Autocursing

Certain nasty items will autocurse themselves (that is, instantly become cursed), so exercise caution even if an item does not appear to be cursed. It should be emphasized that blessed items will also become cursed, not simply uncursed, as an early player might suspect. The only items that autocurse are:

• Loadstones (appearance: gray stone)
• Helms of opposite alignment (randomized appearance)
• Dunce caps (appearance: conical hat)

The helm and the dunce cap will become cursed when worn by a player, while the loadstone only becomes cursed when dropped - that is, picking up an uncursed loadstone is perfectly safe. However, since all loadstones are generated cursed (except possibly those in containers), they are still best left alone. If you are not playing as a wizard, you can safely ignore all conical hats, since the only other hat that shares that appearance is the cornuthaum, which is only beneficial to wizards or to give large-sized pets magic cancellation.

See also

• scroll of scare monster, which also changes beatitude when dropped by players