Ring mail
[ ring mail | |
---|---|
Appearance | ring mail |
Slot | body armor |
AC | 3 |
Special | |
Base price | 100 zm |
Weight | 250 |
Material | iron |
Ring mail is a type of body armor that appears in NetHack. It is made of iron.
Generation
Knights start each game with +1 ring mail.[1] human Barbarians start each game with +0 ring mail; orcish Barbarians receive orcish ring mail instead.[2][3]
Lower-ranked mercenaries may be generated with studded leather armor, depending on the monster's specific target AC.[4]
Ring mail may appear in the fake "bones" pile of the ghost generated on the Rogue level.[5]
Description
When worn, ring mail grants 3 base AC and MC1.
Strategy
Studded leather armor is generally preferred to ring mail: it is cheaper, weighs 50 aum less, and does not interfere with spellcasting for magic-focused roles. The starting ring mail for Barbarians and Knights are generally passable, but is generally replaced with better armor as soon as it becomes available.
History
Ring mail first appears in hack121, a port of Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial list of armor for Hack 1.0. From this version to NetHack 3.4.3, including some variants based on those versions, ring mail does not grant any MC.
Origin
Ring armour (or ring mail) is a type of personal armour believed to be constructed as a series of metallic rings sewn or tied directly to a fabric or leather item of clothing such as a jacket or trousers - this would make it more similar to studded leather armor. Unlike chain mail and similar armor, ring armour does not have the rings physically interlocked with each other.
Though ring mail is a standard type of armor in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, as well as other games and media inspired by it, no historic examples of ring armour are known to exist in European collections or archaeological excavations in Europe. The term "mail" was used in the Victorian era for any form of metallic body armour; "ring mail" as a term does not occur until around the 19th century. Most examples of ring mail are based on speculative interpretations of medieval artwork and historical accounts.
References
- ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 76: Knight starting inventory
- ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 46: Barbarian starting inventory
- ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 220: Racial substitutions for orcish characters
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 628
- ↑ src/extralev.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 347