Scroll of punishment - Revision history

Umbire the Phantom: /* Strategy */ coypedit

2025-11-05T08:26:07Z

‎Strategy: coypedit

Umbire the Phantom: /* Hack'EM */ tweak

2025-11-05T08:21:14Z

‎Hack'EM: tweak

Umbire the Phantom: /* Messages */ pothole

2025-11-05T08:20:40Z

‎Messages: pothole

Umbire the Phantom: /* Description */ word choice, detail

2025-11-05T08:18:38Z

‎Description: word choice, detail

Umbire the Phantom: /* Strategy */ detail

2025-08-31T00:47:41Z

‎Strategy: detail

Umbire the Phantom: /* Hack'EM */ detail

2025-04-20T19:59:33Z

‎Hack'EM: detail

Umbire the Phantom: citations, etc.

2025-04-17T23:50:13Z

citations, etc.

Umbire the Phantom: /* Variants */ copyedit + hackem

2025-04-17T23:45:13Z

‎Variants: copyedit + hackem

Umbire the Phantom: /* Strategy */ copy this here

2025-04-17T21:21:12Z

‎Strategy: copy this here

Umbire the Phantom: history

2025-04-17T17:11:34Z

history

@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 ==Strategy==
 {{main|Punishment}}
-The scroll of punishment is one of many reasons why it is generally a [[Bad Idea]] to read unidentified scrolls. A hero in the early game with a known scroll of punishment may consider selling it to an appropriate shop, and it is otherwise best used for [[blanking]]. Some heroes will deliberately read the known scroll and then get rid of the chain through some means and/or use the iron ball as a makeshift weapon, and there are some corner uses for the iron ball when [[jumping]]&mdash;for these reasons, heroes are allowed to start a game with scrolls of punishment.{{refsrc|src/u_init.c|992|nethack=3.6.7}}
+The scroll of punishment is one of many reasons why it is generally a [[Bad Idea]] to read unidentified scrolls. A hero in the early game with a known scroll of punishment may consider selling it to an appropriate shop, and it is otherwise best used for [[blanking]]. Some players will deliberately read the known scroll and then get rid of the chain through some means and/or have the hero wield the iron ball as a makeshift weapon, and there are some corner uses for the iron ball when [[jumping]]&mdash;for these reasons, heroes are allowed to start a game with scrolls of punishment.{{refsrc|src/u_init.c|992|nethack=3.6.7}}
 ===Identification===
-The scroll of punishment shares its base price of 300[[zm]] with the [[scroll of genocide]] and the [[scroll of stinking cloud]]. A blessed 300zm scroll is always safe to read: blessed [[genocide]] can be used to eliminate a troublesome [[monster class]] such as [[Lich (monster class)|liches]] or [[disenchanters]] (which share [[Rust monster or disenchanter|their monster class]] with the annoying-but-much-less-lethal [[rust monster]]s), while blessed stinking cloud can be used to steadily damage and blind a group of hostile monsters&mdash;a blessed scroll of punishment has no effect at all and will simply print a harmless message.
+The scroll of punishment shares its base price of 300[[zm]] with the [[scroll of genocide]] and the [[scroll of stinking cloud]]. A blessed 300zm scroll is always safe to read: as detailed above, blessed scrolls of punishment merely print a message; blessed [[genocide]] can be used to eliminate a troublesome [[monster class]] such as [[Lich (monster class)|liches]] or [[disenchanters]], which share [[Rust monster or disenchanter|their monster class]] with [[rust monster]]s that are similarly annoying but much less lethal; and a blessed scroll of stinking cloud can be used to overwhelm a group of hostile monsters with poison damage (which can instantly kill monsters without [[poison resistance]]) and [[blindness]].
 ==History==

@@ Line 45: / Line 45: @@
 ===Hack'EM===
-In [[Hack'EM]], reading a blessed scroll of punishment or reading any scroll of punishment while [[confused]] will simply generate an iron chain without the accompanying iron ball.
+In [[Hack'EM]], reading a blessed scroll of punishment, or else reading a scroll of punishment of any beatitude while [[confused]], will simply generate an iron chain without the accompanying iron ball.
 ==Encyclopedia entry==

@@ Line 37: / Line 37: @@
 ==Messages==
-{{main|Punishment#Messages}}
+{{main|Punishment#Messages|l1=Punishment messages}}
 {{message|[[You feel]] guilty.|You read a blessed scroll, or read any scroll while confused, and it had no effect.}}

