Master of Thieves
@ Master of Thieves 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 24 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 4d10 physical, weapon 2d6 physical, claw 2d4 quest-artifact-stealing |
| Base level | 20 |
| Base experience | 588 |
| Speed | 15 |
| Base AC | 0 |
| Base MR | 90 |
| Alignment | −20 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Unique |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 400 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | stoning resistance |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
|
The Master of Thieves:
To a Rogue hero, the Master of Thieves also:
To a Tourist player, the Master of Thieves also:
| |
| Reference | NetHack 5.0.0 - include/monsters.h, line 3566 |
The Master of Thieves, @, is the Rogue quest leader. He is a strong, omnivorous human that can be seen via infravision, and will pick up gold, gems, magical items, and other objects he comes across. Additionally, the Master of Thieves, @, is the Tourist quest nemesis. In this role, he guards the Bell of Opening and the Platinum Yendorian Express Card, the Tourist quest artifact.
The Master of Thieves has a strong weapon attack, a second weapon attack, and a 'claw' attack that can steal quest artifacts, and possesses stoning resistance due to his unique status of pulling double duty as quest nemesis and quest leader.
Generation
The Master of Thieves is not a valid polymorph form or genocide target.
For Rogues, the Master of Thieves is always generated peaceful and will be found within the center-most room of the Rogue quest home level, where he is placed on a square with a chest during level creation.[1] The Master of Thieves is always generated with +5 leather armor, a +4 silver dagger, and 2-8 non-cursed +2 daggers when acting as the Rogue quest leader.[2]
For Tourists, the Master of Thieves is always generated as hostile and awaits meditating in the northwestern-most room of the Tourist quest goal level, where he will have the Bell of Opening in his inventory and the Platinum Yendorian Express Card placed on his square during level creation.[3][4][5]
Strategy
As the Tourist quest nemesis, the Master of Thieves can come as surprisingly easy to a player who is strong enough and capable of fighting through the crowds of soldiers that defend his lair. The most important note is that he will pick up the Platinum Yendorian Express Card as soon as he is awakened from his meditation, granting him magic resistance—otherwise, he possesses no resistances outside of the standard stoning resistance that all nemeses have.
The Master of Thieves is something of a threat in melee, but lacks special abilities outside of being able to steal quest artifacts from you, including the Platinum Yendorian Express Card if you manage to obtain it without killing him. If you have any darts (e.g. your starting stack of +2 darts) or other poison-compatible projectiles on hand, dip them into a potion of sickness: a flurry of poisoned projectiles fired with sufficient skill level can bring him down quickly and possibly even instantly kill him.
Of note is that in his role as Rogue quest leader, he can still steal the Master Key of Thievery or any other quest artifact from a Rogue, offering a unique threat to contend with among quest leaders should an enterprising Rogue decide to angle for a promotion.
History
| @ Master of Thieves
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 24 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 2d6 physical, weapon 2d6 physical, claw 2d4 quest-artifact-stealing |
| Base level | 20 |
| Base experience | 588 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 0 |
| Base MR | 30 |
| Alignment | −20 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Unique |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 400 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | stoning resistance |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
|
The Master of Thieves:
To a Rogue hero, the Master of Thieves also:
To a Tourist player, the Master of Thieves also:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line3141 |
The Master of Thieves is introduced with most other quest leaders and nemeses in NetHack 3.1.0. From this version to NetHack 3.6.7, including some variants based on those versions, the Master of Thieves lacks a starting inventory (outside of the standard Bell of Opening as a quest nemesis) and has lower stats: 12 speed, an MR score of 30, and two 2d6 weapon attacks. Angering or killing the Master of Thieves while he serves as the quest leader also causes the game to become unwinnable in these versions, since the hero will either lose access to the magic portal that leads into their quest branch or else lose access to the lower floors of the quest. Conversely, a Tourist facing the Master of Thieves as their nemesis may have an even easier battle compared to later versions by exploiting his lower MR score.
NetHack 5.0.0 makes a major change to Quest mechanics via commit 20cbadcf: angering and/or killing quest leaders no longer makes the game unwinnable, and the Master of Thieves and other quest leaders are given increased stats and additional equipment to compensate—this makes the Master of Thieves the only quest nemesis to be directly buffed between these versions as well.
Origin
The Master of Thieves may be based on the head of the Thieves' Guild that appears in Swords Against Death, a Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser short story collection by American writer Fritz Leiber that was first published in 1970. The Thieves' Guild of Lankhmar appears throughout several of the duo's stories, including some in the collection: they were former members of the Thieves' Guild at one point, and their wives were killed by Guild members. In one of the stories within Swords Against Death, the Master of Thieves' Guild recruits the Gray Mouser and Fafhrd to repossess treasures that were stolen from him, but the Master of Thieves dies before the duo return, and the pair avenge themselves against the Thieves' Guild in a later story.
The Thieves' Guild is also present in Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld, which also pays direct homage to Fritz Leiber's stories and characters at various points—this is most likely the reason that the Master of Thieves appears in both the Rogue and Tourist quests.
Variants
NetHack variants based on versions prior to NetHack 5.0.0 often make King Arthur and other quest leaders stronger than they are in those versions to accommodate the variant's changes to the Quest and its entry mechanics, and some of these changes are later incorporated into NetHack 5.0.0 itself. Any such changes may also be applied to the Master of Thieves as a quest nemesis.
SporkHack
In SporkHack, the Master of Thieves is buffed significantly from NetHack 3.4.3: his speed is increased to 15, his MR score becomes 90, and the damage dice of his first weapon attack becomes 4d10. He also gains flight, sleep resistance and poison resistance.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, the Master of Thieves retains his statistics from NetHack 3.4.3, and always generates with a random weapon, a random piece of armor and four random potions whether he appears as a quest leader or quest nemesis.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, the Master of Thieves has stealth and automatic searching similar to Rogue heroes and other 'rogue' monsters, and retains his statistics from NetHack 3.4.3 except for AC: he has 4 points of AC, all in the 'dodge' category.
The Master of Thieves is always generated with a blessed +4 stiletto, 10 blessed +4 daggers, blessed +5 gauntlets of dexterity, blessed +5 leather armor, and a blessed +5 pair of high boots.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, the Master of Thieves has his stats and resistances improved from the NetHack 3.6 series, and they are identical to those of SporkHack minus the flight.
As the Rogue quest leader, the Master of Thieves always generates with +5 light armor and a +5 dagger.
If the Master Key of Thievery is successfully wished for by a hero that is not a Rogue or a Tourist, there is a x⁄x+1 chance (where x is the amount of previous artifact wishes) of a hostile Master of Thieves generating adjacent to the character with the artifact in his possession. Tourists that successfully wish for the artifact and generate its owner will instead face a hostile rogue player monster with the artifact, as the Master of Thieves is their quest nemesis and cannot be generated this way.
All of the above information also applies to Hack'EM.
Encyclopedia entry
There was a flutter of wings at the window. Ymor shifted his bulk out of the chair and crossed the room, coming back with a large raven. After he'd unfastened the message capsule from its leg it flew up to join its fellows lurking among the rafters. Withel regarded it without love. Ymor's ravens were notoriously loyal to their master, to the extent that Withel's one attempt to promote himself to the rank of greatest thief in Ankh-Morpork had cost their master's right hand man his left eye. But not his life, however. Ymor never grudged a man his ambitions.
