Crowning and its consequences in NetHack 3.4

crwn-340.txt Last edited 2002-08-26 for NetHack 3.4.0
Compiled for 3.1.3 by Boudewijn Waijers.
Updated for 3.4.0 by Dylan O'Donnell <psmith@spod-central.org>
HTML Conversion by Kate Nepveu.

When you are in good standing with your god ("piously aligned") and sufficiently lucky, when you pray a lot of nice things can happen. One of these things is that you may be "crowned" by your god.

If this happens, you are not only granted a title (visible with enlightenment or at the end of the game), but some other effects (most of them beneficial) happen as well. The title you will gain is the following:

Lawful: Hand of Elbereth
Neutral: Envoy of Balance
Chaotic: Glory of Arioch

Then, you gain some useful intrinsics (if you didn't have them already, of course):

• cold resistance
• fire resistance
• poison resistance
• sleep resistance
• shock resistance
• see invisible

Next, you may gain an item, depending on your class and alignment:

• Wizards will receive a (blessed) spellbook of finger of death unless they are already carrying one, or are wielding Vorpal Blade or Stormbringer.
• Monks will receive a (blessed) spellbook of restore ability unless they are already carrying one, or are wielding an artifact.

If these classes do not receive a spellbook, or for any other class:

• Lawful: If you are wielding (as primary, if two-weaponing) a non-artifact long sword, it is changed into Excalibur if
• that does not yet exist in your game.
• Neutral: If Vorpal Blade does not yet exist in your game, it is created at your feet.
• Chaotic: If Stormbringer does not yet exist in your game, it is created at your feet.

If you received a weapon gift, it is blessed, unrusted and made rustproof, and set to at least +1. If you received no gift (or you received a spellbook gift of a spell that you already knew), your currently-wielded (primary) weapon (or weapon-tool) receives the same enhancements, and your skill in it is unrestricted. In all cases, your skill in the appropriate alignment gift weapon is unrestricted whether you got it or not: long sword for lawfuls and neutrals, broad sword for chaotics.

There is, of course, a disadvantage to balance all this generosity: after crowning, your average prayer time-out (the time you have to wait between prayers) is greatly increased. So, if you already have a decent weapon and the above intrinsics, being named is a BAD thing. If you pray often enough, it WILL happen eventually, though.

Basically, when your god crowns you, it's his way of telling you: "I've given you quite enough by now... Now bugger off and don't pester me..."

Acknowledgements

Corrections and clarifications provided by Annie Kang.

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