Spellbook of healing
| spellbook of + healing 
| |
|---|---|
| Appearance | random |
| Abundance | 4.07% |
| Base price | 100 zm |
| Weight | 50 |
| Turns to read | 2 |
| Ink to write | 5–9 |
| Spell type | healing |
| Level | 1 |
| Power cost | 5 Pw |
| Direction | beam |
| Equivalent | potion of healing |
In NetHack, reading a spellbook of healing allows you to learn the spell of healing. This is an emergency spell.
Generation
Healers start with a blessed spellbook of healing. Monks have a 1 in 3 chance of starting with this spellbook as well.
Effects
Healing is a directional spell that heals its target(s) for 6d4 HP and, at Skilled or higher, cures blindness.[1] This will awaken a sleeping monster without angering it. The effect is similar to an uncursed potion of healing, except that the spell cannot increase maximum HP.
Casting this spell at a tame or peaceful monster will yield an alignment bonus for each monster affected, even if it was already at maximum HP. Lawfuls and Healers gain one alignment point, while chaotics besides Healers lose one point.
Pestilence will actually take 3d4 damage from the spell of healing, with the damage halved due to his guaranteed monster magic resistance.
Strategy
Healing is the easiest spell in the healing spell school, and is thus a good spell to use to train that skill. It is also a useful utility spell in general, especially for non-spellcaster classes; being level 1, it is easy to cast, non-spellcasters will probably not be using their power pool for anything else, and being able to heal oneself is universally beneficial. Once you learn extra healing, however, this spell is useful only when conserving power, as it is otherwise inferior to the higher-level version.
Although casting this spell at yourself is the most common use, remember that it is directional; aiming it at a pet can be a viable strategy, especially in the early-game or for pacifist players.
Outside combat, it is generally unwise to heal yourself via spell unless you expect monsters to arrive in the imminent future, because the HP gained would typically regenerate faster than the Pw required to cast the spell. The main reason for doing so would be when under time pressure, such as during the ascension run, or when planning to use a confused scroll of charging to recharge Pw all at once.
Messages
- <Monster> looks better.
History
Before 3.6.2, this spell only cured blindness when cast at a monster, at any skill level. 3.6.2 also fixes a bug that prevented both this spell and the spell of extra healing from correctly healing untimed monster blindness.
See also
References
This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.4. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-364}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.
