Green dragon
D green dragon 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 20 |
| Attacks |
Breath 4d6 poison, bite 3d8, claw 1d4, claw 1d4 |
| Base level | 15 |
| Base experience | 460 |
| Speed | 9 |
| Base AC | -1 |
| Base MR | 20 |
| Alignment | 6 (lawful) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 4500 |
| Nutritional value | 1500 |
| Size | Gigantic |
| Resistances | Poison |
| Resistances conveyed |
Poison resistance (100%) |
|
A green dragon:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line1161 |
A green dragon, D, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is an adult dragon associated with the element of poison. Like all dragons, green 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.
Green dragons have a poisonous breath weapon that leaves a trail of poison clouds, a strong bite attack, and two claw attacks. A green dragon possesses poison resistance.
A green dragon corpse is poisonous to eat, but eating a green dragon corpse or tin always grants poison resistance.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
Green dragons and other dragons gain the additional extrinsic effects conferred by their scales.Contents
Generation
Randomly generated green dragons are always created hostile. A baby green dragon can grow up into a green dragon.
Hostile green dragons can be generated by the summon nasties monster spell. Characters and monsters that polymorph while wearing green dragon scales or green dragon scale mail will turn into green dragons.
Green 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 looting a throne while confused and carrying gold (provided there is no chest on the level).[1]
Green dragons have a 1⁄3 chance of dropping a set of uncursed +0 green dragon scales upon death unless disintegrated, and the chance is reduced to 1⁄20 if the dragon was revived.
Strategy
While most characters will have poison resistance by the time they encounter green dragons, the poison gas clouds from their breath attacks present a different problem. Without poison resistance, being caught in the stream of poison can kill characters alarmingly fast; with poison resistance (and/or a source of reflection to deflect the blast), the damage and threat of death is severely lowered, but the gas clouds can still blind the character, which can prove inconvenient at best in pitched combat situations.
Leaving the poison clouds and curing the blindness as soon as possible (e.g., with a unicorn horn) is ideal, especially for characters that lack telepathy. Since monsters that lack poison resistance are subjected to the same effects, the clouds can also be used against other monsters, especially with a source of conflict: poison gas can leave non-resistant monsters severely weakened from a few turns of exposure if they are not killed outright.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
Green dragons gain extrinsic sickness resistance from their scales - though this is not likely to come up in practice when fighting them, this makes them possibly valuable targets for their scales if a character plans to take on the likes of Demogorgon or else wants further insurance against Pestilence on the Astral Plane.History
The green 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 green dragon corpse produces regular dragon scale mail. NetHack 3.1.0 introduces the current method of obtaining green dragon scale mail.
In NetHack 3.6.0 and previous versions, including variants based on those versions, the green dragon's breath weapon is simply a ray of poison - the breath weapon's ability to create trails of poison gas is introduced in NetHack 3.6.1.
Variants
Variants of NetHack often subject dragons to extensive changes, including the green dragon.
Biodiversity patch
In the biodiversity patch, the green dragon is renamed to the wyvern.
SLASH'EM
As with all other dragons in SLASH'EM, baby green dragons have a base level of 4 instead of 12, and can be encountered via random generation in ordinary levels with a frequency of 2; they are also eligible for creation on many levels that generate random D on level creation. Adult green dragons have a base level of 18 instead of 15.
Baby green dragons hit as a +1 weapon, and adult green dragons hit as a +3 weapon. Adult green dragons will not turn traitor while tame.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, all dragons have their breaths, resistances, and colors randomized, allowing any non-chromatic dragon to appear as green.
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."
