Scroll of enchant weapon

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? Scroll.png
Name enchant weapon
Appearance random
Base price 60 zm
Weight 5
Ink to write 8-15
Monster use Will not be used by monsters.

The scroll of enchant weapon allows you to increase (if non-cursed) or decrease (if cursed) the enchantment of your currently-wielded weapon. This includes weapon-tools like dwarvish mattocks, pick-axes and unicorn horns. Using this scroll on a worm tooth will instead transform it into a crysknife. +5 or below is safe to enchant. +6 and above may evaporate.

Identification

There are only two scrolls with a base cost of 60, the scroll of enchant weapon and the scroll of blank paper. Therefore, any unrecognized scroll with a value of 60 is a scroll of enchant weapon.

Effects

If you are wielding a stack of weapons, the scroll will affect all of them at once.

An uncursed or blessed scroll will attempt to enchant your weapon. An uncursed scroll will always try to enchant by one point.[1] A blessed scroll may enchant by more than one point, depending on the current enchantment. If the weapon's current enchantment is +8 or less, the scroll will add 1 to (3 – (current enchantment)/3) points[1]. If the current enchantment is +6 or more, the blessed scroll will behave the same as an uncursed scroll.[2] [3]

Weapons at +9 and above have only a 1-in-(current enchantment) chance of gaining another point of enchantment.[2]

Enchantment Points added by blessed scroll
-5 to -3 up to 4
-2 to +2 up to 3
+3 to +5 up to 2
+6 to +8 1 (if weapon does not evaporate)

A weapon already at +6 or above has a 2/3 chance of evaporating instead.[4]

If a cursed weapon is successfully enchanted by at least one point, it will be made uncursed.[5]

A cursed scroll behaves mostly like an uncursed scroll, but tries to decrease the enchantment by one point instead.[6] Artifacts (except Sting and Orcrist) will resist.[7] A weapon already at -6 or below has a 2/3 chance of evaporating.[4] There is no special treatment of weapons at -9 or below.

Trying to enchant a worm tooth will instead turn it into an unfixed noncursed crysknife.[8] Trying to disenchant a crysknife will turn it into a worm tooth.[9]

Reading a noncursed scroll of enchant weapon while confused will erodeproof your weapon and fix any existing damage.[10][11] A cursed scroll will remove the erodeproofing instead.[10]

If you read a scroll of enchant weapon without wielding a weapon or weapon-tool, you will exercise your dexterity instead (or abuse it if the scroll is cursed).[12]

Strategy

+5 is the highest enchantment a weapon can have and not be destroyed when enchanting it further. Because of this, it's common to enchant weapons to +5 and then read a blessed scroll of enchant weapon to try to raise it to +7, although this may only raise it to +6. In this case, there are a few ways of reducing it back to +5 so that another blessed scroll can be read:

  • Reading a cursed scroll of enchant weapon. Artifacts resist 90% of the time.
  • Engraving one letter, if the weapon is edged. Artifacts don't resist this. Note that athames only dull when they are cursed.
  • Hitting a disenchanter. Artifacts resist 90% of the time. Note that engaging a disenchanter risks disenchanting your armor.
  • Zapping drain life at it on the ground. Artifacts resist 90% of the time.

Overenchanting

While possible, enchanting a weapon beyond +7 is generally time consuming and risky to consider. The possibility of evaporation makes this a very bad idea to attempt with an artifact unless you really don't care about losing it.

The most common way to attempt overenchantment is to use a huge single stack of weapons. Usually this means daggers or lightweight, plentiful projectiles such as darts, arrows, and crossbow bolts from monsters and traps. Projectile weapons benefit more from overenchantment than melee weapons since you can multishot them at high skill levels.

A single scroll of enchant weapon can enchant a large stack at once. This greatly reduces the number of scrolls that you need to get a good amount of +8 or +9 weapons.

