NetHack/Setting

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=Character Classes= While not "true" characters in and of themselves, many of the available roles have traits and features associated with them that remain consistent across playthroughs, such as a specific pantheon of gods (with the exception of the Priest, who can serve any of the pantheons at random) and a unique set of abilities and features.

Archeologist
"Archeologists understand dungeons pretty well; this enables them to move quickly and sneak up on the local nasties. They start equipped with the tools for a proper scientific expedition."

- A Guide to the Mazes of Menace: Guidebook for NetHack


 * Adventure Archaeologist: Complete with pick-axe, bullwhip and Indy-stylr fedora.
 * Character Alignment: Archeologists can be lawful or neutral.
 * Dual Wielding
 * Fragile Speedster/Weak but Skilled: While they tend to start with low strength and aren't exactly the most combat-ready class at the beginning, their intrinsic speed and stealth lends themselves a lot to hit-and-run tactics that can carry them a long way, and their starting tinning kit makes it easier to safely procure food and intrinsics. Pick-axes can also provide training for a solid weapon in the mattock.
 * Mayincatec: The theme of their pantheon and quest.
 * Mummies: Plenty of them appear on the quest.
 * Whip It Good: One of their starting weapons is a bullwhip.
 * Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Invoked - their quest branch's monster generation is heavily skewed towards all sorts of snakes.

Barbarian
"Barbarians are warriors out of the hinterland, hardened to battle. They begin their quests with naught but uncommon strength, a trusty hauberk, and a great two-handed sword."

- A Guide to the Mazes of Menace: Guidebook for NetHack


 * Acquired Poison Immunity: Barbarians start the game with this, increasing the availability of options for food.
 * An Axe to Grind: Starts the game with one. Cleaver is an artifact battle-axe that acts as their first sacrifice gift.
 * Barbarian Hero
 * Blade of Fearsome Size: Barbarians have a 50% chance of their starting sword being a two-handed sword.
 * Conan the Barbarian: The core inspiration for the role, right down to their pantheon including Crom as the Neutral god.
 * Dumb Muscle: Subverted, as they have the same capacity for intelligence as other player characters, but have a high spellcasting penalty and start with low wisdom and intelligence stats - not that they suffer for it.
 * Master Swordsman: One of three roles that can reach Skilled or better in 5 of the 6 sword-based skill classes.
 * Unskilled but Strong: Shares this with the Valkyrie - both are heavily combat-focused classes that have heavy spellcasting penalties but can easily get by on stellar armor and weapons, and the barbarian also has the additional boon of starting with intrinsic poison resistance.

Caveman
"Cavemen and Cavewomen start with exceptional strength but, unfortunately, with neolithic weapons."

- A Guide to the Mazes of Menace: Guidebook for NetHack


 * All Cavemen Were Neanderthals: They even have neanderthals as quest guardians.
 * Carry a Big Stick: The club is their starting weapon and their quest artifact, the Sceptre of Might, is a mace; Cavemen can attain Expert in both.
 * Difficult but Awesome/Weak But Skilled: Cavemen are considered a "harder" variant of the Valkyrie, as they are a combat-oriented role with harsh spell-casting penalties in exchange for excelling in combat - but they also cannot use most edged weapons without receiving them as sacrifice gifts, and their starting club and leather armor are also lackluster. However, multishot spears at Expert skill can do absurd amounts of damage, and the aklys upgrade in 3.6.1 makes it a stellar weapon for most of the game.
 * Magikarp Power: Those that make it to the late game have more choices in food due to their lack of cannibalism penalties, and their quest artifact, The Sceptre of Might, is also considered one of the best in the game for its ability to invoke conflict.
 * I'm a Humanitarian: Cavemen can eat monsters of the same race as them with no penalty; among other things, this makes tine of nurse meat far more beneficial compared to other classes.
 * Noble Savage: Cavemen can be lawful or neutral, and many of their role's aspects are drawn from this (e.g. Shaman Karnov, the quest leader).
 * Useless Useful Spell: Practically anything in a Caveman's hands, but a special mention goes to their special spell - dig. It's a high-level matter spell, and there's very few meaningful matter spells to train with; the spellcasting penalties also ensure that most Cavemen won't even bother, and the spell's function is superseded by more plentiful items such as pick-axes and wands of digging.

Healer
"Healers are wise in medicine and apothecary. They know the herbs and simples that can restore vitality, ease pain, anesthetize, and neutralize poisons; and with their instruments, they can divine a being's state of health or sickness. Their medical practice earns them quite reasonable amounts of money, with which they enter the dungeon."

