Wand of Wonder Effects?

[Nazghul]

Does anyone know where I could find a list of all possible effects from 'a'iming a Wand of Wonder at some(thing/one)? And whether or not they are even chance, or whether the odds of each effect are weighted? I was using one on my mage against Smeagol... I was out of mana, slowed, and couldn't afford to get robbed blind... and accidentally ended up hasting him. Three times. Consecutively. Not only did I wind up robbed blind REGARDLESS, the little upstart decided to murder me... and he's never even successfully SCRATCHED my Warrior (who, in fact, inflicted all kinds of stabbity death on the filthy throw-back as soon as he encountered him).

On a side note: Can anyone explain to me how Smeagol can just shrug off magic missiles? I don't know about Angband, but in every video or table top game in which the spell exists that I have ever even HEARD of, magic missile does piddling damage, but can't be circumvented. Come to think of it, he seems to shrug off most spells. Those I knew by level 9, anyway.

[PowerWyrm]

Monsters don't really "shrug off" spells. The message is displayed when a spell does damage less than 5% of the max hps of the monster. And Smeagol is clearly the first monster you meet that has a truckload of hps for his level.

[MattB]

Originally Posted by Nazghul

Does anyone know where I could find a list of all possible effects from 'a'iming a Wand of Wonder at some(thing/one)? And whether or not they are even chance, or whether the odds of each effect are weighted?

Derakon posted the below about three years ago on another thread. Don't know how relevant it is now, but I imagine it's more or less the same.

"I just thought I'd look up the effects a Wand of Wonder can have, after getting a message from it I didn't recognize ("You feel a surge of power!") that is apparently intended to facilitate ID-by-use. Anyway, when you aim a Wand of Wonder, the game rolls d100 and adds clvl / 5 to the result (thus generating a number from 11 to 110 for a level-50 character). The die determines the effect:
Code:

1-7: Clone Monster
8-13: Haste Monster
14-25: Heal Monster (4d6HP restored)
26-30: Polymorph Monster
31-35: Fires a possibly-beaming magic missile dealing
(3 + (clvl - 1) / 5)d4 damage (up to 12d4)
36-40: Confuse Monster with power clvl
41-45: Fires a radius-3 poison ball dealing 20 + clvl / 2 damage (up to 40)
46-50: As Spear of Light (lights a line dealing 6d8 damage to susceptible monsters)
51-55: Fires a lightning beam dealing (3 + (clvl - 5) / 6)d6 damage (up to 10d6)
56-60: Fires a possibly-beaming frost bolt dealing
(5 + (clvl - 5) / 4)d8 damage (up to 16d8)
61-65: Fires a possibly-beaming acid bolt dealing
(6 + (clvl - 5) / 4)d8 damage (Up to 17d8)
66-70: Fires a possibly-beaming fire bolt dealing
(8 + (clvl - 5) / 4)d8 damage (up to 19d8)
71-75: Fires a drain-life bolt dealing 75 damage to
the non-(demon/undead/golem/elemental/vortex) target
76-80: Fires a radius-2 electrical ball dealing 30 + clvl / 2 damage (up to 55)
81-85: Fires a radius-2 acid ball dealing 40 + clvl damage (up to 90)
86-90: Fires a radius-3 cold ball dealing 70 + clvl damage (up to 120)
91-95: Fires a radius-3 fire ball dealing 80 + clvl damage (up to 130)
96-100: Fires a drain-life bolt dealing 100 + clvl damage
(same target restrictions as noted earlier) (up to 150 damage)
101-103: Causes a radius-12 earthquake.
104-105: Causes a radius-15 Destruction effect.
106-107: Performs a Banish effect (single monster type with prompt)
109: Deals 120 damage to all monsters in line of sight
110: Dealings 150 damage to all monsters in line of sight;
slows all monsters in line of sight with power clvl;
sleeps all monsters in line of sight with power clvl;
heals the player for 300HP."

[scud]

Originally Posted by MattB

110: Dealings 150 damage to all monsters in line of sight;
slows all monsters in line of sight with power clvl;
sleeps all monsters in line of sight with power clvl;
heals the player for 300HP."

Gosh. I'm pretty sure I've never managed a '110'.

I also don't think I've ever managed to bring down Smeagol with a WoW: the sequence is usually 'hurt a bit > hurt a bit > hurt a bit > heal > haste > there goes all my money'.

[Derakon]

Given that you have to be level 50 to achieve the 110 effect, in practice the only time you'd see it is if you were specifically trying to see it. I think the mage's Wonder spell is slightly better than the wand (larger boost to the die roll) but it's so expensive MP-wise that nobody's going to try to use it for a serious fight.

That said, Wands of Wonder can be pretty useful early on. You have about a 50% chance of getting a good-damage elemental attack out of them even if you're level 1, and that can seriously shorten a fight. Of course, if you do get a haste or clone effect, I hope you have a way to run away...

[MattB]

Originally Posted by Derakon

That said, Wands of Wonder can be pretty useful early on. You have about a 50% chance of getting a good-damage elemental attack out of them even if you're level 1, and that can seriously shorten a fight. Of course, if you do get a haste or clone effect, I hope you have a way to run away...

While you're running away you could always throw the wands at Smeagol.

[scud]

Originally Posted by Derakon

Given that you have to be level 50 to achieve the 110 effect...

I just looked at the numbers and completely missed the CL increment. WoWs are usually on ignore by the time I'm CL10.

One thing I've discovered relatively recently is just how useful Rods of Light are are melting orderly lines of orcs. Did RoLs become more common, quicker to recharge, or simply meltier between 3.3.2 and 3.4.1?

[Derakon]

Nope. You just never paid that much attention to them. I've carried Rods of Light for dealing with orc groups since, oh, whenever rod stacking got fixed to stack charging and full rods.

[scud]

I see.

Individually not much cop, but three or four of them is shriveltastic.

But now I've just opened a door and walked into a carrion crawler. I'm really not having much luck with 3.4.1.

[Nazghul]

Thanks everyone. Even if it's NOT entirely accurate anymore (and for all I know, it IS), that list gives me a really good idea of what to expect. Figures I got triple haste, then... it's pure RNG, and the Random Number God has always taken great pleasure in making me His divine butt-monkey at every opportunity, LOL.