
====== Objects ======

     The mines far below the surface are full of objects just waiting to be
picked up and used.  The treasures of long-forgotten kingdoms, dragon's hoards,
heirlooms, wizard's stashes, and the plunder from every age of the world unite
with the scattered earthly possessions of all the foolish adventurers who died
before you to offer unimaginable wealth for those bold enough to seize it.


--- Learning about objects ---

Learning about objects:
     When you begin the game, most objects are unknown to you, and an important
task is to learn more about them so that you can use them reliably.  The
standard way to learn about an object is to identify it, but scrolls of Identify
and Staffs of Perception don't come cheap.  They also don't work on everything;
mushrooms cannot be identified with magic.

Full identification:
     Some items have special powers.  Ego-item descriptions usually tell you
everything, but artifacts are known only by legend.  A number of items (usually
artifacts and ego-items) may have random powers.  To learn absolutely everything
about an object, read a scroll of *identify* on it.  Such scrolls are rare and
expensive; if you don't have access to one, try using the object a lot and
inscribing it.
     Fully identified objects have light blue indexes, identified objects have
white, and unknown objects grey.

Scanning wargear automatically (Pseudo-ID):
     The first time you walk over a weapon, missile, or piece of armour, you
examine it for anything unusual.  Your ability to learn about wargear depends on
your perception skill, modified by any bonuses to awareness granted by equipped
items.
     When you wear or wield such an item, you examine it again, this time more
closely and with a greater chance of success.  Given a decent perception skill,
you have a pretty good shot at learning something.  Be careful though:  Objects
may be cursed and need special magic to remove!

Scanned objects are marked with the following inscriptions
   Item description               low perception          high perception
   average item:                  "unknown"               "average"
   item with plusses              "good"                  "good"
   ego-item (weapon of flame)     "good"                  "excellent"
   artifact (unique item)         "good"                  "special"
   cursed artifact                "cursed"                "terrible"
   cursed ego-item                "cursed"                "worthless"
   cursed ordinary object         "cursed"                "cursed"
   failed to learn anything       "unknown", no message appears

     Once you equip the weapon or armour, and it is actually better (or worse)
then the inscription claims, you will eventually learn more about it as you use
it in battle.  An ego-item that was originally marked "unknown" will first be
revealed as "good", then as "excellent".
     Characters who have taken the Oath of Iron are especially good at scanning
wargear, and (if their perception skill is fairly high) will be able to
instantly identify any weapon or armour they equip.

Sensing other wearable objects:
     You can often learn about rings and amulets by putting them on, and, if
that doesn't work, by wearing them for a while.  This also gives you experience.
However, rings and amulets are often cursed...

Learning about magical devices:
     You can learn the name of magical devices that you successfully use; when
you do, you get experience.
     If your perception and/or magical device skills are good enough, you can
learn about the charges on wands and staffs, especially low-level ones.  Bonuses
to awareness also work here.
     Use most magical devices often enough, especially if your perception and
magical device skills are high, and you will eventually learn more about the
damage they do or the power they have.  You may check this information by using
the 'I'nspect command.

Learning about potions and scrolls:
     There are three ways to learn about potions and scrolls:  You can sell
them, identify them, or learn about them by using them.  Learning by using is
risky but highly rewarding.  Not only do you get a lot of experience this way
(if the object is unsensed), but many scrolls and potions are more powerful when
you read or quaff them unaware (and unsensed).  If you quaff unaware every
potion that attacks stats, and every one that improves them, your total stat
gain will improve by about 4.

Learning about mushrooms:
     You must eat mushrooms in order to learn about them.  There are some very
useful 'shrooms out there, but also some truly nasty ones...


--- Object information ---

     'I'nspecting a specific object will pop up a special display that tells you
useful things about the object kind, legends and lore, and specific object
attributes.
     Known attributes of equipped items are displayed in the character screen
display (type 'C' to bring up the character screen, then press 'h' to cycle
through the information).  This interface is helpful when you want to optimize
your equipment.
     All object types that you are aware of are listed in the knowledge menu
('~'), option 5: "known objects".


