Canine
The canine, usually short for dog or other canine, is a monster class that appears in NetHack, and is represented by the lowercase d glyph (d). Dogs and canines are designated internally by the macro S_DOG.[1]
The class contains the following monsters:[2]
- d jackal
- d fox
- d coyote
- d werejackal (animal)
- d little dog
- d dingo
- d dog
- d large dog
- d wolf
- d werewolf (animal)
- d winter wolf cub
- d warg
- d winter wolf
- d hell hound pup
- d hell hound
- Deferred monsters
- d Cerberus
Contents
Common traits
Canines are quadrupedal and carnivorous animals; they lack hands, and are visible via infravision. Canines can be separated into four broad categories:
- Domestic dogs: the little dog, dog and large dog
- Werecreatures: the animal forms of the werewolf and werejackal
- 'Ordinary' canines: jackals, foxes, coyotes, dingoes, and wolves
- Fantastic canines: wargs, winter wolves and their cubs, hell hounds and their pups, and Cerberus
Canines primarily attack via bites, and the fantastic canines except for the warg also have a breath weapon.
Canines are either of neutral alignment as with the warg and mundane canine monsters, or they are chaotic as with the canine werecreatures and the other fantastic canines. Chatting to a tame canine monster can be used to gauge its current condition.
Canines that eat mimic corpses may assume the form of a sink or tripe ration for the duration of the meal if they do not assume a monster-specific form.[3][4] Monsters that polymorph into any canine monster - excluding werecreatures assuming their animal form - will produce a specific message if this occurs out of the hero's sight.[5]
Generation
Randomly generated canines that are not domestic are always created hostile; domestic canines are sometimes peaceful towards neutral characters.
The canine is the first quest monster class for Samurai, and makes up 24⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Samurai quest. Some random canines are also generated on a few levels within the quest branch at level creation: one each is placed randomly on every floor between the home and goal levels, and two are randomly placed on the goal level itself.
Messages
- <The canine> howls.
- You chatted to a canine while it is night time during a full moon, regardless of other circumstances.[6]
- <The canine> whines.
- Your tame canine is hungry, caught in a trap, confused, scared, or at low tameness.[7] A leashed canine that is near a square with a trap will whine on its own.[8]
- <The canine> barks.
- A tame non-dingo canine will become hungry in 1000 turns or less, or you chatted to a peaceful non-dingo canine.[9]
- <The canine> yips.
- You chatted to a peaceful or tame canine, and none of the above conditions apply.[10]
- <The canine> growls.
- You chatted to a hostile canine.[11]
- You notice a dog smell.
- A monster polymorphed into a dog outside of your sight range.[5]
Variants
Some variants enable the deferred Cerberus so that he can appear in normal gameplay.
SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM adds several new canines to the monster class:
- d pit bull
- d dingo puppy
- d large dingo
- d death dog
- d rabid wolf
- d wolverine
- d shadow wolf
- d mist wolf
- d Cerberus
The canine is the second quest monster class for Yeomen, and makes up 6⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Yeoman quest.
dNetHack
dNetHack adds a few new canines to the monster class:
SpliceHack
SpliceHack adds several new canines to the monster class:
- d winter wolf pup
- d thought eater
- d guard dog
- d vulpferno
- d pack lord
notdNetHack
notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack retain the monsters added in dNetHack and add another canine to the monster class:
- d Naberius
EvilHack
EvilHack adds several new canines to the monster class:
The canine is the first quest monster class for Infidels, and makes up 24⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Infidel quest.
SlashTHEM
SlashTHEM retains the monsters added in SLASH'EM and adds several new canines to the monster class:
Hack'EM
Hack'EM adds many new canines to the monster class from other variants:
- d dingo puppy
- d rabid dog
- d death dog
- d rabid wolf
- d large dingo
- d guard dog
- d pit bull
- d barghest
- d wolverine
- d shadow wolf
- d mist wolf
- d weredemon
- d nova fox
- d Cerberus
References
- ↑ include/monsym.h in NetHack 3.6.7, line 18
- ↑ src/monst.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 196
- ↑ src/dogmove.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1352
- ↑ src/dogmove.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1354
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4225
- ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 637
- ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 643
- ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 437
- ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 646
- ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 644
- ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 651
