Confusion

Confusion, or the state of being confused, is a property that affects you in the following ways:

• You cannot cast spells.
• Attempting to loot an open square while confused with gold in inventory results in the message "Ok, now there is loot here," dropping a random amount of gold, after which normal looting takes place. Looting a throne while confused has other effects; see throne.
• You will not be asked for confirmation before attacking peaceful monsters.
• When you walk or aim in a direction, there is a 20% chance of a random direction being chosen instead (similar to being stunned, which has a 100% chance).
• When reading scrolls, you will mispronounce the magic words, which will cause different effects from what would occur normally.
• Reading any spellbook will instead make you tear the book into pieces (1/3 chance), or else you will simply fail to learn it ("You find yourself reading the <first/next> line over and over again.")
• Wisdom is abused.
• You cannot throw or fire more than one projectile at a time.
• Mjollnir will not return to your hand.
• Your ability to engrave is impaired.
• You cannot play instruments.
• You are less able to saddle a steed and cannot mount it.
• You may be unable to control a level teleport ("Oops...") even if you have teleport control (4/5 chance of uncontrolled level teleport at zero luck).

In short, being confused is generally a bad thing, but the effects of reading some scrolls while confused can be useful, and looting thrones while confused can generate monsters.

Causes

If you are trying to confuse yourself, be aware that many of these actions have other possible bad consequences. You may want to lock yourself in a closet so that monsters can't gang up on you.

• Attempting to cast a forgotten spell (can also stun you).
• Quaffing a potion of confusion or a non-blessed potion of booze.
• Reading a cursed scroll of confuse monster, or any scroll of confuse monster while polymorphed into any non-​@, or casting the equivalent spell.
• Trying to magic-map a non-mappable level.
• Reading a cursed or difficult spellbook (puts you at risk of other variety of bad effects).
• Being affected by vapors of a potion of confusion or potion of booze.
• Being exposed to an umber hulk's gaze attack, or applying a mirror to yourself while polymorphed into an umber hulk.
• Applying a cursed unicorn horn. Be sure to have a non-cursed one ready before attempting this, however, because one possible consequence is deadly sickness.
• Eating a rotten egg, a tin of something rotten, or a tripe ration as a non-orc/caveman/canine in an attempt to become nauseated (any food item has a chance of making you vomit, but eggs and tripe rations have the highest chance. You will need to wait some time to be confused, and cure the nauseating side-effect as well).
• Applying a charged crystal ball unsuccessfully (puts you at risk of a variety of other bad effects).
• Sitting on a throne.
• Being hit by Magicbane, subject to magic cancellation. This includes throwing it upward <.
• Monsters which are clerical spellcasters can confuse players without magic resistance.
• Yeenoghu has a confusion attack.

Cures

• Applying a non-cursed unicorn horn.
• Eating a lizard corpse (reduces the timeout to 2 turns).
• Praying (confusion counts as a minor trouble).
• Reading a blessed scroll of confuse monster.
• Waiting for it to wear off.

Confused scroll effects

Useful effects

While reading most scrolls when confused exhibits harmful or useless effects, there are a few confused effects from certain scrolls that have been proven quite useful:

• Scroll of charging: If your energy is at maximum, you gain 5d4 maximum energy. Otherwise, your energy is increased to maximum.
• Scroll of destroy armor: Makes one random worn armor rustproof/fireproof. Does not repair damage however. The scroll must be cursed.
• Scroll of enchant armor: Makes one random worn armor rustproof/fireproof. If that armor had damage, it is repaired. The scroll must be non-cursed.
• Scroll of enchant weapon: Makes your wielded weapon rustproof/fireproof. If it had damage, it is repaired. The scroll must be non-cursed.
• Scroll of gold detection: You detect traps and portals (spaces with the ^ symbol) on the current level in Vanilla. In UnNethack, you detect random item class. If the scroll is cursed, they are shown as gold ($ symbol). Useful on the Elemental Planes or in the Gnomish Mines (due to the large amount of traps there).
• Scroll of remove curse: All uncursed items in your inventory have a 25% chance of being blessed and a 25% chance of being cursed if the scroll is blessed. If the scroll is uncursed, then only worn and wielded items are considered. Useful for obtaining unholy water.
• Scroll of teleportation: Level-teleports you. If you have teleport control and are not also stunned then you will usually be able to choose which level to teleport to.
• Scroll of taming: Tames monsters within an 11x11 square area. Also calms shopkeepers and watchmen. Some monsters can resist. The scroll must be non-cursed.
• Scroll of create monster: Creates 13+ acid blobs.

