Jewellery
Jewellery is a category of equipment that consists of rings and amulets. They are always magical, but not necessarily in a beneficial way.
Most species can equip one amulet and two rings, although octopodes are able to wear eight rings at a time. Wearers of the unrandart macabre finger necklace may wear an extra ring. Some bad forms restrict your jewellery options. Rings and amulets are equipped with the P key and removed with the R key. You can't put on a ring if you're wearing a cursed pair of gloves, and you may not change your jewellery at all while berserk.
Strategy
One important quality of jewellery is that it can be changed very quickly. It only requires 1 turn to remove a ring or amulet and equip another (specifically, 0.5 turns for each individual action). In contrast, removing and equipping another piece of armour requires 10 turns (or 5 turns for each individual action), making it far less versatile.
That being said, it is wise to keep extra pieces of jewellery in your inventory for situational encounters, such as an amulet of resist mutation for a monster that can cast Malmutate, or a ring that offers an elemental resistance versus a specific monster.
Curses
Unidentified rings have a 2% chance of being cursed, with the following exceptions:
- Ring of slaying - 21%
- Ring of protection/evasion/strength/dexterity/intelligence - 22% (usually with negative attributes)
- Ring of hunger/teleportation - 100%
Unidentified amulets have a 2% chance of being cursed, regardless of their usefulness.