Magic marker

(
Name	magic marker
Appearance	magic marker
Base price	50 zm
Weight	2
Material	plastic
Monster use	Will not be used by monsters.

A magic marker is a magical tool in NetHack that can be used to write magic scrolls and spellbooks. It is a highly sought-after item for this reason alone, especially for Wizards; with Luck, you have a good chance of writing scrolls and spellbooks that they have not identified yet.

Generation

Archeologists, Monks, Priests, Tourists, and Wizards all have a chance of starting with a magic marker.

It is possible, although with low probability of success, to create magic markers by polypiling magical tools. It is technically possible to create them from non-magical tools, but the probability of this occuring is vanishingly small.

Effects

Some details borrowed from Sascha Wostmann's "Yet Another NetHack FAQ".

Applying a magic marker will prompt you what to write on, which lets you choose a single scroll or spellbook of blank paper in your inventory. Then, you must specify what scroll or spellbook you are writing.

You may enter the full name of a scroll ("scroll of light"), or just a short form ("light"). You may also write the label of a scroll ("ZELGO MER"), but only if scrolls with that label exist in your game. This means that if you want to write a scroll of remove curse, and you have informally identified ZELGO MER as remove curse, you should write, in all capitals, "ZELGO MER". If you have only informally identified "remove curse", your attempt will be subject to the normal failure chance from trying to write an unidentified scroll.

Similarly, you may write any spellbook by entering the full name ("spellbook of detect food"), the short form ("detect food"), or the appearance ("indigo spellbook"). Unlike with scrolls, you may not copy a spellbook by appearance unless you have formally identified the spellbook. Novels can be written too, but you cannot choose which novel you write. It is impossible to write the Book of the Dead.

You can also engrave with a magic marker, which creates a fast semipermanent engraving at a cost of 1 charge per two letters.

BUC

When you write a scroll or spellbook, the BUC of the resulting item is the sum of the BUCs of the marker and the blank scroll or spellbook, as seen below. In short, blessed markers produce blessed scrolls, unless the material is cursed, and the reverse is true for cursed markers. Uncursed markers produce scrolls with the same status as the material and thus are the most versatile.

Final document BUC

		Marker
		Blessed	Uncursed	Cursed
Blank document	Blessed	Blessed	Blessed	Uncursed
	Uncursed	Blessed	Uncursed	Cursed
	Cursed	Uncursed	Cursed	Cursed

Ink and charges

Writing with a magic marker uses up charges. Initially, a magic marker will be generated with 30–99 charges.

A magic marker can be recharged with a scroll of charging (or PYEC), but only once. A blessed charge will add 15–30 charges, then round up to 50 or 75 if able. An uncursed charge will add 10–20 charges, then round up to 50 if able. Charges are capped at 127, but attempting to exceed this will not cause the marker to explode.

Any magic markers created by polypiling come "pre-recharged" and cannot be charged again.

Each scroll or spellbook has an associated "base ink cost". For scrolls, this is an arbitrary number specified in write.c; for spellbooks it is (spell level × 10). (Novels are treated as level 1 spellbooks.)

If the ink cost of a scroll or spellbook is x, then writing it will cost a random number of charges between x2 and x − 1 inclusive. If the marker has fewer than x2 charges remaining, you will not even attempt to write the specified item ("Your marker is too dry to write that!"). If it has between x2 and x − 1, however, you will attempt to write. If it turns out that this is not enough, the written item will be useless, and the marker will lose all its remaining charges ("Your marker dries out!"). Useless scrolls disappear, while books clear themselves.

