Crowning

👉 Crowning is a unique, one-time event in GnollHack where a deity blesses an exceptionally faithful and lucky character, granting them a special title, a suite of permanent intrinsics, a powerful gift and an extra weapon skill slot.

Crowning Requirements

To be crowned by their deity, a character must satisfy the following absolute prerequisites during prayer:

  • Maximum Alignment: The character's alignment record must be exactly 20 (Pious status).
  • Not Yet Crowned: Crowning is a one-time event per character.

  • High Luck: Luck must be at least +10 (or +6 if the player already possesses all other intrinsic divine gifts: Telepathy, Speed, Stealth, and maximum divine protection). The game determines the favor received by generating a random number according to the formula:

    $$ \text{Result} = \text{random}\left(0, \lfloor \frac{\text{Luck} + 6}{2} \rfloor - 1\right) $$

    If the result is 7 or 8 (or 5 if all other gifts are maxed), the character is crowned.

Crowning Chances

The probability of being crowned depends heavily on whether the character has any troubles (such as being hungry, low on health, or afflicted with status conditions) when praying.

Scenario 1: Character has NO troubles

If the character prays while completely healthy and unburdened by problems, they bypass the deity's troubleshooting logic entirely. In this scenario, an altar is not required, and the character has the highest possible chance of being crowned:

Luck Base Chance Chance (All Gifts Maxed)*
+13 22.2% 33.3%
+12 22.2% 33.3%
+11 12.5% 25.0%
+10 12.5% 25.0%
+9 0% 14.3%
+8 0% 14.3%
+7 0% 16.7%
+6 0% 16.7%
≤ +5 0% 0%

* The character already possesses intrinsic Telepathy, Speed, Stealth, and maximum divine protection.

ℹ️ Note: The probability of crowning with all gifts maxed paradoxically drops when your Luck increases from +7 to +8 (from 16.7% down to 14.3%). This is a quirk of the game's internal random number generator logic.

Scenario 2: Character HAS troubles

If the character has troubles (e.g., they are wounded or hungry), praying will typically just fix those troubles. To have a chance at crowning while having troubles, the character must be on a co-aligned altar. Praying without an altar when in trouble has a 0% chance of crowning.

Being on an altar inside a temple (a shrine) slightly increases the odds over a non-temple altar.

Luck Base Chance (Altar) Base Chance (Shrine) Chance (All Gifts Maxed)* (Altar) Chance (All Gifts Maxed)* (Shrine)
+13 16.7% 17.0% 25.0% 25.5%
+12 16.3% 16.7% 24.4% 25.0%
+11 8.9% 9.2% 17.9% 18.3%
+10 8.7% 8.9% 17.3% 17.9%
+9 0% 0% 9.5% 9.9%
+8 0% 0% 9.1% 9.5%
+7 0% 0% 10.0% 10.6%
+6 0% 0% 9.3% 10.0%
≤ +5 0% 0% 0% 0%

* The character already possesses intrinsic Telepathy, Speed, Stealth, and maximum divine protection.

ℹ️ Note: The probability of crowning with all gifts maxed paradoxically drops when your Luck increases from +7 to +8 (e.g., from 10.6% down to 9.5% on a shrine). This is a quirk of the game's internal random number generator logic.

Intrinsics Granted

Crowning permanently grants the character the following intrinsics (acquired via divine favor):

  • See invisible
  • Fire resistance (Weak, 50%)
  • Cold resistance (Weak, 50%)
  • Shock resistance (Weak, 50%)
  • Poison resistance
  • Sleep resistance
  • Death resistance
  • Lycanthropy resistance
  • Fear resistance

Additional Side Effects

  • Skill Credit: Grants 1 extra weapon skill slot/credit.
  • Weapon Skill Unrestriction: Unrestricts the weapon skill of the gifted weapon.
  • ⚠️ Permanent Prayer Timeout Increase: As a negative side effect, the crowning increases subsequent prayer timeouts significantly, by a random amount of up to 1000 turns (500 turns for Priests).

