# Wands Balance Patch
The Wands Balance Patch is based on an essay by NetHack4 developer Alex Smith, "Wand balance in NetHack". The proposal outlined therein was implemented by FIQHack, and was later merged into NetHack Fourk as well. Note that the two implementations have slight, generally minor differences.
In addition to the changes to wands, the wand rebalance made monsters zap each other with helpful wands (polymorph sometimes, invisibility and speed monster), and made monsters zap enemies with slow monster and undead turning. FIQHack has further changes to monster AI in general.
The purpose of the patch is to make wands more useful later on and avoid GWTWOD cases (which is an issue with a lot of wands, not just death). In addition, most of the wands in NetHack cease to be very useful as the game progresses: Attack wands have fixed damage that might be effective in the early game, but later on the damage is so small that zapping them might be a waste of turns. Utility wands remain a bit more useful, but even they have fixed, quite boring behaviour, often supplanted by spells.
To improve wands in NetHack, this patch makes wands scale. The effects are no longer fixed, but become more powerful with the newly introduced wands skill. Players gain this skill by using wands. Additionally, the effective skill can be affected by the wand's beatitude: 

Cursed wands lower effective skill by one, blessed wands increase it.
Zapping a cursed wand while being unskilled will cause the wand to explode - this has similar effects to breaking wands.
Monsters are also affected by this change, and for this purpose have a fixed wand skill based on monster type.

A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:
"Please give more information about monster wand skills."

Contents

1 Skill Caps
2 Wand Power
3 Ray Effects
4 Wand Effects Scaling

Skill Caps
Like most skills in Nethack, different roles can reach varying amounts of proficiency with wands. Starting after June 2023, FIQHack swapped the wand skill abilities of Barbarian and Cavemen (the former now topping at Basic, and cavemen being restricted).

restricted

Barbarians, due to their distrust of magic, are unable to train in wand skills.

basic

Cavemen are capable of only basic wand proficiency.

skilled

Archeologists, knights, rangers, rogues, samurai, and valkyries may reach the skilled level of proficiency.

expert

Healers, monks, priests, tourists, and wizards may reach expert level wand proficiency.

master

No role can truly master wand usage innately.  However, because having the wand blessed raises the effective skill level by one, an expert user with a blessed wand can get the master-level effect on a particular zap.

Wand Power
For purposes of overcoming monster MR, the wands use the following power values in FIQHack (Fourk still works like vanilla in this regard):

unskilled

5

basic

10

skilled

20

expert

30

master

50

Ray Effects
Rays (excluding digging, which never reflected in the first place) work like this:

unskilled

No potential item destruction (nor blinding, in the case of lightning).

basic

Same as current.

skilled

If a target (but not a wall) is reflecting, abort the ray and create an explosion centered on the target. Explodes at the end of the ray.

expert

If a target (but not a wall) is reflecting, abort the ray and create an explosion centered on the target. Explodes at the end of the ray.

master

Explodes on the first target, reflecting or not, and creates 1d5 explosions adjacent to the target.

Wand Effects Scaling

wand of cancellation

unskilled

Protected by player MR

basic

Protected by player MR 80% of the time

skilled

Protected by player MR 66% of the time

expert

Protected by player MR 50% of the time

master

Protected by player MR 33% of the time

wand of firewand of coldwand of lightningwand of magic missile

unskilled

3d6 or 40% maxHP damage, whichever is less

basic

6d6 damage

skilled

6d6 damage

expert

6d6 damage, MR only halves magic missile damage

master

6d6 damage, MR only halves magic missile damage

wand of create monster / wand of summoning

unskilled

Create 1 monster.

basic

Create 1d2 monsters.

skilled

Create 1d4 monsters.

expert

Create 1d8 monsters.

master

Create 1d16 monsters.

