Spellbook of fireball

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spellbook of
+   fireball   Light green spellbook.png
Appearance random
Abundance 2%
Base price 400 zm
Weight 50
Turns to read 14
Ink to write 20–39
Spell type attack
Level 4
Power cost 20 Pw
Direction ray/distant
This article is about the player spell. For the monster spell, see fireball (monster spell).

In NetHack, the spellbook of fireball can be read to learn the spell of fireball. It is a level 4 attack spell, and the spellbook takes 14 actions to read.

Generation

Spellbooks of fireball make up 1⁄50 (2%) of all randomly-generated spellbooks. General stores, second-hand bookstores and rare books stores can stock spellbooks of fireball.

Writing a spellbook of fireball with a magic marker uses up 20 to 39 charges.

Description

The spellbook of fireball is inherently fireproof and cannot be destroyed by sources of fire damage, e.g. a scroll of fire, a fire trap, the fireball spell itself, or even being submerged in lava.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

When successfully cast, the fireball spell behaves differently depending on the hero's skill in attack spells, which is a trait it shares with the cone of cold spell.[7][8]

Basic spell

At Basic or lower, the spell prompts the player for a cardinal direction, then shoots a ray of fire in that direction similar to zapping a wand of fire or applying a fire horn: however, unlike those items, a ray from the fireball spell deals no damage on its own, instead creating a damaging 3x3 explosion centered on the square of the first obstacle or monster that it hits.[9][10][11][12] This means that reflection will not deflect the spell.

The fireball deals 12d6 fire damage to a hero or monster caught in the explosion, with spell damage bonuses applied against monsters, unless they have fire resistance[13][14]—a hero caught in the explosion also abuses strength.[15] Potions in a victim's inventory may boil and explode as a result of the explosion, subjecting any monster or hero nearby to their vapors, while scrolls and spellbooks may be burnt and destroyed, globs of green slime may explode, and cloth and leather pieces of armor can become burnt[16]—items destroyed this way deal +1d6 for each potion, +1 for each scroll, +1 for each spellbook, and a minimum of +1 for each glob of green slime (whose value is always the glob's weight divided by 20).[17][18][19][20]

A Knight carrying the Magic Mirror of Merlin in open inventory deals double damage to monsters when casting the spell.[21][22][23] Damage from the explosion is subject to the following multipliers and bonuses:[24]

  • Damage is halved against monsters if they succeed a roll against their MR score.[25]
  • Damage is doubled against a hero or monster if one of them is currently holding the other while both of them are within the blast radius.[26][27]
  • Damage is doubled against monsters if they have cold resistance but not fire resistance.[28]
  • Additional damage is also applied against monsters for each stack of potions, spellbooks and scrolls in the monster's open inventory that are destroyed, with boiled potions emitting vapors, regardless of whether or not they have fire resistance.[29][30]

Ice in the range of the explosion will melt into pools or moats, while fountains and already-existing pools will evaporate and dry up, with pools leaving behind pits (moats are not affected), and webs will burst into flames.[31] Closed doors, loose potions, loose scrolls, loose spellbooks, and loose globs of green slime in the range of the explosion may be destroyed, with boiled potions subjecting any monster or hero nearby to their vapors, while cloth and leather items in the explosion's range may be burnt.[32][33][34] Spellbooks of fireball (as mentioned previously) and scrolls of fire cannot be destroyed by fireballs or any type of fire damage, and the Book of the Dead will generally resist all forms of destruction.[35][36]

A hero zapping the spell at themselves will take 6d6 fire damage unless they have fire resistance, and abuses strength with a 1⁄3 chance of destroying scrolls, spellbooks, potions, and globs of green slime in their inventory as described above.[37]

Advanced spell

At Skilled or higher, the player is prompted to select a square with their cursor to cast the fireball at, with the following restrictions:[38][39]

  • This location must be no more than 10 squares away.[40]
  • It must be an open space, i.e. the hero is not underwater or on the Plane of Water.[41]
  • The hero must be able to see the chosen square normally (i.e. it is lit and in their line of sight) or be able to sense a monster on it via telepathy, infravision, or monster detection.
  • If the hero is engulfed, the spell will always be cast on their square, which abuses wisdom and will have no effect on anything else besides the monster currently engulfing them.[42][43]

Choosing an invalid location will cause the spell to have no effect.[44]

Once a valid location is chosen, the spell will then produce 2 to 9 3x3 explosions of fire that create noise, with less noise made if they occur inside a monster engulfing the hero, and are centered on and immediately around the targeted square:[45][46][47][48] if there is a wall occupying any square in a straight line between the hero and the target, the explosions will instead target the square immediately before the first applicable wall.[49][50] The first explosion produced by the spell will always be centered on the target square, and the others will be centered on a random square within a 3x3 range around that target square.[51]

A hero or monster caught in any of the explosions takes (XL2+1) fire damage for each of those explosions, with spell damage bonuses applied against monsters, unless they have fire resistance[52]—a hero caught in the explosions also abuses strength for each one. These fireballs otherwise behave the same as the fireball from the basic spell.

