Wizard

This article is about the player role. For other uses, see Wizard (disambiguation).

The Wizard, abbreviated as Wiz, is one of the roles available for a hero in NetHack. Their corresponding player monster is the @ wizard. From the guidebook:

Wizards start out with a knowledge of magic, a selection of magical items, and a particular affinity for dweomercraft. Although seemingly weak and easy to overcome at first sight, an experienced Wizard is a deadly foe.

Wizards can be humans, elves, gnomes, or orcs, and can be either neutral or chaotic.

Starting equipment

Each Wizard starts with the following equipment:

• a blessed +1 quarterstaff
• a +0 cloak of magic resistance
• three random scrolls
• a blessed spellbook of force bolt
• a random spellbook for any spell of level 3 or lower, other than force bolt
• three random potions
• two random rings
• one random wand
• an uncursed magic marker (¹⁄₅ chance or 20%)
• an uncursed blindfold (¹⁄₅ chance or 20%)

Any ring that is generated with an enchantment of +0 or lower is given a random enchantment from +1 to +3. Multiples of rings and spellbooks are not possible.

Orcish Wizards are not given extra food like orcish heroes in other roles, and will never be given a ring of poison resistance as their random ring. Elven Wizards are additionally given a random non-magical instrument.

Wizards start with knowledge of any applicable racial equipment.

The Wizard's default starting pet is a kitten.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.

Per commit 9d910773, the Wizard always starts with a magic marker that has 19–23 charges.

List of unobtainable starting items

The random items generated in a Wizard's starting inventory will never be any of the following:

• scroll of amnesia
• scroll of blank paper
• scroll of fire
• spellbook of blank paper
• potion of acid
• potion of hallucination
• ring of aggravate monster
• ring of hunger
• ring of levitation
• wand of nothing
• wand of wishing

Additionally, a Wizard will not start with a ring of polymorph control if a source of polymorph is generated in their starting inventory, and will never start with the ring of polymorph or potion of polymorph if a source of polymorph control (i.e. the ring) is generated in their starting inventory. As mentioned above, orcish Wizards will never have a ring of poison resistance due to starting with the property.

Intrinsics

Wizards gain the following intrinsic properties upon reaching the given experience levels:

• Level 15: warning
• Level 17: teleport control

Attributes

The Wizard's starting attributes are distributed as follows:

Attributes	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma	Remaining
Minimum attributes	7	7	7	10	7	7	30
Distribution percentages	10%	20%	20%	30%	10%	10%
Mean w/ standard deviation (human)	10.60±1.80	13.48±2.15	13.47±2.15	17.44±1.07	10.28±1.74	9.96±1.67

Skills

Wizards have the following skills available to them:

Wizard skills
Max	Skills
Basic	Weapons: short sword, mace, spear, trident, shuriken Combat: bare hands, riding
Skilled	Weapons: knife, axe, club, polearms, sling Spells: healing, enchantment, clerical
Expert	Weapons: dagger, quarterstaff, dart Spells: attack, divination, escape, matter

Wizards start with Basic skill in quarterstaff, attack spells and enchantment spells. They use the intelligence stat to cast spells, and their special spell is magic missile.

Special rules

Wizards have more special rules governing them than any other role.

Spellcasting

Wizards with an intelligence of 15 or 16 have reduced-hunger casting, lowering the nutrition drained when casting spells, and Wizards with an intelligence of 17 or more have hungerless casting.

Wizards regain energy more often than other roles.

Spellbooks and writing

Wizards can write unknown scrolls and spellbooks using a magic marker with much higher success rates than other roles.

Wizards are warned when they have a significant chance of failing to read an uncursed spellbook:

This spellbook is <very> difficult to comprehend. Continue?

The Wizard's default crowning gift is the spellbook of finger of death, and a Wizard that is carrying the spellbook, or else is wielding either Vorpal Blade or Stormbringer, when they are crowned will receive the normal crowning gift for their alignment.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.

