I don't know how the speed freak is supposed to work, but I saw a monk run across the crossroad cave area in less than five seconds.
Maybe some rebalancing is in order?
This is a hard coded thing with monks and speed increasing effects. It lasts 5 rounds at a time and needs to be reused repeatedly (each use takes 1 round to activate). A non monk speedfreak would only move at about the same speed as haste. Level 9 monks are very fast when combined with movement speed buffs.
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Nevermind, silly idea.
The items are completely random chance after having killed several lowerdark monsters and provides a few charges of expeditious retreat. I think people are over-reacting hugely.
Edit: Forgot to mention they're exclusive to Knights of the New Path. Probably a semi important detail.
Just a select case of character build and speedfreak option. Can be killed by other methods. Just because it is fast doesn't make it completely effective.