- A Guide to the Mazes of Menace: Guidebook for NetHack


 * Combat Medic: Can serve as this with some luck in finding armor and training with early weapons that they can master. Staves, knives and unicorn horns in particular (often used to cure Standard Status Ailments) can be trained to Expert.
 * Classical Mythology/Greek Mythology: Healers are styled after classical-era doctors and surgeons (e.g. humour theory is still in practice, their starting weapon is a scalpel), and their pantheon consists of Greek gods, with a Cyclops serving as the quest nemesis.
 * Crippling Overspecialization: Healers excel at healing spells, but are restricted in all other spell classes and tend to lack any real offensive options in the beginning. Downplayed somewhat in that it doesn't cut them off from casting them completely, merely restricting the amount of benefits they can expect from such spells - magic missile is still plenty powerful in their hands, for example.
 * Instant Sedation: Healers start with a wand of sleep.
 * Simple Staff: The base item for their quest artifact, the Staff of Aesclapius.
 * Useless Useful Spell: Cure sickness, their special spell... which cures sickness (and also sliming).
 * Boring but Practical: It's also the only such means of curing sickness that can be made 100% reliable, since even blessed unicorn horns may fail occasionally, and the special spell bonus allows for a lot of leniency in terms of armor choices.
 * Weak but Skilled: Healers start with little in the way of armor, food, and weapons, but with care and diligence can still make it a few levels - enough to gain reliable access to the stone-to-flesh spell (which can easily solve any food related problems for the entire game). Their starting cash and stethoscope can be used to sniff out or purchase solid armor and weapons, and their healing abilities and items allow them to reliably stay alive and support their pets well (especially for protection rackets and/or Pacifist Runs).

Knight
"Knights are distinguished from the common skirmisher by their devotion to the ideals of chivalry and by the surpassing excellence of their armor."

- A Guide to the Mazes of Menace: Guidebook for NetHack


 * Blade on a Stick: Knights start with a lance.
 * Chess Motifs: Knight have a special intrinsic jumping ability that lets them move like actual chess knights, though with the restriction of not having their jumping path obstructed.
 * The Code: Knights are expected to adhere by an in-game code of chivalry, which penalizes them in particular for overeating, stealing, and using poisoned weapons, or else attacking immobilized or fleeing foes.
 * Cool Horse: The Knight always starts with a saddled pony, and their starting apples and carrots are primarily meant for the steed; horses are vegetarian. and thus gain more nutrition from them.
 * Excalibur: Guaranteed to be their first sacrifice gift; they are also one of the roles that start with a long sword, allowing them to train for it from the first turn.
 * Heroes Prefer Swords: Knights start with a long sword.
 * Knight Errant in Shining Armor
 * Lightning Bruiser: Combining their lance with the speed of their mount allows Knights to joust and pound several enemies to death, potentially before they can actually get a hit in.
 * Magic Knight: Knights are capable of becoming adept spellcasters, especially once they find casting-friendly armor; their quest artifact, the Magic Mirror of Merlin, also grants double spell damage exclusively to Knights.
 * Master Swordsman: One of three roles that can reach Skilled or better in 5 of the 6 sword-based skill classes.
 * Mounted Combat: The Knight excels most at this among the playable roles, per Lightning Bruiser; they can also mount steeds without decreasing thier tameness.
 * The Paladin: Knights draw from this archetype: they can only be Lawful humans, are expected to follow a moral code to maintain their alignment, and their most ideal forms of offense are especially effective against demons and undead, such as...
 * Turn Undead: In special role ability and spell form!

Monk
"Monks are ascetics, who by rigorous practice of physical and mental disciplines have become capable of fighting as effectively without weapons as with. They wear no armor but make up for it with increased mobility."

- A Guide to the Mazes of Menace: Guidebook for NetHack


 * All Monks Know Kung Fu
 * Bare-Fisted Warrior Monk: The Monk is geared towards fighting unarmed, and gets the most damage out of fighting with their bare (technically gloved) hands among the available roles.
 * It's less powerful than was intended, though - the role is ported directly from SLASH'EM, where the monk also had access to special techniques, and the quest was balanced with this in mind. The result is the quest nemesis, Master Kaen, gaining a reputation as That One Boss.
 * Canon Immigrant: The Monk role was imported from SLASH'EM.
 * Character Alignment: Monks can be any alignment.
 * Enlightenment Superpowers: Of a sort - Monks arr solid spellcasters, and actually exercise wisdom by going hungry. Their quest artifact, the Eyes of the Overworld, also gives them 'astral vision'.
 * Self-Imposed Challenge: The Monk is the most friendly role by design for several conducts - their diet is 'naturally' vegetarian (eating meat incurs a -1 alignment penalty), their proficiency in martial arts is conducive towards weaponless conduct (which only counted wielded weapons), and they can even be used for "foodless" runs (evoking the image of an ascetic survivng only on prayer).
 * Shaolin and Wu Tang: Styled after the former, with a Chinese pantheon.
 * Simple Staff: One of the few weapons they can actually take skill levels in.
 * Useless Useful Spell: Restore ability, their special spell (with the spellbook being their crowning gift) can restore lowered stats... and so can unicorn horns for absolutely no cost in magic power. And unlike the potion, the spell can't restore lost levels. <--In 3.7, the nerf to the unicorn horn's healing ability makes this spell more useful.-->

Priest
"Priests and Priestesses are clerics militant, crusaders advancing the cause of righteousness with arms, armor, and arts thaumaturgic. Their ability to commune with deikties via prayer occasionally extricates them from peril, but can also put them in it."