Per commit 319dfbda, Wizards automatically discover the appearances of spellbooks as they gain skill in the relevant spell schools:

• Unskilled: spells of up to level 1.
• Basic: spells of up to level 3.
• Skilled: spells of up to level 5.
• Expert: spells of up to level 7.

This means that a Wizard starts with knowledge of spellbooks for all level 1 spells, as well as spellbooks for level 3 and lower spells in attack and enchantment spell schools. There is currently no message announcing that a Wizard hero has learned how to write new spellbooks.

Per commit 319dfbda, Wizards no longer have a special bonus for writing unknown spellbooks (but retain the bonus for scrolls).

Miscellaneous

Wizards can safely enchant a cornuthaum from +5 or below, and are the only role to gain a charisma boost and clairvoyance while wearing one.

Wizards do not gain multishot bonuses from reaching Skilled in a given weapon or projectile, and do not gain a multishot bonus for racial launcher weapons, though they do gain standard multishot bonuses for Expert skill.

Wizards spend the least time of all playable roles as a beginner, and with teleportitis they can teleport at-will starting at experience level 8, rather than 12 as with other roles.

Rank titles

The status line displays one of the following ranks for the corresponding experience levels:

• XL 1–2: Evoker
• XL 3–5: Conjurer
• XL 6–9: Thaumaturge
• XL 10–13: Magician
• XL 14–17: Enchanter/Enchantress
• XL 18–21: Sorcerer/Sorceress
• XL 22–25: Necromancer
• XL 26–29: Wizard
• XL 30: Mage

Gods

The Wizard pantheon is based on Egyptian mythology. Their first sacrifice gift is Magicbane.

• Lawful: Ptah
• Neutral: Thoth
• Chaotic: Anhur

Quest

The Wizard's quest sees them fighting the Dark One for the Eye of the Aethiopica, an artifact amulet of ESP. While carried, The Eye of the Aethiopica grants half spell damage and fast energy regeneration that restores at least one point of power per turn. While worn, the Eye also grants magic resistance alongside the base item's normal extrinsic telepathy. Invoking The Eye of the Aethiopica allows the hero to branchport and warp to another dungeon branch that they have visited.

Strategy

Wizards are usually fairly easy roles when played to their strengths: they make poor physical fighters, but are arguably the best spellcasting role in the game. A Wizard's early game is often rougher than most, since their energy cap means they cannot simply cast spells with abandon even when starting with 17 or more intelligence, and the hero may be required to use their pet, quarterstaff and whatever limited options they have for weapons in order to survive encounters—with this in mind, Wizards also have the potential for high-quality starting equipment, and their mid- and late game are incredibly strong, especially once they obtain their quest artifact and can cast spells with much less concerns about energy consumption. Their first sacrifice gift Magicbane is a solid utility artifact as well that can provide a variety of effects.

Character creation

Wizards have the greatest variation among roles in their starting items, and some players like to "start scum", quitting and rolling new Wizards repeatedly until they start with their desired items and spells.

• Humans make the hardiest Wizards with their relatively high HP growth and competitive energy growth, but their lack of infravision makes it somewhat difficult to reliably target spells at distant monsters until they obtain a source of warning or telepathy.
• Gnomish Wizards have a peaceful Gnomish Mines out of all four playable races; although Wizards generally want to solve Sokoban first for the guaranteed food and strength training, they should still tackle the Mines at some point for access to Minetown and the guaranteed luckstone. Their higher maximum intelligence and bonus to energy growth are obvious advantages, but their hit point growth is mediocre.
• Orcs have penalties to HP and energy growth, lower maximum intelligence that makes uncursed spellbooks slightly riskier to read, and do not start with extra food (since their equipment quality is the same as other Wizards). However, their starting poison resistance is more than welcome for the role's rough early game, and 16 intelligence is more than sufficient for reliable and reduced-hunger casting—their lower mental stat caps also tend to distribute more points towards physical stats, making them somewhat better at early-game combat than gnomes and elves as a result, though just how much varies greatly between individual characters.
• Elves have the highest energy growth and mental stats of any race, and they frequently start with the maximum 20 intelligence, making spellbook-reading a non-issue. Their low maximum strength and constitution also significantly limit their carrying capacity, and their HP levels and growth tend to lag far behind that of other races. Gauntlets of power may not be as viable for elven Wizards compared to elves of other races, due to the significant spellcasting penalty.