--- Inventory, equipment, quiver ---

Your inventory (backpack) and equipment (your person):
     You pick up objects by moving on top on them (if you have the "auto_pickup"
option on), or by using the 'g'et command.  You may carry up to 23 different
items or piles of items, and have 12 areas of your body where wearable equipment
may go.  Press 'i', and you see the contents of your backpack; press 'e' and you
see what you are wearing.  Both listings toggle open and closed when you press
the space key.  Items on the floor display in similar fashion.
     When choosing items, you switch between inventory and equipment by pressing
'/', and switch between the floor and either of these two by pressing '-'.
     Carry too much weight, and you will begin to slow down, making it easier
for monsters to kill you.  The point at which your load thus hinders you depends
on your strength.

Your quiver:
     Your equipment includes a quiver, which may hold up to ten different kinds
of ammunition or throwing weapons.  Once placed in the quiver (using the wield
command), they normally sort in the quiver slots just as they do in the
backpack.  You may lock items into a specific slot, and make shooting and
throwing a lot more convenient, by inscribing it with inscriptions similar to
"@1", or "@f1".  Wherever you store them, ammunition and throwing weapons still
take up space; you lose an inventory slot for every 99 missiles (or fraction
thereof), or every 19 throwing weapons, that you place in the quiver slots.  Any
such lost slots will be clearly marked.  Ammunition and throwing weapons on the
floor will automatically combine with similar items in the quiver, which makes
cleaning up after a big fight much easier.


--- Object types ---

Wands:
     Known wands stack, combining their charges.  Such a stack may be heavier,
but can be recharged more safely and effectively.  Once used up, a wand must be
recharged.

Staffs:
     Staffs never stack unless in stores.  If stacked, the number of charges
that they display is prefixed by a quantity indicator (e.g. "(2x 13 charges)",
which shows that each of two staffs have 13 charges.  Staffs may be bulky, but
they have lots of charges, recharge well, and are highly durable.

Rods:
     Rods always stack.  A stack of rods with at least one charging member will
show an appropriate inscription.  When zapped, a rod is "timed out" for a given
number of turns.  Unlike wands and staffs, rods recharge automatically.  Each
recharging rod in a stack contributes to the total recharge rate; if three out
of five rods are charging, the stack's total timeout period will decrease by
three per normal player turn.

Chests:
     Chests are difficult and dangerous to open, as they usually contain both
traps and locks.  If you succeed, you may be rewarded handsomely.  If your
disarming skill is so poor that the chest refuses to open, you can bash it into
submission.  Of course, bashing does break things...

Scroll of Word of Recall:
     The Scroll of Word of Recall deserves special mention.  Read in the
dungeon, it brings you back to the town.  Read in the town, it takes you as deep
in the dungeon as you have ever gone.  This spell takes a little time to take
effect, so don't expect it to save you in a crisis.  Should you mistakenly read
a Scroll of Word of Recall, you may cancel it by reading another.

Ego-Weapons and Armours:
     Some rare weapons and armours have special abilities.  These are called ego
items, and are feared by great and meek.

Dragon Scale Mails:
     These extremely rare pieces of armour come in many different colors, each
protecting you against the relevant dragons.  They also occasionally allow you
to breathe as dragons do!

Artifacts:
     There are rumours of incredibly rare, unique artifacts which are even more
powerful than ego items.  Some artifacts are standard, and you may already know
of their fame, while others will certainly be unfamiliar to you and will need to
be fully identified (*identified*).
     Artifacts cannot be destroyed, although they can be disenchanted.  Once you
find an artifact, and either sell it or identify and leave it behind, you lose
it forever.
     A small number of artifacts, known as Set Items, are designed to be used in
conjunction with related items.  Equipping an entire set of these items will
grant the wearer additional bonuses and abilities.  Item sets generally consist
of two items, but may include more.  You may 'I'nspect an identified artifact to
see whether it belongs to a set.


