Wererat
@ wererat (human) 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 3 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 2d4 |
| Base level | 2 |
| Base experience | 22 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 10 |
| Base MR | 10 |
| Alignment | -7 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 400 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | Poison |
| Resistances conveyed | Lycanthropy |
|
A human wererat:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line2113 |
r wererat (animal) 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 4 |
| Attacks |
Bite 1d4 lycanthropy, Summon friends |
| Base level | 2 |
| Base experience | 22 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 6 |
| Base MR | 10 |
| Alignment | -7 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Always starts in human form |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 40 |
| Nutritional value | 30 |
| Size | Tiny |
| Resistances | Poison |
| Resistances conveyed | Lycanthropy |
|
An animal wererat:
| |
A wererat, @ / r, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The wererat is an omnivorous human werecreature that can shift between human and rodent form - in both forms, they possess enhanced regeneration and can be seen via infravision. In human form, wererats will seek out and pick up items.
A wererat in human form has a weapon attack, and in rat form it has a bite that can cause lycanthropy and the ability to summon other rats on adjacent and nearby squares when in melee range of a character. Wererats possess poison resistance and drain resistance, and are weak to silver.
A wererat corpse is poisonous to eat, and eating a wererat corpse or tin will confer lycanthropy - monsters cannot catch lycanthropy this way.
Contents
Generation
Randomly-generated wererats are always created hostile and in human form. They are not a valid form for normal polymorph.
A wererat summoning help has a 2⁄3 chance of generating a hostile sewer rat, a 2⁄9 chance of generating a hostile giant rat, and a 1⁄9 chance of generating a hostile rabid rat on each applicable square[1] - characters that get lycanthropy from a wererat can summon the above monsters as pets by using the #monster extended command with at least 10 power.
Strategy
Wererats are often the first type of lycanthrope a character can encounter - they are somewhat weak, with both forms having poor AC and an unimpressive MR score of 10, but their regeneration makes them somewhat tricky to kill if an early character cannot damage them consistently. Contracting lycanthropy from one will eventually cause a character to shift to a much weaker rat form, shrink out of their armor and drop most of their inventory unless cured. When encountering wererats, take them out as quickly as possible: their ability to summon monsters spells trouble for most early characters, and being pinned on all sides by rats can lead to death fairly quickly, especially if they include rabid rats that can potentially cause an instadeath by poison.
A character that finds a silver weapon early on will want to keep it on hand until they can reliably take out werecreatures with little trouble, since the silver damage alone makes it possible to dispatch werecreatures quickly, even with a restricted weapon skill. Pets can help deal with wererats, since they cannot catch lycanthropy and werecreatures only summon help while attacking you in animal form. Pulling a wererat into a hallway is also viable: summoning in hallways makes it easier for a character to be completely surrounded, but can significantly limit the amount of monsters they have to fight simultaneously.
If possible, avoid engaging wererats and other lycanthropes in melee while they are in animal form, unless you can cure any infections - eating sprigs of wolfsbane or quaffing holy water will cure lycanthropy, as will successful prayer. A ring of protection from shape changers will outright prevent them from summoning monsters or infecting you, and an engraved Elbereth can repel both the wererat in their animal form and any of the rats they summon.
History
The wererat first appears in NetHack 3.0.0. From this version to NetHack 3.0.10, their animal forms are referred to as ratweres.
Origin
The concept of humans shapeshifting into animals has been a common concept in folklore among various human eras and cultures, while "therianthropy" and related terms as a means of describing specific forms of human-animal shapeshifting have been in use since the early 20th century. The wererat and similar creatures have appeared in fantasy and horror media since the 1970s, and the concept has since become common in role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, as well as fantasy fiction such as the Anita Blake series.
In Dungeons & Dragons, wererats (sometimes known as ratmen) are sly and generally evil creatures that inhabit subterranean tunnel complexes such as sewers beneath cities. They can take three forms - human, human-sized ratman, and giant rat - and prefer to move about in their rat-like forms, typically using their human forms for duping humans and luring them to areas where they can be captured or eaten, or else when seeking a mate. Wererats congregate in numbers like other rats, and can summon and control groups of giant rats.
Wererats are cannibalistic, feeding on uninfected humans and subsisting otherwise on anything they can scavenge or steal. Between this and the stench of sewers on their humanoid form, wererats on the surface are relegated to the seedier parts of cities; they are suited to these conditions, as such areas frequently contain dives that serve strong alcohol and allow access to drunk humans as prey.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, wererats killed in animal form can revert to human form like other polymorhped monsters, making them much more dangerous; they also have a chance of undergoing system shock, typically when killed in human form. This also applies to SlashTHEM.
Wererats are the only werecreature from vanilla NetHack that lack the ability to hit monsters as enchanted weapons.
GruntHack
In GruntHack, wererats and other lycanthropes are generated as racial monsters.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, werewolves are much stronger than in vanilla NetHack.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, wererats can summon enormous rats: a wererat summoning help now has a 1⁄18 chance of generating a rabid rat and a 1⁄18 chance of generating an enormous rat, with the same chances of generating other rats.
The Rat King is a unique form of wererat-like monster that possesses both a weapon attack and an infectious bite, but does not shift between forms.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, wererats can summon the same types of rats as in vanilla NetHack.
The Rat King retains his behavior from EvilHack and gains the ability to summon the same types of rats as wererats in EvilHack can (including a chance of enormous rats), but serves the same roles as his non-lycanthrope counterpart from SLASH'EM.
Encyclopedia entry
In 1573, the Parliament of Dole published a decree, permitting the inhabitants of the Franche-Comte to pursue and kill a were-wolf or loup-garou, which infested that province, "notwithstanding the existing laws concerning the chase." The people were empowered to "assemble with javelins, halberds, pikes, arquebuses and clubs, to hunt and pursue the said were-wolf in all places where they could find it, and to take, burn, and kill it, without incurring any fine or other penalty." The hunt seems to have been successful, if we may judge from the fact that the same tribunal in the following year condemned to be burned a man named Giles Garnier, who ran on all fours in the forest and fields and devoured little children, "even on Friday." The poor lycanthrope, it appears, had as slight respect for ecclesiastical feasts as the French pig, which was not restrained by any feeling of piety from eating infants on a fast day.
