Nessos

Version 0.17: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

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

Nessos c
HP	47-96
HD	9
XP	1325
Speed	15
AC	8
EV	7
Will	20
Attack1	13 (hit: plain)
Attack2	5 (kick: plain)
Resistances	None
Vulnerabilities	None
Habitat	Land
Intelligence	Human
Uses	Weapons & armour Starting equipment Open doors
Holiness	Natural
Size	Large
Type	centaur, centaur
Flags	Archer Speaks Warm-blooded Unique

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

Useful Info

Nessos the Markscentaur 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:12-15
• The Orcish Mines:3-4
• The Lair:5-8

Spells

Spell set I
Slot1	Blink Range	Wizard flag
Slot2	Haste	Wizard flag

Tips & Tricks

• With fire and poison resistance, Nessos is an annoying foe to pin down, but not terribly dangerous, especially once he runs out of arrows. Without those resistances, however, he is an incredibly dangerous opponent, especially once he hastes himself. Consider quaffing a potion of resistance here if necessary, and Repel Missiles certainly doesn't hurt.
• 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.
• His threat level shrinks dramatically if you force him into melee range. Hiding around a corner or, better yet, digging a 1-tile kill hole with a wand of disintegration will take away his entire movement advantage.
• Nessos only has 9 HD and average magic resistance, so Mephitic Cloud and various Hexes work well.
• Reflection can be very useful as 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.