  1. Collect a large stack of daggers (say 200) or whatever stackable weapon you want.
  2. Rustproof and enchant them all up to +7 with the same number of scrolls as it takes to produce a single +7 non-stackable weapon.
  3. Split the stack up into four stacks of 50 +7 daggers each, and attempt to overenchant each stack. It is likely but not guaranteed that at least one stack will survive.
  4. Divide your stack of 50 +8 daggers again into four stacks of 12-13 daggers each, and read another four scrolls on the four stacks to attempt to get a stack of +9 daggers.
  5. If you want you can even continue enchanting the +9 daggers one by one until you get one to +10, but the amount of scrolls needed to get this far is probably not worth the extra enchantment at this point.

Polymorphing weapons does not change their enchantment. Thus a large stack of weapons can be overenchanted and then polypiled into silver daggers, silver sabers, katanas, or whatever other non-artifact weapon you want.

In certain cases (such as a Healer with a unicorn horn, an archeologist with a dwarvish mattock, a Knight preparing to be crowned with Excalibur, or those trying conducts) it may be worthwhile to overenchant non-stackable weapons. The table below shows how many copies of a given +7 weapon must be risked in order to have a certain degree of confidence that at least one +8/+9/+10 weapon will be successfully enchanted. It is impossible to guarantee, with 100% confidence, that this will succeed. The table assumes that the weapon is already +7 when starting the process.

Bonus +7 +8 +8 +8 +8 +8 +9 +9 +9 +9 +9 +10 +10 +10 +10 +10
Confidence 50% 75% 85% 90% 95% 50% 75% 85% 90% 95% 50% 75% 85% 90% 95%
Attempts 1.71 3.42 4.68 5.68 7.39 5.88 11.77 16.11 19.55 25.43 35.08 74.16 101.49 123.18 160.27


If you are going to try this, make sure to save at least one of your most highly enchanted weapon. Don't accidentally vaporize all of the weapons you were trying to enchant.

In SLASH'EM, it's possible to safely overenchant any +7 weapon(s) to +8 by wielding it when crowned as the Hand of Elbereth, with the relevant disadvantages of crowning.

Messages

All of the following messages only appear if you are not blind (unless noted otherwise).

Your <weapon> glows blue for a moment.
You added one level of enchantment while reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant weapon.
Your <weapon> glows blue for a while.
You added two or more levels of enchantment while reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant weapon.
Your <weapon> violently glows blue for a while.
You read a scroll of enchant weapon and no enchantment was added.
Your <weapon> glows black for a moment.
Your weapon lost enchantment via a cursed scroll.
Your <weapon> faintly glows black.
Your artifact weapon resisted the effects of the cursed scroll.
Your <weapon> violently glows blue for a while and then evaporates.
You unsuccessfully enchanted your weapon above +5 or below -5 (2/3 chance).
Your <weapon> evaporates.
As above if blind.
Your <weapon> is covered by a shimmering golden shield!
Your weapon was made erode-proof via reading a non-cursed scroll while confused.
Your <weapon> looks as good as new!
As above if weapon was damaged.
Your <weapon> feels as good as new!
As above if blind.
Your <weapon> is covered by a mottled purple glow!
Your weapon's erode-proofing was removed via a cursed scroll.
Your weapon feels warm for a moment.
You read a cursed or non-cursed scroll while blind and confused with erode-proofing either added or removed.
Your weapon seems sharper now.
Your worm tooth was converted to a crysknife via a non-cursed scroll.
Your weapon seems duller now.
Your crysknife was converted to a worm tooth via a cursed scroll.
Your right <hand> flinches!
You enchanted Magicbane up to an enchantment of two or more.
Your right <hand> itches!
You enchanted Magicbane above +0.
Your <weapon> suddenly vibrates unexpectedly.
Your Elven or artifact weapon was enchanted above level 5.
Your <hands> twitch.
You read a non-cursed scroll of enchant weapon with no weapon wielded. Your dexterity is exercised.
Your <hands> itch.
You read a cursed scroll of enchant weapon with no weapon wielded. Your dexterity is abused.
You have a strange feeling for a moment, then it passes.
You are a beginner, and you read a scroll of enchant weapon with no weapon wielded. Your dexterity is exercised (abused if cursed).
You have a normal feeling for a moment, then it passes.
You are a beginner, and you read a scroll of enchant weapon with no weapon wielded while hallucinating.

See also

References

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