Chaotic Wizards have the usual benefit of a less aggressive mysterious force, though the role acquiring teleport control by leveling up means most Wizards can recover relatively easily from being sent down levels while in Gehennom. Chaotic gods also grant more prayer timeout reduction from sacrifice, making it easier for them to farm for spellbooks, though they are also harder to appease when angry. Neutral Wizards have relatively few benefits, outside of gods that are easier to pacify and access to somewhat better artifacts (including wishing for quest artifacts).

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.

With the changes to starting item knowledge and guaranteed magic marker, start scumming is notably less profitable. A starting Wizard can use the marker to work towards their desired spells by writing known lower-level spellbooks.

Early game

Wizards will want to manage how much experience they gain from killing monsters—while the increase in monster difficulty is also accompanied by increased spellcasting ability and maximum power, some of the trickier or tougher early-game monsters such as giant ants can be quite unwelcome for most Wizards; pets are useful aids to this end, at the cost of them potentially snapping up edible corpses. Praying for additional HP is potentially worthwhile, though this must also be balanced with the lack of starting food, especially with a starting intelligence below 17: with a bad enough dearth of generated food, a Wizard may need to rely on prayer or a ring of slow digestion to maintain nutrition. Even once a Wizard secures enough food, they will want to reserve their casting energy for situations where it is absolutely necessary so they are not left waiting for extra power at vital junctures.

If you start with a wand of polymorph, you may consider polymorphing your starting spellbooks: the spellbook of force bolt will become another blessed spellbook that can always be read successfully, but spellbooks can only be polymorphed a couple of times at most before becoming too faint to read. You can also polymorph your starting pet to get a much stronger partner for combat situations, though you just as often risk turning it into something helpless or else outright killing it from system shock.

Sokoban is a common goal for many Wizards, since the Gnomish Mines are dangerous for non-gnomish Wizards unless a player is sufficiently experienced, and even more experienced players will generally want to postpone exploring beyond Minetown until their initial kit is squared away. The first couple of floors in Sokoban should provide enough food, magical loot and strength training, and the Oracle level along the path also has a chance of containing at least one spellbook within is guaranteed centaur statues. Spellbooks should be read as soon as they are curse-tested, using the difficulty warning as a guidance for whether it might be too high-level to make much use of, and the magic missile spellbook is easily one of the best to discover randomly.

The starting +1 quarterstaff is lackluster among two-handed weapons, but can still be useful to survive combat encounters the hero cannot avoid and deal with ghosts in bones. A set of darts, a stack of daggers or an aklys make for good ranged weapons—even throwing rocks at monsters can suffice to save power on spellcasting, though they should be replaced by whatever missiles become available. A dagger or aklys may also be considered as a melee weapon candidate in place of the quarterstaff, and can be trained on slower and/or weaker monsters such as fog clouds. Any early altars that can be safely converted should be used to obtain Magicbane as soon as possible, which grants a Wizard much greater offensive capability and the ability to quickly engrave Elbereth in a pinch.

Whether or not a Wizard wears metal armor varies widely from player to player: the choice between going without metallic armor and being prepared to flee when the hero is low on power, or else wearing metallic armor and minding their carrying capacity while relying on other skills, comes down entirely to a player's confidence in their ability to survive while foregoing spellcasting. In any event, a Wizard should plan to swap metallic armor out as non-metal options become available.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.

With the guaranteed magic marker, skill-based spellbook knowledge, the introduction of the chain lightning spell, and changes to the levels of some spells, several aspects of the Wizard's early game are changed significantly.

