Dunce cap
[ dunce cap 
| |
|---|---|
| Appearance | conical hat |
| Slot | helm |
| AC | 0 |
| Special |
|
| Base price | 1 zm |
| Weight | 4 |
| Material | cloth |
The dunce cap is a magical item that appears in NetHack. When unidentified, it appears as a conical hat.
Description
When worn, the dunce cap fixes your intelligence and wisdom to 6 and autocurses (even if originally blessed); this will autoidentify the dunce cap. Dunce caps also prevent any change to your intelligence or wisdom while worn, akin to a ring of sustain ability.[1] Removing the cap will restore your intelligence and wisdom to their original values.
As a helm, dunce caps block the mind flayer's brain-eating attack, but not its amnesia attack.
Shopping while wearing a dunce cap will cause the shopkeeper to add an additional 1/3 markup to the price of each item when buying,[2], and only give you 1/3 of the base price when selling items.[3]. This is also the penalty for being a low-level Tourist or having a visible shirt; these penalties are not cumulative.
Identification
As the dunce cap and the cornuthaum are both conical hats, picking up and wearing a conical hat at random is a Bad Idea. They can easily be distinguished by price, with the dunce cap having a base cost of only 1 zorkmid.
The dunce cap is generally not a good piece of armor, and any other helm is better for protection against mind flayers. As the cornuthaum is only useful for wizards or pets, non-wizards can freely ignore unidentified conical hats and completely avoid the risk of donning a dunce cap. Its best use is as fodder for polypiling into other magical armor.
Messages
- Your cap constricts briefly, then relaxes again.
- Your wisdom or intelligence would have changed, but a worn dunce cap prevented this.
Origin
The dunce cap is a conical paper hat with the word "dunce" or just a "D" written on it. It was a form of punishment used in schools in the English-speaking world, where a student seen as misbehaving, stupid or lazy was made to wear it in front of the classroom for a set amount of time.
The notion of a thinking hat may derive from ceremonial conical hats or even true thinking hats - in this context, the dunce cap is an "anti-thinking cap". The cornuthaum is the more stereotypical "thinking hat" for wizards.
Encyclopedia entry
A dunce cap, also variously known as a dunce hat, dunce's
cap, or dunce's hat, is a tall conical hat. In popular
culture, it is typically made of paper and often marked with
a D, and given to schoolchildren to wear as punishment for
being stupid or lazy. While this is now a rare practice,
it is frequently depicted in popular culture such as
children's cartoons.
