Gold dragon scales
[ gold dragon scales 
| |
|---|---|
| Appearance | gold dragon scales |
| Slot | body armor |
| AC | 3 |
| Special | |
| Base price | 500 zm |
| Weight | 40 |
| Material | dragon hide |
- This article is about the item in NetHack. For the item in variants, see gold dragon scales (disambiguation).
Gold dragon scales are a type of body armor that appear in NetHack. They are made of dragon hide like all dragon scales.
Contents
Generation
Gold dragon scales are not randomly generated, though they can be wished for or found in bones.
A gold dragon that leaves a corpse behind on death (i.e. always, unless killed by disintegration) has a 1⁄3 chance of leaving behind uncursed +0 dragon scales, while a dragon revived by the wand of undead turning or the turn undead spell only has a 1⁄20 chance to leave behind scales[1][2]—this also applies to statues made from stoning a gold dragon, which may include intact scales as part of its contents.
Description
While worn, gold dragon scales grant 3 base AC and hallucination resistance, and they act as a light source with their range dependent on their beatitude:[3] the radius extends to 1 square away if cursed, 2 squares if uncursed, and 3 if blessed.[4]
A hero reading a blessed or cursed scroll of light while not confused and wearing gold dragon scales will bless or curse the armor as though the scales were dipped in a potion of holy water or unholy water (e.g. uncursed scales become cursed after reading a cursed scroll, cursed scales become uncursed after reading a blessed scroll, and so on).[5][6][7][8][9] Reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant armor that targets worn gold dragon scales will convert them into gold dragon scale mail, with a blessed scroll adding a point of enchantment.
Uncontrolled polymorph while wearing gold dragon scales will turn the wearer into a gold dragon, with gold dragon scale mail being reverted to scales in the process, and a hero that has polymorph control is able to decline and choose another form if they wish.[10][11][12][13] Scales that are embedded in the skin of a hero polymorphed into a gold dragon, whether through this method or other means, will only emit one square of light.[14]
Strategy
Gold dragon scales can be made into one of the best light sources available for a hero, which can aid certain builds of hero that are reliant on maximizing visibility for purposes such as firing projectiles or casting targeted spells.
History
Gold dragon scales first appear in SporkHack, and make their vanilla NetHack debut in NetHack 5.0.0 alongside the gold dragon, the baby gold dragon and gold dragon scale mail via commit 5a09a01a: the implementation is not derived from SporkHack or any variants that implement these items and monsters, but is stated to have been planned for a long while and is done from scratch.
Variants
In some NetHack variants, dragon scale mail is phased out in favor of dragon-scaled armor, whose implementation is based on a proposal by dtsund. Instead of being made into mail of its own, dragon scales are treated as a cloak, and reading a scroll of enchant armor melds them onto a worn set of body armor, generally augmenting that armor by adding its AC and conferred extrinsic properties to it. Dragon-scaled armor is implemented in NetHack Fourk, xNetHack, EvilHack, and Hack'EM.
NetHack variants created prior to NetHack 5.0.0 may give gold dragon scales different properties while worn (including different secondary properties exclusive to dragon scale mail or dragon-scaled armor).
SporkHack
In SporkHack, gold dragon scales act as a light source while worn with no other added effects.
DynaHack
In DynaHack, "gold dragon scales" is the name used for glowing dragon scales, which is also used in the prior versions of UnNetHack that DynaHack is derived from.
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, gold dragon scales act as a light source and behave somewhat similarly to how they do in earlier development versions of NetHack 3.7.0 (later changed to NetHack 5.0.0).
EvilHack
In EvilHack, gold dragon scales are a cloak-slot item that can be used to make gold dragon-scaled armor, which grants infravision, clairvoyance and acts as a light source while worn.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, golden dragon scales behave notably similar to gold dragon scales in other variants.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, gold dragon scales behave similarly to how they do in EvilHack.
References
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 583
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 595-L602
- ↑ src/light.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 879-L911: arti_light_radius() function is used for weapon and armor-based light sources
- ↑ src/light.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 899: beatitude and light radius
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2243-L2245: calls seffect_light()
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1742-L1755: standard scroll effects in seffect_light() function; calls litroom()
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2518-L2524: cursed scroll effects and call to impact_arti_light() in litroom()
- ↑ src/read.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2543-L2552: blessed scroll effects and call to impact_arti_light() in litroom()
- ↑ src/potion.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 1591-L1621: impact_arti_light() function simulates the effects of (un)holy water, which in turn affects the strength of the light source
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 5197-L5205
- ↑ src/muse.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2247-L2261: muse_newcham_mon() function
- ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 640-L655
- ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2200-L2202
- ↑ src/light.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 905-L906
