Bag of tricks
( 
| |
|---|---|
| Name | bag of tricks |
| Appearance | bag |
| Base price | 100 zm |
| Weight | 15 |
| Material | cloth |
| Monster use | Will not be used by monsters. |
A bag of tricks is an item in Nethack that looks like an ordinary bag, but reacts much differently than other containers.
Though they are defined with the `CONTAINER` macro, bags of tricks are not actually containers: they never hold any items, nor can any be placed in them. Instead, if a bag of tricks is #looted, it will deal 1 to 10 hit points of damage ("It develops a huge set of teeth and bites you!") and become identified.
Bags of tricks are generated with 1 to 20 charges. Applying a charged bag of tricks will use up one charge and either create one monster with 22/23 chance, or create 2 to 8 monsters with 1/23 chance; nothing happens when applying a bag with zero charges. If the bag has more than 10 charges, a blessed scroll of charging will add 6 to 10 charges, and if it has 10 or less, it will add 6 to 15 charges; an uncursed scroll will always add 1 to 5 charges. It cannot hold more than 50 charges, but can be recharged an unlimited number of times. Using #tip with a bag of tricks will expend all the charges at once, so beware!
Placing a bag of tricks with nonzero charges into a bag of holding will cause a magical explosion, destroying both bags as well as everything in the bag of holding.
Strategy
If carrying a bag of holding, bags of tricks should be treated with the same caution as a wand of cancellation. Unless you need to create some monsters (for food, sacrifice or experience), they are often best left alone - a magical explosion can be a game-ending mistake.
If you only want the bag to polypile with, apply it until it runs out of charges. Make sure you can deal with the generated monsters! You know the bag is empty when "nothing happens" when you apply it. An uncharged bag of tricks is "safe", and if it polymorphs into another charged tool, the new tool's charges will be independent of the number of charges the bag had.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, a charged bag of tricks has an equal chance of producing a creature as described above, or causing a random (mostly harmful) effect, such as briefly paralyzing the player, knocking a weapon from his or her hand, or spewing forth a stinking cloud.[1]
| Chance | Effect |
|---|---|
| 31/40 | Creates a monster. |
| 2/40 | Spits out a random item of weight >= 100, or coughs nervously. |
| 1/40 | Bag "wriggles away from you", causing it to drop. |
| 1/40 | Tries to pull you in, paralyzing for d4 turns. |
| 1/40 | Spits out a stinking cloud. |
| 1/40 | Causes hallucination for 10+d35 turns. |
| 1/40 | Yells "Boo!", scaring nearby monsters and possibly the player for a few turns. |
| 1/40 | Grows teeth and bites, as if looted. |
| 1/40 | Licks your wielded weapon from your hand, causing it to drop. |
A bag of tricks with no charges can hold items like a regular sack,[2] but charging it again will destroy them.[3] Since the bag of tricks is a "magical bag", it will also protect its contents from shattering, like the bag of holding. (This is possibly unintentional.)
