Invisibility

From NetHackWiki
Revision as of 22:25, 21 November 2007 by 75.172.84.154 (talk)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Invisibility is an intrinsic with the effect that monsters without see invisible cannot see you. As such, they will have difficulty locating you and will usually miss when attempting to attack you unless you stay in one location for an extended length of time.

Advantages

While the player is invisible, monsters suffer a -2 to-hit penalty, and may strike at where they think you are rather than where you are.

Disadvantages

Shop entry

An invisible player will be prevented from entering shops by the shopkeeper ("Invisible customers are not welcome!"). This can be circumvented by wearing a mummy wrapping, which will render you visible while you are wearing it.

Monster control

It is more difficult to get monsters that don't have see invisible to follow you, which may be a desired effect depending on the circumstances. Example: While invisible, it is harder to lure soldiers into the Castle trapdoors because soldiers cannot see invisible.

How to acquire

Ways to gain this intrinsic:

  • Eat stalker meat (corpse or tin) while already invisible through some other means. This method also grants you the see invisible intrinsic.
  • Invoke the Orb of Detection. Note: toggles invisibility unless it is already acquired as an intrinsic.

Ways to manage this intrinsic

If you want to enter a shop, or for some other reason become visible, the easiest way is to find a mummy wrapping (mummies drop wrappings at a high rate) and wear it, which renders you visible (think "The Invisible Man"). The only two caveats are:

  • The mummy wrapping counts as a cloak in terms of the slot that it takes up. If you have a reason to wear another type of cloak (such as a cloak of magic resistance to defend yourself against magic traps and other magical dangers), be careful when and where you wear the mummy wrapping. However, since the main reason to wear a mummy wrapping is to enter shops, and there are no traps in shops, this isn't a huge obstacle.
  • Lastly, just like any other item in the dungeon, a mummy wrapping can be generated blessed, cursed, or uncursed, and have an enchantment level. Take caution and check the BUC status of the wrapping before wearing it, or you might be wasting your cloak spot, raising your armor class, and rendering yourself visible out of carelessness. Mummy wrappings are affected by scrolls of enchant armor and scrolls of destroy armor just like any other piece of armor.