Crowning Titles

Crowned characters receive a special title depending on their alignment:

  • Lawful: The Hand of Elbereth
  • Neutral: The Envoy of Balance
  • Chaotic: The Glory of Arioch

Crowning Gifts by Role

Archaeologist

  • Sickness resistance (intrinsic, helpful against mummy rot).
  • Lawful or Neutral: The Holy Grail (if it does not exist yet).

Barbarian, Caveman, Healer, Ranger, Rogue, Samurai

  • Lawful:
    • If the character is wielding The Katana of Masamune, it is blessed and its enchantment is increased by +1 to +3.
    • Otherwise, if The Katana of Masamune does not exist yet, they are gifted it.
    • Otherwise, if the character is wielding a non-artifact long sword with a base value of less than 2000, it is transformed into Excalibur (provided it does not exist yet).
    • Otherwise, they are gifted a blessed, erodeproof, +2 to +5 Celestial silver long sword (or standard long sword if the character's race is silver-hating) with a fire enchantment and a random mythic prefix and suffix.
    • Unrestricts the Sword skill.
  • Neutral:
    • If the character is wielding Vorpal Blade, it is blessed and its enchantment is increased by +1 to +3.
    • Otherwise, if Vorpal Blade does not exist yet, they are gifted it.
    • Otherwise, they are gifted a blessed, erodeproof, +2 to +5 Primordial long sword with a random mythic prefix and suffix.
    • Unrestricts the Sword skill.
  • Chaotic:
    • If the character is wielding their chaotic crowning gift artifact, it is blessed and its enchantment is increased by +1 to +3.
    • Otherwise, they are gifted their chaotic crowning gift artifact (if it does not exist yet). The gift is:
    • Otherwise, if the chosen artifact already exists, they are gifted a blessed, erodeproof, +2 to +5 Infernal long sword with a random mythic prefix and suffix.
    • Unrestricts the relevant weapon skill (Flail or Sword) and Dual wielding if the gift is Stormbringer or Mournblade.

Knight

Monk

Priest

Gifted a Golden chest containing alignment-themed gear:

Tourist

Gifted a tame Giant Luggage (summoned in a puff of smoke, if pets are allowed and Giant Luggage is not extinct) carrying:

  • Blessed Eyeglasses of X-ray vision (or Ring of X-ray vision if the player already carries eyeglasses; if they carry either, it is blessed instead).
  • Blessed Speed boots (or Gloves of haste if they already carry speed boots; if they carry either, they are blessed, enchanted by +1 to +3, and upgraded to Elite quality).
  • Blessed Wings of flying (if not carrying them; otherwise blessed).
  • Blessed Robe of eyes (if they got fewer than 3 of the above items in the luggage due to already carrying them).
  • 20 blessed, erodeproof, lightning-enchanted darts (+3 to +5) of alignment-themed quality (Celestial for Lawful, Primordial for Neutral, Infernal for Chaotic, Elite otherwise).

Valkyrie

Gifted a blessed, erodeproof, +2 to +5 weapon (a Dwarvish Axe if they are a Dwarf, or a Long Sword otherwise) with customized attributes:

  • Lawful: Celestial quality, silver material (for long sword, if not silver-hating) or mithril (for Dwarvish axe), fire-enchanted, with mythic prefix Asgardian and suffix Giant Slaying.
  • Neutral: Primordial quality, lightning-enchanted, with mythic prefix Asgardian and suffix Giant Slaying.
  • Chaotic: Infernal quality, cold-enchanted, with mythic prefix Jotunheimian.
  • Unrestricts Axe skill (if dwarf) or Sword skill (if non-dwarf).
  • Gifted a tame, saddled Pegasus (if pets are allowed).

Wizard

Gifted a Golden chest containing:

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