Attribute

This article is about the stats that measure the abilities of the hero. For the various intrinsic and extrinsic qualities of a hero or monster, see property.

For the screen that displays the hero's in-depth current status, see base attributes.

In NetHack, a hero has six basic attributes or ability scores that determine their levels of ability for each attribute type, as in Dungeons & Dragons. Four of these attributes can be gradually increased by exercise, and all of them can be directly increased through various means.

Strength

Strength corresponds to the ability to have more weight in your inventory. Also, the stronger you are, the more damage you do in melee combat, and the farther you can throw objects.

Dexterity

Dexterity has a multitude of effects, of which the most significant is probably that it affects your chance of hitting monsters, whether in melee combat or with a missile or spell.

Constitution

Having a high constitution increases your healing rate and the number of HP you gain when levelling up and allows you to carry more weight in your inventory.

Intelligence

Intelligence is useful for reading spellbooks, for spellcasting (unless you are a Healer, Knight, Monk, Priest or Valkyrie, in which case it is wisdom that affects your chances of successfully casting a spell) and for encounters with foocubi. Mind flayers have a brain-eating attack that can drain your intelligence; if you are hit by a successful brain-eating attack when your base intelligence is already 3, you die of brainlessness.

Intelligence cannot be exercised, but can be permanently increased by drinking a blessed potion of enlightenment or a potion of gain ability. It can also be temporarily increased by wearing a helm of brilliance. If you eat a mind flayer corpse, there is a 50% chance your intelligence will be permanently increased by one point.

Wisdom

A Healer, Knight, Monk, Priest or Valkyrie requires wisdom to cast spells. Wisdom is not particularly important for most other classes, though it affects how fast your power regenerates (and is thus fairly important for wizards) and how much power you gain when leveling up.

Charisma

Charisma is mostly useful for obtaining better prices at shops. It also helps with foocubus encounters, both by increasing the chance of a positive result and by giving more control over whether they remove your armor.

Charisma also has other effects:

• The chance of successfully bribing demons with less money than they demand.
• The amount of gold required to bribe the Yendorian army.
• The chance of successfully applying a saddle to a monster.
• The initial apport of new pets is equal to your charisma.
• Several messages that don't affect game mechanics.

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.

Charisma affects the probability that monsters are affected by conflict.

Charisma is a difficult stat to increase, as it cannot be exercised. It can be permanently increased by drinking a potion of gain ability, or temporarily increased by wearing a charged ring of adornment. You can also gain charisma by triggering a magic trap; however, this can be dangerous.

Charisma	Price
3–5	×2
6–7	×1.5
8–10	×1.33
11–15	×1
16–17	×0.75
18	×0.67
19–25	×0.5

Reference: shk.c, line 1910.

Starting attributes

The player's starting attributes depend on their role as follows:

Class	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma	Remaining
Archeologist	7\20%	7\10%	7\20%	10\20%	10\20%	7\10%	27
Barbarian	16\30%	15\20%	16\30%	7\6%	7\7%	6\7%	8
Caveman	10\30%	7\20%	8\30%	7\6%	7\7%	6\7%	30
Healer	7\15%	7\15%	11\25%	7\20%	13\20%	16\5%	14
Knight	13\30%	8\10%	10\20%	7\15%	14\15%	17\10%	6
Monk	10\25%	8\20%	7\15%	7\10%	8\20%	7\10%	28
Priest	7\15%	7\15%	7\20%	7\10%	10\30%	7\10%	30
Ranger	13\30%	9\20%	13\20%	13\10%	13\10%	7\10%	7
Rogue	7\20%	10\30%	7\20%	7\10%	7\10%	6\10%	31
Samurai	10\30%	10\30%	17\14%	8\10%	7\8%	6\8%	17
Tourist	7\15%	7\15%	7\30%	10\10%	6\10%	10\20%	28
Valkyrie	10\30%	7\20%	10\30%	7\6%	7\7%	7\7%	27
Wizard	7\10%	7\20%	7\20%	10\30%	7\10%	7\10%	30

First, points are distributed so that the player receives, as a minimum, the number indicated before the backslash. This is always out of a pool of 75 points, and the Remaining column contains the amount of leftover points from this step.

