Spellbook of stone to flesh

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spellbook of
+   stone to flesh   Light green spellbook.png
Appearance random
Abundance 1.52%
Base price 300 zm
Weight 50
Turns to read 2
Ink to write 15–29
Spell type healing
Level 3
Power cost 15 Pw
Direction beam

The spellbook of stone to flesh is one of the Healer's guaranteed starting spells, and an all-round useful spell to know. Besides halting the stiffening process when cast on yourself, the spell will transform items made of mineral or gemstone material into monsters or meat.

Effects

  • A statue, whether generated as such or formed by stoning, is revived or brought to life as the creature depicted. If a tame pet gets turned to stone, this will restore it to its original state. If the creature is of a genocided species, this won't work; the statue will be transformed into an appropriate corpse if possible, or remain unchanged if that monster cannot leave a corpse. Additionally, if the monster is considered vegetarian food (and hence not fleshy) the statue will be turned into a single meatball instead[1]. If the statue is of a unique monster or a quest guardian it will reanimate as a disguised doppelganger instead of the real creature, unless the statue was created by stoning that creature.
  • A stone golem becomes a flesh golem.
  • A boulder becomes a huge chunk of meat.
  • A rock, gray stone of any type, or valuable gem (not including worthless pieces of glass), becomes a meatball.
  • A ring made of mineral or gemstone material becomes a meat ring.
  • A marble wand becomes a meat stick.
  • When cast on yourself, any ongoing stiffening process is cancelled, and any susceptible items in open inventory are transformed as well.

Possible uses

  • Stopping the stiffening process. Unlike eating a lizard corpse or quaffing a potion of acid, this will turn your stone wands, stone rings, and valuable gems to meat objects; on the whole, however, it's better than being a statue.
  • Disposing of boulders blocking your path. If in Sokoban, this carries the standard -1 luck penalty.
  • Turning boulders into huge chunks of meat. These give enormous amounts of nutrition, so beware of choking to death.
  • Turning rocks into meatballs. These give little nutrition, but are considered treats by carnivorous monsters, and can thus be used to tame or train pets. Also, getting a few stacks of meatballs and polypiling them for a little while can yield enough lembas wafers to last the entire game.
  • Getting rid of a carried cursed loadstone.
  • Getting rid of a cursed harmful ring made of gemstone or mineral material -- it will turn into a harmless meat ring, which will still be cursed but can be eaten to get rid of it.
  • Identifying gems -- valuable gems become meatballs, while glass is unaffected. This does not identify types of gems, either formally or informally, and of course results in the loss of the formerly valuable gems. The best strategy for this method of identification is to type-name all gems in your possession to "valuable" (or append "valuable" to their type-names), then place one representative from each stack in a pile. Cast the spell at the pile, and type-name any remaining gems to "worthless".
  • Turning a statue into the creature it depicts, especially a petrified pet.
  • Uncancelling or transporting a monster by first stoning it and then stone-to-fleshing the resulting statue. This does not work on nymphs and foocubi, and temple priests will stop tending their altar.
  • Turning a stone golem into a somewhat less threatening flesh golem, the corpse of which may also provide useful intrinsics.

Other messages

Blood pools at your feet.
You cast the spell downwards ('>') while standing on a normal square, sink, fountain or randomly generated grave. Casting while over a bones grave does not produce any message. In either case, there is no effect besides (not) generating the message.
Blood drips on your <face>.
You cast the spell upwards ('<') in a normal level (not as part of the Endgame). (<Face> is adjusted for the appropriate body part if polymorphed.) There is no other effect.
You smell a delicious smell.
Casting the spell turned something to meat (as opposed to animating a statue).
You smell the odor of meat.
As above, except you have been vegetarian.

See Also

  • A statue trap will stone-to-flesh the topmost statue when activated. You can throw a statue onto the square to exploit this.

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.

It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.4.3. Information on this page may be out of date.

Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-343}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.