Taming
In NetHack, taming is the process of making a hostile or peaceful monster into a pet—this is not to be confused with tameness, which is a numeric measure of how loyal a pet is to the hero.
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Description
There are various means by which a hero can tame another monster, each of which are listed below and expounded on in the sections that follow:
- Throwing suitable food to domestic animals
- Using magic, such as a spell or scroll
- Applying figurines and certain other tools
- Hatching eggs
- Summoning or obtaining them directly, which only occurs in certain circumstances
Restrictions
Many monster types encountered in the dungeon can be made into pets, with several exceptions:
- Shopkeepers, guards, aligned priests, hostile or peaceful minions of a deity, non-shapeshifter humans, and most covetous monsters cannot be made tame—any method that would attempt to tame such monsters will make them peaceful instead if that method succeeds, except for quest nemeses, Medusa and the Wizard of Yendor.
- Werecreatures can only be tamed while in creature form.
- Vlad the Impaler is not considered covetous while shapeshifted, though he will never shapeshift while he possesses the Candelabrum of Invocation.
- Shopkeepers, guards, aligned priests, quest leaders, and the Wizard of Yendor will remember who they were and completely resist taming even if they are polymorphed or slimed.
- Major demons cannot be made tame unless the hero is currently in the form of a demon themselves.
These restrictions are applied at the time that a monster would be made tame, and as such do not apply to pets that grow up or else are polymorphed into a form that cannot normally be tamed—in practice, this consists primarily of master liches and arch-liches, which can be obtained tame by polymorphing a pet or having a pet lich grow up. Figurines ignore these restrictions, though many of the monsters that cannot be tamed normally also cannot have figurines of them generated.[1][2]
Domestic pets
A monster that is a domestic animal can be tamed by throwing it the appropriate type of food. Kittens, little dogs and their growth stages can be tamed with tripe rations, meaty corpses that are fresh and not harmful, other meat comestibles, or "people food" such as food rations; ponies and their growth stages can be tamed with fruits (including the nameable fruit), vegetables, and most vegetarian corpses that are safe for them.
Throwing a hostile domestic animal a type of food that it does not eat, such as a tin, will pacify it—pelting a peaceful domestic animal with food that it does not eat will make it hostile, as with any other peaceful monster that the hero throws most items at. Eggs, melons and cream pies will not pacify hostile domestic animals and will anger peaceful ones, due to splattering on impact when thrown. During the full moon, domestic dogs have a 5⁄6 chance of becoming peaceful instead of tame from being thrown appropriate food, and will not be angered by repeated attempts.[3]
Spells and scrolls
The charm monster spell can be used to tame adjacent monsters, subject to a check versus their MR score.[4][5] A non-cursed scroll of taming has the same effects as the spell (with the cursed scroll making peaceful monsters hostile instead), and can also have its range extended to an 11x11 area by reading it while confused.[6][7]
The create familiar spell has a 1⁄3 chance of creating a tame domestic animal, and will otherwise generate a random monster to make tame (unless they are of an untameable type).[8][9]
Magic traps
One of the effects of a magic trap raises the hero's charisma by 1 and tames adjacent monsters, ignoring any MR score.[10]
The Book of the Dead
A hero that reads the blessed Book of the Dead while not standing on the vibrating square will tame undead monsters in a circular area with a 4-square radius around them if they are of the same alignment[11]—this also raises the tameness of any existing undead pets within that radius by 1 if it is under 20, and causes all other undead to become scared while pacifying any hostile ones.
Figurines
A figurine of a monster can be used to generate the monster it depicts by either applying it or casting the stone to flesh spell at it. Monsters brought to life from figurines will not have their starting inventory. Creating a monster by bringing a figurine to life respects genocide, but does not respect extinction except for monsters with special limits, such as erinyes and Nazgul.[12]
Magic harps and other tools
Applying a magic harp with charges can tame monsters around the hero, with the range of the effect dependent on their experience level.[13]
Eggs
A monster egg that hatches while being carried in the hero's open inventory will always generate a tame monster if the egg was laid by the hero, or else if it is a dragon egg that hatches while in the hero's inventory.[14] A male hero has a 1⁄2 chance of a tame monster hatching from any egg that hatches while carried in their open inventory.[15]
Other methods
Tame monsters can also be created or given to the hero under the following circumstances:
- Quaffing a smoky potion or rubbing a magic lamp can summon a djinni, which has a 1⁄5 chance of being tame if the potion or lamp is uncursed and a 1⁄20 chance otherwise.[16][17]
- A wish can be used to create a figurine or a small stack of eggs if the hero desires.
- A hero that has lycanthropy can use the #monster extended command to summon one of more tame monsters of the same species for 10 power, with the monsters summoned dependent on the werecreature that infected the hero.[18]
- A hero that polymorphs into any major demon other than a balrog or foocubus can gate in tame demons by attacking in melee with their bare hands while not wearing gloves. Demons gated this way have a 5⁄6 of being the same type as the hero's current form, and a 1⁄6 chance of being a random demon of the same alignment as the hero.
- A hero that enters the Astral Plane with an alignment record of 9 or higher and is not generating conflict at the time of entrance will be given a tame 'guardian' Angel minion by their god—the Angel will disappear if they would be affected by conflict at any point afterward.
Strategy
Taming is a useful means of obtaining more powerful pets, whether to help fend off nastier monsters or simply make encounters faster, and sources of taming can be used to "escape" being cornered by powerful monsters that have low MR scores, such as minotaurs and dragons.
History
Taming is most likely introduced in Hack 1.0 with the scroll of taming.
From NetHack 3.1.0 to NetHack 3.2.3, including some variants based on those versions, The Palantir of Westernesse is a quest artifact that can be invoked to tame adjacent monsters as an uncursed scroll of taming.
References
- ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 952
- ↑ src/objnam.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3955
- ↑ src/dog.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 878
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 930: maybe_tame
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1401: scroll of taming and charm monster spell have the same effects
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 941: cursed scroll effects
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1409: range of scroll effects
- ↑ src/spell.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1183: calls make_familiar
- ↑ src/dog.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 95: make_familiar has separate code blocks for figurines and create familiar spell
- ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3275
- ↑ src/spell.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 293
- ↑ src/dog.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 87
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 627
- ↑ src/timeout.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 822
- ↑ src/timeout.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 838
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1484:
dorubfunction, callsdjinni_from_bottle - ↑ src/potion.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2321:
djinni_from_bottlefunction - ↑ src/were.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 126