--- Object enhancement ---

     Weapons and armour may have bonuses to Skill, Deadliness, and armour class;
it can be very useful indeed to increase these values by reading scrolls of
Enchant Weapon and Enchant Armour.
- The higher the plusses are above the object's normal values, the harder it
  is to raise them further.
- The larger the pile of objects you try to enchant, the more likely it is that
  you will fail.  However, ammunition and throwing weapons are unusually easy
  to enchant.
- You can sometimes break curses on objects and even turn them into ego-items
  by enchanting them.


--- Object destruction ---

     Objects may be damaged or destroyed on the floor, in your backpack, and
(sometimes) even damaged while you are wearing them.

- Acid destroys armour, weapons, missile launchers, ammunition, scrolls,
  parchments, staffs, and chests.  It may damage equipped armour that does not
  ignore acid.
- Electricity destroys rings, amulets, wands, and (on rare occasion) rods.
- Fire destroys torches, arrows, missile launchers, hafted weapons and polearms,
  gloves, boots, cloaks, shields, soft body armour, spellbooks, scrolls, parch-
  ments, staffs, and chests.
- Frost, sound, and shards destroy potions and empty bottles.  Force can also
  destroy them, but only when they are on the floor.

- Many other types of magic can blow objects on the floor around, destroy them,
or
  even change ("polypile") them.

- Equipped items with plusses can be disenchanted.
- Magical devices can be destroyed by failed recharges.


--- Cursed Objects ---

     Many cursed items exist in the Pits -- either left behind as the result of
failed attempts to create magic items, or deliberately placed by gleeful evil
sorcerers who enjoy a good joke when it gets you killed.
     These horrible objects look perfectly innocent, but will detract from your
character's stats or abilities if worn.  In most cases, you cannot remove them
without breaking the curse first.  In fact, some are so badly cursed that even
this will not work, and more potent methods are needed.
     If you wear or wield a cursed item, you will immediately feel deathly cold,
and the item will be marked "cursed".  On rare occasion, the item will transform
into something truly dangerous.
     Shopkeepers will refuse to buy any item that is known to be cursed.



====== Monsters ======

Monsters are worth experience:
     Defeat a monster, and you will gain experience.  The amount you gain
depends on the base monster value (which goes up rapidly deeper in the dungeon).
This is divided by your own total experience value:  the combination of spent
plus unspent experience, ranging from 1 to 100.  Note that raising skills has no
effect whatsoever on this value.

Your Monster Memory:
     When you see a monster for the first time, all you know are its physical
attributes and whatever information the monster description may provide.  As you
fight and kill monsters, use various attacks on them, probe them with magic, and
get killed by them, you learn more about their strengths and weaknesses.
     You recall this memory in one of two ways:  'l'ooking at / e'x'amining the
monster and then pressing 'r' for recall, or by pressing '/' and typing the
monster's letter.
     Unlike object memory, monster memory can be passed on even after your
character dies, by loading his savefile and creating a new character.


The Monster Health Bar:
     A good way to keep track of a specific monster is to target it.  When you
do so, its health bar appears on the left side of the main screen, just below
the hitpoint and mana indicators.  Similar health bars are also used when
looking around and when displaying the closest monsters.
     The health bar uses several colors to tell you more about the monster.
Frightened - violet, Confused - brown, Stunned - light blue, Sleeping - dark
blue.  Otherwise - dark and light green when healthy, and yellow, orange, and
red when wounded.
     The health bar is bracketed in green when you have direct line of fire to
the monster, in white when monsters block your line of fire, and grey when walls
or something else non-passable does.

Extra monster health bars:
     You can display additional monster health bars on the left side of your
main screen or (in most interfaces) in separate windows.  Consult the options
section for more details.

Monster attributes:
     The special attributes of monsters can make all the difference to the
danger they pose to you.  Some of the more interesting are listed and described.

  Hitpoints : Some monsters die easily, others can withstand almost anything.
  Armour : Some monsters are easy to hit with melee blows or missiles, others
       very difficult.
  Awareness : Some monsters will stay asleep even if you dance in front of them,
       others are ever vigilant.  The distance that monsters can perceive you
      (if you are not in line of sight) also varies greatly.

