and a 1/73 chance of creating 2-5 miscellaneous monsters, as with an uncursed scroll of create monster. The monsters will almost always have a difficulty level at or below your current level, and monsters normally generated in groups (such as orcs or ants) will count as a single monster for the purposes of this spell; the created monsters will also be hostile or peaceful depending on your starting race and/or alignment.
Strategy
Create monster is a rather niche utility spell, of little use to most early-to-mid game players. The monsters it creates are the same ones the game is happy to throw at you with no expenditure of resources on your part. If you're near an altar and have energy to spare, you might get some Luck or an artifact weapon if the spell happens to generate monsters which leave corpses. The potential gains must be balanced against the risk of summoning something dangerous like a leocrotta or swarm of soldier ants, especially if you've just expended the last of your energy on this very spell.
Characters with little food available might be able to use this spell to generate nutrition from either the monsters' corpses or their death drops - if they can cast the spell reliably (as a failed cast still burns 20 nutrition), they will also need the monsters created to be able to leave corpses, be able to kill the monsters, actually obtain said corpses, and hope that they are safe to eat and are filling enough to be worth it. Non-Wizards are unlikely to find the spell nutrition-positive before the depths where starvation ceases to be a threat.
If your Quest generates monsters with useful corpses, this spell might create several of them more quickly than simply waiting for them to be generated.
Like other low-level spells, this one can be used to train skill in clerical spells, in preparation for casting the higher-level spells of remove curse and/or turn undead.
Late-game characters with the Eye of the Aethiopica may use this spell for altar farming.
Extinction
The spell of create monster is the central spell for extinctionist players, as it is by far the most reliable method to create large amounts of monsters for the challenge. Wizards and Priests are not only the most adept casters for the spell by far, but can also farm wraiths with some reliably in order to increase their level and power reserves.
See also
- scroll of create monster
- wand of create monster
- spellbook of create familiar: Creates a single monster, usually tame.
- summon nasties
- summon insects
Variants
FIQHack
In FIQHack, this spellbook is replaced with the spellbook of summoning.
