Scroll of enchant weapon
? 
| |
|---|---|
| Name | enchant weapon |
| Appearance | random |
| Base price | 60 zm |
| Weight | 5 |
| Ink to write | 8-15 |
| Monster use | Will not be used by monsters. |
The scroll of enchant weapon allows you to increase (if non-cursed) or decrease (if cursed) the enchantment of your currently-wielded weapon. This includes weapon-tools like dwarvish mattocks, pick-axes and unicorn horns. Using this scroll on a worm tooth will instead transform it into a crysknife. +5 or below is safe to enchant. +6 and above may evaporate.
Effects
If wielding a stack of weapons, the scroll will affect all of them at once.
A noncursed scroll will attempt to enchant your weapon. An uncursed scroll will always try to enchant by one point.[1] A blessed scroll may enchant by more than one point, depending on the current enchantment; for starting enchantments up to +8, it will add 1 to (3 - enchantment/3) points[1] while at +9 and above it will behave like an uncursed scroll.[2] (In fact, because 3-6/3 = 1, it will already behave like an uncursed scroll at +6.)
Weapons at +9 and above have only a (1 in current enchantment) chance of gaining another point of enchantment.[2]
| Enchantment | Points added by blessed scroll |
|---|---|
| -5 to -3 | up to 4 |
| -2 to +2 | up to 3 |
| +3 to +5 | up to 2 |
| +6 to +8 | 1 (if weapon does not evaporate) |
A weapon already at +6 or above has a 2/3 chance of evaporating instead.[3]
If a weapon is successfully enchanted by at least one point, it will be made uncursed if it was previously cursed.[4]
A cursed scroll behaves mostly like an uncursed scroll, but tries to decrease the enchantment by one point instead.[5] Artifacts (except Sting and Orcrist) will resist.[6] A weapon already at -6 or below has a 2/3 chance of evaporating.[3] Weapons at -9 or below are not special-cased.
Trying to enchant a worm tooth will instead turn it into an unfixed noncursed crysknife.[7] Trying to disenchant a crysknife will turn it into a worm tooth.[8]
Reading a noncursed scroll of enchant weapon while confused will erodeproof your weapon and fix any existing damage.[9][10] A cursed scroll will instead remove the erodeproofing.[9]
If you read a scroll of enchant weapon without wielding a weapon or weapon-tool, you will instead exercise your dexterity (abuse if the scroll is cursed).[11]
Strategy
Since enchanting a weapon when it is already above +5 runs a 2/3 risk of it being destroyed, it's common to enchant weapons to +5 and then read a blessed scroll of enchant weapon to raise them to +6 or +7. Often players will lower a +6 weapon to +5 to attempt to raise it to +7 again. Usually this is done by engraving a single letter with the weapon.
If a non-cursed scroll of enchant weapon is read while confused, your weapon will be repaired of any erosion it has suffered and will also be erode-proofed.
There are only two scrolls with a base cost of 60, the scroll of enchant weapon and the scroll of blank paper. Therefore, any unrecognized scroll with a value of 60 is a scroll of enchant weapon.
Enchanting beyond +7
While possible, enchanting a weapon beyond +7 is generally time consuming and risky to consider. As there is a 2/3 risk of the weapon(s) being destroyed, this is a very, very bad idea to attempt with artifacts.
The right way to go about overenchantment is to use a huge stack of weapons. The most common targets are daggers for throwing, and lightweight, plentiful polyfodder such as darts, arrows, and crossbow bolts from monsters and traps. Projectile weapons benefit more from overenchantment than melee weapons since you can throw more than one per attack.
A single scroll of enchant weapon can enchant a large stack at once. This greatly reduces the number of scrolls that you need. You can collect a stack of (say) 200 daggers. Rustproof and enchant them all up to +7 with the same number of scrolls as it takes to produce a single +7 non-stackable weapon. Then you split the stack up into four stacks of 50 +7 daggers each, and attempt to overenchant each stack. At least one stack will survive and become +8 with >80% chance. Now you have a stack of 50 +8 daggers. Divide it again into four stacks of 12-13 daggers each, and read another four scrolls on the four stacks to get (with high probability) a stack of +9 daggers. If you want you can even continue enchanting the +9 daggers one by one until you get one to +10, but most of the time a stack of +9 daggers is good enough.
An even larger stack of darts can be overenchanted and then polypiled into silver daggers, katanas, or the future Excalibur, Sting, or Orcrist.
