Lab coat
A lab coat is a cloak specific to SLASH'EM. It provides acid resistance[1], poison resistance and magic cancellation 3. It replaces the alchemy smock from vanilla nethack, providing the same extrinsics but better magic cancellation.
Generation
Lab coats can be found randomly or in shops. Doctor Frankenstein in his late-game lair is guaranteed to carry one.
Their appearance, white coat, is always the same, making identification trivial.
Strategy
Early on, a lab coat can be helpful in gaining intrinsic poison resistance without suffering excessive stat loss, but poison-resistant characters may prefer a cloak of protection or a cloak of magic resistance. In SLASH'EM's late game, however, it becomes one of the best choices for a cloak: unlike in vanilla, SLASH'EM introduces some very powerful acidic monsters (such as the giant shoggoth), and acid resistance renders them considerably less dangerous. Characters not needing to gain magic resistance through their cloak slot should strongly consider a lab coat, especially in light of the fact that one of the oilskin cloak's main benefits - protection against drowning attacks - is largely superseded by the ring of free action in SLASH'EM.