Spellbooks

Spellbook	Ink	Charges
novel	10	5–9
detect monsters	10	5–9
force bolt	10	5–9
healing	10	5–9
jumping	10	5–9
knock	10	5–9
light	10	5–9
protection	10	5–9
sleep	10	5–9
confuse monster	20	10–19
create monster	20	10–19
cure blindness	20	10–19
detect food	20	10–19
drain life	20	10–19
magic missile	20	10–19
slow monster	20	10–19
wizard lock	20	10–19
cause fear	30	15–29
charm monster	30	15–29
clairvoyance	30	15–29
cure sickness	30	15–29
detect unseen	30	15–29
extra healing	30	15–29
haste self	30	15–29
identify	30	15–29
remove curse	30	15–29
stone to flesh	30	15–29
cone of cold	40	20–39
detect treasure	40	20–39
fireball	40	20–39
invisibility	40	20–39
levitation	40	20–39
restore ability	40	20–39
dig	50	25–49
magic mapping	50	25–49
create familiar	60	30–59
polymorph	60	30–59
teleport away	60	30–59
turn undead	60	30–59
cancellation	70	35–69
finger of death	70	35–69

Scrolls

Scroll	Ink	Charges
mail	2	1
amnesia	8	4–7
earth	8	4–7
fire	8	4–7
gold detection	8	4–7
food detection	8	4–7
light	8	4–7
magic mapping	8	4–7
create monster	10	5–9
destroy armor	10	5–9
punishment	10	5–9
confuse monster	12	6–11
identify	14	7–13
charging	16	8–15
enchant armor	16	8–15
enchant weapon	16	8–15
remove curse	16	8–15
scare monster	20	10–19
stinking cloud	20	10–19
taming	20	10–19
teleportation	20	10–19
genocide	30	15–29

Writing success chance

You will always successfully write a scroll or spellbook if your marker has enough ink and the scroll or spellbook type is formally known to you. You can check whether it is known if the actual type (in addition to the scroll label or spellbook color) is shown in your discoveries list. Merely having it type-named does not count, even if you have called it the correct name. However, you can use the discoveries list to see the label or color, then enter that at the prompt instead, which also guarantees success.

If the scroll or spellbook type is currently unknown to you, your chance of success depends on your Luck and whether you are a wizard. Regardless of whether or not you succeed or fail, you will still use an appropriate amount of ink for that scroll or spellbook.

Luck	Wizard	Non-Wizard
≤ −2	<1%	<1%
−1 to 1	20%	6.7%
2 to 4	39%	13%
5 to 7	59%	20%
8 to 10	78%	26%
11+	98%	33%

If you successfully write an unknown scroll or spellbook type, you must read it or identify it to place it in your discoveries list. This will enable you to write it again later with 100% success.

If you try to write something without enough ink, or fail at an unknown scroll or book, a scroll will disappear, but a spellbook will just blank.

Writing while blind

Spellbooks cannot be written while blind ("Your magic marker can't create braille text").

You may attempt to write a scroll while blind, but this is subject to fail depending on your luck, with the message "You fail to write the scroll correctly and it disappears." You have the same chance of successfully writing the scroll as a non-blind Wizard does to write an unknown scroll, so maximizing your Luck will give you a high chance of success. The game tests this after checking whether you failed to write an unknown scroll, so it is doubly hard to write an unknown scroll while blind.

Strategy

As a suitably rare item, magic markers have several applicable strategies regarding their use.

Engraving

Engraving Elbereth with a magic marker is generally viewed as a waste of charges, since the same effect can be achieved using an athame or a wand of digging. However, if these or other similar methods are unavailable, it is more than worth it to use the marker, since you will prefer being alive with four less charges to dying with an unused marker.

Charging

Because of the total gain of 50 charges, it is best to recharge your magic marker when it is totally empty. Blessed charging in this case gives no advantage over uncursed. An exception would be if you want to write a very high-level spellbook; in that case, blessed charging to get to 75 could be desirable.

Writing

Provided your Luck is maximized, it may be worthwhile to attempt to write unknown scrolls or spellbooks even if you are a non-Wizard, depending on the number of charges on your magic marker. For example, if you have a magic marker with a high number of charges, you are very likely to be able to write a scroll of charging and save a wish on the Castle wand. It is also useful and easy to write a low-level unknown spellbook, such as the spellbook of sleep or spellbook of jumping; the spellbook of magic missile is also a less easy possibility.

