wan2-343.txt  Last edited 2006-08-17 for NetHack 3.4.3
Breaking wands, cancelling, and polymorphing in NetHack 3.4
Compiled for 3.2.2 by Kevin Hugo.
Updated for 3.4.3 by Dylan O'Donnell <[email protected]>.

Breaking wands
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Adapted from a spoiler by Jeffrey Robertson.)

You can destroy a wand by (a)pplying it.  You will be prompted for
confirmation, and you must have hands and a strength of at least 10.
Wands with no charges and some wands listed below have no effect ("But
nothing else happens...").

Most wands will produce an explosion when broken.  The explosion causes
damage to yourself and any monsters that were in the adjacent squares
when you broke the wand.  This damage can be reduced or eliminated if
you (or the monster) has an appropriate resistance.  Damage is also
reduced to 1/2 for Healers and Knights and to 1/5 for Monks, Priests,
and Wizards.  Further effects can occur as if you had zapped yourself
with the wand.  The explosion can also affect objects in your inventory,
on your square, and on adjacent squares, and affect locations as if they
were zapped.  Finally, some types of wands have explosions that make you
identify the wand.

Specific effects are detailed below.  In any case, you destroy the wand
and owe the cost if it was unpaid.

WAND                   EFFECTS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  ~~~~~~~
cancellation           There is an explosion from 1 to (4*charges) damage.
                      Monsters and objects in the affected squares are
                      cancelled.

cold                   There is an explosion of cold with (8 * charges)
                      damage.
                      Potions may freeze.
                      You identify the wand.

create monster         There is an explosion from 1 to (4*charges) damage.
                      You are surrounded by monsters.

death                  There is an explosion of death with (16 * charges)
                      damage. Non-living monsters and demons resist this
                      damage.
                      You identify the wand.

digging                There is an explosion from 1 to (4*charges) damage.
                      You are surrounded by pits and holes.

enlightenment          No effects.

fire                   There is an explosion of fire with (8 * charges)
                      damage.
                      Armor, scrolls and spellbooks may burn.
                      Potions may boil.
                      Burns away slime.
                      You identify the wand.

light                  There is an explosion from 1 to (4*charges) damage.
                      You are blinded for (charges+1)d25 turns;
                      surrounding monsters may also be blinded, and
                      gremlins take damage.
                      The room is lit.

lightning              There is an explosion of lightning with (16 *
                      charges) damage.
                      Rings and other wands may explode.
                      You are blinded.
                      You identify the wand.

locking                No effects.

magic missile          There is an explosion of magic missiles with
                      (4 * charges) damage.
                      You identify the wand.

make invisible         There is an explosion from 1 to (4*charges) damage.
                      You and surrounding monsters are made invisible (in
                      your case, a 10% chance of its being permanent, a 90%
                      chance of it lasting for (charges) to (250*charges)
                      (more) turns).

nothing                No effects.

opening                No effects.

polymorph              There is an explosion from 1 to (4*charges) damage.
                      Monsters and objects in the affected squares are
                      polymorphed.

probing                No effects.

secret door detection  No effects.

sleep                  There is an explosion from 1 to (4*charges) damage.
                      You and surrounding monsters may be put to sleep.

slow monster           There is an explosion from 1 to (4*charges) damage.
                      You and surrounding monsters are slowed.

speed monster          There is an explosion from 1 to (4*charges) damage.
                      You and surrounding monsters are sped up.

striking               "A wall of force smashes down around you!"
                      There is an explosion from 1 to (charges+1)d6
                      damage.
                      You and surrounding monsters are hit by a force
                      bolt.
                      Fragile objects in your and adjacent squares may
                      be destroyed.

teleportation          There is an explosion from 1 to (4*charges) damage.
                      Monsters and objects in the affected squares are
                      teleported.

undead turning         There is an explosion from 1 to (4*charges) damage.
                      Monsters and objects in the affected squares are
                      turned.

wishing                No effects.  Not really a good idea.