Risks

Reading unknown scrolls while confused can help identify them. However, there are, as expected, certain risks involved:

• Scroll of genocide: Uncursed: Instadeath. Cursed: You are surrounded by 4-6 monsters of your role.
• Scroll of earth: Blessed: Creates 2-6 rocks on each square around you. Uncursed: Creates 2-6 rocks on the same square as you and each open square around you. Cursed: Creates 2-6 rocks on the same square as you. Each rock does d3 damage, with the damage capped at two points, if you're wearing a metal helmet.
• Scroll of fire: Lose one hit point, if not fire resistant. Potions, scrolls, and other flammable items in your inventory or at your feet may also be destroyed or damaged.
• Scroll of light: Acts as a cursed scroll of light, darkening the area around you.

Monster confusion

Monsters can be confused as well, but the effects on monsters are not identical to those that players experience. To distinguish the two, confused monsters are said to be afflicted by "monster confusion". Using a stethoscope or a wand of probing will reveal if the monster is confused. Monsters have a 1/50 chance of losing the monster confusion status on their turn. If monsters have access to a non-cursed unicorn horn or a lizard corpse they will use it to clear the monster confusion status. Zapping healing spells at monsters (pets) does not un-confuse them, but bashing them with healing potions does (and counts as abuse).

When a monster is confused they exhibit different behavior:

• Monsters may attack a random adjacent target instead of the player. This includes enemies without weapons who will attack cockatrices, chickatrices and Medusa and may stone themselves.
• Monsters that cast spells have a higher spell failure chance. For each spell cast, a random number chosen between ([1 to Monster's Level] * 10) is chosen - if this is less than 100, then the monster's spell will fail to cast. This gives the message The air crackles around <caster>.
• Monsters may wander in a random direction instead of attacking
• Monsters that can read scrolls will do so incorrectly and will be affected by the confused behavior as per the scroll
• Monsters have less chance of avoiding an exploding drawbridge
• Monsters cannot block incoming kicks
• Monsters cannot shoot multiple projectiles

To inflict monster confusion on a target, the player can do one of the following:

• Hit a monster with a melee attack while under the effects of a scroll of confuse monster
• Hit a monster with Magicbane, which may randomly trigger the monster confusion effect
• Hit a monster with a thrown potion of confusion
• Have a tame umber hulk use its gaze attack against a monster
• Have a tame black light attack a monster by exploding
• Be polymorphed into an umber hulk and use the #Monster command against a monster
• Be polymorphed into a black light and attack a monster by exploding
• Apply a looking glass to a non-blind umber hulk
• Revive a bones file corpse that has the awake bones file ghost on or adjacent to the square the corpse is on. The resulting monster will be confused.

Variants

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, confusion can be used with shopkeeper services to make unholy water. When confused, use the uncursing service on a potion of water. "You accidentally ask for the item to be cursed!" The potion of water will be cursed.

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack monks get a bonus of a single point of AC while confused, as a reference to the idea of drunken boxing. This bonus applies to confusion from any source however, not just the confusion from a potion of booze.

History

In Hack, bats could cause confusion. NetHack has now differentiated this so that stun and confusion are not the same. Bats and trapped doors can stun you; this causes you to move in random directions, like confusion would. However, only confusion will let you obtain different effects from reading scrolls.

See also

• Stun
• Impaired

References

This page is based on a spoiler by Dylan O'Donnell. The original license is:

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