Plate mail

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[   plate mail
Appearance	plate mail
Slot	body armor
AC	7
Special	MC2
Base price	600 zm
Weight	450
Material	iron

For other kinds of plate mail, see bronze plate mail and crystal plate mail.

Plate mail is a type of body armor that appears in NetHack. It is made of iron. For Samurai, it appears as tanko.

Generation

In addition to random generation, general stores, used armor dealerships and antique weapon outlets can sell plate mail.

The "bones" pile on the Rogue level has a ¹⁄₂ chance of containing plate mail with an enchantment ranging from -1 to +3, which has a ¹⁄₃ chance of being erosion-proofed and a ³⁄₄ chance of being cursed.

Mercenaries with a target AC of -1 or better (e.g., Yendorian Army lieutenants) have an effective ¹⁶⁄₂₅ chance of generating with plate mail.

Player monster barbarians, knights, priests, and valkyries have an effective ¹¹⁄₁₅₅ chance (roughly ~7.1%) of forcing plate mail in place of their initial body armor.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.

As part of commit 20cbadcf - which strengthens quest leaders and makes it so that killing them no longer makes the game unwinnable - the Knight quest leader King Arthur always generates with +4 plate mail.

Description

Plate mail is one of three types of armor that confers the most base AC after dragon scale mail but also weighs 450 aum, making it prohibitively heavy for many characters. Early non-casting characters with plenty of carrying capacity may consider an early set of plate mail if they find it, but those that opt for it will want to swap it for less weighty armor (such as a dwarvish mithril-coat or elven mithril-coat) at the first opportunity.

History

Plate mail first appears in Hack 1.21 and Hack for PDP-11, which are based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial list of armor for Hack 1.0.

Origin

Plate armor is a historical type of personal body armor that is made from bronze, iron, or steel plates.

Examples of plate armor range from a simple cuirass to the recognizable full-body "panoply" armor - "panoply" refers both to historic armor that dates back to the Roman Empire, and to other forms of plate armor that would come much later. The tankō is a form of plate armor that dates back to the Kofun period (c. 300 to 538 AD), and is notable for being the first uniquely definable type of Japanese armor - it was made of strips of overlapping or riveted sheet iron, lined with tanned leather for support and protection of the wearer's clothing and skin, and was laced at the hips to conform to their body. Tanko armor was attached to the body via fabric bands that ran over the shoulders, with the carapace set higher than the breastplate to protect the wearer's neck, and had an opening on the front side that could be closed once the armor was put on.

In Europe, full-plate steel armor developed during the Late Middle Ages from the coat of plates (popular in late 13th and early 14th century) worn over mail suits during the 14th century, especially in the context of the Hundred Years' War, and reached its peak usage in the late 15th and early 16th centuries - full suits of Gothic plate armor and Milanese plate armor were worn on the battlefields of the period's various wars. The most heavily armored troops were heavy cavalry, but the infantry troops of Swiss mercenaries and Landsknechts also took to lighter suits of "three quarters" munition armor, which left the lower legs unprotected. The use of plate armor began to decline in the early 17th century, but remained common both among nobility and cuirassiers throughout the European wars of religion.

After the mid-17th century, which brought the development of the armor-penetrating musket, the use of plate armor was mostly reduced to the simple breastplate or cuirass with the exception of the Polish Hussars; body armour made a brief reappearance in the American Civil War, with mixed success. The breastplate in particular gained renewed importance for infantry with the development of shrapnel in the late Napoleonic Wars, and were still in active use during the first few months of World War I prior to experimentation with shrapnel armor and early forms of ballistic vests. Post-World War II, steel plates were soon replaced fully by vests made from synthetic fibre: Kevlar was introduced in 1971 and set the standard for most ballistic vests since then, with the option to add "trauma plates" made from ceramic, metal (steel or titanium) or synthetic materials to reduce the risk of blunt trauma injury.

