Exercising stats

• Strength exercise
• Strength abuse
• Dexterity exercise
• Dexterity abuse
• Constitution exercise
• Constitution abuse
• Wisdom exercise
• Wisdom abuse

These are the things which you can do which will gradually increase (exercise) or decrease (abuse) your statistics. Intelligence and Charisma cannot be exercised. If you are polymorphed, only Wisdom can be exercised.

The game maintains an exercise counter for each stat to keep track of your exercise state. Each time you do one of the things on these lists, there is a chance that the counter may increase or decrease. If you abuse a stat, there is a 50% chance the exercise counter will decrease by one. If you exercise a stat there is a (18-current_stat)/19 chance the counter will increase by one.

When the check is made, each counter is divided by two. Then a random number between 1 and 50 is chosen; if this is less than the absolute value of two-thirds of the exercise counter, the stat increases or decreases by one. (For Wisdom the full exercise counter is used instead.) You cannot increase a stat if its base value is 18 or more. If a stat is changed, the exercise counter for that stat is set to zero.

The first check is always made at the 600th move. Each next check is made 800-1000 moves later (determined at random). When a game is saved and restarted this will make the interval longer.

The following activities exercise your strength:

• Attacking a monster
• Kicking open a non-booby trapped door
• Trying to open or close a door and failing
• Attempting to force open a lock with a blunt weapon
• Throwing an iron ball
• Moving or throwing a boulder
• Being hit by electricity or fire if you're an iron golem
• Being hit by a nurse
• If you "feel restored to health" after an encounter with a succubus or incubus
• Reading a blessed or uncursed scroll of enchant armor when not wearing any armor
• Carrying enough so that you are "stressed" or "strained"
• Regenerating
• Drinking a potion of extra or full healing

The following activities abuse your strength:

• Allowing yourself to become weak from hunger
• Losing grip on an iron ball and getting smacked by it
• Doubly abused if you then get dragged downstairs by the iron ball
• Kicking stairs, a ladder, a wall, a drawbridge, empty space, or a booby-trapped door
• Kicking a sink badly
• Kicking at empty space and pulling a muscle
• Attempting to kick while levitating
• Taking damage from an explosion (exploding chest, mixed potions exploding, exploding wand, booby-trapped door, etc.)
• Being choked or crushed (i.e. by an owlbear, etc.)
• Having your leg pricked by a xan
• Taking damage from any acid attack (active or passive) if not acid resistant
• Being digested by a monster that has swallowed you
• Being pummeled with debris by a creature that has engulfed you
• Being hit by magic missiles from a magic attack
• Being hit for more than 1 hp and dividing when you are a black or brown pudding
• If you "feel exhausted" after an encounter with a succubus or incubus
• Breaking out of your armor by polymorphing into a large creature
• Reading a cursed scroll of enchant armor when not wearing any armor
• Reading a scroll of destroy armor when not wearing any armor
• Being strangled by an amulet of strangulation
• Being hit by a falling rock trap
• Falling into a pit trap
• Sitting on an iron spike (Ouch!)
• Zapping yourself with a force bolt or wand of striking

Dexterity

The following activities exercise your dexterity:

• Fighting monsters
• Successfully kicking a monster
• Kicking open a door or secret door
• Kicking a throne and destroying it
• Kicking an altar
• Kicking a sink or fountain
• Kicking and uncovering a secret passage
• Kicking a tree and finding fruit
• Catching a returning boomerang
• Hitting a monster with a missile weapon, an iron ball, or a boulder
• Sucking a monster's brain when polymorphed into a mind-flayer
• Stealing gold when polymorphed into a leprechaun
• Getting the "It's hard to walk in thin air" message on the Plane of Air
• Attempting to pick a lock
• Attempting to force a locked chest with a bladed weapon
• Playing a wooden flute, magic flute, wooden harp, or magic harp
• Spinning a web when polymorphed into a spider
• Trying to disarm a trap
• Gaining intrinsic speed
• Reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant weapon while not wielding a weapon

The following activities abuse your dexterity:

• Being satiated
• Being strained or overtaxed
• Wounding your legs
• Fumbling
• Getting stunned
• Bumping into a door
• Tumbling in place on the Plane of Air
• Missing a kick at a very small non-flying monster while levitating (esoteric, eh?)
• Kicking the stairs, a ladder, wall, or drawbridge
• Kicking a sink badly (i.e. "Ouch! That hurts!")
• Kicking open space
• Falling onto a sink (i.e. trying to levitate over one)
• Being paralyzed by a monster attack, chest trap or potion
• Being hit by a monster that slows you down
• Getting your legs pricked by a xan
• Getting stoned (turning to stone)
• Turning into green slime
• Getting caught in a bear trap or a pit
• Getting hit by a landmine
• Losing intrinsic speed
• Breathing the vapors of potions of paralysis or sleep
• Reading a cursed scroll of enchant weapon while not wielding a weapon

The following activities exercise your constitution:

