Hat of Pondering

Version 0.32: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

The favourite hat of the slug wizard Gastronok, stained with reddish slime and enchanted to aid in his arcane pondering. It has been specially enchanted to protect against the desiccating effects of salt.

the +3 hat of Pondering

+3 hat

Ponderousness ego
+40 Willpower (Will+)
+5 Intelligence
+10 MP

Desirability

The hat of Pondering provides great bonuses to spellcasting, and a useful will bonus on top. However, the movement penalty can be dangerous - it makes retreat more difficult. Luckily, this hat is most beneficial to those who are likely to have the means to speed themselves up, i.e. mages with spells like Swiftness or Blink.

Characters which are faster or slower than usual have unique interactions with the Hat of Pondering:

• Cheibriados worshippers, Barachim, and Nagas are already slower than usual; they don't mind being slower (as much as others).
• Armataurs wearing the lightning scales move fast; having ponderousness puts them back at normal speed.
• Spriggans can still outrun normal-speed monsters, but are unable to outrun hasted normal-speed monsters. Wearing this hat drops Spriggans from 166% to 142% move speed, making them slower than certain enemies (such as centaurs, juggernauts, Mennas, and orbs of fire).

True to its lore, the hat of Pondering is sometimes found on Gastronok (10% chance).