Gray dragon
D gray dragon 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 20 |
| Attacks |
Breath 4d6 magic missile, bite 3d8, claw 1d4, claw 1d4 |
| Base level | 15 |
| Base experience | 460 |
| Speed | 9 |
| Base AC | -1 |
| Base MR | 20 |
| Alignment | 4 (lawful) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 4500 |
| Nutritional value | 1500 |
| Size | Gigantic |
| Resistances | Magic resistance |
| Resistances conveyed | none |
|
A gray dragon:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line1161 |
A gray dragon, D, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is an adult dragon associated with the element of magic. Like all dragons, gray dragons are strong, carnivorous, oviparous, thick-skinned, can see invisible, and are capable of flight - they will also seek out gold, gems and magical items to pick up.
Gray dragons have a magic missile breath weapon, a strong bite attack, and two claw attacks, and possess magic resistance.
Contents
Generation
Randomly generated gray dragons are always created hostile. A baby gray dragon can grow up into a gray dragon.
Heroes and monsters that polymorph while wearing gray dragon scales or gray dragon scale mail will turn into gray dragons.[1][2]
Gray dragons may appear among the hostile D generated in throne rooms at dungeon levels 15 and below, and can also appear among the monsters randomly generated by either sitting on a throne or looting it while the hero is confused and carrying gold (provided there is no chest on the level)[3][4]
Gray dragons have a 1⁄3 chance of dropping a set of uncursed +0 gray dragon scales upon death unless disintegrated, and the chance is reduced to 1⁄20 if the dragon was revived[5]—if the dragon is turned to stone, their statue will contain scales with the same probabilities.
Strategy
The gray dragon's intrinsic magic resistance compensates for its low MR score in a few areas, but does not protect it from elemental damage or other forms of magic such as a wand of sleep, preserving most of a hero's options when in combat against one. Most heroes encountering a gray dragon under normal circumstances will usually not have much to fear from their breath weapon in terms of damage.
Gray dragons are often sought out by heroes looking to procure gray dragon scale mail and complement an existing or future source of reflection: they are a somewhat common target of reverse genocide for heroes observing wishless conduct, those that have not yet obtained a wish or else those looking to save on one.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (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.
Gray dragons are one of the few dragons whose scales do not gain an additional extrinsic property.
Dragons and other large enough monsters can inflict knockback with their melee attacks, making them exceedingly dangerous to fight near pools or lava and capable of forcing characters back into breath weapon range.As a pet
As pets and steeds, gray dragons sometimes compete with silver dragons: both possess flight, breath weapons, and immunity to death rays. The gray dragon is one of the few steeds to have intrinsic magic resistance, and it additionally stops them from being transformed by polymorph traps (especially when riding); it is somewhat common for the gray dragon or its baby form to be the end result of leading pets onto the trap repeatedly. However, its low speed and lack of elemental resistances can still be a major drawback, and the silver dragon's reflection provides additional immunity to elemental rays. In addition, a gray dragon can still polymorph if it eats a chameleon or doppelganger corpse.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (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.
Pets will no longer eat corpses that make them polymorph, unless they are starving or on the verge of becoming untame.
Monsters can gain intrinsics from eating corpses, meaning that a silver dragon can be fed in order to gain resistance against common pet-killers such as poison. In particular, silver dragons can gain fire resistance, making it more likely that one brought to the Elemental Planes can survive through the Plane of Fire.History
The gray dragon first appears in NetHack 2.3e.
From NetHack 3.0.0 to NetHack 3.0.10, including variants based on those versions, polymorphing a gray dragon corpse produces regular dragon scale mail. NetHack 3.1.0 introduces the current method of obtaining gray dragon scale mail.
Variants
Many variants of NetHack alter the gray dragon and other dragons to make them more varied and/or threatening.
SLASH'EM
As with most other dragons in SLASH'EM, the gray dragon's stats are improved: their base level is raised to 18, their difficulty is raised to 25, their AC is boosted to -4, their bite and claw attacks are stronger, and they hit as a +3 weapon.
Gray dragons can appear in dragon lairs and the Wyrm Caves.
NetHack brass
In NetHack brass, the gray dragon's speed is raised to 12.
GruntHack
In GruntHack, the gray dragon's difficulty is slightly lowered to 19, their claw attacks are stronger, and they are given an additional 2d10 engulfing attack that can digest targets.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack and DynaHack, all dragons have their breath weapons, resistances and names randomized each game, allowing any non-chromatic dragon to appear as gray - the default type of magic dragon is the tatzelworm.
Magic dragons may appear in The Dragon Caves, in addition to generation rules from NetHack.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, gray dragons have their difficulty slightly raised to 21, and their effective AC is boosted to -4. The gray dragon's attacks are made stronger, with an additional 4d10 tailslap attack that they will use once every global turn, and their breath attacks also ignore reflection, unless the source is from dragon armor or an artifact that grants dragonbreath reflection.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, gray dragons are buffed similarly to GruntHack: their attacks are made stronger as in GruntHack and reordered, including the addition of the digestion attack; they are also given cancellation resistance and a passive attack that induces cancellation.
Encyclopedia entry
In the West the dragon was the natural enemy of man. Although preferring to live in bleak and desolate regions, whenever it was seen among men it left in its wake a trail of destruction and disease. Yet any attempt to slay this beast was a perilous undertaking. For the dragon's assailant had to contend not only with clouds of sulphurous fumes pouring from its fire breathing nostrils, but also with the thrashings of its tail, the most deadly part of its serpent-like body.
"One whom the dragons will speak with," he said, "that is a dragonlord, or at least that is the center of the matter. It's not a trick of mastering the dragons, as most people think. Dragons have no masters. The question is always the same, with a dragon: will he talk to you or will he eat you? If you can count upon his doing the former, and not doing the latter, why then you're a dragonlord."
