# Spellbook of healing

spellbook of  +   healing   

Appearance

random

Abundance

4.07%

Base price

100 zm

Weight

50

Turns to read

2

Ink to write

5–9

Spell type

healing

Level

1

Power cost

5 Pw

Direction

beam  

Equivalent

potion of healing

In NetHack, reading a spellbook of healing allows you to learn the spell of healing. This is an emergency spell.

Contents

1 Generation
2 Effects
3 Strategy
4 Messages
5 History
6 See also
7 References

Generation
Healers start with a blessed spellbook of healing. Monks have a 1 in 3 chance of starting with this spellbook as well.

Effects
Healing is a directional spell that heals its target(s) for 6d4 HP and, at Skilled or higher, cures blindness.[1] This will awaken a sleeping monster without angering it. The effect is similar to an uncursed potion of healing, except that the spell cannot increase maximum HP.
Casting this spell at a tame or peaceful monster will yield an alignment bonus for each monster affected, even if it was already at maximum HP; Lawfuls and Healers gain one alignment point, while chaotics besides Healers lose one point.
Pestilence will actually take 3d4 damage from the spell of healing, with the damage halved due to his guaranteed monster magic resistance.

Strategy
Healing is the easiest spell in the healing spell school, and is thus a good spell to train that skill with. It is also a useful utility spell in general, especially for non-spellcaster classes who will probably not be using their power pool for anything else - being able to heal oneself is universally beneficial. Once you learn extra healing, however, this spell is useful only when aiming to conserving power.
Although casting this spell at yourself is the most common use, remember that it is directional; using it to heal a pet(s) is a viable strategy, especially in the early-game or for pacifist players.
This spell is most useful when it would be impractical or dangerous to wait for HP to recover, such as on deeper dungeon levels, or when polymorphed into a monster (which significantly reduces your natural regeneration).

Messages

<monster> looks better.
History
Before 3.6.2, this spell only cured blindness when cast at a monster at any skill level. 3.6.2 fixes this and also fixes a bug that prevented both this spell and the spell of extra healing from correctly healing untimed monster blindness.

See also
spellbook of extra healing
potion of healing
References

↑ src/zap.c in NetHack 3.6.2, line 2471

</monster>