Nessos

Version 0.14: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Nessos c
HP	72
HD	9
XP	956
Speed	15
AC	4
EV	8
Will	36
Attack1	16 (hit: plain)
Resistances	None
Vulnerabilities	None
Habitat	Land
Intelligence	Normal
Uses	Weapons & armour Starting equipment Open doors
Holiness	Natural
Size	Large
Type	centaur, centaur
Flags	Actual spells Speaks Spellcaster Unique Warm-blooded

A centaur warrior, skilled at warfare and deceit. He slew a mighty hydra, and now its deadly blood drips, still-fuming, from his arrows.

For a list of all centaurs, see list of centaurs.

Useful Info

Nessos is a unique centaur warrior generated with a longbow of flame, poisoned arrows and a centaur barding. He is also the only being in the game capable of firing arrows of poisoned flame; it's not a property of his longbow but his own special ability, so his longbow won't do the same for you if you get it.

Location

• The Dungeon:11-17
• The Orcish Mines:3-4
• The Elven Halls:1-2
• The Swamp:1-2
• The Snake Pit:1-2
• The Shoals:1-2
• The Spider's Nest:1-2
• The Vaults:1

Spells

Spell set
Slot1	none
Slot2	Blink Range
Slot3	Haste
Slot4	none
Slot5	none
Slot6	none

Tips & Tricks

• Nessos is an incredibly dangerous opponent who can haste himself and pelt you from afar while you try to catch up with him. It's possible to kill him with ranged attacks if you have enough power behind them, but fighting him at range is incredibly risky at best.
• Going berserk is not recommended, as he'll just Blink away from you and fill you with arrows as your berserk runs out. Other buffs, such as a Haste of your own, still work fine.
• rPois and rF+++ will reduce his damage output from brutal to simply dangerous, and Repel Missiles or Deflect Missiles can help further.
• He doesn't have that much HP, so if you can lure him around a corner he can be defeated almost safely. You may have to lure him multiple times, as he'll keep blinking away from you.
• Nessos only has 9 HD and average magic resistance, so Mephitic Cloud and various Hexes work well.

Trivia

Nessos is a reference to Nessus, an evil centaur that Heracles killed with a hydra-poisoned arrow after it attempted to rape his wife. It managed to kill Heracles in the process, however, by convincing his wife that Nessus' now-corrosive blood would make Heracles forever faithful to her if she would spread it on his clothing.