Cancelling
~~~~~~~~~~
(Adapted from the spoiler "cancel", by Boudewijn Waijers.)

Monsters (including you) can be cancelled when hit by wands or spells of
cancellation, and sometimes by Magicbane.  The monster may resist.  Also,
when a gremlin (including you) manages to steal an intrinsic from a
monster, the monster is automatically cancelled as well.  Cancelled
monsters cannot use most of their special attacks against you (ongoing
effects of previous attacks will continue, however):
 Blind you with light
 Cast spells at you
 Charm you
 Confuse you
 Drain your constitution
 Drain your dexterity
 Explode in your face
 Paralyse you
 Poison you
 Put you to sleep
 Rust, rot or disenchant something, offensive or defensive
 Seduce you
 Slime you
 Slow you down
 Spit at you
 Steal an item (other than the Unique Items)
 Steal intrinsics
 Steal your gold
 Stick to you
 Stun you
 Teleport you away
 Use acid offensively against you
 Use its breath weapon
 Use its cold attack, offensive or defensive
 Use its electricity attack, offensive or defensive
 Use its fire attack or gaze, offensive or defensive
 Wrap itself around you
Many monsters also lose abilities specific to their species as well:
 Medusa's gaze cannot turn you to stone
 Medusa cannot be turned to stone with a reflecting item
 A black or brown pudding cannot divide
 A clay golem will die
 A chickatrice or cockatrice can't turn you to stone by hissing
 A demon cannot summon other demons
 A floating eye cannot be paralysed with a mirror
 A lycanthrope cannot change you into another one
 A lycanthrope cannot summon help
 A lycanthrope cannot polymorph into their wereform by attacking
 A mimic cannot revert to mimicking an object
 A nurse won't heal you with its attack
 A nymph or succubus won't steal your mirror if you apply it
 A tengu cannot teleport
 An umber hulk cannot be confused with a mirror
 A xan's prick doesn't weaken you

Note that some attacks aren't susceptible to cancellation:
 Defensive acid splashing
 Disease attacks
 Famine's hunger attack
 Mind-flaying attacks
 Physical blinding attacks
 Physical damage attacks
 The Oracle's magic defences
 Touch of Death
 Wizard or Quest Nemesis stealing the Amulet, Bell, Book or Candelabrum

When a monster cannot use a certain attack on you, it normally cannot
use it on another monster either.

A wand or spell of cancellation will also affect objects on the floor, or
objects in your inventory if you zap yourself.  However, it does not
affect other monster's inventories or the contents of containers.
Affected objects will always become uncursed.  Specific effects are
described below:
 OBJECT                     RESULT
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  ~~~~~~
 weapon                     uncursed +0 weapon, same erodeproofing
 armor                      uncursed +0 armor, same erodeproofing
 scroll of mail             uncursed scroll of mail
 other scrolls              uncursed scroll of blank paper
 spellbook of cancellation  uncursed spellbook of cancellation
 Book of the Dead           uncursed Book of the Dead
 other spellbooks           uncursed spellbook of blank paper
 potion of sickness         uncursed potion of fruit juice, same dilution
 potion of see invisible    uncursed potion of fruit juice, same dilution
 potion of fruit juice      uncursed potion of fruit juice, same dilution
 potion of booze            uncursed potion of booze, same dilution
 potion of oil              uncursed potion of oil, same dilution
 other potions              uncursed potion of water
 charged ring               uncursed +0 ring
 wand of cancellation       uncursed, still charged
 other wands                uncursed, uncharged, can't wrest last charge
 Bell of Opening            uncursed Bell of Opening (0)
 Candelabrum of Invocation  uncursed, same number of candles attached
 charged magic tools        uncursed, uncharged
 charged non-magic tools    uncursed, still charged
 uncharged tools            uncursed, unaltered
 containers                 uncursed, still same type, contents unchanged

Note that cancellation won't work on corpses; if it is resurrected, the
monster will still function exactly the same as if the monster had
not been cancelled when it was still alive.


Polymorphing
~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can use a wand or spell of polymorph on both monsters and objects.
The beam acts over a maximum distance of 6 to 13 squares, and cannot be
reflected.  Polymorph traps may also affect monsters, but not objects.
Potions of polymorph can be quaffed to polymorph yourself, thrown at
a target, or used to dip an object into. Quaffing from a sink has a
1/20 chance of polymorphing you.

When a monster (including you) is affected, the monster may change into a
different species.  Magic resistance will prevent a monster from
polymorphing, unless the monster zapped itself (or yourself).  Some
monsters may also resist the attack, as well.  A polymorphing monster has
a 1/25 chance of dying of system shock, unless it is a natural
shapeshifter.  Objects in the monster's or your inventory are not affected,
nor are objects dropped as a result of the polymorph.

There are several special cases when you are polymorphed.  If you are
wearing an amulet of unchanging, you will not polymorph.  If you have
polymorph control, you can choose the creature you wish to be polymorphed
into.  If you are wearing dragon armour, you will become that type of
dragon (unless you have polymorph control) and will lose your cloak and
shirt; the armour will merge with your skin and be unharmed if not
broken by a further polymorph.  If you have lycanthropy, you turn into
that were-creature (or vice versa); if you are a vampire, you become a
vampire bat (or vice versa).  If you have none of the above, you have
a (19 - Constitution) in 20 chance of getting system shock ("You shudder
for a moment", lose 1 to 30 HP, and abuse your constitution); if this
does not occur, there is a 1/5 chance (which also applies to controlled
polymorphs) that you become a "new man/woman/<race>" rather than a
different monster, and your level, hit points, energy, and statistics will
be randomly adjusted.

How long you are polymorphed depends on your experience level and the
level of the monster you became (this prevents abuse by low-level
characters); you will not revert while you have unchanging.  You can
always return to your natural form by losing all of your hit points
(in a pinch by throwing objects upwards (<) and letting them hit you)
unless you have unchanging; in this case, you will simply die.  Other
monsters remain the same species indefinitely (except true shapeshifters).

You can also polymorph objects.  Many people call this "polypiling",
because they painstakingly collect items, line them up into several
piles, and polymorph them all at once.  Each item may become a new item
in the same object class.  The objects retain their blessed/cursed state,
erosion, erosionproofing, traps, and poisoning.  Wands keep their number
of charges, whereas weapons and armor keep their enchantment.  Worn items
are removed on polymorphing.  Magical objects (see the next section) will
tend not to polymorph into non-magical ones, and vice versa; the
probabilities of this for the object classes that have members of each
kind are as below.

class       magical -> non-magical  non-magical -> magical
~~~~~     : ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
armour    :        54%                        0.6%
gem       :        92%                      negligible
potion    :       1.7%                         41%
scroll    :     negligible                     92%
spellbook :     negligible                     95%
tool      :        60%                        0.3%
wand      :     negligible                     93%

