Gray dragon scale mail

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[   gray dragon scale mail
Appearance	gray dragon scale mail
Slot	body armor
AC	9
Special	magic resistance
Base price	1200 zm
Weight	40
Material	dragon hide

For other dragon mail that is sometimes abbreviated as GDSM, see green dragon scale mail and gold dragon scale mail.

Gray dragon scale mail, also known as grey dragon scale mail and abbreviated as GDSM, is a type of body armor that appears in NetHack. It is made of dragon hide like all dragon scale mail.

Generation

Gray dragon scale mail is not randomly generated. Reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant armor that targets worn gray 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 gray dragon scale mail as their initial body armor before role-specific replacements.

Description

While worn, gray dragon scale mail confers 9 base AC and magic resistance. Uncontrolled polymorph while wearing gray dragon scale mail will revert them to scales and turn the wearer into a gray dragon, though in practice only quaffing a potion of polymorph or zapping a wand of polymorph at yourself will do this.

Strategy

Gray dragon scale mail is one of the two most coveted types of dragon scale mail, with the other being silver dragon scale mail. Magic resistance is also a very rare property outside of artifact sources, naturally making it a good first wish for many characters and a popular item in ascension kits - it is usually combined with an amulet, shield or other non-body armor source of reflection.

In terms of advantages as a candidate for wishes or ascension kits, gray dragon scale mail keeps the cloak slot open to be used for a source of MC3 if so desired, and protects a character against teleport traps, level teleporters, polymorph traps, and monster spells cast by vicious spellcasters. Reflection is also somewhat easier to obtain without wishing compared to magic resistance, though an early series of wishes (e.g. usually a lucky wand of wishing) can remove this factor, leaving it more up to a player's desired character build and their character's capabilities.

Perks versus silver DSM

Characters that cannot twoweapon will lean towards gray dragon scale mail, especially if they either do not care about spellcasting or are fine with taking off a shield to cast outside of combat (though doing so with a shield of reflection is risky). Characters who can twoweapon, want their cloak slot free and/or do not plan to wear an amulet of life saving as their primary amulet may also consider gray dragon scale mail; characters in roles whose Quest pits them against a spellcasting quest nemesis or many spell-casting quest monsters may also prefer it. Chaotic-aligned characters in particular cannot obtain magic resistance by wishing for a quest artifact, though there is the rare Monk character that may be willing to brave their quest for the Eyes of the Overworld, and chaotic Wizards can usually sacrifice for Magicbane (which other chaotic roles can wish for, if they are willing to deal with the blasting damage).

Magic resistance on its own does not protect against elemental damage, especially from wands and breath weapons: crowning can cover most of these weaknesses save for acid and disintegration, though the latter danger does not occur until deep into the dungeon. Additionally, several types of monster spell can only be cast in melee range, making it possible to use Elbereth and other tools to keep casters from closing in while bringing them down at a distance, albeit to a limited extent. Wizards start the game with a cloak of magic resistance, and can obtain Magicbane unless observing a conduct that would forbid it (e.g. atheist or artifactless), making gray scale mail typically redundant for them.

While the more dangerous spells are generally encountered far deeper in the dungeon and possibly within the Quest, including covetous monsters that can warp to you directly, they can also appear much earlier, due to polymorph traps and shapeshifters like chameleons that polymorph at random - this in part can push a character in favor of gray dragon mail, particularly as an aid for both stepping on polymorph traps and fighting some of the monsters they can create. A player with a character that has not yet cleared Sokoban may opt to wish for gray dragon scale mail and take their chances with finding reflection inside the branch or elsewhere in the dungeon.

History

Gray 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, gray dragon scale mail is created by polymorphing the corpse of a gray dragon. Gray 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.

Some variants also give gray dragon scale mail additional properties while worn, and may even introduce other forms of gray dragon scale armor - due to already being a powerful item, they may be less commonly given properties compared to other colors. Variants that implement partial intrinsics and/or object properties may also make other colors of dragon mail more worthwhile.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, gray dragon scale mail is potentially available to all characters:

• The Lawful Quest has a set of cursed -9 gray dragon scales.
• The black market proprietor One-eyed Sam is always generated with gray dragon scale mail.

Both are quite difficult to obtain, with One-Eyed Sam in particular being a massive obstacle for even the most daring players. The dragon scales in the Lawful Quest are on the same square as a statue trap of an arch-lich, which is an incredibly troublesome monster in its own right - this also introduces several means of circumventing the trap, though most characters will still want a means of significantly boosting the scales' enchantment prior to making mail of them (with cancellation being among the most reliable).

SporkHack

In SporkHack, gray dragon scale mail is one of the few dragon mails to not confer additional properties while worn.

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.

Gray dragon scale mail is effectively replaced by magic dragon scale mail, which confers only 5 base AC like all dragon scale mail in UnNetHack.

dNetHack

In dNetHack and notdNetHack, worn gray dragon scale mail additionally confers half spell damage.

The leader of the rebel party that makes up the Noble's quest nemesis for the default Noble quest always generates with gray dragon scale mail.

FIQHack

In FIQHack, gray dragon scale mail is one of the few dragon mails to not confer additional properties while worn, as in SporkHack. It also weighs 300 aum like all dragon scale mail in FIQHack (which is halved while worn).

SlashTHEM

In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, the Scales of the Dragon Lord is an artifact set of gray dragon scale mail that can always be found in The Wyrm Caves, where the Dragon Lord drops it and his corpse upon death.