Scroll of enchant weapon
? 
| |
|---|---|
| Name | enchant weapon |
| Appearance | random |
| Base price | 60 zm |
| Weight | 5 |
| Ink to write | 8-15 |
| Monster use | Will not be used by monsters. |
A scroll of enchant weapon is a type of magical scroll that appears in NetHack.
Contents
Generation
Wizards may be given a scroll of enchant weapon as any of the three random scrolls in their starting inventory.[1] The scroll is the only type that a Monk cannot start with, since they do not fight with weapons or start with any.[2]
Scrolls of enchant weapon make up 2⁄25 (8%) of all randomly-generated scrolls. General stores, second-hand bookstores and rare books shops can sell scrolls of enchant weapon.
Writing a scroll of enchant weapon with a magic marker takes up 8 to 15 charges.
Description
Reading a scroll of enchant weapon alters the enchantment of the hero's currently wielded weapon (including weapon-tools), and doing so for a wielded stack of weapons will affect the enchantment of all items in that stack. This will auto-identify the scroll if the enchantment of the affected weapon is known, and will otherwise prompt the player to type-name the scroll.
Reading an uncursed scroll will increase the current weapon's enchantment by one point, while a cursed scroll will decrease it by 1, and a blessed scroll may increase the enchantment by more than one, point depending on the current enchantment.[3] Reading a non-cursed scroll that enchants a cursed weapon will uncurse it, including a cursed tin opener welded to the hero's hand.[4] Reading the scroll while not wielding a compatible weapon will abuse the hero's dexterity if the scroll is cursed, and will otherwise exercise it.[5] Reading the scroll while confused will instead alter the weapon's erosion-proofing:[6] a non-cursed scroll will make the weapon erodeproof and fix any existing damage, while a cursed scroll removes any erodeproof status.[7][8]
A weapon at +6 enchantment or higher will have a 2⁄3 chance of evaporating instead when enchanted by a non-cursed scroll of enchant weapon.[9] A weapon that is at +9 or above has only a 1-in-(current enchantment) chance of gaining another point of enchantment, and is still subject to the aforementioned chance of evaporating.[10][11] A weapon that is an artifact or an elven item has a 1⁄7 chance of printing a message when enchanted above +5.[12]
A weapon that is already at -6 or below when reading a cursed scroll of enchant weapon has a 2⁄3 chance of evaporating.[9] All artifact weapons except Sting and Orcrist will always resist having their enchantment decreased by a cursed scroll.[13][14]
Reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant weapon while wielding a worm tooth will transform it into a crysknife, and read a cursed scroll while wielding a crysknife will turn it back into a worm tooth.[15][16]
Blessed effects
The table below displays how many points can potentially be added to the enchantment of a weapon by reading a blessed scroll:
| 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) |
If the weapon's current enchantment is +5 or less and the hero reads a blessed scroll, the scroll will add 1 to (3 – (current enchantment)/3) points, while if the current enchantment is +6 or more, the blessed scroll will behave the same as an uncursed scroll.[11]
Strategy
As +5 is the highest enchantment a weapon can be further enchanted from without risk of evaporating, it is common to read uncursed scrolls of enchant weapons to raise the weapon's enchantment to that level, then read a blessed one at +5 try to raise it to +7, There are a few ways of disenchanting a +6 weapon that results from this:
- Reading a cursed scroll of enchant weapon, unless the weapon is a non-named artifact (i.e. not Sting or Orcrist).
- If the weapon is edged, engraving one letter with it is enough to reduce the enchantment. Athames such as Magicbane will only dull while they are cursed.
- Hitting a disenchanter with the weapon, which artifacts will resist 9⁄10 of the time. Note that engaging a disenchanter also risks disenchanting your armor.
- Placing it on the ground and zapping drain life at it - artifacts resist 9⁄10 of the time.
Erosion-proofing using a confused reading of the scroll is ideal for the hero's primary weapon(s), especially artifact weapons that are not sacrifice gifts: the damage penalties for an eroded weapon are considerable, particularly for a double damage artifact.
Identification
The scroll of enchant weapon is one of only two scrolls with a base cost of 60zm - the other is the scroll of blank paper, which has a fixed appearance. This makes price identification of the scroll of enchant weapon incredibly trivial.
Overenchanting
While possible, enchanting a weapon beyond +7 is generally time-consuming, risky to consider and generally unnecessary. The possibility of evaporation makes this a very bad idea to attempt with an artifact unless you really do not care about losing it.
The most common way to attempt over-enchantment 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.
