👉 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
| Effect | Description |
|---|---|
| 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 a Priest). |
👑 Crowning Titles
Crowned characters receive a special title depending on their alignment:
| Alignment | Title |
|---|---|
| Lawful | The Hand of Elbereth |
| Neutral | The Envoy of Balance |
| Chaotic | The Glory of Arioch |
✨ Crowning Gifts by Role
🏺 Archaeologist
| Alignment | Gift |
|---|---|
| All | 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
ℹ️ Note: The Caveman also receives a tame, saddled Tyrannosaurus rex (if pets are allowed), regardless of alignment.
| Alignment | Gift Logic (in order of priority) | Unrestricted Skill(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Lawful | 1. Bless/enchant wielded The Katana of Masamune 2. Gift The Katana of Masamune 3. Transform wielded long sword to Excalibur 4. Gift Celestial silver long sword (+2 to +5, fire, mythic) |
Sword |
| Neutral | 1. Bless/enchant wielded Vorpal Blade 2. Gift Vorpal Blade 3. Gift Primordial long sword (+2 to +5, mythic) |
Sword |
| Chaotic | 1. Bless/enchant wielded chaotic artifact 2. Gift chaotic artifact (Howling Flail for Gnolls; Stormbringer or Mournblade for others) 3. Gift Infernal long sword (+2 to +5, mythic) |
Flail or Sword, and Dual wielding (if Stormbringer/Mournblade) |
🛡️ Knight
| Alignment | Artifact Gift | Steed Gift | Unrestricted Skill |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lawful | 1. Rhongomyniad 2. The Holy Grail |
Tame, saddled Ki-rin | Thrusting weapon |
| Neutral | - | Tame, saddled Roc | - |
| Chaotic | - | Tame, saddled Gorgon | - |
🥋 Monk
| Primary Gift | Fallback Gift (if primary already exists) |
|---|---|
| The Gauntlets of Yin and Yang | Belt of storm giant strength (or Belt of fortitude) |
⛪ Priest
Gifted a Golden chest containing alignment-themed gear:
| Alignment | Contents of Golden chest |
|---|---|
| Lawful | • Gown of the Archbishops • Mace of Banishment • Spellbook of Obliterate • Spellbook of Holy Word • 1 random spellbook (Summon Gold Dragon, Divine Mount, or Heavenly Army) |
| Neutral | • Robe of Magic Resistance • Staff of Life • Bracers of Reflection • Spellbook of Gaze of Petrification • Spellbook of Stick to Boa • Spellbook of Summon Elder Treant |
| Chaotic | • Robe of Magic Resistance • Mace of the Witch-King • Ring of the Serpent God • Spellbook of Finger of Death • Spellbook of Create Dracolich (or Create Elder Dracolich) • Spellbook of Greater Undeath Replenishment |
📸 Tourist
Gifted a tame Giant Luggage (summoned in a puff of smoke, if pets are allowed and Giant Luggage is not extinct) carrying:
| Item Category | Primary Gift | Fallback Gift |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Blessed Eyeglasses of X-ray vision | Blessed Ring of X-ray vision |
| Speed | Blessed Speed boots | Blessed, +1 to +3 Elite Gloves of haste |
| Flight | Blessed Wings of flying | - |
| Cloak | Blessed Robe of eyes (if fewer than 3 of the above items received) | - |
| Weapon | 20 alignment-themed, lightning-enchanted Darts (+3 to +5) | - |
⚡ 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:
| Alignment | Weapon Gift | Steed Gift | Unrestricted Skill |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lawful | Celestial silver/mithril weapon (fire, Asgardian, Giant Slaying) | Tame, saddled Pegasus | Axe (Dwarf) or Sword (Non-dwarf) |
| Neutral | Primordial weapon (lightning, Asgardian, Giant Slaying) | Tame, saddled Pegasus | Axe (Dwarf) or Sword (Non-dwarf) |
| Chaotic | Infernal weapon (cold, Jotunheimian) | Tame, saddled Pegasus | Axe (Dwarf) or Sword (Non-dwarf) |
🪄 Wizard
Gifted a Golden chest containing:
- Robe of the Archmagi (blessed, +1 to +3, erodeproof)
- Staff of the Magi (blessed, +1 to +3, erodeproof)
- Blessed Magic Marker
- Spellbook of Greater Magic Missile (if not already known)
- Spellbook of Wish (if not already known)
- One random high-level spellbook (if not all are already known) from: Spellbook of Power Word Kill, Spellbook of Black Blade of Disaster, or Spellbook of Time Stop.