# Master of Thieves

@ Master of Thieves 

Difficulty

24

Attacks

Weapon 2d6, weapon 2d6, claw quest-artifact-stealing 2d4

@ Master of Thieves 

Difficulty

24

Attacks

Weapon 2d6, weapon 2d6, claw quest-artifact-stealing 2d4

Base level

20

Base experience

588

Speed

12

Base AC

0

Base MR

30

Alignment

−20 (chaotic)

Frequency (by normal means)

Unique

Genocidable

No

Weight

1450

Nutritional value

400

Size

Medium

Resistances

stoning

Resistances conveyed

None

The Master of Thieves:

 has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso.

 is omnivorous.

 is not a valid polymorphable form.

 is a human.

 is male.

 is strong.

 likes gold.
 likes gems.
 can pick up weapons and food.
 can pick up magical items.

 lets you close unless attacked.

 can be seen through infravision.

To a Rogue player, the Master of Thieves also:

 is normally generated peaceful.

To a Tourist player, the Master of Thieves also:

 is normally generated hostile.

 can follow you to other levels.
 is nasty.

 wants your quest artifact.
 waits for you to come.

Reference

monst.c#line3141

The Master of Thieves, @, is the Rogue quest leader. He is also the Tourist quest nemesis.
Interestingly, since he pulls double duty as quest nemesis and quest leader, he resists stoning and can also steal the Master Key of Thievery (or any other covetable artifact) from a Rogue, though this will not occur in a normal game.[1]

Strategy

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
The Master of Thieves, along with other quest leaders, has been made significantly stronger, since killing quest leaders no longer makes the game unwinnable.  This also means that he is stronger as the Tourist quest nemesis.  See this commit.
The changed stats are as follows:
Speed becomes 15 (from 12); MR becomes 90 (from 30); first attack becomes 4d10 (from 2d6).
The Master of Thieves also starts with a +5 leather armor, a +4 silver dagger, and 2d4 non-cursed +2 daggers when generated as the Rogue quest leader.

As the quest nemesis of Tourists, the Master of Thieves is little trouble at all for a player who is strong enough to fight through the crowds of soldiers that defend his lair. The most important thing to note is that he will pick up the Platinum Yendorian Express Card as soon as the player disturbs him, and will therefore have magic resistance—death rays and so forth will not hurt him.
This is scarcely a problem, as he is relatively unimpressive in melee and lacks special attacks, beyond being able to steal the PYEC back from you if you get it before killing him. He also lacks any other resistances - if you have any darts (e.g. your starting stack of +2 darts) or other projectiles on hand, you should poison them with a potion of sickness; a flurry of poisoned projectiles fired with a sufficient skill level will drop him quickly and possibly even instakill him.

Encyclopaedia entry

There was a flutter of wings at the window.  Ymor shifted his bulk out of the chair and crossed the room, coming back with a large raven.  After he'd unfastened the message capsule from its leg it flew up to join its fellows lurking among the rafters.  Withel regarded it without love.  Ymor's ravens were notoriously loyal to their master, to the extent that Withel's one attempt to promote himself to the rank of greatest thief in Ankh-Morpork had cost their master's right hand man his left eye.  But not his life, however.  Ymor never grudged a man his ambitions.
[ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]

 

References

↑ The only way to even set up such a scenario would be to kill him in one hit (e.g. with a wand of death), thus preventing him from immediately expelling you from the quest branch. If he then leaves a corpse, you can remove it and revive it if you really want to see him steal the Key.