Wisdom

Wisdom is an attribute in NetHack.

Effects

Healers, Knights, Monks, Priests, and Valkyries use Wisdom to cast spells. Wisdom is not particularly important to other classes, though it affects how fast your power regenerates (which is fairly important for roles like the Wizard in particular) and how much power you gain when leveling up.

Wisdom is one of the easiest stats to maximize, with many activities that exercise it, including engraving Elbereth (with correct capitalization) and successful searching. It can also be increased by sleeping with a foocubus. ("You will always remember the <foo>cubus...")

Messages

You feel wise! You must have been very observant.

Your wisdom has increased through exercise.

You feel foolish! You haven't been paying attention.

Your wisdom has decreased through abuse.

Exercising and abusing wisdom

Wisdom is exercised by the following:

• Completing the study of a spellbook (and more so if it refreshes memory of an already known spell)
• Successfully casting a spell
• Chatting to a coaligned priest with a good alignment record but no money
• Donating more than half your gold to a priest, but less than 200 times your level
• Being weak with hunger as a monk on a turn whose number is a multiple of 10
• Having intrinsic clairvoyance (once every five turns)
• Zapping a wand (except at yourself) or casting one of the following spells that duplicates a wand effect (except at yourself): force bolt, sleep, magic missile, knock, slow monster, wizard lock, dig, turn undead, polymorph, teleport away, cancellation, finger of death, light, detect unseen, healing, extra healing, drain life, and also stone to flesh (which the relevant source claims is a duplicate of a wand effect, even though it isn't).
• Zapping or engraving with a wand of enlightenment (if it is zapped, this is in addition to the exercise from the previous item)
• Attempting to polymorph into a genocided species
• Succeeding in polymorphing into a monster
• In a lycanthropic form, calling upon your brethren for help
• Touching your quest artifact for the first time
• Failing to enter the quest due to being too low a level or (except if you are locked out of the quest as a result) too low an alignment
• Unlocking the quest
• Discovering a trap on an object or door
• Quaffing holy water while not chaotic, nor in an undead or demonic form
• Quaffing a noncursed potion of enlightenment, or getting the effect from a fountain
• Sensing at least one monster or object with the appropriate detection potions, or the equivalent spells
• Detecting gold, food, or the map layout via any means
• Quaffing a potion of gain energy, even if cursed
• Quaffing burning oil, when polymorphed into a monster that likes fire
• Removing erosion from an object using a potion of oil
• Successfully refilling an oil lamp
• Being told a true rumor (more so if it came from the Oracle)
• Getting a non-cheapskate major consultation
• Kicking fruits such as apples and pears out of a tree
• Finding a ring in a sink, by kicking or quaffing
• Succeeding in writing a scroll or spellbook, or failing merely because the marker dried out in the process
• Giving a name to all objects of a given type, either via the #name command or when you see the object break (only one exercise for each type of item)
• Being told the amount you will have to pay for using an unpaid item in a shop
• Reading a non-blank scroll
• Getting the "You will always remember the foocubus…" (in addition to the wisdom gain) or "That was a very educational experience!" result from sex
• Sacrificing a corpse
• As a major demon, sacrificing a corpse of your own race
• Successfully converting an altar
• Gaining an artifact from your god or from a fountain
• Attempting to turn undead with a receptive god (regardless of whether the attempt succeeds or fails for other reasons)
• Calling demons as a side-effect of melee attack when polymorphed
• Eating a brain, when polymorphed into a (regular or master) mind flayer
• Finding a gem or coins in a fountain
• Gaining abilities from a magical fountain
• Gaining the see invisible intrinsic from a fountain
• Detecting monsters using a fountain
• Casting the teleport away spell using ctrl + t
• Engraving Elbereth with the correct capitalisation
• Trying to open the Castle drawbridge using music (even if the wrong tune is played)
• Finding a trap (except a statue trap that fails to activate), secret door, secret corridor, or unseen monster via searching but not when using a stethoscope
• Eating a non-cursed trident
• Dying and having your possessions identified (a bit late, isn't it?)

Wisdom is abused by the following:

• Casting a spell at a location (such as skilled fireball or cone of cold) while engulfed
• Forgetting a spell due to amnesia
• Being hit by divine lightning when attacking an aligned priest
• Being satiated as a monk on a turn whose number is a multiple of 10
• Being confused or hallucinating (once every five turns)
• Trying to saddle a foocubus
• While trapped, sitting in the trap to extend the length of time you are trapped
• Accidentally triggering a trap while trying to untrap it
• Quaffing a potion of booze
• Quaffing a cursed potion of enlightenment
• Quaffing a potion of oil, except when it's burning and you are polymorphed into a monster that likes fire
• Dipping an object into oil, unless it removes erosion from that object
• Trying to refill an oil lamp while either it or the oil is burning
• Trying to buy a major consultation from the Oracle without enough money
• Trying to write on paper which already has something written on it
• Reading a scroll of amnesia
• Being hit by a mind flayer's intelligence-draining attack
• Receiving the "Your senses are dulled" message from an attempt to have sex, in addition to the wisdom drain
• Being blasted by an artifact
• When not chaotic, sacrificing a corpse of your own race
• Failing in an attempt to convert an altar (in addition to the luck penalty)
• In a demonic or undead form, calling upon a non-chaotic god to turn undead (or any sufficiently angry god in any form)
• Throwing an egg at a monster (except if it's a cockatrice egg or it turns to stone upon impact)
• Dipping for Excalibur when not lawful, if you would have got the artifact if you were lawful
• Losing money bathing in a fountain
• Robbing a grave
• Creating undead by engraving on a gravestone
• Attempting to pick up or otherwise acquire a Rider corpse
• Using (non-tonally) a tooled horn, bugle, or leather drum
• Being told a false rumor