The Vestment of Hell
[ The Vestment of Hell 
| |
|---|---|
| Base item | opera cloak |
| Affiliation | |
| When carried | |
| When worn |
|
| When invoked | (none) |
| Base price | 2500 zm |
| Weight | 10 |
The Vestment of Hell is one of the quest artifacts for the Noble role, implemented in dNetHack, Slash'EM Extended, and SLASHTHEM.
In dNetHack it is the quest artifact specifically for vampiric Nobles. Human and incantifier Nobles share the same quest design but seek the Mantle of Heaven as their goal instead.
Elven, Droven, and dwarven Nobles have different, race-specific quests and quest artifacts (see the Noble main article for more details).
The Vestment is chaotic for wishing and bones purposes.
dNetHack
In dNetHack the Vestment is an artifact opera cloak which grants fire resistance when carried, and acid resistance and half physical damage when worn, in addition to whatever benefit is provided by the cloak with the "opera cloak" randomized appearance in the game: displacement, invisibility, magic resistance, protection. Also, its armor class is double that of its base item.
Wearing the Vestment also allows the Noble to #sit in the special throne in the ancestral keep for a number of perks, including a free wish, a genocide, some random pets and an identification.
In vanilla NetHack, the "opera cloak" random appearance has a magenta tile ([). The Noble patch changes the color of this tile to black ([).
Strategy
The fact that the Vestment has a randomized cloak rather than a specific cloak as its base item means that its usefulness may vary between games. While there are no cloaks with randomized appearances in dNetHack that are a liability to their wearer, some cloak types may be especially useful combined with the other extrinsics of the Vestment. If its base item is a cloak of protection, then the Vestment adds a formidable six points to your AC, not counting enchantment, plus maximum magic cancellation, eliminating the need for Victorian underwear. Other base cloaks offer only two points of default AC and MC2, but displacement, invisibility, or magic resistance may still be desirable extrinsics in addition to the default fire and acid resistance, and half physical damage.
The Vestment's acid resistance by itself is quite nice, as there are few other items that confer it—notably the alchemy smock, which the Vestment can easily replace. (In this respect the Vestment may have an advantage over its non-vampiric counterpart, the Mantle of Heaven.) The Vestment also replaces the much heavier dNetHack-specific Leo nemaeus hide as a source of the half physical damage intrinsic.
The Rod of Lordly Might (scepter/first sacrifice gift), the Vestment of Hell (robe/quest artifact), and the Helm of the Dark Lord (coronet/crowning gift) complete the Vampiric Noble's regalia.
References
Reference: Chris' Noble Patch
