Spellbook of turn undead
| spellbook of + turn undead 
| |
|---|---|
| Appearance | random |
| Abundance | 1.6% |
| Base price | 600 zm |
| Weight | 50 |
| Turns to read | 50 |
| Ink to write | 30–59 |
| Spell type | clerical |
| Level | 6 |
| Power cost | 30 Pw |
| Direction | beam |
| Equivalent | wand of undead turning |
| Special for | Knight |
In NetHack, the spellbook of turn undead can be read to learn the spell of turn undead. It is a level 6 clerical spell, and the spellbook takes 50 actions to read. It is the special spell for Knights.
Contents
Generation
Spellbooks of turn undead make up 2⁄125 (1.6%) of all randomly-generated spellbooks. General stores, second-hand bookstores and rare books stores can stock spellbooks of turn undead.
An aligned priest can be generated with the spellbook of turn undead as one of their spellbooks.[1]
Writing a spellbook of turn undead with a magic marker uses up 30 to 59 charges.
Description
The spell of turn undead behaves similarly to zapping a wand of undead turning:[2][3][4] Successfully casting the spell prompts the player for a cardinal direction to fire the beam in, and the beam deals 1d8 damage (with spell damage bonuses applied against monsters[5]) to any undead monsters and shapeshifted vampires that it hits, followed by scaring them into fleeing if they fail a check against their MR score.[6][7][8] A Knight carrying the Magic Mirror of Merlin in open inventory deals double damage to monsters when casting the spell.[9][10]
As with the wand, the spell's beam can also "unturn dead", and will both rejuvenate eggs and revive corpses into their appropriate monsters.[11][12][13] The ghost of a hero whose bones are found can be revived as a player monster this way if they are close enough to their original body.[14][15] Sea monsters will only revive from their corpses if they are in a pool or moat.[16] Only one corpse in a stack will be revived at a time.[17]
A hero zapping themselves with the spell will stun themselves for up to 30 more turns if they are polymorphed into an undead monster, and otherwise has no effect on them beyond a printed message.[18] Corpses and eggs in their open inventory will be revived or rejuvenated as above.
Strategy
The spell of turn undead is not especially useful as an offensive tool, similar to the wand of undead turning: while the wand is the more energy-efficient method of the two for this purpose, with the spell costing a hefty 30 energy and 60 nutrition; most other attack wands and attack spells can deal more damage to undead monsters for less investment. The spell is generally used to revive the corpse of a fallen pet (though it may need to be re-tamed depending on their previous tameness and any pet abuse), or else resurrect a very large hostile monster such as a giant or dragon to kill again so that it leaves a fresher corpse to eat or sacrifice. Spellcasting heroes with high energy that have trained to Skilled in clerical spells will be most likely to consider using this spell over the wand.
Though the spell can be used to farm unicorns and adult dragons for unicorn horns and dragon scales respectively, there is a significant drawback: revived unicorns have a 1⁄2 chance of not dropping a horn upon death, and the horns that do drop will count as non-magical tools for polypiling purposes, while revived dragons will only drop scales 1⁄20 of the time.[19] The spell also has some optional niche uses in credit cloning: leave some gold in a shop to establish credit, then have a hostile gold lover monster take it—lure the monster out, kill them, replace the gold within the shop, then revive the monster and repeat as necessary; best results are achieved using larger gold-loving monsters such as centaurs, dragons and ogres.
History
The spellbook of turn undead and its spell are introduced in NetHack 1.3d.
From this version to NetHack 3.4.3, including some variants based on those versions, sea monsters will revive even while on land—this is instrumental in enabling kraken farming by generating kraken (often via reverse genocide) and then repeatedly reviving and killing them using this spell and the finger of death spell. The inability of sea monsters to revive on land is added in NetHack 3.6.0 via commit 772fea03 in order to deter this strategy, since being forced to kill and/or revive a kraken in water puts the hero at risk of potential drowning attacks.
Origin
The spell of turn undead originates in Dungeons & Dragons.
Messages
Variants
Variants of NetHack may adjust the level of the turn undead spell.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, the spell of turn undead is re-categorized to a level 6 protection spell. It is the special spell of Undead Slayers as well as Knights.[20]
GruntHack
In GruntHack, some monsters can use the same set of spells as the hero, including the turn undead spell.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, monster corpses that are drained by a vampire hero may fail to revive when subjected to the turn undead spell, and has a chance of being destroyed instead—the chance of failure is 1⁄3 for partially drained corpses and 2⁄3 for fully drained ones, with a subsequent 1⁄2 chance of the corpse being destroyed.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, the spell of turn undead is changed to a level 2 clerical spell.
Drow Healer women can start the game having forgotten the spell of turn undead.
Two artifacts have effects similar to the spell:
- Invoking the Wrappings of the Sacred Fist fires a beam in a given cardinal direction that behaves exactly like the turn undead spell.
- Invoking The Claws of the Revenancer can resurrect corpses on a selected square or in a monster's inventory on that square, similar to the "unturn dead" effects of the spell.
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 turn undead spell.
xNetHack
In xNetHack, the spell of turn undead is changed to a level 2 clerical spell.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, the spell of turn undead is changed to a level 4 clerical spell, and its damage scales with the clerical spell skill of the caster.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, the spell of turn undead is also the special spell of the Undertaker and Warrior roles.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, the spell of turn undead is changed to a level 6 necromancy spell.
References
- ↑ src/priest.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 264
- ↑ src/spell.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1098
- ↑ src/spell.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1137: all directional spells and wand equivalents fall through to this line
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 205
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 215
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 209
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 212
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 218
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 142
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 215
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 207
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 961: unturn_dead function
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2002
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 877
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 885
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 786
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 988
- ↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2464
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 325
- ↑ role.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 479
