Helm of telepathy
[  [  [  [  helm of telepathy | |
|---|---|
| Appearance | random |
| Slot | helm |
| AC | 1 |
| Special | |
| Base price | 50 zm |
| Weight | 50 |
| Material | iron |
The helm of telepathy is a type of magical helm that appears in NetHack. It has a randomized appearance,
Contents
Generation
Player monster healers and priests have a chance of their initial helm being replaced with a helm of telepathy.[1][2]
Description
When worn, the helm grants 1 AC and extrinsic telepathy, but does not auto-identify. Despite being a mind-enhancing helmet, it has the same adverse effects on spellcasting as most other metal helms.
Strategy
Extrinsic telepathy is not essential for an ascension kit and usually not worth spending a wish on, but it is still a useful property to have. With this in mind, the helm of telepathy is usually superseded for this purpose by quest artifacts such as The Platinum Yendorian Express Card or The Eye of the Aethiopica.
A non-chaotic character may consider wearing this helm in some unusual cases where they intend to murder peaceful humans such as shopkeepers or priests, depending on how much easier it is for them to recover Luck and alignment record than intrinsic telepathy.
Identification
The helm of telepathy has the same base price of 50zm as the other two randomized magical helms, the helm of brilliance and the helm of opposite alignment.
While wearing the helm does not auto-ID it, its effect may become obvious after a short while if you are not blind, and you can confirm if a freshly-worn helm is telepathy by far looking the next monster that becomes visible to you. If it is not mindless, and you have no other source of extrinsic telepathy such as an amulet of ESP, then your helm is a helm of telepathy. Long durations of intrinsic monster detection may interfere with this, though far looking monsters will still make clear what methods they are being seen through.
History
The helm of telepathy first appears in NetHack 3.0.0.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, upgrading an dwarvish iron helm will turn it into either a helm of telepathy or a helm of brilliance.
The Crown of Saint Edward is an artifact helm of telepathy that serves as the Yeoman quest artifact, and also provides magic resistance and half spell damage. It is possible to informally identify a helm of telepathy by attempting to name a magical helm "The Crown of Saint Edward" and seeing if it succeeds.
Grund's Stronghold has a 1⁄3 chance of a blessed helm of telepathy generating in a chest within a hidden area in the level's southwest corner.
SporkHack
In SporkHack, it is possible for the helm of telepathy to have the randomized appearance of a tin foil hat - tin foil hats protect you from the psychic blasts employed by mind flayers but block telepathy, including the helm's own telepathy should this occur.
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, using a furnace to combine a plain helmet and an amulet of ESP produces a helm of telepathy.
