
Cancelling
~~~~~~~~~~
(From the spoiler "cancel", by Boudewijn Wayers <kroisos@win.tue.nl>.)
Adapted for NetHack 3.2.3 by Jonathan Ellis.

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 gremlin is automatically cancelled as well.  Cancelled
monsters cannot use their special attacks against you:
  Blind you
  Cast spells at you
  Charm you
  Confuse you
  Drain your stats
  Explode in your face
  Paralyse you
  Poison you
  Rust or rot something, offensive or defensive
  Seduce you
  Slow you down
  Spit at you
  Steal an item
  Steal intrinsics
  Steal your gold
  Stun you
  Teleport you away
  Turn you to sleep
  Use a wand of make invisible on itself
  Use acid against you
  Use its breath weapon
  Use its cold attack, offensive or defensive
  Use its electricity attack, offensive or defensive
  Use its fire attack, 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 chameleon cannot polymorph
  A clay golem will die
  A cockatrice won't turn you to stone
  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 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

When a monster cannot use a certain attack on you, it normally cannot
use it on another monster either. In short, a cancelled monster can only
do physical damage to your hit points in melee.

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
  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
  magic lamp without djinni  uncursed, still no djinni
  charged tools              uncursed, uncharged
  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.
