Dragon-scaled armor
Dragon-scaled armor is a replacement and rebalancing of dragon scale mail that has made an appearance in several variants. Originally proposed by dtsund, this feature is occasionally known as dtsund-DSM. Across all implementations, dragon scales are changed to be worn as cloaks, and reading a scroll of enchant armor will always cause worn dragon scales to meld into a worn set of body armor, adding the conferred extrinsic(s) of the dragon scales to the armor itself. If the player is wearing dragon scales but no body armor, the dragon scales will instead meld into the player's skin, polymorphing them into a dragon of the same color. The scales are not lost if this happens, and they simply return to the player's inventory once the polymorph ends.
Directly wishing for dragon-scaled armor does not work, requiring the player to craft the armor manually.
The proposal was first implemented into NetHack Fourk, and has seen further usage in xNetHack, EvilHack, and Hack'EM, each with varying minor details about how the new process works. All four variants add secondary effects to most or all colors of dragon-scaled armor, which are also documented here.
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NetHack Fourk
In NetHack Fourk, dragon scales provide no benefit to AC, only granting their color's extrinsics and being used to scale armor. The armor-scaling process always uncurses the body armor and makes it erodeproof, and a blessed scroll additionally blesses the armor and fixes any existing erosion.
Most colors of dragon scales and dragon-scaled armor confer two properties instead of one:
| Color | Extrinsics |
|---|---|
| Black | disintegration resistance, drain resistance |
| Blue | shock resistance, automatic searching |
| Gray | magic resistance |
| Green | poison resistance, sickness resistance |
| Orange | sleep resistance, free action |
| Red | fire resistance, infravision |
| Silver | reflection |
| White | cold resistance, inventory protection from water damage |
| Yellow | acid resistance, stoning resistance |
Red and white dragon scales and scaled armor also grant a fire or cold breath weapon respectively, accessible via #monster. This breath weapon is overridden if the player is polymorphed into another monster with a special ability.
xNetHack
Dragon scales in xNetHack convey their extrinsic(s), AC 3, and MC 0. Scaling a set of armor adds the scales' 3 AC to the armor along with the extrinsics. A blessed scroll blesses the resulting armor and repairs all erosion, but the process never makes the armor erodeproof. A non-cursed scroll retains the original body armor's enchantment, while a cursed scroll will subtract one point of enchantment and curse the armor. Reading the scroll while confused will polymorph you into the relevant color dragon, regardless of whether you're wearing body armor.
xNetHack inherits gold dragons and their scales from NetHack 3.7.0, as well as the secondary extrinsics that most dragon scales and dragon-scaled armor convey:
| Color | Extrinsics |
|---|---|
| Black | disintegration resistance, drain resistance |
| Blue | shock resistance, very fast speed |
| Gold | light source, hallucination resistance |
| Gray | magic resistance |
| Green | poison resistance, sickness resistance |
| Orange | sleep resistance, free action |
| Red | fire resistance, infravision |
| Silver | reflection |
| White | cold resistance, slow digestion |
| Yellow | acid resistance, stoning resistance |
EvilHack
EvilHack largely draws its implementation from xNetHack, with some minor adjustments. Dragon scales are still AC 3, but scaling a set of armor adds 5 AC to the armor. Wearing dragon scales only confers their primary extrinsic, as vanilla dragon scales act prior to 3.7.0, and the secondary extrinsic can only be accessed by making dragon-scaled armor. Wishing for "<foo> dragon scale mail" will give the player "a set of <foo> dragon scales" instead of completely failing.
EvilHack adds several new dragon colors, and makes a number of changes to the secondary effects that dragon-scaled armor offers compared to xNetHack, including giving several colors a passive attack that triggers when the wearer is attacked:
| Color | Primary extrinsic | Secondary effects (dragon-scaled armor) |
|---|---|---|
| Black | disintegration resistance | passive disintegration attack |
| Blue | shock resistance | confers speed, prevents slowing |
| Celestial | flying | confers sleep, shock, and sonic resistance |
| Gold | light source | confers infravision and clairvoyance |
| Gray | magic resistance | passive cancellation attack, 90% chance of cancellation protection |
| Green | poison resistance | confers sickness resistance, passive poison attack |
| Orange | sleep resistance | confers free action, passive slow attack |
| Red | fire resistance | +1d6 to all melee damage, passive fire attack |
| Sea | breathlessness | confers the ability to swim |
| Shadow | ultravision, darkness source | confers sleep and drain resistance |
| Shimmering | displacement | confers stun resistance |
| Silver | reflection | confers cold resistance |
| White | cold resistance | freezes water and lava under foot, passive cold attack |
| Yellow | acid resistance | confers stoning resistance, passive acid attack |
| Chromatic | magic resistance, light source | special (see below) |
EvilHack also adds shimmering, sea, celestial, and shadow dragons to make those scales obtainable, but chromatic dragon scales are only obtainable by killing Tiamat. Once the chromatic dragon scales are used to make dragon-scaled armor, the armor gains reflection and resistances to fire, cold, shock, sleep, poison, disintegration, acid, stoning, and cancellation, while still retaining the magic resistance and light source from the dragon scales.
Hack'EM
Hack'EM inherits the same creation details as EvilHack, including the secondary extrinsics and passive attacks only being available on dragon-scaled armor. Robes are treated as body armor in Hack'EM, making dragon-scaled robes a viable armor choice for Monks and spellcasters. With a different dragon bestiary than EvilHack, some extrinsics have been shuffled to different colors of dragon scales. Hack'EM also expands on the passive attacks from EvilHack, giving one to every color of armor.
| Color | Primary | Secondary | Passive attack |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black | Disintegration resistance | (none) | Disintegration (!!) |
| Blue | Shock resistance | Speed | Shocking (!!) |
| Deep | Drain resistance | Slow digestion | Drain life |
| Gold | Emits light | Infravision, clairvoyance | Blinding |
| Gray | Magic resistance | Cancellation protection | Cancellation (!!) |
| Green | Poison resistance | Sickness resistance | Poison |
| Orange | Sleep resistance | Free action | Slowing |
| Red | Fire resistance | +1d6 melee damage | Fire (!!) |
| Sea | Magical breathing | Swimming | Water/rust (!!) |
| Shimmering | Displacement | Stun resistance | Confusion/stunning/slowing |
| Silver | Reflection | Cold resistance, blinding resistance | Scaring |
| Violet | Sonic resistance | Flying | Sonic (!!) |
| White | Cold resistance | Freeze water, walk on lava | Cold (!!) |
| Yellow | Acid resistance | Stoning resistance | Acid (!!) |
Passive attacks marked with a (!!) can destroy items held by the attacked monster or player (e.g. white dragon-scaled armor could shatter potions), which may hamper their utility in melee combat. However, most passive attacks only trigger around 33% of the time.
