Scroll of amnesia

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Name	amnesia
Appearance	random
Base price	200 zm
Weight	5
Ink to write	4–7
Monster use	Will not be used by monsters.

The scroll of amnesia makes you forget things and abuses your wisdom.

Effects

Current level

If you are in Sokoban, there is no effect on your memory of the current level. Otherwise:

You forget the map of the current level. If you are confused and the scroll is noncursed, then you forget only ⁶⁄₇ of the current map.

You forget all known traps on the current level, except for holes, or any trap in which you are stuck.

You forget overview information, including any annotations.

Other levels

There is a ¹⁄₃ chance that you forget 1% to 25% of other levels that you have visited (and have not previously forgotten). Sokoban levels are exempt.

Objects

There is a ¹⁄₃ chance that you forget 1% to 25% of your object discoveries. This includes formal identifications, any class names you have given, and any pre-discoveries that you started with by virtue of your role or your race.

You do not forget the names of any individually named objects.

Spells

If the scroll of amnesia is blessed, there is no effect on spells. Otherwise:

You forget some of your spells. For these spells, the turns remaining goes to zero, although these spells remain on your spell list.

The base number of spells forgotten is from 1 to all of your known spells. If you are confused, NetHack rolls the base number twice and takes the higher result. If you pass a luck check, instead of forgetting the base number of spells, you forget a random number of spells between 1 and the base number.

Punishment

If you are punished, you forget that you are punished (but you are still punished).

Attributes

Your wisdom is abused once for reading the scroll and once again for each spell forgotten.

Future

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

This scroll no longer makes you forget object identities and maps. It still makes you forget spells, and additionally makes you forget some of your skills; some skills can immediately be advanced again, but some have to be retrained with successful uses before they can be advanced. Using the scroll to free up skill slots is a valid strategy, making the scroll considerably more useful.

Messages

Thinking of Maud you forget everything else.

Who was that Maud person anyway?

You read a scroll of amnesia.

As your mind turns inward on itself, you forget everything else.

You, a character named Maud, read a scroll of amnesia. TDTTOE.

Your mind releases itself from mundane concerns.

You read a scroll of amnesia while hallucinating.

Identification

Scrolls of amnesia auto-identify when read. The auto-identification happens after all the forgetting effects.

Monsters will not read them.

Strategy

Scrolls of amnesia are useless, making them a perfect candidate for blanking. Because the effects of reading it are so problematic, it is best to ensure that an unidentified scroll is not amnesia before reading it. If price identification reveals a scroll's base price as 200zm, you should avoid reading it unless scrolls of amnesia are already identified.

The names of individually named objects are never forgotten, so you can use these for amnesia-proof notetaking.

History

Forgetting only one spell is a bug in NetHack 3.4.3. The intended behavior is to forget between 1 and all of your spells starting at the bottom of your spellcasting menu. If you are confused, the number of forgotten spells is supposed to be +1 on top of that (limited to all of them of course).

Prior to NetHack 3.6.0, this scroll could be used to manage which spellbooks you get gifted. Before reading the scroll, use + to sort the spellcasting menu so that forgotten spells or spells you want a book for appear last. Altar farming will then be more likely select these spellbooks over ones still present.

Another use could be to avoid blanking spellbooks—you can read them arbitrarily often provided you do not already have the spell in your spellcasting menu. NetHack 3.6.1 only removes memory of the spell but does not take it away from the list.

Variants

UnNetHack removes scrolls of amnesia from the game and adds scrolls of flood in their place.

Encyclopedia entry

Get thee hence, nor come again,
Mix not memory with doubt,
Pass, thou deathlike type of pain,
Pass and cease to move about!
'Tis the blot upon the brain
That will show itself without.
        ...
For, Maud, so tender and true,
As long as my life endures
I feel I shall owe you a debt,
That I never can hope to pay;
And if ever I should forget
That I owe this debt to you
And for your sweet sake to yours;
O then, what then shall I say? -
If ever I should forget,
May God make me more wretched
Than ever I have been yet!

[ Maud, And Other Poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson ]

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