Assuming maximized Luck, the following table gives approximate probabilities of successfully writing at least one of the specified scrolls or spellbooks, attempting repeatedly until the item is written or the marker goes dry, as a non-Wizard, given an initial number of magic marker charges:

# of charges	Any 8-ink scroll	Any level 1 spellbook	Scroll of charging	Any level 2 spellbook	Scroll of genocide or any level 3 spellbook
40	94%	88%	70%	60%	40%
50	97%	93%	79%	70%	52%
60	98%+	96%	85%	77%	59%
70	99%+	98%	90%	83%	66%
80	99%+	99%+	92%	87%	72%
90	99%+	99%+	95%	90%	77%

Obviously, the lower the number of charges on the marker or the greater the ink cost of the item, the less likely you are to write it successfully.

The ink 8 scrolls include gold detection and magic mapping, and can almost certainly be written unless your marker is nearly dry.

If you have a source of charging and your marker has not been recharged, you have 50 more charges to attempt to write; therefore (for example) a Knight gunning for a spellbook of magic missile starting with a (0:40) magic marker, and willing to spend the entire marker if necessary, has about an 88% chance of obtaining it in total with maxed Luck. (Specifically, it is about a 60% chance to get it without recharging, plus 70% times 40% that they get it after recharging. This is not quite the same probability as a marker with 90 charges, since typically a few leftover charges are "wasted" after the last attempt before recharging.)

Variants

SLASH'EM

SLASH'EM incorporates a balance patch to ink costs. Scrolls of enchant armor, enchant weapon, stinking cloud, remove curse, and charging require 24 ink (12–23 charges) to write, while scrolls of scare monster cost less, requiring 14 ink.

Spellbooks

Spellbook	Ink	Charges
blank paper	0	0
detect monsters	10	5–9
flame sphere	10	5–9
force bolt	10	5–9
freeze sphere	10	5–9
healing	10	5–9
jumping	10	5–9
knock	10	5–9
light	10	5–9
protection	10	5–9
resist poison	10	5–9
resist sleep	10	5–9
sleep	10	5–9
confuse monster	20	10–19
create monster	20	10–19
cure blindness	20	10–19
detect food	20	10–19
endure cold	20	10–19
endure heat	20	10–19
insulate	20	10–19
magic missile	20	10–19
slow monster	20	10–19
wizard lock	20	10–19
cause fear	30	15–29
charm monster	30	15–29
clairvoyance	30	15–29
cure sickness	30	15–29
detect unseen	30	15–29
drain life	30	15–29
extra healing	30	15–29
haste self	30	15–29
stone to flesh	30	15–29
acid stream	40	20–39
detect treasure	40	20–39
enlighten	40	20–39
fireball	40	20–39
invisibility	40	20–39
levitation	40	20–39
lightning	40	20–39
poison blast	40	20–39
restore ability	40	20–39
command undead	50	25–49
cone of cold	50	25–49
dig	50	25–49
identify	50	25–49
magic mapping	50	25–49
remove curse	50	25–49
summon undead	50	25–49
create familiar	60	30–59
passwall	60	30–59
polymorph	60	30–59
teleport away	60	30–59
turn undead	60	30–59
cancellation	70	35-69
enchant armor	70	35–69
enchant weapon	70	35–69
finger of death	70	35–69

Scrolls

Scroll	Ink	Charges
mail	2	1
amnesia	8	4–7
earth	8	4–7
fire	8	4–7
gold detection	8	4–7
food detection	8	4–7
light	8	4–7
magic mapping	8	4–7
create monster	10	5–9
destroy armor	10	5–9
punishment	10	5–9
confuse monster	12	6–11
identify	14	7–13
scare monster	14	7–13
taming	20	10–19
teleportation	20	10–19
charging	24	12–23
enchant armor	24	12–23
enchant weapon	24	12–23
remove curse	24	12–23
stinking cloud	24	12–23
genocide	30	15–29

AceHack

You are no longer guaranteed to write scrolls and books you have only named, not formally identified. This is the price to pay for the ability to name things you don't have.

Encyclopedia entry

The pen is mightier than the sword.

[ Richelieu, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]

References

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It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.4. Information on this page may be out of date.

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