In certain cases (such as a Healer with a unicorn horn, an archeologist with a dwarvish mattock, a Knight preparing to be crowned with Excalibur, or those trying conducts) it may be worthwhile to overenchant non-stackable weapons. The table below shows the odds of getting at least one +8/+9/+10 weapon and how many copies must be attempted for the given level of confidence. The table assumes the weapon is already at the +7 level, when starting the process, working to higher levels.
| Bonus | +7 | +8 | +8 | +8 | +8 | +8 | +9 | +9 | +9 | +9 | +9 | +10 | +10 | +10 | +10 | +10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Confidence | — | 50% | 75% | 85% | 90% | 95% | 50% | 75% | 85% | 90% | 95% | 50% | 75% | 85% | 90% | 95% |
| Attempts | — | 1.71 | 3.42 | 4.68 | 5.68 | 7.39 | 5.88 | 11.77 | 16.11 | 19.55 | 25.43 | 35.08 | 74.16 | 101.49 | 123.18 | 160.27 |
Where the number of attempts is equal to copies of weapons expended. The confidence level, in the second row, how likely it is at the number of attempts (where 50% means half the time, and 95% means 19 in 20). It is mathematically impossible to be 100% confident.
If a player wishes to attempt this, take a given item and enchant it to +7. Drop it on the ground. This is the marker. Enchant various ones to +7, and attempt to get +8. Once one is +8, stop, and drop it on the ground. This is the new marker. This process can be repeated once more to +9, but shouldn't be attempted any further. The gist of this is to have a checkpoint or marker to fall back to in the case that they all vaporize.
In this way it becomes slightly more accessible than the table would otherwise indicate. One thing to consider, if one is not expecting to polypile nor blanking spare enchant weapon scrolls, is to attempt despite how little the odds are if the player has more than one of a given weapon, being quite careful never to vaporize the last copy. As these scrolls are otherwise only useful for polypiling or blanking, there's no real loss involved in this case.
Messages
All of the following messages only appear if you are not blind (unless noted otherwise).
- Your <weapon> glows blue for a moment.
- You added one level of enchantment while reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant weapon.
- Your <weapon> glows blue for a while.
- You added two of more levels of enchantment while reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant weapon.
- Your <weapon> violently glows blue for a while.
- You read a scroll of enchant weapon with no enchantments added.
- Your <weapon> glows black for a moment.
- Your weapon lost enchantment via a cursed scroll.
- Your <weapon> faintly glows black.
- Your artifact weapon resisted the effects of the cursed scroll.
- Your <weapon> violently glows blue for a while and then evaporates.
- You unsuccessfully enchanted your weapon above +5 or below -5 (2/3 chance).
- Your <weapon> evaporates.
- As above if blind.
- Your <weapon> is covered by a shimmering golden shield!
- Your weapon was made erode-proof via reading a non-cursed scroll while confused.
- Your <weapon> looks as good as new!
- As above if weapon was damaged.
- Your <weapon> feels as good as new!
- As above if blind.
- Your <weapon> is covered by a mottled purple glow!
- Your weapon's erode-proofing was removed via a cursed scroll.
- Your weapon feels warm for a moment.
- You read a cursed or non-cursed scroll while blind and confused with erode-proofing either added or removed.
- Your weapon seems sharper now.
- Your worm tooth was converted to a crysknife via a non-cursed scroll.
- Your weapon seems duller now.
- Your crysknife was converted to a worm tooth via a cursed scroll.
- Your <weapon> suddenly vibrates unexpectedly.
- You enchanted an Elven weapon to +0 or above.
- Your right <hand> flinches!
- You enchanted Magicbane up to an enchantment of two or more.
- Your right <hand> itches!
- You enchanted Magicbane above +0.
- Your <weapon> suddenly vibrates unexpectedly.
- Your Elven or artifact weapon was enchanted above level 5.
- You have a strange feeling for a moment, then is passes.
- You read a scroll of enchant weapon with no weapon wielded otherwise. Your dexterity is exercised (abused if cursed).
- You have a normal feeling for a moment, then is passes.
- You read a scroll of enchant weapon with no weapon wielded hallucinating.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 read.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 985
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 read.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 984
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 wield.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 730
- ↑ wield.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 752
- ↑ read.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 982
- ↑ wield.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 724
- ↑ wield.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 707
- ↑ wield.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 716
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 read.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 964
- ↑ read.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 976
- ↑ wield.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 701
