Nessos

Version 0.28: 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	1046
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 Gender neutral

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 barding. They are also the only being in the game capable of firing arrows of poisoned flame; it's their own special ability, so their longbow won't do the same for you if you get it.

Location

The Dungeon:12-15
The Orcish Mines:2
The Lair:4-6

Spells

Tile	Name	Damage	Range	Flags
	Blink Range	—	—	Wizard flag
	Haste	—	—	Wizard flag

Tips & Tricks

With fire and poison resistance, Nessos is an annoying foe to pin down, but not terribly dangerous, especially once they run out of arrows. Without those resistances, however, this is an incredibly dangerous opponent, especially when hasted. Consider quaffing a potion of resistance here.
Going berserk is not recommended, as Nessos will 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.
Nessos's threat level shrinks dramatically if you force them into melee range. Hiding around a corner or, better yet, ducking into a kill hole will take away their entire movement advantage.
Nessos only has 9 HD and low willpower, so Mephitic Cloud and various Hexes work well. A wand of polymorph in particular will make them drop their deadly bow.
Having some form of Repel Missiles and/or Reflection can be very useful here.

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.

History

Nessos was male before version 0.24.