Curse items
Curse items is a monster spell that appears in NetHack.
Contents
Description
Curse items is a melee-range spell that can be used by any monster of a sufficient level that can cast spells: monsters that cast mage spells must be at least level 10, and monsters that cast clerical spells must be at least level 9.[1][2][3][4]
When cast, the spell targets up to to 6 non-cursed item slots in the hero's open inventory with the exception of their gold, with a separate 1⁄4 of affecting a steed's saddle if the hero is mounted:[5][6][7] this is reduced to a maximum of three items a hero that has either half spell damage or magic resistance, or two for a hero with both properties. Targeted items that are blessed will become uncursed, and uncursed items will become cursed.[8]
Intelligent artifacts each have a 4⁄5 chance of individually resisting the effect of the spell, and wielding Magicbane has a 19⁄20 chance of the artifact absorbing the spell's effect and nullifying it entirely.[9][10]
Strategy
Curse items one of the most despised monster spells, due to the various annoying and detrimental effects of curse items: cursed rings and armor will become welded to your finger, cursed weapons will additionally disrupt two-weaponing when welded to you, and cursed food confers less nutrition and may render you unconscious. Cursed tools also become more of a hindrance, with unicorn horns made less effective or even harmful; a bag of holding in particular becomes much heavier if unblessed or cursed, which can slow a character down a cursed bag of holding also risks the loss of some of its contents each time you open it.
In addition to magic resistance and half spell damage, blessing your inventory can provide a cushion of sorts against the spell, since blessed items must be unblessed before they can be made cursed. The contents of bags and other containers are not targeted by this spell, so it is worth bagging certain items when facing spellcasters to avoid having them cursed - a sack is most ideal for quick stashing, since it has no adverse effects while cursed; an oilskin sack can also suffice, though it only prevents water damage 2⁄3 of the time while cursed. Spare sacks are also useful for keeping curse removal items in, such as holy water or a blessed scroll of remove curse, to pull out or tip at a moment's notice. You can also place your bag of holding in a sack if you fear it may be targeted by the spell and become heavier as a result, though this increases the amount of time required to grab any necessary items from it.
Characters that can learn and reliably cast the remove curse spell will want to keep some energy available to cast it when needed, and must take care to have at least one hand free. Two-handed weapons are considered unpopular due in part to this mechanic, and due to severely restricting a hero's options in general if a wielded one becomes cursed—with this in mind, a character with a cursed two-handed weapon, or a cursed weapon and a cursed shield, can still access their emergency bag's contents via the #tip extended command and pick up their curse removal items to use.
A very uncommon tactic to minimize the effects of this spell is to fill up inventory slots with individual items that are light and easily obtainable in large numbers (e.g., arrows, darts, gems), then name them each so that they do not stack in order to reduce the odds of a valuable item being affected. A similarly uncommon tactic is using a hostile caster in order to deliberately curse certain items for their alternate effects, which is typically set up in a controlled environment to both avoid more dangerous spells and prevent hostile monsters that are troublesome and/or even stronger from appearing.
Messages
- You feel as if you need some help.
- A monster cast the spell at you.
- You feel a malignant aura surround you.
- The spell was weakened by magic resistance.
- You feel a malignant aura surround the magic-absorbing blade.
- Magicbane caught and nullified the cursing effect.
- <The artifact> resists!
- An intelligent artifact resisted being cursed by the spell.
Variants
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, an already-cursed container targeted by the curse items monster spell will have one random item inside it cursed. This can theoretically happen recursively if a hero has nested cursed containers—for those double-bagging to protect their bag of holding, it is important that the bag containing the bag of holding remains non-cursed.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, curse items can be cast at a range of roughly five squares, and there are several sources of curse resistance that can block the spell's effect outright.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, spellcasters will use curse items and many other monster spells against other monsters.
Additionally, the Infidel is a role that is weldproof and can freely wear and remove cursed items, and their god Moloch treats cursed items the way other deities treat blessed items and vice versa - in short, Infidels actually prefer certain items to be cursed, and on paper stand to benefit from the curse item spell and other similar effects.
All of the above information also applies to Hack'EM.
References
- ↑ src/mcastu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 17: mage spell list
- ↑ src/mcastu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 32: clerical spell list
- ↑ src/mcastu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 112: mage spell cases
- ↑ src/mcastu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 158: clerical spell cases
- ↑ src/sit.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 368
- ↑ src/sit.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 356
- ↑ src/sit.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 386
- ↑ src/sit.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 377
- ↑ src/sit.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 339
- ↑ src/sit.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 371
