Incantifier (starting race)

Source: DnD Planescape, Shemeska's Planescape Storyhour

dnethack offers a new playable race, Incantifiers.

Properties

Incantifiers do not regain energy or HP normally. They regain energy and some HP by draining magic items, and must otherwise regain HP through spellcasting, potions, or other magical means.

• Incantifiers may be of any role a human could be.

• Incantifiers begin the game with intrinsic magic resistance. They can naturally identify enchantment levels on weapons and armor, and can tell when a wand is empty.

• Incantifiers live on magic. They begin the game with over 900 energy, and use their energy total in place of their nutrition total.
  • In later versions (only checked on 3.14) this value is increased to 9000. They also gain much more energy per level than other races.
  • Incantifiers cannot eat regular food, including corpses and rations. Instead, they must drain items, including positively enchanted weapons (except stackable ones, to prevent players from enchanting in bulk and gaining lots of energy) and armor, wands with charges, spellbooks, and scrolls to regain energy. Each drained enchantment point of weapon or armor is worth 50 nutrition, as is each scroll or draining of a book reading. Each wand charge is worth 10 nutrition.
    • In later versions (only checked on 3.14) you gain 10 times as much energy for each enchantment, reading, charge, or item.
    • on weapons and armor this has the same effect as casting drain life on an item. On spellbooks it increments the read counter, like studying the spell or polymorphing, turning them into blank paper when it reaches maximum. Scrolls are turned blank immediately, and wands are merely emptied.
  • Incantifiers can #untrap magic, polymorph, teleport, and level teleport traps (but not magic portals). Untrapping one of these traps grants 50 energy.
  • Incantifiers may die of overeating, the same as any other race, though they explode rather than choke. They will become satiated at about half their mana pool, but can continue "filling up" to the maximum safely - but not a single point further!
  • Incantifiers are not able to drain artifacts.
  • Rings of Slow Digestion have no effect on Incantifiers; however, Incantifiers burn nutrition at 1/10th the normal rate.
    • In later versions (only checked on 3.14) this is not the case, however they have 10 times as much energy so it works out to the same item cost.
  • Incantifiers cannot gain nutrition by praying to their god.
  • Incantifiers make blood potions with a tinning kit, and can drink those to gain intrinsics.

• All incantifiers, regardless of role, begin the game knowing Force bolt and Healing.
• All incantifiers have huger less casting, though they still lose the normal spell cost of energy.
• All incantifiers can reach expert in all forms of magic, no matter the role restrictions.

• All incantifiers, regardless of role, will benefit from wearing a cornuthaum like wizards.

Stats

Character race	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
Incantifier	18/**	18	18	18	18	18

Several centuries ago, there existed a faction, now almost entirely extinct, called nowadays 'The Incantifers', then simply as The Magicians or The Wanters. They believed that magic, specifically arcane magic, was the key to power, indeed the only power that mattered in the multiverse. Gain enough knowledge of magic and skill in it and you could do anything. Even challenge The Lady....

According to legend, at least two members of the Wanters tried just that. They died, horribly and spectacularly. Legend also says that one of them almost succeeded.

Then one day, they vanished. Cutters looked up one morning and the Tower Sorcerous, the faction headquarters of the Wanters was simply gone. Nearly all of their members vanished with it, though a scant few remain to wander the planes.

[ Shemeska's Story Hour, by Todd Stewart ]

"They all ate magic. They ate other people's magic. Spells, items, anything they could buy, steal, or otherwise get a hold of. This place is sealed off from everything. There's no way out and you've got an entire faction of magic eating wizard suddenly bottled up with each other and no food source... except each other."

[ Shemeska's Story Hour, by Todd Stewart ]