Musicalize spell

Musicalize spell is a type of skill that first appears as part of the Bard patch against NetHack 3.4.3, and is later incorporated along with the patch into several NetHack variants: the skill is included in dNetHack, notdNetHack, SlashTHEM, and notnotdNetHack.

Description

The musicalize spell skill gives the hero the ability to perform magical songs using an applicable tonal instrument in lieu of casting the spell.

Bard patch

In the Bard patch, the following roles can train the musicalize spell skill:

Musicalize spell skill
Max	Role
Basic	Monk, Priest
Expert	Bard

When applying a tonal instrument with at least Basic skill, a menu will appear with the option of casting a spell in addition to the existing options of improvising or playing a series of notes. Spells performed as songs have the following traits:

• Magical songs require less energy to perform at 2 times the song's level.
• Magical songs take multiple turns, and can be interrupted.
• Magical songs affect all monsters that are able to hear the instrument's music.
• Every magical song has two instruments that can be used: one that is "preferred" and less likely to be resisted by monsters, and an alternative one that can be used if the preferred instrument is unavailable, but with a lower chance of success.
• The hero must know the corresponding spell to the song being played.
• The effects of magical songs tend to be less powerful than their regular forms. For example, successfully playing the Lullaby song puts monsters to sleep for a shorter period of time than the sleep spell.
• At Unskilled or Basic, songs affect pets as well as hostile monsters, though the effects on pets are milder. At Skilled or Expert, tame creatures are not affected unless playing Inspire Courage (which only affects pets).

All available songs are listed in the table below, along with the required spell, the duration of the songs and their compatible instruments:

Song	Description	Spell	Preferred Instrument	Alternative Instrument	Duration
Lullaby	Puts enemies to sleep	sleep	wooden harp	wooden flute	4 turns
Cacophony	Confuses enemies	confuse monster	leather drum	tooled horn	5 turns
Drowsiness	Slows enemies	slow monster	wooden flute	wooden harp	5 turns
Despair	Causes enemies to flee	cause fear	tooled horn	leather drum	6 turns
Friendship	Temporarily tames monsters	charm monster	wooden harp	wooden flute	6 turns
Inspire Courage	Increases the damage done by pets	cause fear	bugle	leather drum	6 turns

"Inspire Courage" is the only song to not directly correspond to an enchantment spell, though knowledge of one is required to play it.

The chance of a song successfully taking effect is dependent on the hero's experience level, their relevant attributes and their skill level:

ATTRIBUTE x 2 x MUSICALITY_SKILL + experience level

The musicalize spell skill gives a value of 1 if the hero is at Unskilled, 2 if they are at Basic, and so on. Bonuses are applied in the following order:

• If the instrument is an artifact or one that matches the song's preferred type, increase the chance by 50%.
• If the hero's health is lower than 30% of their maximum, increase the chance by 100%.
• If the instrument is a drum or a harp, and the hero is wearing a shield, decrease the chance by 50%.
• If the hero is blind, increase the chance by your experience level.
• If the hero uses the Lyre of Orpheus and is not playing one of Rally, Meditative Healing, Lullaby, or Friendship, decrease the chance by 50%.

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