misc.txt  Final version for NetHack 3.2.3
Compiled by Jonathan Ellis.

"Miscellaneous objects" quoted from Kevin Hugo's misc-322.txt: amended
   to include the "what to do with iron chains" suggestion, and uses for 
   other objects added by Jonathan Ellis.
"Time and date" spoiler quoted from "timedate" by Boudewijn Wayers
"Engraving" spoiler adapted from Roy Stead's "NetHack A-Z"
"Sex and gender" written by Jonathan Ellis.
"Succubus" spoiler adapted from a Ray Chason post to Usenet.

Miscellaneous objects
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ITEM              COST  WGT   PROB   SYM  DAMAGE  NUTR
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ : ~~~~  ~~~~  ~~~~ : ~~~  ~~~~~~  ~~~~
gold piece      : $  1  0.01  1000 :  $       0      0
boulder         :    0  6000   100 :  '     d20   2000
statue          :    0  vary   900 :  '     d20   2500
heavy iron ball :   10   480  1000 :  0     d25*   200
iron chain      :    0   120  1000 :  _    d4+1    200
acid venom      :    0     ~   500 :        2d6      0
blinding venom  :    0     ~   500 :     blinds      0

* plus an extra d4 for each time the weight of the ball is increased
~ cannot be picked up

     Gold pieces are, of course, used for paying for things in shops. Also, 
the more gold you carry out of the dungeon, the greater your final score.

     Boulders can be picked up and thrown at things if you are polymorphed
into a giant. You may creep past them and occupy the same space as a boulder
if you are polymorphed into a "Tiny" creature. Alternatively, you can push
them around - a boulder pushed into a pit, pool or trapdoor will destroy the 
pit, pool or trapdoor and make it a normal floor space. Any objects buried 
underneath the boulder will be destroyed (including an iron ball, if you are
attached to one: get the ball into the pit, then push the boulder in on 
top of it, and you escape your punishment.)

     Statues can be chopped up with a pick-axe or a wand of striking and 
may contain a spellbook (see spells.txt for details.) Alternatively, they 
may be statue traps which come alive when you touch them. Or they may just
be junk.

     Acid venom and blinding venom can only be used if you are polymorphed
into a monster that can spit that type of venom: it is not an object that
you can pick up.

Iron chains are the least useful items in the game since they perform no
function as individual objects, have no value to sell to shopkeepers,
aren't heavy enough to be a decent weapon, and will always polypile into
another chain.  Here are several somewhat trivial uses for these objects:

* Throw or kick them as missiles.
* Food for rock moles (a pet or polyself).
* Polypile enough of them to make another iron golem.  Turn it into
  your pet or polymorph it into a monster worthy of sacrificing.
* Get an amusing message.  Polypile enough of them to get another
  iron golem.  Tame it and watch it get killed by a rust monster.
* Use them to mark the vibrating square.
* Carry them in your main inventory to lower the chance that something
  "good" will be cursed/stolen.
* Leave a bones file that will annoy others: "Damn, that's not an altar."

     Iron balls are likewise fairly useless, although the weight allows 
them to be effective weapons when thrown - provided you are not still
attached to them. Again, the best things you can do with them are similar 
to what you can do with iron chains.


How the date and time you are playing affect the game
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There are a few references in the code to phases of the moon, and to 
Friday the 13th...

Friday the 13th:
           - your base luck is decreased by one.

Full moon: - you have a chance of not being able to tame dogs at night
             (but you will still make them peaceful and you may try
             again);
           - your dog won't whine, yip, bark, or growl, but will always
             howl when you chat at it, at night;
           - your base luck is increased by one;
           - werecreatures are usually in their were-form at night...

New moon:  - there is no effect on your base luck;
           - if you are hit by a cockatrice's special attack, you will
             be automatically stoned rather than the usual one-in-ten
             chance, so if you are not carrying a lizard corpse (or
             an acidic one, but lizards don't rot) you will die.

