# Spellbook of cone of cold

spellbook of  +   cone of cold   

Appearance

random

Abundance

1.01%

Base price

400 zm

Weight

50

Turns to read

21

Ink to write

20–39

Spell type

attack

Level

4

Power cost

20 Pw

Direction

ray/distant  

Equivalent

wand of cold

Special for

valkyrie

Cone of cold is a medium-level attack spell. It is the Valkyrie's special spell.

Contents

1 Effects

1.1 Unskilled or Basic
1.2 Skilled or Expert

2 Messages
3 Strategy
4 See also
5 References

Effects
Unskilled or Basic
At Unskilled or Basic skill level, the spell zaps a ray with the same effect as a wand of cold. NetHack will prompt you for a direction in which to cast the spell; you can also zap it at yourself, although this is not recommended.

Zap
Case
Effect

monster

monster is unseen

The location of the monster is revealed.

monster is cold resistant

no effect

otherwise

does (XL/2 + 1)d6 damage, plus damage bonus.

monster is fire resistant

additional (XL/2 + 1)d3 damage

you are a Knight with the MMoM

the above damage is doubled.

monster is carrying potions

they may freeze and shatter

self

you are not cold resistant

does 12 to 72 damage

you are carrying potions

they may freeze and shatter

location

water

it freezes

lava

it solidifies

closed door

it is destroyed, and the ray is halted

Skilled or Expert
At Skilled or Expert level, you may choose a location at which to cast explosions of cold, with the following restrictions:

this location must be no more than 10 squares away;
it must be an open space;
you must either see the chosen square normally (it must be lit and in the line of sight) or sense a monster on it via telepathy, infravision, a blessed potion of monster detection, or its spell equivalent (warning will not suffice)[1].
The last two conditions do not need to be met if you are engulfed.[2] In this case, the explosions will be centered around yourself, and nothing will be affected outside the engulfing entity.[3]
If there is a wall on the straight line between you and your target, the spell will explode around the square immediately before the first wall.[4] Otherwise, the explosions will be centered around the location you chose. 2 to 9 explosions follow; the first is in the center, the subsequent ones randomly at any of the nine squares around that point. Each explosion affects the surrounding squares.[5]
The damage to non-cold-resistant monsters is just XL/2 + 1 plus spell damage bonus,[6] halved if they resist, doubled if they are resistant to fire, and doubled again is they're grabbing you and you're within blast radius.[7] Monsters are dealt additional damage equal to the number of potion stacks in their inventory, even if they're cold resistant and potions didn't freeze.[8]
Any explosions that would be centered on yourself do not take place, but instead do damage as 'zap self' above.
Explosions produce noise.[9]

Messages
The cone of cold hits the 

<monster>.
You cast the spell at Unskilled or Basic.
The cone of cold rips into the <monster>."
You cast the spell at Unskilled or Basic, while swallowed.
You imitate a popsicle!
You cast the spell at yourself, while not cold resistant.
You feel a little chill.
You cast the spell at yourself, while cold resistant.
The water freezes.
You cast the spell at water.
The moat is bridged with ice!
You cast the spell at a moat.
You hear a crackling sound.
The spell froze water that you couldn't see.
The water freezes for a moment.
You cast the spell at water on the Plane of Water.
You hear a soft crackling.
You cast the spell at water you couldn't see on the Plane of Water.
The lava cools and solidifies.
You cast the spell at lava.
The door freezes and shatters!
You cast the spell at a door.
You feel cold.
You cast the spell at a door you couldn't see.
Your mind fails to lock onto that location!
You tried to cast the spell at a location you couldn't see.
The spell dissipates over the distance!
You tried to cast the spell over too great a distance.
You're joking! In this weather?
You tried to cast the spell underwater.
You had better wait for the sun to come out.
You tried to cast the spell at Skilled or Expert on the Plane of Water.
<monster> is caught in the ball of cold!
You cast the spell at Skilled or Expert.
You are caught in the ball of cold!
You cast the spell at Skilled or Expert, at yourself.
Strategy
The best possible casting scenario for this spell is if you are a level 30 character, 18 intelligence, and are casting at a fire-resistant monster. In this case, you can cast up to 9 cold explosions, each of which could hit the monster's square for (6×16&nbsp;+ 3×16) damage, for a total of 1296 damage. This makes this spell potentially the most devastating attack in NetHack, although under normal circumstances magic missile is likely to be better. The cone of cold is most useful for crowd control in Gehennom, where many of the monsters are fire-resistant and thus more vulnerable to the spell. It is also very useful for dealing with vampires transformed into other forms. As of 3.6.0, any vampire bat, wolf or fog cloud in Gehennom is likely to come back to life as a vampire or vampire lord; using a cone of cold might kill the transformed form with an early blast and the risen vampire with one of the subsequent blasts. Coupled with detect monsters, this can be done from another room or corridor, keeping the player safe from the vampiric life-draining attack.
Enhancing to expert skill gives no benefits over skilled for this spell besides a decreased spell failure rate. A level 30 Valkyrie with a robe can cast this spell at 2% fail thanks to Valkyries' specialty spell bonus. The fail rate is 33% if the Valkyrie also wears gauntlets of power.

See also
Wand of cold
Frost horn
Spellbook of fireball
References

↑ spell.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 1232

↑ spell.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 1241

↑ explode.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 88

↑ dothrow.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 442

↑ spell.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 1048

↑ spell.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 1060

↑ explode.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 444

↑ explode.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 411

↑ explode.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 575

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