@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 * An uncursed scroll chains a heavy iron ball to the hero, and if an iron ball is already chained to them it will instead increase that ball's weigh by 160 [[aum]].{{refsrc|src/read.c|1694|nethack=3.6.7|comment=calls <tt>punish()</tt> function}}{{refsrc|src/read.c|2352|nethack=3.6.7}}{{refsrc|src/read.c|2354|nethack=3.6.7}}
 * An cursed scroll chains a heavy iron ball to the hero, and if an iron ball is already chained to them it will instead increase that ball's weigh by 320 aum.
-* A blessed scroll prints a message with no other effect, as does any beatitude of scroll that is read while [[confused]].{{refsrc|src/read.c|1690|nethack=3.6.7}}
+* A blessed scroll prints a message with no other effect regardless of whether or not the hero is already punished, and reading any beatitude while [[confused]] also has no effect.{{refsrc|src/read.c|1690|nethack=3.6.7}}
-A hero [[polymorph]]ed into a monster that is [[amorphous]], [[whirly]] or [[unsolid]] and reads a scroll of punishment will generate the ball and chain as normal, but will not have it attached to them.{{refsrc|src/read.c|2359|nethack=3.6.7}}
+A hero that is [[polymorph]]ed into an [[amorphous]], [[whirly]] or [[unsolid]] monster and reads a scroll of punishment will generate the ball and chain as normal, but will not have it attached to them.{{refsrc|src/read.c|2359|nethack=3.6.7}}
 ==Strategy==

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 ==Strategy==
 {{main|Punishment}}
-The scroll of punishment is one of many reasons why it is generally a [[Bad Idea]] to read unidentified scrolls. A hero in the early game with a known scroll of punishment may consider selling it to an appropriate shop, and it is otherwise best used for [[blanking]]. Some heroes will deliberately read the known scroll and then get rid of the chain through some means to use the iron ball as a makeshift weapon, and there are some corner uses for the iron ball when [[jumping]]&mdash;this is the primary reason that heroes can still start a game with scrolls of punishment.{{refsrc|src/u_init.c|992|nethack=3.6.7}}
+The scroll of punishment is one of many reasons why it is generally a [[Bad Idea]] to read unidentified scrolls. A hero in the early game with a known scroll of punishment may consider selling it to an appropriate shop, and it is otherwise best used for [[blanking]]. Some heroes will deliberately read the known scroll and then get rid of the chain through some means and/or use the iron ball as a makeshift weapon, and there are some corner uses for the iron ball when [[jumping]]&mdash;for these reasons, heroes are allowed to start a game with scrolls of punishment.{{refsrc|src/u_init.c|992|nethack=3.6.7}}
 ===Identification===
-The scroll of punishment shares its base price of 300[[zm]] with the [[scroll of genocide]] and the [[scroll of stinking cloud]]. A blessed 300zm scroll is always safe to read: blessed [[genocide]] can be used to eliminate a troublesome [[monster class]] such as [[Lich (monster class)|liches]] or [[disenchanters]] (which share [[Rust monster or disenchanter|their monster class]] with the annoying-but-much-less-lethal [[rust monster]]s), while blessed stinking cloud can be used to steadily damage and blind a group of hostile monsters&mdash;a blessed scroll of punishment will simply print a harmless message.
+The scroll of punishment shares its base price of 300[[zm]] with the [[scroll of genocide]] and the [[scroll of stinking cloud]]. A blessed 300zm scroll is always safe to read: blessed [[genocide]] can be used to eliminate a troublesome [[monster class]] such as [[Lich (monster class)|liches]] or [[disenchanters]] (which share [[Rust monster or disenchanter|their monster class]] with the annoying-but-much-less-lethal [[rust monster]]s), while blessed stinking cloud can be used to steadily damage and blind a group of hostile monsters&mdash;a blessed scroll of punishment has no effect at all and will simply print a harmless message.
 ==History==

@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 ==Variants==
 ===UnNetHack===
-Reading a non-blessed scroll of punishment while confused will summon a [[punisher]]. This reveals it as a Bad Idea.
+In [[UnNetHack]], reading a non-blessed scroll of punishment while [[confused]] will summon a [[Punisher]] adjacent to the hero, which makes doing so very dangerous and a bad idea.
 ==Encyclopedia entry==