Note that the date does not influence the game very much. No need to be
scared of playing on Friday the 13th under a full moon at midnight...

The time of the day is also taken into account on some occasions:

Night (21:00 - 5:59):
           - your chance of changing into a werecreature when you are a
             lycanthrope is one in every 60 moves instead of once in
             every 80 moves;
           - you have a chance of not being able to tame dogs at when
             the moon is full (but you will still make them peaceful
             and you may try again);
           - gremlins can only steal intrinsics at night;
           - werecreatures can summon more easily;
           - your dog won't whine, yip, bark, or growl, but will always
             howl when you chat at it, when it is full moon;
           - werecreatures are usually in their were-form when it is
             full moon...

Midnight (0:00 - 0:59):
           - undead do extra damage;
           - you get a different message when entering a morgue ("Run
	     away! Run away!" instead of "You have an uncanny feeling."


What is the use of engraving?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you engrave "Elbereth" on the ground then no monsters - other than humans 
and elves - will attack you until you move from that spot. (You can find this
out from the Oracle, or from spoilers like this.) However, each turn that you 
remain standing on that spot you have a small danger of scuffing the 
inscription, thus damaging it and rendering the protection ineffectual. The 
danger is greater if you physically attack the monster: but you can make
magical attacks, fire arrows, throw rocks, daggers, shurikens, or make any 
kind of attack which does not involve directly touching the victim, with 
little fear of retaliation. (Beware: even standing still on the spot doing 
nothing will scuff the engraving eventually. And of course monsters can
still use distance attacks.) If you engrave when blind, there is a high chance
of a misprint: and of course engraving when hallucinating or confused will 
almost never produce the right result.

The best tool for engraving is an athame, as it is the one weapon which is
not blunted by using it to engrave messages (unless it is cursed.) You could 
also use a magic marker or a wand to engrave your messages, but charges on 
those items are diminished by engraving. You can also engrave with a hard 
gem (i.e. one where the message is "you engrave in the floor", rather than 
"you write in the dust"). Engraving with any other sharp weapon will damage 
the weapon and reduce its pluses, usually one for each letter, until 
eventually the weapon will get too blunt to be used for engraving at all.

Engravings made with a wand of fire or lightning are burned into the ground 
and will not scuff - they are permanent unless zapped directly with a wand 
of cold or cancellation (which will remove them) or teleportation (which 
will teleport the engraving elsewhere.) 

Other engravings can be made, but are primarily for the player to note things 
down - for instance, he might want to know which of the two staircases on 
dungeon level 2-5 (whichever one has two staircases) leads to the Gnomish
Mines and which one continues the main dungeon.

Sex and gender
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The following differences exist between male and female characters:
 - Female monsters can lay eggs.
 - Males are seduced by succubi, females by incubi (if you are humanoid.)
 - Nymphs "seduce" males and "charm" females, though the effect is the same.
 - The Cave(wo)man and Priest(ess) class have different names.
 - The leader of the Elven quest has a different name - Earendil or Elwing.
 - (purely cosmetic) It determines how you are addressed when monsters talk
   to you.

Note also that nymphs may "seduce" the character (if you are male - they will
"charm" you if you are female), but this is only so they can steal your 
belongings, whatever sex you are: only succubi and incubi will actually, erm,
go all the way. In either case you may end up removing some items of your
armor (even cursed stuff.) Which leads neatly on to the following section...

Succubi and incubi
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As most characters are male, I have used "succubus" most of the way during
this description. Generally, unless specifically stated otherwise, the same
effects will happen to female characters meeting an incubus, so if you are a 
female character, read "incubus" for "succubus".