Plate armor is popularly associated with the "medieval knight” archetype due to specialized 16th century jousting armor. Naturally, these and various other forms of plate armor feature in fantasy-based media such as Dungeons & Dragons - the plate mail of NetHack is likely the cuirass type, since it does not offer full-body coverage.

Variants

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, Knights start the game with +0 plate mail.

Plate mail can be found on the goal level of the Yeoman quest, placed on the altar of the lawful temple.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, plate mail grants 5 AC, 5 DR and MC3 while worn, and its weight is reduced to 225 aum.

Vlad the Impaler is always generated with plate mail. The militant cleric of the rebel party that serves as the collective quest nemeses for the Noble's default quest always generates with plate mail. Large dogs have an effective ¹⁄₁₀₀₀ chance of generating with plate mail fitted to their size and body shape.

Soldier ants and queen bees generated on the Lawful Quest have an effective ³⁄₅₀ chance of generating with plate mail fitted to their size and body shape. Fighter driver Amm Kamerel always generate with +1 plate mail, which has an equal probability of its material being either bronze, silver or glass. The four player monster knights generated on the Ancient Temple floor of the Chaos Temple Quest each have plate mail placed on their square.

There are a few artifact sets of plate mail:

• Soulmirror is a neutral artifact that is made of mithril: it grants reflection, MC3, and drain resistance while worn, and can be enchanted to +7. One of the possible item sets for minor spire map inclusions contains Soulmirror, and it will be replaced with normal mithril plate mail and an amulet of reflection if Soulmirror was generated previously.
• The Armor of Erebor is a lawful artifact that is the quest artifact for dwarven Nobles, and grants magic resistance, half physical damage, +10 AC, fire resistance and cold resistance while worn.
• The Ringed Brass Armor is a chaotic intelligent artifact that is made of copper, and acts as the crowning gift for chaotic female half-dragon Nobles. It can be safely enchanted to +10, and acts as a "living item" while worn, having a chance per turn of lashing out at any hostile monsters within 2 squares of the wearer. It has three random effects when lashing out, and invoking the Armor will cause one of these effects to occur immediately.

xNetHack

In xNetHack, Croesus always generates with gold body armor - the armor has a ¹⁄₈ chance of being plate mail, and will otherwise be chain mail.

notdNetHack

In notdNetHack, in addition to dNetHack details, Berith and Dantalion are generated with plate mail when summoned by an Illithanachronounbinder.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, plate mail's weight is reduced to 350 aum.

human, orcish and centaur Knights start the game with plate mail.

Croesus has a ¹⁄₂ chance of generating with gold plate mail. Kas is always generated with plate mail.

Plate mail can be created at a forge by combining chain mail and splint mail. Plate mail can be used to forge a few items:

• Plate mail can be combined with 3 dilithium crystals to create crystal plate mail.
• Two sets of plate mail can be combined to create large splint mail.
• Plate mail can be combined with a saddle to create barding.

SlashTHEM

In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, the militant cleric in the rebel party of the Noble quest generates with plate mail, as in dNetHack.

The chest within the thieves' hideout in the village of the Town branch has a ¹⁄₂₀ chance of containing a blessed +5 plate mail named Erdrick's Armor, and an independent ³⁄₂₀ chance of containing a cursed -5 plate mail named Alucart Mail. Erdrick's Armor is named for Erdrick, the title given to a legendary hero in the Dragon Quest series of video games, with the first three games featuring a main character descended from the hero; Alucart Mail is a type of mail found in the Castlevania series of video games, where it exists as an inferior knock-off of Alucard's real mail armor that can still have useful effects if paired with the other "Alucart" equipment.

Hack'EM

In Hack'EM, EvilHack details apply for plate mail, including generation and forging recipes.

Plate mail also generates on the temple altar in the Yeoman quest goal level, as in SLASH'EM.

Encyclopedia entry

Tanko

Samurai plate armor of the Yamato period (AD 300 - 710).