• Keeping from being hungry
• Being hit beneficially by a nurse
• When "you feel raised to your full potential" or "you feel good enough to do it again" after an encounter with a succubus or incubus
• Digesting a monster when polymorphed into a monster which can engulf others.
• Drinking unholy water while undead, demonic or chaotic
• Drinking holy water while not undead, demonic or chaotic
• Drinking or breathing the vapors of a potion of healing, extra healing or full healing
• Reading non-cursed scroll of enchant armor while wearing no armor

The following activities abuse your constitution:

• Passing out from exertion when carrying too much
• Failing to throw something because of too little stamina (heavily burdened and few HP)
• Attempting to move with too little stamina
• Being extensively encumbered (overtaxed)
• Fainting from hunger
• Being sick or vomiting
• Choking on food
• Drinking contaminated water from a fountain if not poison resistant
• Drinking water that's "no good" from a fountain.
• Drinking holy water as an undead, demon or chaotic
• Drinking unholy water while non-chaotic
• Drinking or breathing vapors from a potion of sickness
• Drinking a potion of acid without acid resistance
• Breathing vapors of potions of acid or polymorph
• Falling onto a weapon on a sink (i.e. levitating over one and crashing)
• Sitting in a throne and having electricity shoot through your body
• Getting caught in a cloud of poison gas or getting pricked by a poison needle from a chest trap
• Being hit by a monster attack which causes disease
• Being hit by lightning from a wand of lightning
• Becoming lycanthropic ("You feel feverish.")
• Being hit by the monster Famine
• When "you feel drained of energy" or "you are down in the dumps" after an encounter with a succubus or incubus
• Being hit by a silver arrow if lycanthropic or polymorphed into a vampire, demon, minor demon (except tengu), or shade
• Getting system shock from polymorphing ("You shudder for a moment.")
• Polymorphing
• Being turned by a god while undead
• Reading cursed scroll of enchant armor or a scroll of destroy armor while wearing no armor

Wisdom

The following activities exercise your wisdom:

• Being clairvoyant
• Engraving "Elbereth"
• As a monk, being weak with hunger (fasting)
• Trying to find the right tune to get into the castle
• Finding a secret door, passage, or a trap
• Finding a trap on a chest or door
• Finding a hidden, invisible or mimicking monster
• Finding a statue trap
• Kicking a tree and finding fruit
• Kicking a sink and finding a ring
• Detecting gold, objects, food, or monsters
• Mapping the level via scroll, spell or throne
• Zapping a wand of enlightenment
• Discovering the type of an item
• Spotting a gem in a fountain
• Drinking from a magic fountain ("A wisp of vapor escapes the fountain....")
• Drinking from a sink and finding a ring
• Drinking holy water while not undead demon or chaotic
• Drinking non-cursed potion of enlightenment or gain energy
• Gaining self knowledge, intrinsic see invisible, or detecting monsters by drinking from a fountain
• Getting Excalibur by dipping a longsword in a fountain
• Finding some coins in a fountain
• When you have a "very educational experience" with a succubus or incubus, or "will always remember the succubus/incubus"
• Trying to polymorph into something that's been genocided ("You feel rather x-ish")
• Polymorphing
• Sucking a monster's brain
• Summoning creatures when lycanthropic
• Summoning demonic hell-p
• Sacrificing
• Sacrificing a corpse of your race if you are polymorphed into a demon
• Converting an altar
• Being given something (an artifact or spellbook) by a deity
• Using your turn undead ability if a priest or knight
• Talking to a coaligned priest when you have no money
• Giving between half your gold and 200 times your experience level in gold to a coaligned priest
• Touching a quest artifact for the first time
• Being rejected from the Quest for other than alignment problems
• Being accepted on the Quest
• Hearing a true rumor (i.e. fortune cookie or Oracle)
• Studying a spellbook
• Trying to cast a spell
• Writing a scroll or spellbook
• Zapping a wand
• Eating a non-cursed trident ("That was pure chewing satisfaction!")
• Repairing a weapon with oil
• Filling an unlit oil lamp with oil

The following activities abuse your wisdom:

• Touching an artifact of opposite alignment ("You feel a blast of power")
• As a monk, being satiated
• Being confused
• Hallucinating
• Digging into a grave
• Engraving on a gravestone
• Drinking a potion of booze
• Drinking cursed potion of enlightenment
• Drinking a potion of oil
• Filling a lit lamp
• Trying to cheat the lady of the lake (i.e. dipping to get Excalibur if not lawful)
• Losing gold in a fountain
• Having your brain eaten by a mind flayer
• Forgetting a spell from amnesia
• Reading a scroll of amnesia
• When "your senses are dulled" after an encounter with a succubus or incubus
• Playing a tooled horn, bugle, or leather drum
• Touching the corpse of a rider
• Sacrificing a corpse of your race if not chaotic or polymorphed into a demon
• Attempting to convert an altar and failing
• Trying to turn undead when your god is mad at you or you're non-chaotic and polymorphed into a demon or undead creature
• Attacking a temple priest(ess)
• Attempting to saddle an succubus or incubus ("Shame on you!")
• Hearing a false rumor (i.e. fortune cookie)
• Attempting to get a major consultation from the Oracle with insufficient money
• Trying to sit while trapped
• Trying to aim a spell while swallowed
• Teleporting oneself
• Hitting a monster with an egg
• Attempting to write on a non-blank scroll or spellbook

References