  Color : The color of a monster can be a valuable hint; different kinds
       of power and magic are associated with particular colors.
  Multi-hued : Changes colors randomly.  Often you can tell what a dragon
       can breathe by watching it flicker.
  Invisible : Cannot be seen with normal sight.
  Warm-blooded : Some monsters can be seen with infravision, others can not.
  Telepathy : Some monsters are always visible with telepathy, others are
       rarely visible, and others still never visible.
  Uses symbol : Appears exactly like whatever terrain it is on.
  Shining : Can be seen even in shadow

  Groups : Monsters may appear in groups, or have escorts.
  Multiply : Some monsters breed explosively!

  Drops : Monsters may drop anything from nothing at all to large quantities
       of marvelous objects.
  Experience : The experience you get from killing monsters varies greatly.

  Regenerate : Recovers battle damage unusually quickly.
  Evasive : Monster is especially hard to hit with melee blows, missiles, or
       bolt spells.
  Clouds : Monster constantly releases clouds of venom, fire, etc. around it.
       Approaching such creatures is especially hazardous.

  Bash Door : Most monsters (but not all) can either bash down or open doors.
       Everyone can close doors, and some characters can lock or bar doors to
       delay their foes considerably.
  Pass Wall : Ghosts and some other creatures can float right through ordinary
       walls.
  Flying : Can float or fly over hostile terrain or monster traps.

  Hurt by ... : Monsters can be especially susceptible to light, rock remover,
       fire, or cold.
  Resistant to ... : Monsters can be especially resistant to edged and/or blunt
       weapons, any or all of the elements or poison, or any of the esoteric
       magics.
  Cannot be ... : Monsters can be immune to fear, slowing, stunning, sleeping,
       or confusion.

  Spells : Monsters may fire physical missiles, breathe, cast spells to hurt and
       hinder you, blink and teleport you and themselves, heal and cure and
       restore themselves, haste themselves or other monsters, summon more
       opponents, and many other things!
  Casting speed : Be careful of monsters that cast spells very often, especially
       if they also move quickly.
  Smart : Monsters can be skilled at choosing spells, somewhat skilled, or
       unskilled.
  Breath Powerfully : Dragon breaths lose less power with range.
  Archer : Can fire physical missiles most of the time.
  Morgul-Spells : Poisonous missiles, and cold, poison, and darkness spells
       become much more nasty.
  Spells of Udun : Fire become Hellfire, a dreadful combination of darkness and
       fire.

  Blows : Monsters can do great damage and inflict nasty effects in melee.  A
       few monsters never miss.


Detecting monsters:
     There are many ways to find out if monsters are nearby.  Bright light
reveals all but invisible creatures; if you can light up an area, you are much
less likely to be surprised.  Many spells and magical devices, and some talents
detect monsters, and you may perhaps be able to find and wear an item that
grants telepathy.
     A number of skills can also be very helpful here, as they allow you to
sense nearby creatures.  The effect of each skill is given below.

     Nature Lore:  powerful detection of natural creatures
     Holy Alliance:  powerful detection of demonic creatures, some ability
          to sense evil at high level
     Blood Dominion:  powerful detection of undead creatures
     Wizardry:  some detection of magic-users with mana at high level

     Stealth:  If you are in pitch darkness, gives you a significant bonus
          when listening for monsters
     Perception:  perception skill may reveal invisible creatures adjacent
          to you, and at high level this skill can help you hear distant
          monsters not mentioned above
     Burglary (Guild):  general bonus to hearing and sensing ability


Player Ghosts:
     Player ghosts vary from game to game depending on the name, sex, race, and
spell realm of the adventurer or legendary Hero whose bones file was used during
ghost creation.  Should your character die, information about him will often be
added to a new bones file, inside the folder /lib/bones, and a future game might
bring him back from the dead...
     Should a ghost be slain, he may vanish forever, or he may re-emerge later
in a new, more powerful form!

