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.

Per commit 85de51a6, invoking Fire Brand casts an Expert fireball spell at a targeted square.

Strategy

Due to the differences between the basic fireball spell and the basic cone of cold, as well as the changes to the fireball spell upon reaching Skilled in attack spells, it is worth planning out how to allot your skill slots ahead of time if you plan to make extensive use of this spell. Advancing from Basic to Skilled in attack spells deprives you of the ability to explode fireballs in dark squares, but otherwise massively increases the destructive power of the spell—at Skilled or higher, the minimum safe range to avoid being caught in the explosions is 3 squares away, and these explosions can still kill monsters standing next to you if the random explosions are positioned favorably.

For Wizards–who are the only role capable of enhancing attack spells to Expert–Skilled level is generally the highest required, as the fireball spell gains no benefit from Expert skill outside of decreased failure rates, though many Wizards will train the skill to Expert anyway if they plan to utilize the finger of death as well. An advanced fireball can also help them dispose of their quest nemesis the Dark One, who has no elemental resistances or any form of defense against the spell other than his high 80 MR score.

The basic spell can be quite useful for dealing with groups, particularly when it comes to hostile-filled special rooms—the explosion will wake most if not all of a sleeping group of monsters generated in these rooms, so you may want to clear out more troublesome or fire-resistant targets first if you have stealth. Graveyards are an especially good target due to containing vampires as well as other undead (who generally possess cold resistance, unlike vampires).

The advanced fireball spell is potentially one of the most devastating attacks available against non-resistant monsters, with even a few explosions dealing significant damage, and it is especially useful for general crowd control (e.g. when storming the Castle)—while the spell not as stellar an option in Gehennom, which frequently generates demons and other fire-resistant monsters, it is still useful against the other monsters there, including the undead of Orcus-town and the monsters within the Wizard's Tower treasure zoo.

The light spell or wand is a useful supplement for casting advanced fireballs, as it can permanently illuminate a much larger area, allowing you to cast at more distant targets—lamps can be sufficient at much shorter ranges, though the fireballs can only be safely cast at the edges of their lit area without catching yourself in the explosions. You may also generally want to avoid targeting squares near fountains if you plan on using them later, e.g. hunting for wishes. Coupling the spell with blessed monster detection makes it very easy to dispose of threats without them getting near melee range (e.g. vampires and their life-draining bite) or even being in the same room in certain instances.

Players who are concerned about destroying valuable items along with their foe will want to consider a less destructive alternative: magic missile does not affect the inventory in any way, and the cone of cold will only destroy potions—the "best" spell of the three depends entirely on the situation at hand. Magic missiles and basic cone of cold spells can also bounce to inflict extra damage via rebounds, and their base damage scales with your level, eventually surpassing fireball at higher levels; conversely, fireballs will always do a set amount of damage and cannot bounce, but also cannot miss and may inflict extra damage from destroying items. This also makes fireball a more preferable spell in more open areas with fewer or no walls, such as Medusa's Island.

History

The spellbook of fireball and its spell are introduced in NetHack 1.3d. From this version to NetHack 3.3.0, including some variants based on those versions, the spell always behaves similar to a wand of fire—the spell is changed to its current implementation as part of the Wizard Patch against NetHack 3.2.0 through NetHack 3.2.3, and NetHack 3.3.0 integrated it into the base code of NetHack.

From NetHack 3.3.0 to NetHack 3.4.3, including some variants based on those versions, the advanced cone of cold and fireball spells cannot target monsters that the hero can see via infravision or telepathy—this is bug C341-7, and was fixed in January 2004 via commit b83d8d3b. The advanced spell also ignores walls when being cast at an otherwise-valid target square, a bug that is also present in NetHack 3.6.0—this is adjusted in NetHack 3.6.1 via commit 3eb919d5 so that it explodes at the first wall between the caster and target.

Messages

<Monster> is caught in the fireball!
You cast the spell and hit a monster.
You are caught in the fireball!
You cast the spell and hit yourself, or else cast it while engulfed.
Steam billows from the fountain.
A fountain was evaporated by the spell.
The water evaporates.
A pool of water was evaporated by the spell.
Some water evaporates
A moat was in the range of the spell's explosions.
You hear hissing gas.
As above, but the source of water was out of sight.
The door is consumed in flames!
A closed door was caught in an explosion.
You smell smoke.
As above, but the door was out of sight.
You see a puff of smoke.
You destroyed a book or scroll.
You smell a whiff of smoke.
As above, but the book or scroll was out of sight.

