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"#loot has different effects when confused."
Confusion, or the state of being confused, is a property that affects you in the following ways:
- You cannot cast spells.
- You will not be asked for confirmation before attacking peaceful monsters.
- You may walk in an unintended direction (though this happens at a lower rate than being stunned).
- When reading scrolls, you will mispronounce the magic words, which will cause effects different from what would occur normally.
- Reading any spellbook will instead make you tear the book into pieces (1/3 chance).
- Being confused abuses wisdom.
- You cannot fire more than one projectile at a time.
- Mjollnir will not return to your hand.
- Your ability to engrave is impaired.
- You cannot play instruments.
- You are less able to saddle a steed and cannot mount it.
In short, being confused is generally a bad thing, but the effects of reading some scrolls while confused can be useful.
Causes[]
If you are trying to confuse yourself, please be aware that many of these actions have other possible bad consequences. You may also want to lock yourself in a closet so that monsters don't gang up on you.
- Attempting to cast a forgotten spell (can also stun you).
- Reading a cursed or difficult spellbook (puts you at risk of other variety of bad effects).
- Being hit by a thrown potion of confusion.
- Quaffing a potion of confusion or a non-blessed potion of booze.
- Reading a cursed scroll of confuse monster.
- Letting an umber hulk confuse you with its gaze attack, or looking into a mirror while polymorphed into an umber hulk.
- Applying a cursed Unicorn horn. Be sure to have a non-cursed one ready, however, because one possible consequence is deadly sickness.
- Applying a charged crystal ball unsuccessfully (puts you at risk of a variety of other bad effects).
- Trying to magic-map a non-mappable level.
- Sitting on a throne.
- Eating a rotten egg or a tripe ration as a non-orc/caveman/canine in an attempt to become nauseated (any food item has a chance of making you vomit, but eggs and tripe rations have the highest chance. Note that you need to wait some time to be confused, and cure the nauseating side-effect as well).
- Being hit by Magicbane.
- Throwing Magicbane upwards to let it hit you while not magic-resistant. This is more of a last-resort method for the early-game wizard, as it will most often just deal damage or stun you and can reduce your maximum power. Do it in a safe place (Sokoban) on Elbereth wearing a ring of regeneration with a unicorn horn while not wearing a metal helmet.
- Monsters which are clerical spellcasters can confuse players without magic resistance.
- Yeenoghu has a confusion attack.
- Casting confuse monster while polymorphed.
Cures[]
- Applying a non-cursed unicorn horn.
- Eating a lizard corpse reduces the timeout.
- Reading a blessed scroll of confuse monster.
- Waiting for it to wear off.
Confused scroll effects[]
Useful effects[]
While reading most scrolls when confused exhibits harmful or useless effects, there are a few confused effects from certain scrolls that have been proven quite useful:
- Scroll of charging: If your energy is at maximum, you gain 5d4 maximum energy. Otherwise, your energy is increased to maximum.
- Scroll of destroy armor: Makes one random worn armor rustproof/fireproof. Does not repair damage, however. The scroll must be cursed.
- Scroll of enchant armor: Makes one random worn armor rustproof/fireproof. If that armor had damage, it is repaired. The scroll must be non-cursed.
- Scroll of enchant weapon: Makes your wielded weapon rustproof/fireproof. If it had damage, it is repaired. The scroll must be non-cursed.
- Scroll of gold detection: You detect traps and portals (spaces with the ^ symbol) on the current level. If the scroll is cursed, they are shown as gold ($ symbol). Useful on the Elemental Planes or on the Gnomish Mines (due to the large amount of traps there).
- Scroll of remove curse: All uncursed items have a 25% chance of being blessed and a 25% chance of being cursed if the scroll is blessed. If the scroll is uncursed, then only worn and wielded items are considered. Useful for obtaining unholy water.
- Scroll of teleportation: Level-teleports you. If you have teleport control and are not also stunned, then you will usually be able to choose which level to teleport to.
- Scroll of taming: Tames monsters within an 11x11 square area. Also calms shopkeepers. Some monsters can resist. The scroll must be non-cursed.
Risks[]
Reading unknown scrolls while confused helps identify them. However, there are, as expected, certain risks involved:
- Scroll of genocide: Uncursed: Instadeath. Cursed: You are surrounded by 4-6 monsters of your role.
- Scroll of earth: Blessed: Creates 2-6 rocks on each square around you. Uncursed: Creates 2-6 rocks on the same square as you and each open square around you. Cursed: Creates 2-6 rocks on the same square as you. Each rock does d3 damage, with the damage capped at two points, if you're wearing a metal helmet.
- Scroll of fire: Lose one hit point, if not fire resistant.
- Scroll of light: Acts as a cursed scroll of light.
Monster Confusion[]
There are various ways monsters can become confused:
- Hitting with a melee attack under the effects of a scroll of confuse monster
- One of the on-hit effects of Magicbane [1]
- Hitting with a thrown potion of confusion
- Applying a looking glass to a non-blind umber hulk, polymorphing yourself to be an umber hulk and using the #Monster command, or the gaze attack from a tame umber hulk
- Being polymorphed into a black light and attacking an enemy by exploding, or the exploding attack from a tame black light
- Using undead turning on a bones file corpse that has the awake bones file ghost on or adjacent to the square the corpse is on - the resulting turned monster will be confused
When a monster is confused, they exhibit different behavior:
- Spell casting monsters have a higher spell failure chance, specifically, if a random number chosen between 1 and the monster's level * 10 is less than 100, then the spell is lost. This gives the message The air crackles around <caster>.[2]
- Reduces the chance of successfully avoiding an exploding drawbridge
- Monsters cannot block incoming kicks
- Monsters may attack a random adjacent target instead of the player. This includes enemies without weapons who will attack cockatrices and may stone themselves.[3]
- Monsters cannot shoot multiple projectiles
- Monsters will read scrolls incorrectly and will be affected by the confused behavior.
- Monsters may wander in a random direction instead of attacking.
Monsters have a 1/50 chance of losing the confusion status on their turn. [4] If monsters have access to a non-cursed unicorn horn or a lizard corpse, they will use it to clear the confusion status.
History[]
In Hack, bats could cause confusion. NetHack has now differentiated this so that stun and confusion are not the same. Bats and trapped doors can stun you; this causes you to move in random directions, like confusion would. However, only confusion will let you obtain different effects from reading scrolls.
References[]
| This page is based on a spoiler by Dylan O'Donnell. The original license is:
Redistribution, copying, and editing of these spoilers, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
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