Wand of magic missile
| / | |
|---|---|
| Name | magic missile |
| Appearance | random |
| Abundance | 5% |
| Base price | 150 zm |
| Weight | 7 |
| Type | ray |
| Maximum charges | 8 |
| Spell | magic missile |
| Monster use | May be used offensively by monsters. |
A wand of magic missile is a type wand that appears in NetHack.
Contents
Generation
Wizards may be given a wand of magic missile as the random wand in their starting inventory.[1]
Wands of magic missile make up 1⁄20 (5%) of all randomly-generated wands. General stores and "quality apparel and accessories" shops can sell wands of magic missile.
Two wands of magic missile with no charges are generated in the Orcish Town map of Minetown at level creation.[2]
Shopkeepers have a 1⁄4 chance of being generated with a wand of magic missile.[3]
Randomly created intelligent monsters may be generated with a wand of magic missile as a offensive item, and are twice as likely to receive one compared to other offensive items.[4]
Wands of magic missile are created with 4 to 8 charges.
Description
Zapping the wand in a given cardinal direction will auto-identify the wand and fire a ray of magic missiles that deals 2d6 to any hero or monster in its path—the ray can rebound off walls, can be blocked and rebounded by reflection and is also nullified by magic resistance; reflection takes effect before magic resistance in the event that a target has both properties. Monsters will use this wand, and hostile monsters will zap it at the hero.
A hero zapping the wand at themselves takes 4d6 damage unless they have magic resistance, auto-identifying it.[5]
Engraving with a wand of magic missile will give a unique message if the hero is not blind, but does not auto-identify the wand.[6]
Breaking a charged wand of light by applying it–or else wresting one last charge from an applied wand–will cause an explosion that deals anywhere between 1 and (4×<charges>) damage, which is blocked by magic resistance and auto-identifies the wand.[7][8]
Strategy
Wands of magic missile are the least effective type of attack wand, since they lack useful secondary effects beyond damage, and are best used liberally in the early game as a form of disposable ranged attack—the wand's damage can be increased to a somewhat respectable 4d6 by bouncing the ray off a wall behind your target. The wand also has a niche use for engraving Elbereth while levitating in order to save charges from a more useful wand such as digging, fire, or lightning, since engravings are less likely to erode while the hero is not standing directly on them. Otherwise, the magic missile spell is superior for practically every other use case.
Some players improvise a late-game use for the wand by throwing it at an intelligent monster and hoping they pick it up to use over any of their innate attacks or ranged weaponry: most late-game players will have either magic resistance or reflection to render the rays harmless, and reflection additionally deals damage to non-resistant monsters in the ray's path (sometimes including the one zapping the wand).
History
The wand of magic missile appears in Hack 1.21 and Hack for PDP-11, which are based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is also included in the initial item list for Hack 1.0.
Origin
In Rogue, a wand of magic missile deals 1d4+1 damage unless a given monster saves vs. magic ("The missile vanishes in a puff of smoke").[9] In Hack, the wand always has the appearance of an aluminum wand and deals 2d6 damage;[10][11] the latter trait was carried over into NetHack.
Messages
- The floor is riddled by bullet holes!
- You engraved on the floor with a wand of magic missile.[6]
- Idiot! You've shot yourself!
- You zapped yourself with a wand of magic missile and took damage.
- The missiles bound!
- As above, but you have magic resistance.
Variants
In several variants of NetHack, engraving with a wand of magic missile will auto-identify it.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, the wand of magic missile has a 1⁄10 chance of not expending a charge when zapping it or engraving with it, and additionally auto-identifies when engraving with it. The magic missile ray also does not stop upon hitting a monster, in comparison to the magic missile spell.
A wand of magic missile can be used with an upgrade kit to repair the missile projectors of imperial elven gloves, granting the hero the ability to fire aura bolts from their hands while the gloves are worn.
NetHack Fourk
In NetHack Fourk, which incorporates the Wands Balance Patch, unskilled usage of a wand of magic missile deals the lesser between 3d6 or 2⁄5 of the target's maximum HP, and deals 6d6 damage at all other skill levels—at Expert skill or higher, magic resistance only halves the damage from the wand's rays. This also applies to FIQHack.
References
- Jump up ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 164
- Jump up ↑ dat/mines.des in NetHack 3.6.7, line 150-L151
- Jump up ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 678
- Jump up ↑ src/muse.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1604
- Jump up ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2349
- ↑ Jump up to: 6.0 6.1 src/engrave.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 708: the case for WAN_MAGIC_MISSILE does not set doknown
- Jump up ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3353
- Jump up ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3378
- Jump up ↑ http://rogue.rogueforge.net/vade-mecum/#glossary
- Jump up ↑ Hack 1.02 Files Part 1
- Jump up ↑ Hack 1.02 Files Part 9
