Unarmed
In NetHack, a hero or monster that is unarmed is not currently wielding a weapon, and this may also refer to one that is not wielding any form of item whatsoever.
Description
A hero in melee range that engages in unarmed combat will use the appropriate skill, with each linked article containing more in-depth and specific details about attacks made using those skills.
- If they are a Monk or Samurai, they will utilize the martial arts skill.
- Otherwise, they will utilize the bare handed combat skill.
Unarmed combat will generally result in making physical contact with the target and trigger passive attacks as normal: a hero or monster that hits a chickatrice or cockatrice while unarmed will be instantly stoned, unless they are wearing gloves.
Rings
A hero that puts on a ring with the appearance of a silver ring and performs unarmed melee attacks without worn gloves will deal +1d20 damage to monsters that hate silver. This cannot be done if the hero has lycanthropy or is polymorphed into a silver-hating monster, which will prevent them from wearing silver rings.
Demon gating
If the hero is polymorphed into a major demon that can gate other demons (i.e. they are not a balrog or amorous demon), each unarmed attack they perform on a monster has a 1⁄13 chance of summoning a tame and non-unique major demon to their side[1]—this exercises wisdom, and the demon will be the same type as the hero's current form 5⁄6 of the time, and will otherwise be a random demon of the same alignment (which can include a balrog or amorous demon).[2]
Staggering blows
If a hero attacks while unarmed and is not wielding any item, wearing any suit or armor or wearing a shield, and they have sufficient skill in either bare handed combat or martial arts, they have a chance of performing a staggering blow that knocks a monster backwards, removes their movement points and stuns them.[3][4]
History
Since Jay Fenlason's Hack and Hack 1.0, unarmed combat has been subject to the following bug fixes and related code adjustments.
- In some versions up to NetHack 3.4.0:
- Attacks by a heroo using a wielded mirror were mistakenly treated as unarmed attacks, which among other effects allows them to perform staggering blows. This is fixed for NetHack 3.4.1 as part of commit b57bc61a.
Variants
NetHack variants often make some modifications to unarmed combat, including the addition of items that make unarmed fighting stronger.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, there are several methods that can enhance the hero's unarmed combat abilities specifically or otherwise enable them to deal extra damage:
- Half-dragon heroes have claws that boost their damage for unarmed melee combat.
- A hero that has put on a black signet ring with doses of poison can inflict that poison upon other monsters by attacking them in unarmed melee combat while wearing the rings without gloves—if two signet rings are worn, both of them will apply their poison.
- Black signet rings also bear specific crests that have similar effects on unarmed combat performed without gloves.
- Signet rings that have a spiderweb design on them (known as the Edderkirke) are described as "black-webbed", and grant a +5 damage bonus to unarmed attacks.
- Signet rings that have the holy symbol of a drow deity deal silver damage when attacking monsters in unarmed combat.
- Rings that are made of iron and worn while performing unarmed melee combat without worn gloves deal an additional experience level-size die of damage against fey and elven monsters, including drow.
- If a hero is wearing The Annulus in its silver ring form (which requires invoking the artifact), the damage of their unarmed attacks is doubled and gains a further bonus equal to twice the artifact's enchantment—this effect stacks with other unarmed-attack-boosting items.
- The spirit Echidna has an ability, "Monstrous Claws", that doubles the size of the hero's unarmed damage dice when they perform unarmed melee attacks without wearing gloves while the spirit is bound to them—this does not stack with the natural claws of half-dragon heroes.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, Convicts and Rogues can use unarmed attacks to attempt stealing items from monsters, which uses and trains the thievery skill.
References
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 4848-L4852: case for demonic hero in damageum()
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2131-L2145: demonpet() function
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1569-L1585: hmon_hitmon_stagger()
- ↑ src/uhitm.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1827-L1828
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