Next, the remaining points are distributed randomly according to the percentage after the backslash. If an attribute is chosen that would raise it above the player's racial maximum, it will try 99 more times to choose a different attribute to raise. If it fails to pick an attribute on all 100 attempts, it will abort this step and any remaining points will be lost.

Third, each attribute has a 5% probability of having a random number from −2 to +4 added to it . These respect racial maximums.

Finally, strength will, if necessary, be increased until the player is unencumbered by their starting inventory. If their racial maximum is not enough, constitution will be increased similarly.

Maximum attributes

The player's maximum attributes depend on their race as follows:

Race	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
Human	18/**	18	18	18	18	18
Elf	18	18	16	20	20	18
Dwarf	18/**	20	20	16	16	16
Gnome	18/50	18	18	19	18	18
Orc	18/50	18	18	16	16	16

These maxima only apply to your base "naked" attributes. Some magic items, like the helm of brilliance, gauntlets of power and gauntlets of dexterity, allow you to exceed these limits, up to 25 for all attributes. All attributes have a minimum of 3.

Variants

NetHack brass

NetHack brass implements different maximum attributes per role. Find your maximum attributes by looking for your role in the next table, then applying the racial modifiers. For example, humans have +2 to strength. All heroes have a minimum of 3 for each attribute. The entries with the exclamation marks are the spellcasting stats for each role.

Role	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
Archeologist	16	10	17	19!	18	19
Barbarian	18/**	18	20	12!	16	10
Caveman	18/**	18	20	14!	16	15
Healer	12	19	19	19	19!	18
Knight	18/50	13	18	17	19!	19
Monk	10	20	20	18	20!	18
Priest	18	15	18	17	20!	18
Ranger	17	21	13	19!	16	19
Rogue	18	20	17	17!	17	16
Samurai	18/50	20	19	15!	15	15
Tourist	17	15	18	19!	19	19
Valkyrie	18/**	16	20	12	17!	16
Wizard	10	19	16	20!	20	18

Reference: src/role.c in NetHack brass 040923.

Racial modifiers

To find your maximum attributes in NetHack brass, after finding your role in the above table, you must apply the racial modifiers of the below table. These racial modifiers apply only to the maximum attributes of each player, not the initial attributes.

An elven Ranger of NetHack brass, for example, can reach 19+1 = 20 in charisma by increasing charisma one more time after a human Ranger would have maxed at 19.

For strength modifiers only, a +1 raises 18 to 18/50, while a +2 raises 18 to 18/** or 17 to 18/50.

Race	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
Human	+2	0	0	0	0	0
Elf	0	0	−2	+2	+2	+1
Dwarf	+2	+2	+2	−2	−2	−2
Gnome	+1	0	0	+1	0	0
Orc	+2	0	0	−2	−2	−3

In wizard mode, the #rrllududab extended command sets your attributes to their maximum; this is a reference to the Konami code.

SLASH'EM

SLASH'EM handles several attributes differently compared to NetHack - see the articles on those attributes for details.

UnNetHack

UnNetHack adds the ability to exercise intelligence by fighting a weeping angel's mental reflection, which requires that the player does not have reflection.

FIQHack

In FIQHack, strength over 18 is no longer considered a special attribute, and "exceptional strength" of 18/XX does not exist - their numeric equivalents are used instead, as follows:

• Elves: 18
• Gnomes: 19
• Orcs: 20
• Humans: 21
• Dwarves: 21

See also

• hit points
• inventory
• purse
• encumbrance
• weight
• intrinsic
• Drain for gain, which involves manipulating your attributes, and discusses how to do so.