Skill slot management

As part of slot management for skills, a Wizard should defer enhancing any spell skill until there comes a point when doing so would provide an in-game benefit—higher skills in spell schools grant lower failure rates for spells in that school, and some spells gain additional effects at Skilled or Expert levels. It takes 20 slots to maximize all spellcasting skills: a hypothetical level 30 Wizard that trains all spell schools to Expert, and also spends 6 skill slots to train daggers to Expert, will have 3 slots free to spend on other skills.

While there are many spells that gain effects when their spell school's skill is raised from Basic to Skilled, such as fireball, cone of cold, remove curse, and detect monsters, only jumping and protection gain additional effects when their skill is advanced from Skilled to Expert. Of the schools for those latter two spells, Wizards can only become Expert in escape spells, and there is no benefit from advancing any other school to Expert unless a Wizard knows any high-level spells in that school (e.g. finger of death, cancellation, or polymorph).

Divination spells are usually best left at Skilled, since they have no spells that go beyond level 5 and gain no additional effects from training to Expert level. Enchantment spells and healing spells may similarly be worth leaving at Basic: the only enchantment spell that gains benefits from Skilled level is confuse monster, while healing and restore ability are the only healing spells to benefit from Skilled level; the confuse monster spell is rarely employed to begin with, and unicorn horns render the restore ability spell redundant. Altogether, and assuming daggers are trained to Expert as above, this leaves 4 more skill slots available for weapons for a total of seven, which is valuable maneuvering room to have early on.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.

Per commit 43d331c4, the unicorn horn no longer restores lowered attribute, so Skilled casting of the restore ability spell may be more worthwhile.

Per commit c73595cc, the spell of confuse monster is lowered to level 1, and the spellbook has its probability swapped with the spellbook of sleep, which has its spell's level raised to 4—per commit d452242a, sleep's spell level is lowered to 3.

Per commit 04c59fff, amnesia is revamped so that the hero forgets skills rather than maps and object appearances, though they can still forget spell knowledge as well. Reading a scroll of amnesia can be used to reset used skill slots that a hero no longer needs, though doing so may also cause them to forget spells and spell skills, making it a potentially-unwise course of action unless they have their spellbooks on hand. Per commit b019f51f, drained skills will have the appropriate amount of training for the resulting skill level, making re-training those skills much less time-consuming.

Mid game

A mid-game Wizard that has not yet found a luckstone or other item to maintain their luck should prioritize obtaining one, and Mines' End may also have several spellbooks if generated with the Catacombs map. Sokoban is also worth finishing for the remainder of its loot if the hero has yet to do so, even if they have found both a bag of holding and a reflection source elsewhere. A Wizard that finds the magic portal to their quest before they reach experience level 14 may seek out any wraiths generated on the home level, or else generate them with a create monster spell, wand or scroll, in order to gain levels from their corpses and get access as soon as possible.

Most Wizards should have Magicbane at this point, which provides very strong effects while wielded even if it will not be their primary melee weapon. A stack of daggers (or elven daggers) is among their best non-magical ranged weapons, and daggers may be worth training to Expert for the ability to multishot them, as well as improving melee capabilities with Magicbane. As before, a Wizard should be minimizing spellcasting penalties from worn armor if at all possible; an enchanted small shield is a great source of AC for minimal spellcasting penalty, and the cornuthaum or elven leather helm are light, non-metal and can be enchanted further than other helms.

Spellcasting will become a Wizard's strongest tool before the end of the mid-game, but should also be part of a diverse tool kit to deal with monsters have high MR scores, magic resistance and/or reflection: fireball and cone of cold at Skilled can take out monsters that lack fire resistance and/or cold resistance; thrown projectiles and wielded artifact weapons can be used for still other highly-resistant foes; and smart use of status-inducing spells can nullify the threat of physically-imposing monsters with low MR scores such as minotaurs and dragons. Wizards with high luck and a magic marker can blank other spellbooks to write highly-useful ones they have not yet obtained: identify trivializes item discovery and tracking of enchantments, while polymorph allows Wizards that are not observing polypileless conduct (or else observing more restrictive conducts) to thoroughly expand their available kit. High luck can also be used to farm for spellbooks and obtain the finger of death spellbook from crowning.

