Chromatic Dragon (dNetHack)
D Chromatic Dragon 
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|---|---|
| Difficulty | 38 |
| Attacks |
Breath 0d8 random, Spellcast 0d0 mage spell, Claw 2d8 physical, Bite 4d8 physical, Bite 4d8 physical, Sting 1d6 physical, Tail slap 4d10 physical |
| Base level | 30 |
| Base experience | 1604 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | -10 |
| Base MR | 30 |
| Alignment | -14 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 4500 |
| Nutritional value | 1700 |
| Size | gigantic |
| Resistances | fire resistance, cold resistance, sleep resistance, disintegration resistance, shock resistance, poison resistance, acid resistance, stoning resistance, drain resistance, immunity to sickness. |
| Resistances conveyed | fire resistance, cold resistance, sleep resistance, disintegration resistance, shock resistance, poison resistance, stoning resistance |
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The Chromatic Dragon:
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- This article is about the monster also known as Tiamat in NetHack. For monsters named Tiamat in dNetHack and other variants, see Tiamat (disambiguation).
- For the same monster or other monsters with this name that appear in NetHack and its variants, see Chromatic Dragon (disambiguation).
The Chromatic Dragon, D, is the Caveman quest nemesis in dNetHack, notdNetHack, and notnotdNetHack. She is a unique dragon and demon princess that guards the Bell of Opening and The Sceptre of Might, and is significantly stronger compared to her appearance in NetHack.
The Chromatic Dragon is a carnivore that has the same traits of most dragons: she is strong, capable of flight, can see invisible, can be seen via infravision, and will pick up any gold, gems and magical items that she comes across. She is a princess to dragonkind, and will follow the hero to other levels if she is adjacent. All 20 points of the Chromatic Dragon's effective AC are in the natural category, and she has 10 points of natural damage reduction. The Chromatic Dragon desires the quest artifact of the hero's role, the invocation items and the Amulet of Yendor, though none of her attacks enable her to steal them.
The Chromatic Dragon has a breath weapon that is randomized from the following breath types: fire, frost, lightning, poison, disintegration, and acid. She also has the ability to cast one mage monster spell per round of attacks, a claw attack, two strong bite attacks, a sting attack, and a powerful tail slap that occurs each global turn and targets an opponent adjacent to the dragon. The Chromatic Dragon possesses the resistance properties of most dragons: fire resistance, cold resistance, sleep resistance, disintegration resistance, shock resistance, poison resistance, acid resistance, stoning resistance, drain resistance, and immunity to sickness.
The Chromatic Dragon's corpse and blood are poisonous to consume, and eating her non-drained corpse, eating a tin of her meat, or quaffing her blood (either via potion or vampiric feeding) has a 1⁄5 chance of granting disintegration resistance and always grants five intrinsics permanently: fire resistance, cold resistance, sleep resistance, shock resistance, and poison resistance.
Generation
The Chromatic Dragon is always generated hostile, and is not a valid form for polymorph.
For Cavepeople, the Chromatic Dragon is always generated meditating on the Caveman quest goal level, where she is placed in the middle row of squares on the left side of her chamber with the Sceptre of Might underneath her.
For heroes of other roles, the Chromatic Dragon is one of the demon rulers whose lair can be generated as the first Hell level, and is the only demon princess of the group: her lair has a 1⁄2 chance of being selected in place of Bael. If the Chromatic Dragon's lair is generated, she will be placed in the middle row of squares on the rightmost side of her chamber, which is her Caveman quest dwelling combined with a smaller version Bael's fortress.
The Chromatic Dragon is always generated with 900 HP. When created as the Caveman quest nemesis, she is generated with the Bell of Opening.
The Chromatic Dragon will always drop chromatic dragon scales upon death.
Strategy
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Unlike most unique monsters, the Chromatic Dragon has sub-100 MR, meaning that she can be affected by certain spells and tools, but most particularly wands of cancellation. Cancelling her will remove her ability to breath & her ability to cast spells, so she will be limited to the normal bite & tail attacks—while her spells consist solely of earthquake and destroy weapon, and the latter is blocked by magic resistance, not having to deal with either in the first place can be a large boon. However, she is still a massive threat in melee that can deal up to 110 points of physical damage per turn before damage reduction.
The Chromatic Dragon can be warded off by a fully reinforced (7-fold) elder elemental eye, and it may be a good idea to burn one on the upstairs, though it may require a scroll of earth to do so safely.
The artifact scales she drops provide several extrinsic resistances minus magic resistance and reflection. While eating the Chromatic Dragon's corpse or tin confers all six resistance properties that can be obtained from her meat in NetHack for the hero, the scales provide extrinsic properties that also protect the hero's inventory, as well as sickness resistance and stoning resistance that cannot be gained intrinsically from eating corpses.
Origin
In Dungeons & Dragons, Tiamat is a supremely strong and powerful draconic goddess and the queen and mother of evil dragons. A member of the setting's default pantheon, Tiamat was introduced to the game in the first supplement Greyhawk, where she was only known as "the Dragon Queen" and "the Chromatic Dragon", but did not yet have a personal name. Her name is derived from the Mesopotamian religion, where Tiamat (Akkadian: 𒀭𒋾𒊩𒆳 DTI.AMAT or 𒀭𒌓𒌈 DTAM.TUM, Ancient Greek: Θαλάττη, romanized: Thaláttē) is a primordial goddess of the sea symbolizing the chaos of primordial creation, and is often portrayed as a sea serpent or dragon.
In the Enûma Elish, the Babylonian epic of creation, Tiamat bears the first generation of deities; when her husband Apsu correctly assumes that they are planning to kill him and usurp his throne, he makes war upon them and is killed, enraging Tiamat into continuing the wars against her husband's murderers. Tiamat births the first dragons, whose bodies she filled with "poison instead of blood", and births multitudes of other monsters; she is finally slain by Enki's storm-god son Marduk, who uses her body to craft the heavens and the earth.
In the Dungeons & Dragons settings, Tiamat's symbol and most common appearance there is that of a five-headed dragon, each corresponding to five chromatic dragons: black, blue, green, red, and white. Tiamat's body is a blending of various chromatic dragon forms with an appropriately multicolored hide, a poisonous stinger-tipped tail, and the powers of those respective chromatic dragons; she has also been known to manifest as a dark-haired human sorceress. Some settings also describe her as a denizen of the Nine Hells, with her lair containing the main gate to the second of the Nine Hells, Dis; others additionally include tales of her battles with the Babylonian god Marduk and her opposite number, the metallic dragon Bahamut. Tiamat is also one of the first deities to have aspects, or lesser avatars, which may appear as either powerful versions of her chromatic children, or as versions of her own five-headed form.
Encyclopedia entry
Tiamat is said to be the mother of evil dragonkind. She is
extremely vain.
Avaricious, supremely vain, and profoundly Lawful Evil, Tiamat
proclaims herself the creator of all evil dragonkind, and
certainly many evil dragons revere her as their creator and patron
deity. She infests the uppermost of the Nine Hells with her
consorts, each a Great Wyrm of different colour - one red, one
white, one green, one blue, and one black.
Tiamat's Avatar appears as a gigantic five-headed dragon with one
head of each of the chromatic (evil) dragon types. Each head's
colour runs the length of the neck and into the forepart of het
body as stripes, gradually blending to three stripes of grey,
blue-green, and purple over her back and hind-quarters, then
merging into a muddy dark brown tail. Her underbelly and legs are
greenish white fading into her upper body colours.
