Dragon-scaled armor
Dragon-scaled armor is a set of items originally proposed by dtsund and designed as a replacement and re-balancing of dragon scale mail. Occasionally known as dtsund-DSM, various forms of dragon-scaled armor have appeared in several variants of NetHack: 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.
Contents
Description
Across all variants, dragon scales occupy the cloak slot rather than the body armor slot, and reading a scroll of enchant armor will always cause worn dragon scales to meld into the hero's currently-worn set of body armor, adding the conferred extrinsic properties of the dragon scales to that armor. If the hero is wearing dragon scales but no body armor, the dragon scales will instead meld into their skin, polymorphing them into a dragon of the same color - as in NetHack, the scales are preserved upon the hero returning to normal form.
Directly wishing for dragon-scaled armor does not work, requiring the player to craft the armor manually.
Implementation by variant
Each section below describes the implementation of dragon-scaled armor in particular variants.
NetHack Fourk
In NetHack Fourk, dragon scales provide no benefit to AC, only granting their color's extrinsics and being used to create scaled armor. The armor-scaling process always uncurses the body armor and makes it erosion-proofed, 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, which is accessible the #monster extended command; 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), 3 base AC, and no MC - melding the scales to a set of armor adds the scales' 3 AC to it 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 the hero into the relevant color dragon, regardless of any worn 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 still grant 3 base AC, but melding them to a set of armor adds 5 AC to the armor. Wearing dragon scales only confers that color's primary extrinsic as in vanilla NetHack (specifically NetHack 3.6.7), and the secondary extrinsics are only granted by the same color of dragon-scaled armor. Wishing for dragon scale mail of any color will give the hero a set of dragon scales of the same color, instead of completely failing.
EvilHack adds shimmering, sea, celestial, and shadow dragons along with their respective scales, and adds chromatic dragon scales that are only obtainable by killing Tiamat.
EvilHack also 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, 9⁄10 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) |
When 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 magic resistance and emitting light as the dragon scales do.
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 spellcasting-focused characters.
Hack'EM uses a different lineup of extrinsic properties for dragon scales and dragon-scaled armor compared to EvilHack, and also expands on the variant's passive attacks by 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 | Mirror (only triggers 1⁄5 of the time on non-special cases) |
| 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 attacking monster or player if they hit (e.g. the passive white dragon-scaled armor can shatter potions), which may hamper their utility in melee combat. However, most passive attacks only trigger around 1⁄3 (33%) of the time.
Black dragon-scaled armor will always hit, and has a 1⁄12 chance to disintegrate a weapon attacking the player (including gloves on unarmed/claw/touch attacks and boots on kicking attacks); if the weapon is not disintegrated, the attack then has a 1⁄40 chance to instantly disintegrate the monster. If neither happens, it will just "partially disintegrate" the monster as a regular physical attack.
Gray dragon-scaled armor has a 1⁄6 chance to hit with its cancelling attack, with the usual odds to cancel items.
Red dragon-scaled armor has a 1⁄2 chance to attempt to burn inventory items if the monster's inventory is not protected from fire damage; if this check succeeds, there are independent 1⁄3 chances to try to burn a scroll and a potion, and a 1⁄5 chance to try to burn a spellbook. The monster's weapon has a separate 2⁄3 chance of being burned since it's being held outside of the inventory. This all occurs separately of whether the passive attack hits the monster for HP damage.
Sea dragon-scaled armor will always hit with its wet attack, with the usual odds for rusting items.
White dragon-scaled armor has a 1⁄3 chance to attempt to shatter potions, independent of whether the attack hits the monster for HP damage.