You will eventually lose some objects.  Items appearing in quantities of
2 or more have a (quantity in 1000) chance of merging into one object.
Items also have a probability of "shuddering": 1/3 if a wand or cursed,
1/8 if uncursed, 1/12 if blessed (if in quantities greater than 4, 100%,
1/4, and 1/6, respectively).  This will decrease the quantity of the item
randomly, cause any remainder not to be polymorphed, and has a one in
(luck + 45) chance per object of creating a golem from the material of
the shuddered item (provided at least two items total remain in the pile).
Scrolls of mail will never merge or shudder.

There are some limitations to polypiling.  You can't change scrolls of
mail, wands of polymorph, potions of polymorph, spellbooks of polymorph,
Rider corpses, the invocation items, or the Amulet of Yendor.  Artifacts
have a much higher chance of resisting polymorph than non-artifacts; the
result of a polymorph will never be an artifact.  Eggs laid by you become
other types of eggs, still laid by you.  Spellbooks will become more faded,
wands have their recharge count incremented.  Magic markers will be
considered to have been recharged once.  Crocodile corpses become
non-cursed fireproof +0 low boots.  Containers lose all of their contents.
There are limits to converting stones (e.g. rocks and luckstones) into
gems and glass; you won't get more than four.  Note that balls and chains
become (surprise!) balls and chains.  You can never create the following
objects through polypiling:
 magic lamps           wands of wishing         wands of polymorph
 potions of polymorph  spellbooks of polymorph
and, since the probabilities of the new item are the same as for random
generation of that object class, you'll never get anything you wouldn't
find randomly created in the dungeon either.


Magical objects
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Adapted from a spoiler by Peter Snelling)

To maximise the results from polymorphing objects, it's useful to know
which objects the game considers "magical" and which not.

Magical armour (all other being non-magical):
 cloak of displacement          dunce cap
 alchemy smock                  cornuthaum
 cloak of invisibility          helm of brilliance
 cloak of magic resistance      helm of opposite alignment
 elven cloak                    helm of telepathy
 robe
 cloak of protection            elven boots
                                kicking boots
 gauntlets of dexterity         fumble boots
 gauntlets of fumbling          levitation boots
 gauntlets of power             jumping boots
                                speed boots
 shield of reflection           water walking boots

 all dragon scale mail (but not dragon scales)

Magical tools (all other being non-magical):
 bag of holding                 magic whistle
 bag of tricks                  magic flute
 magic lamp                     frost horn
 crystal ball                   fire horn
 unicorn horn                   horn of plenty
 figurine                       magic harp
 magic marker                   drum of earthquake

Magical stones (the remaining gems and stones are non-magical):
 luckstone
 loadstone
 touchstone

Non-magical potions (all other being magical):
 booze
 fruit juice
 sickness
 water
 acid
 oil

No weapon, food, boulder, or statue is magical.
All non-blank scrolls are magical (except non-polyable scrolls of mail).
All non-blank spellbooks are magical.
All wands except nothing are magical.
All rings (except meat rings, which are food) are magical.
All non-fake amulets are magical.
All Unique Items are magical, but can't be polymorphed anyway.


Acknowledgements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks to Bruce Cox for proofreading the original version of this file.
Further corrections and clarifications provided by Joe Bednorz,
Roger Breitenstein, David Corbett, Kent Paul Dolan, Michael Deutschmann,
David Gale, Wes Irby, Toni Keskitalo, Bruce Labbate, Oberon, Jason Parker,
Pat Rankin, Irina Rempt, Stanislav Traykov, and Jeremy Turner.