Green dragon scale mail
[ green dragon scale mail 
| |
|---|---|
| Appearance | green dragon scale mail |
| Slot | body armor |
| AC | 9 |
| Special | |
| Base price | 900 zm |
| Weight | 40 |
| Material | dragon hide |
- For the dragon mail most commonly abbreviated as GDSM, see gray dragon scale mail.
Green dragon scale mail is a type of body armor that appears in NetHack. It is made of dragon hide like all dragon scale mail.
Contents
Generation
Green dragon scale mail is not randomly generated. Reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant armor that targets worn green dragon scales will convert them into mail, with a blessed scroll adding a point of enchantment.
Player monsters that are not monks generated on the Astral Plane have a 1⁄9 chance of generating with green dragon scale mail as their initial body armor before role-specific replacements.[1]
Description
While worn, green dragon scale mail confers 9 base AC and poison resistance. Uncontrolled polymorph while wearing green dragon scale mail will revert them to scales and turn the wearer into a green dragon.[2][3]
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
Per commit ef1eeed7, both the scales and scale mail also provide sickness resistance.Strategy
Green dragon scale mail may seem enticing for an early wish at first glance, due to the prevalence of early-game deaths (particularly instadeath) at the hands of poison - however, there are many sources of poison resistance, including gaining experience levels for certain characters, and this assumes they are not a race or role that starts with the resistance outright. Obtaining any poison resistance source, particularly the intrinsic, removes poison as a threat for the rest of the game and leaves green dragon mail with little use.
However, for some conduct players (in particular foodless atheists) it may still be a better option than gray dragon scale mail or silver dragon scale mail: extrinsic poison resistance is a higher priority for characters that cannot eat to gain the intrinsic, and magic resistance and reflection sources are all extrinsic as well. Like all other types of dragon mail, green dragon mail can be sufficient for a character in dire need of an AC boost that is unable to obtain scales more conveniently.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
Per commit d0b11fd2, poison will no longer cause instadeath, but can still cause significant HP damage as well as attribute loss.
Green dragon scale mail is more likely to be considered for characters and pets due to its sickness resistance: Monsters can be affected by illness-inducing attacks, and while sickness-inducing threats are rare, this small handful of monsters includes Demogorgon - characters out to prove themselves against him specifically may give consideration to green dragon scale mail as part of their "anti-Demogorgon" kit.History
Green dragon scale mail first appears with most other colors of dragon scale mail in NetHack 3.0.0. From NetHack 3.0.0 to NetHack 3.0.10, including variants based on those versions, green dragon scale mail is created by polymorphing the corpse of a green dragon. Green dragon scales are introduced in NetHack 3.1.0, along with the current method for converting them into dragon scale mail.
Variants
In some variants, dragon scale mail is phased out in favor of dragon-scaled armor, whose implementation is based on a proposal by dtsund. Instead of being made into mail of its own, dragon scales are treated as a cloak, and reading a scroll of enchant armor melds them onto a worn set of body armor, generally augmenting that armor by adding its AC and conferred extrinsic properties to it. Dragon-scaled armor is implemented in NetHack Fourk, xNetHack, EvilHack, and Hack'EM.
Several variants also give green dragon scale mail additional properties while worn, and may even introduce other forms of green dragon scale armor. Variants that implement partial intrinsics and/or object properties may also make green dragon mail and other colors more worthwhile.
SporkHack
In SporkHack, worn green dragon scale mail can passively poison attackers for d6 damage with a 1⁄20 chance of instadeath, unless the attacker has poison resistance.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, dragon scales and dragon scale mail have randomized powers and appearances in each game - to wish for dragon armor or scales by its corresponding power, either type of armor must be formally identified first, e.g. by using a scroll of identify on dropped dragon scales (which identifies the matching scale mail along with it) or by witnessing the dragon use its breath weapon. Only wishes from a wand of wishing can create dragon scale mail directly.
Green dragon scale mail is effectively replaced by poison dragon scale mail, which confers only 5 base AC like all dragon scale mail in UnNetHack.
dNetHack
In dNetHack and notdNetHack, worn green dragon scale mail additionally confers sickness resistance.
FIQHack
In FIQHack, worn green dragon scale mail additionally confers sickness resistance. It also weighs 300 aum like all dragon scale mail in FIQHack (which is halved while worn).
References
- ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 156: initial body armor for Astral playermons is random DSM, with equal probability
- ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 501
- ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 518