- A Guide to the Mazes of Menace: Guidebook for NetHack


 * Carry a Big Stick: Priests start the game with a mace. The aklys is also a prime choice of weapon that doubled as a ranged attack.
 * Character Alignment: Priests can be any alignment.
 * Church Militant: Of the "blunt weapons" kind; all edged weapon skills are restricted, but in return the Priest can obtain skilled or better in several bashing weapon classes, such as the club, mace and quarterstaff.
 * Drop the Hammer: One of three roles that can attain Expert in hammer.
 * Detect Magic: Priests have the innate ability to recognize if an item is cursed or blessed.
 * Holy Burns Evil: Priests start with holy water for blessing items (blessed items do some extra damage to undead and demons), and garlic that can be set down to ward off undead, naturally including vampires.
 * Turn Undead: In special role ability and spell form!

Rogue
"Rogues are agile and stealthy thieves, with knowledge of locks, traps, and poisons. Their advantage lies in surprise, which they employ to great advantage."

- A Guide to the Mazes of Menace: Guidebook for NetHack


 * Back Stab: The role's unique skill, which increases damage against fleeing foes. It does not work when Dual Wielding, however.
 * Character Alignment: Rogues are always Chaotic.
 * Dual Wielding: Short swords are among the best offhand weapons for this purpose, and the rogue can attain Expert skill with twoweaponing in general and short swords in particular.
 * Flechette Storm: Capable of dealing absurd "storm" damage with knives, darts, and especially their trademark daggers.
 * Knife Nut: They start with a plentiful stack of daggers, and can attain Expert in both daggers and knives.
 * Lightning Bruiser: Rogues start with exceptional strength befitting that of a thug, and combined with the above projectile-throwing abilities and a solid stack of daggers, anyone within line of sight is good as Swiss cheese.
 * Master Swordsman: One of three roles that can reach Skilled or better in 5 of the 6 sword-based skill classes.
 * Video Game Stealing: Of a sort. Rogues always start the game with a sack, which can be used for credit cloning and stashing unpaid items within for a pet to carry outside of the store (where they "legally" become yours). Unusually, they don't have an actual theft attack, and they're the only chaotic-compatible role to not get an alignment bonus for stealing from shops.
 * What, you want a medal for doin' yer job?

Samurai
"Samurai are the elite warriors of feudal Nippon. They are lightly armored and quick, and wear the dai-sho, two swords of the deadliest keenness."

- A Guide to the Mazes of Menace: Guidebook for NetHack


 * Blade of Fearsome Size: The Tsurugi of Muramasa, the Samurai quest artifact, is a large two-handed tsurugi that can literally cleave many foes in two, instantly killing the victim.
 * Gratuitous Japanese: When playing as a Samurai, the game refers to certain items by Japanese names of varying accuracy, but otherwise treats them the same. The role itself is styled after stereotypical samjrai's honorable service to his lord and country.
 * Heroes Prefer Swords; Samurai always start with a katana and washizaki (the role's name for a short sword); the katana is also an excellent twoweapon choice for the offhand. Their quest artifact, the Tsurugi of Muramasa, can bisect some monstrrs in half.
 * Japanese Mythology: The basis of their pantheon, naturally.
 * Katanas Are Just Better: All samurai start with a katana (otherwise called a samurai sword), and their first sacrifice will always be the artifact katana Snickersnee. Samurai wielding katana can break enemy qeapons with it.
 * Master Swordsman: Samurai are capable of reaching Expert in the most sword-related skill classes at 3.

Tourist
"Tourists start out with lots of gold (suitable for shopping with), a credit card, lots of food, some maps, and an expensive camera. Most monsters don't like being photographed."

