Lab coat
A lab coat is a type of cloak that appears in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM. It replaces the alchemy smock from vanilla NetHack. It is made of cloth, and appears as a white coat when unidentified.
Contents
Generation
In addition to random generation, Doctor Frankenstein is guaranteed to [[Monster starting inventory| generate with in his late-game lair is guaranteed to carry one.
Description
When worn, a lab coat provides acid resistance, poison resistance and MC3.[1]
Strategy
The lab coat is a strict upgrade from the alchemy smock, providing the same extrinsics with better magic cancellation. Like the alchemy smock, it is a great aid in obtaining intrinsic poison resistance without suffering any stat loss; once you become poison-resistant (or start as a poison-resistant race or role), you may prefer a cloak of protection or a cloak of magic resistance.
The lab coat becomes becomes one of the best choices for a cloak in the late game, due to SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM introducing very powerful acidic monsters such as the giant shoggoth. Characters that have another source of magic resistance should strongly consider a lab coat for their cloak slot and grease it if they desire - the oilskin cloak is largely superseded by the ring of free action in SLASH'EM and its variants for protection against drowning attacks.