Ring of increase damage

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Name	increase damage
Appearance	random
Base price	150 zm
Weight	3

A ring of increase damage is a type of ring that appears in NetHack.

Generation

Wizards may be given a ring of increase damage as one of the two random rings in their starting inventory.

General stores and jewelers shops can sell rings of increase damage.

Description

A hero putting on the ring gains a flat, enchantment-based bonus or penalty to their damage with melee and projectile weapons, as well as damage dealt by unarmed combat. The ring can be charged to increase its enchantment.

A hero eating the ring has a ¹⁄₃ chance of successfully absorbing its magic and gaining a permanent damage bonus or penalty equal to its enchantment at the time. Monsters will not wear this ring.

Strategy

While an increase to damage is always beneficial, the best primary method of achieving this for a majority of heroes is simply enchanting their weapons, with the obvious exception of weaponless conduct play—the ring is still plenty of use, but is more applicable to character builds that are focused on multi-hitting attacks, such as average twoweapon combat or multishot projectiles: the damage bonus is applied per attack, thus significantly raising their damage output. Monks and their martial arts are more tailored for weaponless combat than any other role, and will appreciate a decently-enchanted ring of increase damage more than most: if the ring is silver, said martial arts will prove even more damaging against major demons, vampires and other silver-hating monsters in particular, though this requires them to take off their worn gloves.

If the ring of increase damage has an edible material from its randomized appearance, it is not uncommon for Monks and other heroes not observing polyselfless conduct to eat several of the rings for permanent damage bonuses.

Identification

The ring of increase damage has the most common base cost of rings at 150zm, and both it and many other 150zm rings do not auto-identify, making it difficult to distinguish them by price identification alone. If you have a stethoscope, you can use it to observe the damage you inflict and narrow down the enchantment of the ring (and/or your weapon, if it is not identified). While dropping the ring down a sink produces distinct messages depending on whether or not the ring's enchantment is positive or negative, a hero may not want to risk the ⁴⁄₅ chance of losing what may be a decently-charged ring.

Another option is enlightenment, which will give one of the following messages while the hero is wearing at least one ring of increase damage, provided all such worn rings have a cumulative non-zero enchantment:

Enchantment	Enlightenment Message
-13 or less	You have a huge damage penalty.
-12 to -7	You have a large damage penalty.
-6 to -4	You have a moderate damage penalty.
-3 to -1	You have a small damage penalty.
0	[no message]
1 to 3	You have a small damage bonus.
4 to 6	You have a moderate damage bonus.
7 to 12	You have a large damage bonus.
13 or more	You have a huge damage bonus.

History

The ring of increase damage first appears in Hack 1.21, which is based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial item list for Hack 1.0.

Messages

The water flow seems <smaller/greater> now.

You dropped a ring of increase damage down a sink: "smaller" is used for rings with an enchantment below +0, and "greater" is used otherwise.

Variants

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, Flame Mages, Ice Mages and Necromancers may be given a ring of increase damage as the random ring in their starting inventory.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, a ring of increase damage can be used to repair the microtargeting servos of imperial elven gauntlets, granting that ring's enchantment as a bonus to damage from all melee attacks and thrown projectiles while the gloves are worn.