Hungerless casting or reduced-hunger casting offer reductions in (or elimination of) the nutrition penalty incurred by spellcasting. Both are granted automatically to high-intelligence wizards:[1]
| Intelligence | Reduction |
|---|---|
| 17 or more | No hunger penalty |
| 16 | 25% hunger penalty |
| 15 | 50% hunger penalty |
| 14 or below or nonwizard | 100% hunger penalty |
Hungerless casting is actually very useful, especially when attempting the foodless conduct. The unreduced nutrition penalty for each spell level, with and without the Amulet of Yendor, follows:
| Spell level | Normal hunger | Min with Amulet | Max with Amulet |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | 12 | 30 |
| 2 | 20 | 22 | 60 |
| 3 | 30 | 32 | 90 |
| 4 | 40 | 42 | 120 |
| 5 | 50 | 52 | 150 |
| 6 | 60 | 62 | 180 |
| 7 | 70 | 72 | 210 |
Casting the detect food spell never incurs a hunger penalty. Also, if casting a spell would put you at three or less nutrition, your nutrition is set instead to three. Hunger cost is rounded down: for example, casting a level 1 spell with 16 intelligence costs only 2 nutrition.[2]
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Flame mages and ice mages do not get hungerless casting.