Ring of protection
A ring of protection is a type of ring that appears in NetHack.
Contents
Generation
Wizards may be given a ring of protection as one of the two random rings in their starting inventory.[1]
General stores and jewelers shops can sell rings of protection.
Description
A hero putting on a ring of protection has their AC augmented by the ring's enchantment[2][3]—their magic cancellation is also increased by 1 regardless of enchantment, which does not stack with other rings of protection or sources of protection. Putting on or removing the ring will auto-identify it if its enchantment is non-zero and the hero can see the ring.[4][5] The ring's enchantment can be altered with charging, and wearing the ring will only induce ring hunger if it has a non-zero enchantment. Monsters will not wear this ring.
A hero eating the ring has a 1⁄3 chance of successfully absorbing its magic and adding that ring's enchantment to their intrinsic protection, with diminishing returns if the hero already has a high level of intrinsic protection:[6][7] specifically, if the bonus from absorbing a positively-enchanted ring's power by eating it would place the hero at 10 or more points of intrinsic protection, the bonus is reduced to a random number between 1 and that ring's enchantment; if the bonus would place the hero at 20 or more points of protection, they have a x - 1x chance (where x is the ring's enchantment - 1) of gaining any bonus at all, and will only gain a single extra point of protection; and if the bonus would place the hero at 40 or more points of protection, then no bonus is gained.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.
A +0 ring of protection now causes ring hunger if it is your only source of extrinsic protection. If you are wearing two rings of protection and the one on your left hand is +0, ring hunger applies to it, even if the right ring is charged.Strategy
The ring of protection is generally more useful early on for a hero who wants as much AC as possible and does not urgently require ring slots for other properties—as the hero establishes and enchants their desired set of armor and buys intrinsic protection from aligned priests in temples, the ring becomes more useful for polypiling, though it can still be used in combination with an MC2 cloak for MC3 until protection is bought.
Depending on their material and how many rings are available, some players may optionally consider amassing and charging rings of protection in order to polymorph and eat for intrinsic protection—this is primarily of interest to nudist conduct heroes, since they will not be able to gain AC from armor.
History
The ring of protection first appears in Hack 1.21 and Hack for PDP-11, which are based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial item list for Hack 1.0. From this version to NetHack 3.4.3, including some variants based on those versions, the ring of protection has no effect on magic cancellation.
The ring of protection augmenting magic cancellation is introduced in NetHack 3.6.0.
Messages
- The sink glows <silver/black> for a moment.
- You dropped a ring of protection down a sink, and the sink glows black if its enchantment is negative, or silver otherwise.
Variants
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, a ring of protection can be used to repair the deflector system of imperial elven body armor, granting it a bonus to its AC while worn that is equal to the ring's enchantment and stacks with normal bonuses to the armor's AC and DR from its own enchantment.
References
- Jump up ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 165
- Jump up ↑ src/do_wear.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2128
- Jump up ↑ src/do_wear.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2130
- Jump up ↑ src/do_wear.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 988
- Jump up ↑ src/do_wear.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1095
- Jump up ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1896
- Jump up ↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2030