Advanced spell

Your mind fails to lock onto that location!
You tried to cast the advanced spell at a location you couldn't see.
The spell dissipates over the distance!
You tried to cast the advanced spell over too great a distance.
You're joking! In this weather?
You tried to cast the advanced spell while underwater.
You had better wait for the sun to come out.
You tried to cast the advanced spell on the Plane of Water.
The spell is cut short!
You cast the advanced spell while engulfed.
<The monster> gets <heartburn/slightly toasted>!
The engulfer was hit by the advanced spell as above, with the wording used depending on if the engulfer is an animal or not.

Variants

Variants of NetHack may make adjustments to the basic and advanced versions of the fireball spell.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, the fireball spell is re-categorized to a level 4 matter spell.

Flame Mages start the game with a blessed spellbook of cone of cold, and the spell acts as the role's special spell.[53][54]

The fireball spell is compatible with the sigil of control, sigil of tempest and sigil of discharge techniques.

The wand of fireball is a type of wand that emulates the basic fireball spell when zapped.

All of the above information also applies to SlashTHEM.

Message

You yell "The rage of Huitzilopochtli!"
You cast fireball with the sigil of discharge active.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, the effects of advanced fireball are split off and made into a separate own spell, fire storm—both spells can be learned from a spellbook of fireball if the hero is Skilled or better in attack spells and is a Wizard, a neutral Undead Hunter with 6+ parasites implanted, or has the spirit Paimon bound.

Carrying The Fire Crystal grants both knowledge of the fireball spell and bonuses for casting the spell. Wearing Narya massively lowers the failure rate of the fireball and fire storm spell, guaranteeing the ability to cast fireball at 0% fail rate for almost any hero.

Items that have the "blast" object property will grant knowledge of the fireball spell, as well as a large boost to success rates for casting fireball and fire storm, while they are worn.

Invoking Tobiume casts the fireball spell using the higher between the hero's attack spell and long sword skill levels. If the hero's skill level is appropriate, this will instead cast the fire storm spell, dealing (XL/2)+10 damage per explosion with the artifact's enchantment added as a bonus—the amount of fireballs depends on the skill level used, with 3 or 4 for Basic, 5-8 for Skilled, and 7-12 for Expert.

The eldritch style knightly stance can be used to add fire damage to wielded weapons via the fireball spell, at the cost of some power.

FIQHack

In FIQHack, monsters can use the same set of spells as the hero, with skill levels to match, and can learn and utilize the fireball spell.

Thoth Amon and the Dark One will always have the fireball spell.

notdNetHack

In notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, in addition to dNetHack details, the fireball spell is the salamander's special spell.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, the hero can choose whether to cast the basic or advanced fireball while they are at Skilled level in attack spells.

The fireball spell is the Infidel's special spell, and they receive a spellbook of fireball as their default crowning gift unless they are draugr.

Hack'EM

In Hack'EM, the fire is changed to a level 4 matter spell as in SLASH'EM, and remains the Infidel's special spell and crowning gift with the same conditions as in EvilHack. The Flame Mage's special spell is changed to enlighten.

Flame Mages start the game with a blessed spellbook of fireball as in SLASH'EM.

Ice Mages cannot read the spellbook for fireball or any other fire-based spells.

References

  1. ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1718
  2. ↑ src/trap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3371
  3. ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 5288
  4. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3920
  5. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4838
  6. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 5077
  7. ↑ src/spell.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1049: code block for explosions at Skilled or higher; falls through to wand equivalent at levels below Skilled
  8. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3029
  9. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4113
  10. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4121
  11. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4250
  12. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4258
  13. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4297
  14. ↑ src/explode.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 130
  15. ↑ src/explode.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 558
  16. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4835
  17. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4848
  18. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4852
  19. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4856
  20. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4860
  21. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 142
  22. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 170
  23. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3750
  24. ↑ src/spell.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1063
  25. ↑ src/explode.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 425
  26. ↑ src/explode.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 434
  27. ↑ src/explode.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 516
  28. ↑ src/explode.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 440
  29. ↑ src/explode.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 409-L411
  30. ↑ src/explode.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 503-L507
  31. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4438
  32. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3917
  33. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4629
  34. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4700
  35. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4836
  36. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 4840
  37. ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2311-L2314
  38. ↑ src/spell.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1050
  39. ↑ src/spell.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1231
  40. ↑ src/spell.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1250
  41. ↑ src/spell.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1236
  42. ↑ src/spell.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1253
  43. ↑ src/explode.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 136
  44. ↑ src/spell.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1259
  45. ↑ src/spell.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1053
  46. ↑ src/spell.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1068
  47. ↑ src/explode.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 570
  48. ↑ src/explode.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 575
  49. ↑ src/spell.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1269
  50. ↑ src/dothrow.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 453
  51. ↑ src/spell.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1070
  52. ↑ src/spell.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1065
  53. ↑ u_init.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 71
  54. ↑ role.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 143

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