When you meet a succubus or incubus, the following occur:
 - if you are male meeting an incubus, or female meeting a succubus, the 
   monster will simply fight to the death if it is hostile, or ignore you
   if it is peaceful: there is nothing else you can do with it.
 - if you are male meeting a succubus, or female meeting an incubus, its
   first attack will be to try and seduce you. If this attack misses, it 
   merely "pretends to be friendly" and will hit you with its two other 
   melee attacks, so make sure you can win a fight with the monster before
   dealing with it.
 - peaceful or tame succubi will not do this: however, you can start 
   proceedings yourself by #chatting to them.
 - if it hits you with its "seduction" attack, the following occur:
   # For each ring of adornment that you carry
     - if you are female, the incubus will try to put it on your hand if
       you are not wearing a ring of adornment on that finger. You have
       a (charisma)/20 chance of having a choice in the matter: this can
       be very important if you are, say, wearing a ring of levitation 
       on that finger already, and levitating over water or lava...
     - if you are male, the succubus will try to take your rings of 
       adornment. You have a CHA/20 chance of being able to choose 
       whether to hand over the ring or not, otherwise it will simply
       be stolen.
   # For each item of armor you are wearing, the game will make a check 
     against your charisma. You have a CHA/20 chance that the succubus 
     ask you if you want to remove this item or armor, otherwise it will
     be removed anyway. A succubus cannot remove your armor if it has not
     removed your cloak, nor your shirt if you are still wearing armor or
     a cloak. If you are still wearing armor or a cloak after this, the 
     encounter ends here, with the message "You're such a nice guy: I 
     wish..." and it will teleport away to elsewhere on the level. In 
     any case, your armor will not be stolen.
   # Otherwise, "time stands still as you and the succubus/incubus lie
     in each other's arms". The whole encounter takes ONE turn. You then
     receive a positive or negative effect, dependent on your charisma
     and intelligence. The probability of a good rather than bad effect
     from the encounter is: (INT + CHA + 1)/35: so if your combined 
     intelligence and charisma are over 34, you are guaranteed to have
     a good time. If you are chaotic, you get a +1 alignment bonus 
     whatever happens: lawful and neutral characters are unaffected.
     - If the effect is positive, one of the following will occur, with 
       equal probability, and "you seem to have enjoyed it more than the
       succubus...":
       * "You feel good enough to do it again." Raises constitution by 1
         and exercises it.
       * "You will always remember the succubus/incubus." Raises and
         exercises wisdom.
       * "You feel restored to health!" Restore hit points and strength.
       * "You feel raised to your full potential!" Adds 1-5 points to 
         your maximum energy, raises your current energy to this level,
         exercises constitution.
       * "That was a very educational experience." Gain one level of 
         experience, exercise wisdom. (You still gain further hit points
         and energy even if you are already level 30 and have no further
         higher level to be raised to.)
     - If the effect is negative, one of the following will occur, with
       equal probability, and "The succubus seems to have enjoyed it more
       than you...":
       * "You feel down in the dumps." Abuses and reduces CON by 1 point.
       * "Your senses are dulled." Abuses and reduces wisdom by 1 point.
       * "You feel exhausted." Lose 10-16 hit points, abuses strength.
         (This can of course kill you if you have less than 17 hit 
         points, or 9 if you have an item that halves physical damage.) 
       * "You feel drained of energy." Lose all energy from the current
         level, and 1-10 points from the permanent level, abuses CON.
       * "You feel out of shape." Lose one level of experience - you 
         will die of course if you are at 1st level.
   # Finally, if the succubus is not tame, the game rolls against your 
     charisma once more. You have a CHA/20 chance of not having to pay 
     ("The succubus demands that you pay her, but you refuse"),
     otherwise the succubus will take some or all of your gold "for 
     services rendered" - or "It's on the house!" if you have no gold.
     If you are polymorphed into a leprechaun, no gold will be stolen.
     The succubus teleports away.
 - After an encounter with a succubus or incubus, it has to rest. There is 
   a 4% chance that it develops "a severe headache" and is permanently 
   cancelled: if this happens, you have nothing to do but kill her. 
   Otherwise, if the effect was positive on you, it will have a headache
   anyway (not a "severe" headache) for 1-100 turns during which it will 
   not try to seduce the character and, if hostile, will fight. Avoid her
   during this time: eventually she will recover. You can find another
   succubus during this time - the first one will not get jealous :-) Of 
   course, if the effect was negative on you, it was positive for the 
   succubus, so it's *you* that has the headache and the succubus who is 
   ready to do it again...