wand of death

unskilled

Drain one level unless drain or death resistant

basic

Death unless death resistant

skilled

Death unless death resistant; explosions will only deal 50% of current HP + 6d6 in FIQHack

expert

Death unless death resistant, otherwise drain one level unless drain resistant; explosions will only deal 50% of current HP + 6d6 in FIQHack

master

Death unless death resistant, otherwise drain one level unless drain resistant

wand of digging

unskilled

Digs out d5+4 tiles

basic

Digs out d11+8 tiles

skilled

Digs out d17+12 tiles

expert

Digs out d23+16 tiles

master

Digs out d29+20 tiles, ignore maze restrictions (Fourk removed it altogether, but FIQHack still has it)

wand of enlightenment

unskilled

unchanged

basic

unchanged

skilled

unchanged

expert

unchanged

master

unchanged

wand of light

unskilled

Lights up a lamp radius (3 radius)

basic

unchanged

skilled

Similar to a blessed scroll of light (9 radius)

expert

Lights up in a 15 radius

master

Lights up the entire level

wand of locking

unskilled

Closes doors

basic

Closes and locks doors

skilled

unchanged

expert

unchanged

master

Replaces doorway/door with a secret door

wand of make invisible

unskilled

Gives d50 turns of invisibility. Unchanged from vanilla in Fourk

basic

unchanged

skilled

Toggles invisibility

expert

Toggles invisibility

master

Toggles invisibility

wand of nothing

unskilled

unchanged

basic

unchanged

skilled

unchanged

expert

unchanged

master

unchanged

wand of opening

unskilled

Opens doors

basic

unchanged

skilled

unchanged

expert

unchanged

master

unchanged

wand of polymorph

unskilled

unchanged

basic

unchanged

skilled

Re-rolls hostiles once for a weaker form

expert

Re-rolls once for weaker form (hostile) or stronger form (pet)

master

Re-rolls twice for weaker form (hostile) or stronger form (pet), never shudders pets

wand of probing

unskilled

unchanged

basic

unchanged

skilled

Gives enlightenment on monster zaps

expert

Gives enlightenment on monster zaps

master

Gives enlightenment on monster zaps, reveals their spell repertoire (FIQHack)

wand of secret door detection

unskilled

Reveals hidden things next to you

basic

Reveals hidden things in a 5 radius

skilled

Reveals hidden things in a 9 radius

expert

Reveals hidden things in a 15 radius

master

Reveals hidden things on the entire level

wand of sleep

unskilled

unchanged

basic

unchanged

skilled

unchanged

expert

unchanged

master

unchanged

wand of slow monster

unskilled

Gives d4+5 turns of slowness

basic

Gives d8+11 turns of slowness

skilled

Gives d12+17 turns of slowness, removes intrinsic speed

expert

Gives d16+23 turns of slowness, removes intrinsic speed

master

Gives d20+29 turns of slowness, removes intrinsic and temporary speed

wand of speed monster

unskilled

Gives 2d20 turns of speed

basic

Gives 2d20+20 turns of speed

skilled

Gives 2d20+20 turns of speed, gives intrinsic speed

expert

Gives 2d20+50 turns of speed, gives intrinsic speed

master

Gives 5d20+100 turns of speed, gives intrinsic speed

wand of striking

unskilled

Deals 1d12 damage, never misses

basic

Deals 2d12 damage, never misses

skilled

Deals 3d12 damage, never misses

expert

Deals 4d12 damage, never misses

master

Deals 8d12 damage, never misses

wand of teleportation

unskilled

Cannot teleport on noteleport levels

basic

Cannot teleport on noteleport levels

skilled

Cannot teleport on noteleport levels

expert

Can teleport on noteleport level unless self-zapped. Doing so allows no controlled teleportation (4k) / Cannot teleport on noteleport levels (FH)

master

Can teleport on noteleport level unless self-zapped. Doing so allows no controlled teleportation (4k) / Cannot teleport on noteleport levels. You are prompted for where to teleport hit monsters (FH)

wand of undead turning

unskilled

Scares undead that fail to resist

basic

Scares undead that fail to resist

skilled

Destroys undead that fail to resist, scares otherwise

expert

Destroys undead that fail to resist, scares otherwise

master

Destroys undead that fail to resist, scares otherwise

wand of wishing

unskilled

unchanged

basic

unchanged

skilled

unchanged

expert

unchanged

master

unchanged