Which class should I (not) play? ================================== by Joshua John Buergel (jbbb+@andrew.cmu.edu). Picking the right character and playing the character in an appropriate way is one of the best ways to make Nethack easier on a character just starting out. So, to this end, here is my view of the characters and how easy they are to play as well as how to play them. ARCHAEOLOGISTS: Archaeologists are somewhat difficult to play given their starting statistics and their starting equipment. Starting with intrinsic speed allows them to choose their battle much of the time, which means that "hit and run" tactics are often successful. The ability to distinguish valuable gems from glass is also very useful in the Gnomish mines. Archaeologists are lawful, meaning it is often difficult to obtain a good artifact from altars, since there are so many useless lawful artifacts. Being lawful becomes an advantage in the mines, however, since dwarves will often be peaceful. ADVANTAGES: The ability to identify gems, starting with a pick-axe, starting with speed and stealth, starting with a tinning kit, very good intelligence and wisdom. DISADVANTAGES: Very poor starting armour (the fedora is useless, ditch it), poor starting weapon, poor physical characteristics. DIFFICULTY: Moderate. BARBARIANS: The barbarian is among the best classes to begin playing with. They have very good physical characteristics and start with a good weapon, meaning that they can often be played in a classic "hack and slash" style successfully. In addition, they start with poison resistance, meaning that a starting hacker can eat everything in sight and determine what is good to eat and what is not. My first ascensions in both 3.0j and 3.1 were barbarians. They are neutral, meaning there are a plethora of good weapons available by sacrificing at an altar. ADVANTAGES: Very good physical statistics, good weapon, poison resistance. DISADVANTAGES: Poor mental characteristics, poor armour. DIFFICULTY: Low. CAVEMEN: The poor man's barbarian, this character is for someone who enjoys the same straightforward style that barbarians encourage, but wants a challenge. Cavemen have no real useful intrinsics to speak of and start with crummy armour and a crummy weapon, although the bow can be useful. The one change in style over the barbarian is that it is often useful for a caveman to hang back and use his bow on incoming monsters. The caveman is lawful. ADVANTAGES: Good physical characteristics. DISADVANTAGES: Poor mental characteristics, poor armour, poor hand to hand weapon. DIFFICULTY: Moderate to high. ELVES: Elves start with a real boatload of intrinsics, making them another decent choice as a starting character, although I've never favored them. Having speed and a bow enables elves to deal death from afar, and also enables them to hit and run. Decent physical characteristics as well as decent starting equipment also means that they are okay in hand to hand fighting. Elves are among the most balanced characters to start with, and are a good choice for starting players. Having sleep resistance also nullifies the threat of gnomes with wands of sleep. Since they are chaotic, there are only a few artifacts available, and some are useless. ADVANTAGES: Good equipment, good intrinsics, good characteristics. DISADVANTAGES: None, really. DIFFICULTY: Low. HEALERS: Healers are very poor fighters to begin with, starting out with only gloves for armour and a scalpel for a weapon. However, healers start with four potions of healing and four potions of extra healing (which can start out blessed), meaning they begin the game with at least 25 hit points if they quaff all their potions at the very start. In addition, they have high constitution and blessed spellbooks of healing and extra healing, meaning they will gain lots of hit points from levels and can also keep their hit points up. If they can find decent armour and a decent weapon, healers can become fairly powerful. They are neutral, meaning there are lots of good artifacts available, and they also begin with poison resistance, which is very helpful. ADVANTAGES: Lots of hit points, good constitution, poison resistance. DISADVANTAGES: Poor weapons and poor armour, poor strength. DIFFICULTY: Moderate. KNIGHTS: My friend says the following about Knights: "Nature abhors a vacuum, which explains why knights die so much, since knights SUCK!" A sentiment I concur with. Knights appear, on the surface, to be relatively powerful, since they start out with good weaponry and good armour. That, however, is the extent of their advantages. They have mediocre physical characteristics although their wisdom and charisma