- Collect a large stack of daggers (say 200) or whatever stackable weapon you want.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
History
The scroll of enchant weapon first appears in Hack 1.21 and Hack for PDP-11, which are based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial item list for Hack 1.0. From those versions to NetHack 2.3e, there is also a scroll of damage weapon that functions similarly to the modern cursed scroll of enchant weapon.
Messages
All of the following messages only appear if the hero is not blind, unless noted otherwise.
- Your <weapon> glows blue for a moment.
- You added one level of enchantment from reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant weapon.
- Your <weapon> glows blue for a while.
- You added two or more levels of enchantment from reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant weapon.
- Your <weapon> suddenly vibrates unexpectedly.
- Your elven or artifact weapon was enchanted above +5.
- Your <weapon> violently glows blue for a while.
- You read a scroll of enchant weapon and no enchantment was added.
- Your right <hand> itches!
- You enchanted Magicbane above +0.
- Your right <hand> flinches!
- You enchanted Magicbane by at least 2 points and raised its enchantment to +1 or more.
- Your <weapon> glows black for a moment.
- Your weapon lost enchantment from reading a cursed scroll.
- Your <weapon> faintly glows black.
- Your weapon was an artifact that resisted the effects of the cursed scroll.
- Your <weapon> violently glows <blue/black> for a while and then evaporates.
- You unsuccessfully enchanted your weapon above +5 or below -5.
- Your <weapon> evaporates.
- As above, while blind.
- Your <worm tooth/worm teeth> <is/fuse, and become> much sharper now.
- Your worm tooth or stack of worm teeth was converted to a crysknife from reading a non-cursed scroll.
- Your <crysknife/crysknives> <is/fuse, and become> much duller now.
- Your crysknife or stack of crysknives was converted to a worm tooth from reading a cursed scroll.
- Your <weapon> is covered by a shimmering golden shield!
- Your weapon was made erode-proof from reading a non-cursed scroll while confused.
- Your <weapon> looks as good as new!
- This line is added if the weapon has its damage repaired.
- Your <weapon> feels as good as new!
- As above, while blind.
- Your <weapon> is covered by a mottled purple glow!
- Your weapon's erode-proofing was removed from reading a cursed scroll.
- Your weapon feels warm for a moment.
- You read the scroll of enchant weapon while blind and confused.
- Your <hands> twitch.
- You read a non-cursed scroll of enchant weapon with no weapon wielded, and dexterity is exercised.
- Your <hands> itch.
- You read a cursed scroll of enchant weapon with no weapon wielded, and 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.
- As above, while hallucinating.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, while the scroll functions the same as it does in NetHack, there are additional sources of weapon enchantment:
- The weapon works service offered at weapons shops can be used to increase the enchantment of weapons and even poison them. However, they can only do so one point at a time, and the price rapidly increases for already enchanted weapons - weapons also cannot be enchanted beyond +5 in this manner.
- The spellbook of enchant weapon teaches a the level 7 enchantment spell that has a similar effect to the scroll, though it is very costly in terms of power to cast, let alone with any consistency for non-Wizard roles. While writing scrolls can require more total ink out of a magic marker as opposed to a single spellbook, scrolls are also much more reliable.
- It is possible to add a single point of enchantment to any weapon once by wielding it when crowned as a lawful hero, which does not risk evaporating the weapon even if it is at +7 or above.
- Finally, there is a polypiling exploit that potentially allows any weapon to reach +100 or more.
The orb of enchantment is a deferred item that appears in ancestor variants NetHack Plus and SLASH 6, and behaves somewhat similarly to a scroll of enchant weapon, though it can only be used on weapons and weapon-tools, cannot enchant them above +5, and can only reliably increase their enchantment while blessed.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, any item or object of a compatible material can be made erosion-proof and have its damage repaired by reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant weapon while confused. This also applies to Hack'EM.
See also
References
- ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 167
- ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1014
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1394
- ↑ src/wield.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 744: uncursing enchanted weapon in chwepon function
- ↑ src/wield.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 751
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1366
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1374
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1381
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 src/wield.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 806
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1396: chance of 0-point "enchantment" that still calls chwepon regardless of outcome[9]
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1397: 3 – (6/3) = 1, even though the code refers to enchantments above +9
- ↑ src/wield.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 850
- ↑ src/wield.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 744: calls restrict_name to check against nameable artifacts
- ↑ src/artifact.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 355: restrict_name function
- ↑ src/wield.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 758
- ↑ src/wield.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 779