- A Guide to the Mazes of Menace: Guidebook for NetHack


 * Discworld: The entire basis of the role, complete with the pantheon, Twoflower acting as the quest leader, and the quest nemesis being the Master of Thieves.
 * Jack of All Trades: Able to attain basic in almost every form of weapon save clubs.
 * Lethal Joke Character/Magikarp Power: The Tourist starts with a stack of throwing darts, a flashy camera, some money, a pile of food, two healing potions, and some scrolls that are most useful in the endgame. All they have in terms of armor is the Hawaiian shirt on their backs and no other starting weapons or spells, and their combat stats are lacking. Shops will vastly overcharge them for the first half of the game, though they still benefit from Charisma bonuses If he survives to the quest, though, his reward is effectively an infinite-use blessed scroll of charging (which also grants magic resistance, super-telepathy, and half damage from enemy magic just by having it in your inventory), which means double or triple the duration of most wands, easy creation of +4 or +5 rings, and infinite uses of most tools (including a food generator, an enemy tamer, and some that mimic offensive wands). And to top it off, your useless starting shirt and scrolls become valuable in the endgame, and the stats that start the highest for them are the hardest ones to increase later on.

Valkyrie
"Valkyries are hardy warrior women. Their upbringing in the harsh Northlands makes them strong, inures them to extremes of cold, and instills in them stealth and cunning."

- A Guide to the Mazes of Menace: Guidebook for NetHack


 * An Ice Person/Kill It with Ice: Valkyries have innate cold resistance, and the cone of cold is their special spell.
 * Drop the Hammer: One of three roles that can attain Expert in hammer. Mjolnir is also their first guaranteed sacrifice gift.
 * Norse Mythology: But of course. The Norn is their quest leader, their nemesis is Lord Surtur, and their pantheon consists of Tyr, Odin and Loki.

Wizard
"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."

- A Guide to the Mazes of Menace: Guidebook for NetHack


 * Magic Missile: Their special spell, and easily the most damaging spell in the game in their hands.
 * Robe and Wizard Hat: The starting cloak of magic resistance acts as the former (though you can still find a "proper" robe), and the latter appears as a "cornuthaum", an item that only Wizards benefit from wearing.
 * Weak but Skilled: Wizards that can get around their low combat prowess and lack of armor in the early game can gain access to destructively powerful magic.

=Character Alignment= The game allows player characters to be one of three alignments: Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic. There is no good/neutral/evil axis as such: the game instead tracks players' "alignment record", which in essence is an indicator of one's standing with their respective god. Despite Nearly Everything Trying to Kill You, monsters also have alignment ratings that determine many things, such as the type of nasties an Enemy Summoner can produce and which monsters can potentially spawn as peaceful towards you. the only unambiguously evil characters by this standard are "unaligned" monsters and their servants; the rest is very much a matter of perspective.

While the gods themselves and their pantheons are fairly interchangeable in terms of gameplay, each alignment's god has their own expected code of conduct from the player, albeit a fairly loose one.

Lawful

 * Holy Burns Evil: Inverted; lawful characters take damage if they quaff unholy water, and restore HP if they quaff holy water.
 * Light Is Good: Sacrifices from lawful characters disappear in flashes of light instead of a burst of flame, serving as an unintentional Bowdlerisation of sorts.
 * Sunsword is a lawful long sword that doubles as a light source and deals bonus damage against undead.

Chaotic
The chaotic alignment is as close to "evil" as a player can get in the base game, but is ultimately not portrayed as such - at least not explicitly; they are still expected to be nominally good, or at least not too chaotic. Player character humans can be chaotic aligned, and player orcs and elves are exclusively chaotic.


 * Always Chaotic Evil: Subverted due to the player character potentially being chaotic; as mentioned before, "unaligned" monsters are most likely to fit that bill, though chaotic players and monsters do still exhibit many characteristics consistent with this trope, as shown below.
 * Even Chaotics Have Standards: The chaotic gods and many of their servants still oppose the Wizard of Yendor and Moloch on principle.
 * Chaotic characters also have the loosest set of alignment standards, but are still expected to behave, even if only out of sheer pragmatism (e.g. they don't get penalized for murder, but can still lose a lot of alignment from indiscriminately killing peacefuls).
 * Evil Feels Good: Chaotic player characters are the only ones allowed (if not encouraged!) to perform same-race sacrifice, and gain alignment and possibly even Luck from it.
 * Holy Burns Evil: Chaotic characters take damage if they quaff holy water, and restore HP if they quaff unholy water.
 * All forms of undead, all werecreatures and a majority of demons have a chaotic monster alignment. Demons and undead specifically take bonus damage from being hit with blessed weapons; all demons, werecreatures and vampires are weak to silver.

Unaligned
In NetHack, "unaligned" only occurs in one of two contexts:


 * 1) Non-aligned, referring to an artifact with no particular alignment bias, or
 * 2) The "unaligned" monster alignment, which is only attributed to Moloch, his priests and the Wizard of Yendor. In practice, this marks them as unambiguously Chaotic Evil, since almost all unaligned entities serve as antagonists.


 * Always Chaotic Evil: The only exception among unaligned beings is the priest of Moloch in the Valley of the Dead, who functions like any other 'aligned' priest.