are very high. They have no useful intrinsics, although they can jump in a chessboard pattern. They also have a goofy code of conduct meaning they can often lose luck from stuff like killing sleeping monsters. They can obtain Excalibur reasonably easily, but that is often not enough to save them. By the way, any lawful character above level 4 can gain Excalibur, but not as easily as a knight (they have better chances). ADVANTAGES: Good weapons, good armour, Excalibur. DISADVANTAGES: Mediocre statistics, no useful intrinsics, code of conduct, no equipment. DIFFICULTY: Moderate to high. PRIESTS: The foremost ability of the priest is that of identifying the blessed/uncursed/cursed status of all items they run across. They are also capable fighters in hand to hand combat, starting out with decent equipment. Having holy water to begin with is also a useful trait, as well as starting with two spellbooks. Priests have decent statistics and can be any alignment. They are a good choice to begin with since the ability to identify cursed items avoids a lot of trouble. ADVANTAGES: Identification of blessed/uncursed/cursed status, holy water, decent equipment, decent statistics. DISADVANTAGES: No real useful intrinsics. DIFFICULTY: Low to moderate. ROGUES: Rogues are interesting characters to play. They are best played with a very hit and run style, as they are not the most capable of fighters to begin with. High dexterity, however, means that if they obtain a good weapon they can be deadly fighters. They start out with decent equipment and speed and stealth. They are chaotic, meaning Stormbringer or bust. ADVANTAGES: Good dexterity, good intrinsics, decent equipment. DISADVANTAGES: Poor armour and weapon. DIFFICULTY: Moderate. SAMURAI: Samurai are basically oriental barbarians. They have very good starting armour (splint mail), very good weaponry (a katana, wakizashi AND a bow) and very good statistics. They have no real useful intrinsics, but are very powerful and capable fighters and are an excellent choice for beginning players. They should be played with a very straightforward, pound-them-until-they-stop-moving style. ADVANTAGES: Very good equipment and statistics. DISADVANTAGES: No useful intrinsics. DIFFICULTY: Low TOURISTS: Tourists are the most difficult of the bunch to play. Very poor weapons, no armour (a Hawaiian shirt confers no armour bonus to begin with), no intrinsics and pathetic statistics. The key to playing a tourist is to always open a combat with a flash from your camera, and to also use it to run away. This is their only saving grace. If you choose to play a tourist, you will die a lot. ADVANTAGES: A camera. The Quest artifact (the Platinum Yendorian Express Card. DISADVANTAGES: Everything else. DIFFICULTY: High VALKYRIES: Valkyries are extremely easy to begin playing with, since they are very good fighters with a good weapon and good armour. At first glace, their armour appear to be somewhat poor since they only have a +3 small shield. However, the addition of even something like chain mail (plentiful in the dungeon), an orcish helm and hard shoes gives them a surprisingly low armour class. Valkyries often gain hit points like gangbusters, and start with cold resistance which comes in handy. I've played two valkyries in my life: one had 450 hit points when she died eight times in a row and would have ascended but for lack of candles (the lighting shop was infested with mimics and only had four candles), the other got to level fifteen before dying. Another important advantage is that not only are they neutral but they will always gain Mjollnir first from altars, and if they have a strength of 25, they can throw Mjollnir and have it return. My pick for best starting character after the barbarian. ADVANTAGES: Good equipment, good weapon, great statistics, cold resistance, Mjollnir DISADVANTAGES: None DIFFICULTY: Low WIZARDS: Wizards have very poor physical characteristics, poor armour and a poor weapon, making them the worst fighter after the tourist. However, they have good mental characteristics and start with a raft of stuff which can often be very useful. They also have an athame, which can engrave Elbereth without ever dulling. Magic resistance, conferred by their cloak, comes in very handy at times, meaning no polymorph traps will ruin their game. Wizards should play very cautiously, engraving Elbereth very liberally in order to rest and gain hit points. ADVANTAGES: Elbereth, good mental characteristics, magic resistance, equipment, equipment, equipment. DISADVANTAGES: Poor weapon, poor armour, poor physical characteristics. DIFFICULTY: Low to high, depending on their starting equipment.