New Potions in Slash'EM

Effects of New Potions

Amnesia

A potion of amnesia always has the appearance ``sparkling potion''. Drinking it has similar effects to reading a scroll of amnesia - you forget all of the current map, you have a 1/3 chance of forgetting some discoveries and a separate 1/3 chance of forgetting some level maps, and unless the potion was blessed you can also forget spells. A blessed potion of amnesia will also cure lycanthropy and sickness and give you 51-100 nutrition points. Unfortunately, monsters can throw potions of amnesia, and being hit by one can also cause you to forget discoveries and maps.

Dipping items into a potion of amnesia has assorted mostly bad effects - magic tools and gray stones will become non-magical, weapons and armour will lose some enchantment and may be rusted or lose their rustproofing, and anything dipped into a potion of amnesia will become uncursed.

A potion of amnesia can be diluted to water with just one dip, but cannot be cancelled.

Blood and vampire blood

Potions of blood and vampire blood both have the appearance ``blood-red potion''. They are not randomly generated, but are frequently found on vampiric monsters. Vampire players can create potions of vampire blood with the draw blood technique. Unless you are playing a vampire, the best thing to do with potions of (vampire) blood is to convert them to water, which can be achieved by dipping a unicorn horn into them.

If you are (polymorphed into) a vampire, drinking a noncursed potion of vampire blood will give you the same amount of nutrition as a food ration (or half that if the potion is diluted), while ordinary noncursed blood will give you a small amount of nutrition. Cursed blood is congealed and has no nutritional value. A blessed potion of vampire blood will also increase your current and max hp by an equivalent amount to gaining an experience level.

If you are not a vampire, drinking vampire blood will polymorph you into one, with no timeout (you can return to your normal form by killing your vampiric form or polymorphing again and letting this new polymorph time out). Monks and Lawfuls will also anger their gods. Drinking ordinary blood will just make you vomit.

Clairvoyance

A cursed potion of clairvoyance has no effect. An uncursed one will map the area around you unless clairvoyance is blocked for you (by a cornuthaum), and a blessed one will give you clairvoyance for 100-149 turns.

ESP

A blessed potion of ESP gives you permanent intrinsic telepathy (``You feel fully mentally acute.'') An uncursed potion of ESP gives the message ``You feel more mentally acute'' and gives you telepathy for 100-149 (more) turns. A cursed potion of ESP will have no effect unless you have temporary or permanent intrinsic telepathy, in which case it will remove the intrinsic, with the message ``You feel less mentally acute''.

Invulnerability

You will be invulnerable for 12-15 (more) turns if the potion was blessed, 8-11 (more) turns if it was uncursed, and 4-7 (more) turns if it was cursed.

N.B. Invulnerability does not mean that you are completely immune to all types of damage. It only protects you against hit point loss (including some types of fatal damage, such as being bisected by the Tsurugi), deadly poison, death rays / touch of death, and black dragon breath (although your armour will not be saved by your invulnerability). It does not help against sickness, stoning, sliming, lost stats, brainlessness, lycanthropy, being level-drained, divine wrath, eating a Rider's corpse, and probably a myriad of other dangers.

Upgrading objects

In Slash'EM, dipping an object into a potion of gain level may ``upgrade'' it to another type of object, generally with the same charges or enchantment. Gnomes can achieve the same effect with their tinker technique (but must first wield the object). Upgrading objects does not violate polypileless conduct, but it does have some restrictions. Only non-magical types of item (weapons, armour, tools and food) may be upgraded, and artifacts are not upgradable either. The potion of gain level is not used up unless the dipped object is transmuted.

Here's a table of possible upgrades:

Miscellaneous Notes on Dipping Into Potions

• Dipping a polypiled object into a potion of restore ability will cause it to seem ``less hazy'' and prevent it from unpolypiling.
• Dipping a visible object into a potion of invisibility makes it invisible.
• Dipping an invisible object into a potion of see invisible makes it visible.