The Wizard quest is fairly easy, with the most concerning threats being xorns and possible level drain from wraith monsters. The Dark One, the quest nemesis and its designated biggest threat, is a pushover: though they boast strong monster spells that can include summon nasties, and can even have the touch of death in very rare cases (usually involving a much higher-level hero), they will not wear the quest artifact and are comically vulnerable to the finger of death or a wand of death among other methods; almost every Wizard facing them will have magic resistance of their own to boot. Wizards without a way to instantly kill the Dark One can still devastate them through various other means, from a few Skilled castings of fireball or cone of cold, to rebounded magic missile spells, to common quest nemesis strategies such as a potion of paralysis paired with a ring of free action.

The Eye of the Aethiopica is so fantastically useful that a Wizard completing their quest has the game blown wide open for them: the energy regeneration provided makes farming altars and crowning incredibly easy with the create monster and magic missile spells, while the ability to branchport when invoking the artifact has a nigh-endless amount of uses, from setting up a stash base in the quest branch or Sokoban where you can store most of your heavier non-essentials, to easily luring adjacent wraiths out of graveyard levels for their corpses, to making quick escapes from nasty monsters or else creating a much more favorable combat scenario.

Late game

The choice of whether or not to gain further experience levels post-Quest is usually one of preference. Gaining levels increases maximum energy and spell damage (e.g. a level 30 Wizard's magic missile deals 16d6 damage before spell damage bonuses), and The Eye of the Aethiopica trivializes luring wraiths from graveyards, such as those in the Valley of the Dead. However, raising maximum energy is one of the few benefits that cannot be easily duplicated, e.g. potions of gain energy cannot be made via alchemy. Conversely, keeping a lower experience level limits hero's energy and spell power, but The Eye's energy regeneration is also more than sufficient for casting needs; a lower level can also prevent troublesome higher-difficulty monsters from generating as often, and makes obtaining services from an aligned priest much less of a hassle.

On the note of services, many Wizards will forego buying clairvoyance in favor of a highly-enchanted cornuthaum, and access to the magic mapping or clairvoyance spells can similarly trivialize navigation of Gehennom. A helm of brilliance is entirely optional, but can be useful for further reducing spell rates and/or enabling hungerless casting. An alternate source of magic resistance such as gray dragon scale mail, cloak of magic resistance or even Magicbane is ideal in case the Wizard of Yendor manages to steal the Wizard's quest artifact from them.

Magicbane remains an excellent weapon for its magic resistance and ability to absorb and nullify curse items-like effects, allowing Wizards to free up other slots in their build and more easily fight hostile spellcasters like arch-liches head-on—whether or not Magicbane should be left at +2 to maximize the additional effects or enchanted towards +7 for better damage is a matter of opinion, though killing monsters quicker tends to be generally preferable; see the article on Magicbane for more details. There are other good candidates for primary artifact weapons, with some of the more common choices discussed below:

• Frost Brand is a common choice for most heroes entering Gehennom, with its double cold damage applicable against a majority of the denizens, particularly vampires and major demons, and its strong base item paired with high enchantment and Basic skill make it solid overall.
• For a chaotic Wizard, Stormbringer is a source of drain resistance and a means of severely weakening non-resistant spellcasters and other monsters in melee, and when well-enchanted and blessed it can even do decent damage against demons, undead and other resistant monsters.
• For a neutral Wizard with an artifact wish to spare, The Staff of Aesculapius prevents the use of a shield in return for offering drain resistance and stellar health upkeep, along with an invoke ability that can reliably cure disease and sliming among other ailments. Its lack of damage against demons and undead can easily be supplemented with magic missile and fireball spells, though like all quest artifacts there is the risk of the Wizard of Yendor stealing it.

