Helm of telepathy
[  [  [  [  helm of telepathy | |
|---|---|
| Appearance | random |
| Slot | helm |
| AC | 1 |
| Special | |
| Base price | 50 zm |
| Weight | 50 |
| Material | iron |
A helm of telepathy is a type of helm that appears in NetHack. It is a magical helm that is made of iron and has a randomized appearance when unidentified[1][2]—the default one associated with it is a "visored helmet".[3]
Contents
Generation
The helm of telepathy makes up 1⁄250 (0.4%) of all armor that is randomly generated on the ground, in general shops or as death drops. Used armor dealerships and antique weapon outlets can also stock helms of telepathy.
Player monsters, including those on the Astral Plane, have a 7132 chance (~5.3%) of being generated with a helm of telepathy as their initial helm before role-based replacements, with cases that can affect this initial helm selection listed below:[4][5]
- Player monster healers and clerics have a 3⁄8 chance of their initial helm being replaced with a helm of telepathy, raising their effective odds of retaining the helm of telepathy to 4311056 (~40.81%).[6][7]
- Player monster wizards have a 3⁄4 chance of their initial helm being replaced with a helm of brilliance, lowering their effective odds of retaining the helm of telepathy to 7528 (~1.33%).[8]
Description
While worn, the helm of telepathy grants 1 base AC and the extrinsic telepathy property, with the range of the hero's current extrinsic telepathy being increased by the amount of sources that the hero has applied[9][10][11]—all artifacts that grant telepathy by any means other than their base item count as a single source for this purpose, regardless of how many the hero is carrying.[12]
As a metallic helm, it raises the hero's spellcasting failure rates while worn and protects its wearer from most falling objects.
Strategy
Extrinsic telepathy is a useful property for an ascension kit, though not an essential enough one to warrant a wish in most cases—the helm of telepathy is usually superseded for this purpose by quest artifacts such as The Platinum Yendorian Express Card or The Eye of the Aethiopica.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 and base weight of 50 aum as the other two randomized magical helms, the helm of brilliance and the helm of opposite alignment.
While wearing the helm but does not auto-identify 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 using far look on monsters will still make clear what properties allow the hero to see them—blinding yourself will also display all monsters on the level that are not mindless, as with intrinsic telepathy.
History
The helm of telepathy first appears in NetHack 3.0.0. From this version to NetHack 3.6.7, including variants based on those versions, extrinsic telepathy functions the same regardless of the amount of sources that the hero possesses—NetHack 5.0.0 adds the ability to enhance extrinsic telepathy with multiple sources via commit 28ed8e79 and commit 969c87c0.
Variants
NetHack variants created prior to NetHack 5.0.0 may not include the helm of telepathy's effect on extrinsic telepathy from that version.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, upgrading a helm of telepathy will produce a dwarvish iron helm, and upgrading a dwarvish iron helm has a 1⁄2 chance of producing a helm of telepathy.[13][14]
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 while carried. 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 within a chest in a hidden portion of the level's southwest corner during level creation.
SporkHack
In SporkHack, it is possible for the helm of telepathy to have the randomized appearance of a "tinfoil hat", which blocks telepathy and psionic abilities from both the wearer and any hostile monsters targeting the wearer (e.g. mind blasts)—thus a helm of telepathy that appears as a "tinfoil hat" always blocks its own telepathy.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, the helm of telepathy grants 1 base AC, 1 base DR and extrinsic telepathy while worn, and its weight is reduced to 30 aum. If randomized to a band, it will appear as a "tiara of telepathy".
Player monsters generated on the Astral Plane have an effective 7⁄96 chance of being generated with a helm of telepathy as their initial helm before role-based replacements. Healers, priests and priestesses, as well as itinerant priestesses, have a 3⁄8 chance of generating with a helm of telepathy that replaces their initially-selected helm during inventory creation.
A helm of telepathy can be used to repair the extrasensory perception subsystem of an imperial elven helm, granting the extrinsic telepathy property while the helm is worn.
The All-seeing Eye of the Fly is an intelligent artifact that Baalzebub will always generate with, and is a lawful, large-sized and golden helm of telepathy. A hero wearing it gains passive monster detection as well as telepathy, and using far look on monsters will show their DR breakdown as well as their current inventory. Invoking the artifact lets the hero cast a targeted area-of-effect "death spell" on a square or monster that they can see, which is flavored as a "disintegration field" and acts similarly to the effect of breaking a charged wand of death.
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, a helm of telepathy can be created at a furnace by combining a plain helmet and an amulet of ESP.
notdNetHack
In notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, in addition to dNetHack details, Dantalion is always generated with a helm of telepathy when summoned by an Illithanachronounbinder.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, the "telepathy" object property cannot generate on helms of any kind due to the helm of telepathy existing.
Illithid characters that use their psionic wave ability while wearing a mithril or non-metallic helm of telepathy have a 1⁄4 chance of the helm focusing the attack and increasing its damage by d6+2.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, upgrading a tinfoil hat will produce a helm of telepathy and vice versa.
The Crown of Saint Edward is an artifact helm of telepathy as in SLASH'EM, and is made of steel so that it can be safely worn by elven Yeomen.
Grund's Stronghold retains the 1⁄3 chance of generating a blessed helm of telepathy in the chest within the hidden area in the southwest.
References
- ↑ src/o_init.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 280-L281
- ↑ src/o_init.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 331
- ↑ include/objects.h in NetHack 5.0.0, line 476
- ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 154: Default equipment; the helm is chosen from within the designated object classes inclusively in objects.h
- ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 283: Helms are only generated for Astral Plane playermons
- ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 187: Helm replacement for healers
- ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 212: Helm replacement for clerics
- ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 246: Helm replacement for wizards
- ↑ src/worn.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 48-L69: recalc_telepat_range() function
- ↑ src/worn.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 144: check extrinsic telepathy range when source of telepathy is worn or becomes active
- ↑ src/worn.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 183: check extrinsic telepathy range when source of telepathy is taken off or becomes inactive
- ↑ src/artifact.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 798-L805: telepathy from artifacts is consolidated as a single source
- ↑ potion.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 2342
- ↑ potion.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 2345