 - So, when dealing with succubi, make sure you have high intelligence and 
   charisma (which, given that these two stats cannot be exercised, is harder
   than with other stats), and at least 17 hit points and 2nd level of 
   experience (so you won't actually die) and a way to kill a succubus if 
   you have to. (And, if trying to get a succubus from kicking a sink, 
   make sure you can kill a black pudding if one of those appears instead.)
   Having a unicorn horn ready to "a"pply to restore drained stats is also 
   useful. And make sure other monsters can't hurt you after you've taken
   your armor off for the encounter... taking off your armor with a mumak
   in the near vicinity is *not* a good idea. (On the other hand, consorting 
   with a succubus is an excellent way to take off cursed armor.)

What are good things to genocide?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 - For a class genocide (a blessed scroll wiping out all monsters of one 
letter), the favoured genocides seem to be ";" and "L": Master Liches can 
hit you with a touch of death, disintegrate your armor, summon monsters and
a lot of other nasty things if you don't have magic resistance, and summon 
monsters is nasty even if you do. Oh, and they teleport and regenerate. And 
other Liches are also quite nasty. Eels, meanwhile, can drown you by 
winding themselves around you and dragging you into the water (this can, 
however, be avoided by wearing oilskins. However, this stops one wearing a
cloak of invisibility, displacement or magic resistance...) "D" is also 
popular, as dragon breath is pretty nasty to face (and means you never have 
to worry about disintegration resistance, as only black dragons breathe
disintegration.) Some would say that "n" Nymphs are also worth genociding
if only because they are so bloody annoying, stealing everything. Or one 
might want to get rid of all "T" Trolls just to stop them coming back at 
you again and again and again even after you kill them.
 - For a single genocide (an uncursed scroll, wiping out one type of monster):
Mind Flayers are generally considered for this treatment, on account of their
brain-eating attack which even an amulet of life saving will not protect you 
from. (It is not worth wasting a blessed scroll when other "h" monsters are
comparatively innocuous.) Cockatrices, with their turn-to-stone attack and 
all the problems you can face from dealing with cockatrice corpses, are also
high on the list, and single annoying monsters such as Rust Monsters and 
Leprechauns. Unfortunately, demons, elementals and angels cannot be genocided, 
nor may unique monsters.
 - For a cursed scroll of genocide (which creates some monsters of the type
around you), nurses are a well-known trick - especially on a non-teleporting 
level. Take off all your weapons and armor, read a cursed genocide scroll on 
nurses, and watch as they hit you and your current and maximum hit points 
go up and up and up... and watch out for what happens when another monster 
wanders by when you're suddenly not wearing armor. One can also do this 
trick with wraiths: reverse-genocide wraiths on a non-graveyard level, make
sure they can never hit you (to take away your current experience points), 
kill them all and eat all the wraith corpses - and gain a level each time.
Or reverse-genocide eels on dry land - they are easy to kill if they can't
drown you first because there isn't water about.

   In conclusion: if you read an unidentified scroll and find it is genocide, 
you will know if it is blessed genocide (it will ask you for a letter rather 
than a name), so use it to get rid of your least favourite class of monsters.
If it is not, it will ask you for a single monster, and probably the best 
option to choose here is rust monsters - if it is an uncursed scroll, you are 
rid of an annoying pest: and if it is a cursed scroll, well, rust monsters 
cannot actually hurt you, so engrave Elbereth (to stop them damaging your
armor) and "k"ick them to death, but don't hit them with your weapon unless 
it is a silver sabre...