# Dunce cap

[   dunce cap   

Appearance

conical hat

Slot

helm

AC

0

Special

autocursesintelligence = 6wisdom = 6shop markup

Base price

1 zm

Weight

4

Material

cloth

The dunce cap is a magical helm that appears in NetHack. When unidentified, it appears as a conical hat.

Contents

1 Effects
2 Identification
3 Strategy
4 Messages
5 Origin
6 Encyclopedia entry
7 References

Effects
When worn, the dunce cap sets your intelligence and wisdom to 6 each and autocurses, even if originally blessed; this will autoidentify the dunce cap. Dunce caps also prevent any change to your intelligence or wisdom while worn, akin to a ring of sustain ability.[1] Removing the cap will restore your intelligence and wisdom to their original values.
Shopping while wearing a dunce cap will cause the shopkeeper to add an additional 1/3 markup to the price of each item when buying,[2], and only give you 1/3 of the base price when selling items.[3]. This is also the penalty for being a low-level Tourist or having a visible shirt; these penalties are not cumulative.

Identification
As the dunce cap and the cornuthaum are both conical hats, picking up and wearing a conical hat at random is a Bad Idea. They can easily be distinguished by price, with the dunce cap having a base cost of only 1 zorkmid.

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.

For a Tourist, 1⁄3 of conical hats can be read; a dunce cap will be labeled "DUNCE". Reading a dunce cap autoidentifies it.
Strategy
The dunce cap only exists to entrap careless Wizards looking for a cornuthaum - the INT penalty will be devastating to their spellcasting success rates, making it difficult to cast the spell of remove curse. As the cornuthaum is only useful for wizards or pets, non-wizards can freely ignore unidentified conical hats and completely avoid the risk of donning a dunce cap.
One marginal use of the dunce cap is that it prevents instadeath from a mind flayer's intelligence drain - it does not prevent amnesia from the same attack, however. Beyond this, its best use is as fodder for polypiling into other magical armor.

Messages
You feel like sitting in a corner.
You put on a dunce cap.
Your cap constricts briefly, then relaxes again.
Your wisdom or intelligence would have changed, but a worn dunce cap prevented this.
Origin

Wikipedia has an article about:
Dunce cap

The dunce cap is a conical paper hat with the word "dunce" or just a "D" written on it. It was a form of punishment used in schools in the English-speaking world, where a student seen as misbehaving, stupid or lazy was made to wear it in front of the classroom for a set amount of time.
The notion of a "thinking cap" such as the cornuthaum may derive from ceremonial conical hats or even true thinking hats - in this context, the dunce cap is an "anti-thinking cap".

Encyclopedia entry

A dunce cap, also variously known as a dunce hat, dunce's
cap, or dunce's hat, is a tall conical hat.  In popular
culture, it is typically made of paper and often marked with
a D, and given to schoolchildren to wear as punishment for
being stupid or lazy.  While this is now a rare practice,
it is frequently depicted in popular culture such as
children's cartoons.

[ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ] 

References

↑ attrib.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 111

↑ shk.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line line1970

↑ shk.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line line2143