Spellbook of slow monster

spellbook of +   slow monster
Appearance	random
Abundance	3.05%
Base price	200 zm
Weight	50
Turns to read	2
Ink to write	10–19
Spell type	enchantment
Level	2
Power cost	10 Pw
Direction	beam
Equivalent	wand of slow monster

In NetHack, the spellbook of slow monster allows a player to learn the spell of slow monster.

Effects

The spell has the same effect as a wand of slow monster: if zapped at a monster, it multiplies affected monsters' speeds by 2/3 and slows them. If fast, the monster is returned to normal speed. If you are engulfed by a vortex or air elemental, you are expelled. Some monsters may resist.

If zapped at yourself, you lose any intrinsic speed you have.

Messages

<Monster> seems to be moving slower.

You zapped a monster, and it has been slowed.

You disrupt <monster>! A huge hole opens up...

You zapped it at a vortex or air elemental who was engulfing you, and will be expelled.

You slow down

You zapped yourself, and no longer have the speed intrinsic.

Your quickness feels less natural.

You zapped yourself and no longer have the speed intrinsic, but you still have extrinsic speed from your speed boots.

Strategy

Slow monster is considered inferior sleep spell in most applicable scenarios, with the exception of monsters with both high speed and sleep resistance, such as energy vortexes; such monsters are rare, however, and most players thus read it for the eventual confusion-on-demand from the forgotten spell, then blank it and write a more useful spellbook with a magic marker or polypile it. However, it may be marginally useful on the Plane of Air, where it will allow you to escape engulfing air elementals.

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.

It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.4. Information on this page may be out of date.

Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-364}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.