The hero is you, the player. Your character is represented by the @ symbol. There are also other characters represented by an @, such as your quest leader and the oracle, and if the showrace option is turned on, your symbol will instead be that of your race.
The player character can be any one of the archeologist, barbarian, cave[wo]man, healer, knight, monk, priest[ess], ranger, rogue, samurai, tourist, valkyrie, or wizard roles. They each have varing difficulties, strengths, weaknesses, quests and starting items.
The player can also choose from the five races: human, elf, dwarf, gnome, or orc, and the three alignments: lawful, neutral or chaotic. The available races and alignments are dependent on the class one picks. The following table lists all possible combinations:
| Arc | Bar | Cav | Hea | Kni | Mon | Pri | Ran | Rog | Sam | Tou | Val | Wiz | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| L | N | C | L | N | C | L | N | C | L | N | C | L | N | C | L | N | C | L | N | C | L | N | C | L | N | C | L | N | C | L | N | C | L | N | C | L | N | C | |
| Human | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | ||||||||||||||||
| Elf | * | * | * | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dwarf | * | * | * | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gnome | * | * | * | * | * | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Orc | * | * | * | * | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
One should bear in mind that the choice of role (and to a lesser extent, race and alignment) has a dramatic effect on the style of play. Although in the late game, the characters can be played almost the same way (with a few exceptions), during the early game it is crucial that one utilizes the varying abilities of each of the roles and/or races. For example, running up and bashing a monster as a wizard would likely result in YASD, and reading unidentified spellbooks as a valkyrie or samurai could lead to paralyzation and death by a newt.
Special names
Your name is up to you, but some special names have a few minor effects on the game:
| Name | Effect |
|---|---|
|
Croesus |
You can truthfully claim your name is one of these to a vault guard (lying carries a -1 alignment penalty if lawful). |
| Maud | A scroll of amnesia will give a slightly different message |
Shopkeepers in bones files remember the name of the character that angered them. If you have the same name, they'll be angry at you too.
"Elbereth" on headstones is ignored precisely to deal with the case of a player naming themselves such.