Scroll of enchant armor

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Revision as of 21:04, 26 December 2016 by Netzhack (talk | contribs) (Blessed)
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? Scroll.png
Name enchant armor
Appearance random
Base price 80 zm
Weight 5
Ink to write 8-15
Monster use Will not be used by monsters.

The scroll of enchant armor allows you to raise the enchantment on armor which you are wearing. The scroll chooses at random which armor receives the enhancement. If body armor is chosen, only the outermost worn layer of cloak / body armor / shirt is eligible.[1] Thus, before reading the scroll, most players normally remove all of their armor except for the piece that they want to enchant.

Common usage

An uncursed scroll normally raises enchantment by 1 (for example, changing a +0 iron helm into a +1 iron helm), while a blessed scroll can sometimes raise enchantment by 2 or 3. For example, a blessed scroll might raise a +0 iron helm to +1, +2, or +3, and it might raise a +3 iron helm to +4 or +5. [2]

However there is a risk of vaporising your armor when enchanting it. Armor currently at +3 or below is safe to enchant; but if you try to enchant armor currently at +4 or more, the chance of vaporising the armor increases. See below for the tables.

In practice, this means that players with enough scrolls of enchant armor will enchant up to +4 (or +5 if a blessed scroll skips +4).

Elven armor (and for Wizards, the cornuthaum) is an exception; it is safe to enchant even when it is currently at +5 (but not any higher).

Reading a noncursed scroll while confused will repair erosion on one piece of armor, and make the armor erodeproof.[3] As this does not increase the enchantment of the armor, this does not risk vaporization. Reading a cursed scroll when confused will not heal your armor, and will remove erodeproofing if present. Reading a cursed scroll of destroy armor while confused will erodeproof but not repair your armor.

A cursed scroll of enchant armor will actually harm your armor (decrease its enhancement bonus). This is useful if you just have to have that +5 armor but don't want to risk vaporization. However, it's usually better to reduce armor enchantment using the spell of drain life, since the spell doesn't require using up a scroll.

A scroll of enchant armor may also change the BUC status of your armor. A cursed or blessed scroll will cause the armor it affects to become cursed or blessed respectively. An uncursed scroll will uncurse cursed armor.

Effects

Below all of the effects of reading the scroll under different circumstances are documented. If as a result of any of the below effects, the armor's enchantment is affected, then you identify the scroll.

Not wearing armor

Exercises (abuses if cursed) strength and constitution.

  • "You have a strange feeling for a moment, then it passes." (beginner not hallucinating)
  • "You have a normal feeling for a moment, then it passes." (beginner hallucinating)
  • "Your skin glows then fades." (unblind)
  • "Your skin feels warm for a moment." (blind)

Blessed

One piece of current worn armor is selected and blessed.

If the enchantment of the armor is already above +3 (+5 for elven armor or a wizard's cornuthaum), there is a 1 in (current enchantment) chance that it WON'T be vaporized. This means if the armor is already +6, there is a 1 in 6 chance it will survive. If it is vaporized:

Armor enchanted to or above +9 has only a 1 in (current enchantment) chance of being further enchanted, assuming it survives the evaporation risk.

Dragon scales become dragon scale mail, gain one enchantment, and are blessed.

  • "Your <scales> merges and hardens!"

Other armor can gain several enchantments:

Current enchantment -3 to -1 0 to +2 +3 to +5 +6 to +8 +9 or more
Additional possible 1 to 4 1 to 3 1 to 2 1 0 or 1

The enchantment gain is determined as follows. If the current enchantment is +9 or higher, there is a 1 in (current enchantment) chance of gaining one additional enchantment (this is the same with an uncursed scroll).[4] If the current enchantment is below +9, the random number rnd(3 - (current enchantment) / 3) is rolled for the enchantment gain.[5] This means a +3 piece of armor has a 50% chance of being enchanted to +5 by a blessed scroll.

  • "Your <armor> glows silver for a moment." (+1)
  • "Your <armor> glows silver for a while." (more than +1)
  • "Your <armor> violently glows silver for a moment." (+0) (no "silver" if shield of reflection or silver dragon scales or scale mail)

NOTE: If you were blind, then "glows silver" is replaced by "vibrates". The

If the armor is enchanted beyond the safe limit, it may vibrate:

  • "Your <armor> suddenly vibrates unexpectedly." (unblind)
  • "Your <armor> suddenly vibrates again." (blind)

Uncursed

One worn item of armor is randomly selected, and if cursed is uncursed.

As with blessed above, if the enchantment of the armor is already above +3 (+5 for elven armor or a wizard's cornuthaum), there is a 1 in (current enchantment) chance that it WON'T be vaporized. This means if the armor is current +6, there is a 1 in 6 chance it will survive. If it is vaporized:

Dragon scales become the same colour of dragon scale mail.

  • "Your <scales> merges and hardens!"

Other armor gains +1 enchantment (unless it is +9 or above, then there is only a 1 in enchantment chance it will gain +1 and the rest of the time it will gain nothing).

  • "Your <armor> glows silver for a moment." (+1)
  • "Your <armor> violently glows silver for a moment." (+0) (no "silver" if shield of reflection or silver dragon scales or scale mail)

NOTE: If you were blind, then "glows silver" is replaced by "vibrates".

If the armor is enchanted beyond the safe limit, it may vibrate:

  • "Your <armor> suddenly vibrates unexpectedly." (unblind)
  • "Your <armor> suddenly vibrates again." (blind)

Cursed

One worn item of armor is randomly selected, and is cursed.

If the enchantment of the armor already below -3 (-5 for elven armor or a wizard's cornuthaum), there is a 1 in (current absolute enchantment) that it WON'T be vaporized. If it is vaporized:

  • "Your <armor> violently glows black for a while, then evaporates." (no "black" if black dragon scales or scale mail)

Otherwise armor loses one enchantment and is cursed.

  • "Your <armor> glows black for a moment." (unblind) (no "black" if black dragon scales or scale mail)
  • "Your <armor> vibrates for a moment." (blind)


Non-cursed and confused

Makes one random worn armor erodeproof.

  • "Your <armor> is covered by a shimmering golden shield/layer!" (unblind)
  • "Your <armor> feels warm for a moment." (blind)

If that armor had damage, it is repaired.

  • "Your <armor> looks as good as new!" (unblind)
  • "Your <armor> feels as good as new!" (blind)

Cursed and confused

Removes the erodeproofing from one random worn piece of armor.

  • "Your <armor> is covered by a mottled black glow!" (unblind)
  • "Your <armor> feels warm for a moment." (blind)


See also

References

  1. some_armor in do_wear.c
  2. read.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 1053
  3. read.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 998
  4. read.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 1054
  5. read.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 1055: To be precise, when the current enchantment is negative, the integer division by 3 could result in platform-dependent behavior: the integer expression -1 / 3 may be rounded to -1 or 0. The former case makes it possible to gain 4 enchantments from a blessed scroll on that platform. However, gcc and C99-compliant compilers always treat the result of integer division as an arithmetic quotient (that is, the quotient is truncated or "rounded towards zero"). In that case, only a -3 piece of armor is eligible for a 25% chance of gaining 4 enchantments from a blessed scroll, while a -2 to +2 piece gains 1 to 3 points.


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