The finger of death should have a pretty reliable success rate at this juncture, and can be used to save charges on wands of death for more dire encounters, which range from dealing with the Wizard of Yendor's resurrections to besting Riders on the Astral Plane. A source of confusion for detecting the vibrating square, and later portals on the Elemental Planes, with scrolls of gold detection should also be easy to obtain, particularly if a Wizard elects not to refresh knowledge of a less-used spell like cure blindness or restore ability. Similarly, non-cursed scrolls of charging can be read while confused to quickly restore most of the hero's energy (usually all of it) in a pinch. On the ascension run, the Amulet of Yendor can drain power very fast, and it may occasionally be worth dropping on the ground in order to cast several high-power spells without having to move.

History

The Wizard is one of the first roles introduced in Hack 1.0.

Origin

A wizard or magician is someone who uses or practices magic derived from supernatural, occult or arcane sources, and goes by many other names: archmage, mage, magus, magic-user, spellcaster, enchanter/enchantress, sorcerer/sorceress, warlock, or witch. They enjoy a rich history in mythology, legends, fiction, and folklore, and are common figures in works of fantasy, such as fantasy literature and role-playing games; the various names for these magic users often lend themselves to different archetypes and expressions of their magical abilities.

As a character class in media such as Dungeons & Dragons, the wizard or mage is distinguished by the ability to proficiently cast certain kinds of magic while being notably vulnerable in direct combat; sub-classes are distinguished by strengths in some areas of magic and weakness in others. Sorcerers are distinguished from wizards as having an innate gift with magic, as well as having mystical or magical ancestry; warlocks are distinguished by creating forbidden "pacts" with powerful creatures to harness their innate magical gifts; and druids draw power from nature and the elements and work in harmony with them.

Wizards and magicians may be depicted as old and white-haired, with their hair in some instances being long and majestic enough to occasionally host lurking woodland creatures. This depiction predates the modern fantasy genre, being derived from the traditional image of wizards such as Merlin that serve as wise old mentor figures. Similarly, they often don garb that includes a pointed hat, robes, and/or a cloak—more modern wizards may take after stage magicians, wearing a top hat and tails with an optional cape. Some media, such as the works of Terry Pratchett set in the Discworld, establish traditional magician garb as an expression of that mage's powers, since in the Discworld belief is an incredibly potent force.

Variants

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, Wizards can additionally be hobbits, vampires, drow, or doppelgangers. The role also has some of its rank titles changed to accommodate the addition of the Necromancer role.

The Wizard is given two additional spellbooks in their starting inventory, in return for all four being generated from a pre-determined list of spellbooks. They are also limited to Skilled in all spell schools save for attack spells, so that they do not overshadow the Flame Mage and Ice Mage roles.

Wizards are set back notably by a more difficult early and mid-game, even with the ability to reliably utilize Elbereth as it functions in NetHack 3.4.3 upon obtaining Magicbane. Most types of body armor in SLASH'EM raise spellcasting failure rates while worn, making dragon scale mail much less viable for Wizards throughout the game (which in turn makes property coverage more difficult), but robes do not penalize spellcasting, and the robe of protection is a stellar choice of suit that can somewhat compensate.

SporkHack

In SporkHack, Wizards start with a spellbook of protection and a cloak of protection instead of a cloak of magic resistance.

FIQHack

In FIQHack, Wizards no longer get scrolls, potions, or rings as starting inventory. The only starting wand is the wand of striking. However, Wizards also start with 4 spells (force bolt, magic missile, and 2 random).

Similar to xNetHack, energy regeneration is increased by 0.33 per turn for Wizards.

Hungerless casting no longer exists.

xNetHack

In xNetHack, energy regeneration is increased by 0.33 per turn if the player is a Wizard. They start with four spellbooks (force bolt, magic missile, and two random ones), but no potions, scrolls, rings, or wand.

Encyclopedia entry

Ebenezum walked before me along the closest thing we could
find to a path in these overgrown woods. Every few paces he
would pause, so that I, burdened with a pack stuffed with
arcane and heavy paraphernalia, could catch up with his
wizardly strides. He, as usual, carried nothing, preferring,
as he often said, to keep his hands free for quick conjuring
and his mind free for the thoughts of a mage.

[ A Dealing with Demons, by Craig Shaw Gardner ]