Hexagram

In dNetHack, notdNetHack, and notnotdNetHack, the hexagram is a ward which scares some monsters when engraved on the floor. Hexagrams can be reinforced up to 7-fold, with each level of reinforcement taking 12 strokes to draw. With a fast engraving tool each reinforcement takes 1 turn, or 12 turns with a slow engraving tool. It gains no secondary effects at higher levels of reinforcement.

The following monsters are warded by hexagrams:

• minions, including
  • 7 lawful angels and minions
  • 9 neutral angels and minions
  • A chaotic angels and minions
• i minor demons
• & major demons
• ' golems
• K Keter Sephiroth, except: K Chokhmah Sephirah
• other monsters:
  • d hell hound and d hell hound pup
  • f son of Typhon
  • Q quantum mechanic
  • e eye of doom

Generation

Scrolls of hexagram make up only ¹⁄₂₄ (~4.2%) of all randomly generated scrolls of warding. Writing a scroll of hexagram with a magic marker costs 8 charges. Scrolls of hexagram can be wished for.

Hexagrams only appear in spellbooks of level 6 and above. Level 6 spellbooks have a ¹⁄₉ chance of containing a hexagram, while level 7 spellbooks only have a ¹⁄₁₂ chance.

Hexagram, along with many other wards, can be learned from the Necronomicon's option to "Study up on ancient warding signs".

Successfull prayer has a chance to teach the hexagram ward. If a prayer would grant an intrinsic and the hero already has intrinsic telepathy, speed, and stealth, and already knows the hamsa ward, the hexagram is taught.

Description

Standing on a square with a hexagram engraved prevents Pale Night's seduction attack.

Like the Circle of Acheron and Heptagram, Hexagrams guard against the touch of death spell, preventing monsters from casting them.

Hexagrams appear as "x-fold hexagram" on the floor.

Messages

Thou hast pleased me with thy progress, and thus I grant thee the gift of the Hexagram ward! Use it wisely in my name!

You prayed and were given knowledge of the hexagram ward.

Rumors

They say that even the servents of the Utmost Law respect the hexagram.

Angels of all alignment are scared by hexagrams.

Encyclopedia entry

The hexagram is based on the triangle gestalt. The earliest
examples found are dated back to around 800-600 B.C.
If the structure had been designed by a process of random
experimentation with the basic gestalt, the hexagram as
graphically simpler than the pentagram would have been
created long before it. Present archeological and historical
facts, however, indicate that it first appeared at least
3,000 years later than the pentgram. It is sometimes reffered
to as Solomon's seal, though the sign on Solomon's seal is
believed to have been a pentagram, and it is frequently used
in the magic formulas in the old book of witchcraft,
The Key of Solomon.

    The alchemists of the Middle Ages used the hexagram first and
foremost as a general symbol representing the art of alchemy
and secondly as a sign for combinations of water and fire.
Combined these two triangles formed the symbol for fire water,
the essence or spiritus of wine: alcohol. It was also used as
a sign for quintessence, the fifth element.
[ Adapted from symbols.com, the online encyclopedia of
Western signs and ideograms ]

Composed of just twelve strokes, the hexagram can be drawn
fairly quickly. It may be reinforced up to seven times.