Charging
Some items, like wands, magic harps, horns of plenty, brass lanterns and the Bell of Opening are only effective for a finite number of uses. Each potential use is called a charge, and charging is the process of adding more charges to an item. The most common methods of charging are the scroll of charging and the Platinum Yendorian Express Card.
If you were thinking of magically improving weapons and armor, you want enchant weapon or enchant armor instead.
Repeated charging is potentially problematic. A wand charged more than once might explode; this is why nearly all players will reduce a wand to 0 charges before charging it. A wand of wishing charged the second time will always explode; thus players with a wand of wishing (1:0) always wrest the last wish (zap the wand repeatedly) instead of charging.
Wands
Uncursed
Uncursed charging picks a number between 1 and the wand's natural maximum charges. It is chosen using a slightly complicated formula, summarised by the following probability table:
| Wand type \ number | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| wand of wishing | 33.3% | 33.3% | 33.3% | ||||||||||||
| directional | 15.9% | 15.9% | 15.9% | 15.9% | 15.9% | 10.9% | 6.7% | 3.1% | |||||||
| non-directional | 11.2% | 11.2% | 11.2% | 11.2% | 11.2% | 9.4% | 7.9% | 6.6% | 5.5% | 4.4% | 3.5% | 2.7% | 2.0% | 1.3% | 0.6% |
The wand's number of charges is set to the number chosen, unless it already has that many (or more), in which case it gains one charge. If this extra charge brings a wand of wishing to more than 3 charges, it will explode. (Other wands will glow blue if charged beyond their natural maximum, but suffer no ill effects.)
Rings
Some rings can be charged. Blessed charging will add d3 points, uncursed charging will add 1, and cursed charging will subtract d2 points. There is a chance that charging a ring will cause it to explode.
Tools
All chargeable tools may be recharged any number of times without ill effect, with the exception of magic markers.[1]
The Bell of Opening
Blessed charging adds d3 charges to the Bell, and uncursed charging adds 1. The resulting number of charges is then capped at 5.[2]
Cursed charging will reduce the number of charges to 0, unless the Bell itself is blessed.
References
- This page is a stub. Should you wish to do so, you can contribute by expanding this page.
A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:
"Charging is complex. Information from wand-343.txt, ring-343.txt and scrl-343.txt should go here."
