Dragon scale mail
[[[[[[[[[         <color> dragon scale mail | |
|---|---|
| Appearance | <color> dragon scale mail |
| Slot | body armor |
| AC | 9 |
| Special |
|
| Base price | 900-1200 zm |
| Weight | 40 |
| Material | dragon hide |
[[[[[[[[[         <color> dragon scales | |
|---|---|
| Appearance | <color> dragon scales |
| Slot | body armor |
| AC | 3 |
| Special |
|
| Base price | 500-700 zm |
| Weight | 40 |
| Material | dragon hide |
Dragon scale mail (commonly abbreviated to DSM) is the strongest single piece of body armor available. Its base AC reduction is 9, it weighs only 40, provides a useful extrinsic, is inherently erodeproof, and doesn't hinder spellcasting. It does not however provide any magic cancellation, and should hence be complemented by a high MC cloak.
Dragon scales are body armor that might be dropped by a dragon. They have a base AC reduction of only 3, but are otherwise identical to the dragon scale mail of the same color. They can be converted into dragon scale mail.
The most coveted varieties are silver dragon scale mail (SDSM) for reflection and gray dragon scale mail (GDSM) for magic resistance.
Contents
Colors
The following table shows the extrinsic abilities provided by each color of dragon scales or dragon scale mail:
Black, gray, and silver dragon scale mail have a base price of 1200 zm, and their scales are 700 zm. Other varieties are 900 zm for the mail and 500 zm for the scales. Note that the resistances provided by every color except gray, silver and yellow dragon scales can be obtained intrinsically.
Polymorph
Polymorphing while wearing dragon scales or dragon scale mail turns you into a dragon of the same color, with the message "You merge with your scaly armor".[1] This will break your shirt and cloak, but will leave your scales or scale mail intact. However, if you are polymorphed again while in dragon form, there is a chance that you will turn into a different large monster, destroying your armor in the process.
Dragon scale mail is considered to be magical for purposes of object polymorph, whereas dragon scales are not.
Since scales and mail are never generated randomly, they cannot be obtained by polypiling.
Acquiring scales and scale mail
There are two main ways to acquire dragon scale mail: either wish for it directly, or obtain dragon scales and then upgrade them to scale mail.
There are two other ways to obtain DSM. The first is to find it in a bones pile, which is obviously unreliable. The other option is to kill one of the player monsters on the Astral Plane, who have a chance of wearing dragon scale mail. This method is almost completely useless, since any adventurer reaching the Astral Plane will probably have DSM already.
Making dragon scale mail from scales
Dragon scale mail can be easily made from dragon scales:
- wear only the dragon scales you wish to convert
- read a non-cursed scroll of enchant armor
If the scroll is blessed, the mail gains 1 point of enchantment and becomes blessed.
Acquiring dragon scales
Dragon scale mail is simple to acquire: kill a dragon that drops scales of the color you want and make mail out of them as described above.
The chance of a dragon dropping scales is 1/3, but this drops to 1/20 if the dragon is revived.[2]
If you want to obtain dragon scale mail by killing a dragon, here are some methods for generating dragons:
- reverse genocide dragons, preferrably in an Elbereth-cage
- polymorph into a dragon of desired variety and hatch some eggs (#sit command), grow those babies (into non-baby dragons) over time, and get them killed (possibly with a passive attack or a trap)
- use undead turning on a dragon corpse (but note that a revived dragon has a only a 1/20 chance of dropping scales, as opposed to 1/3 normally.[3])
- seek out the dragons found in the castle, in Ludios, and in some quest levels
- repeatedly #loot a throne while confused, carrying gold, without a chest present. Lower dungeon levels work better, minimum is 15 (Castle, Vlad's Tower).
|---------| |...*.....| |.@.*.....| |...*.....| |****.....| |.........| |--------+|
If you reverse genocide for silver dragon scale mail, you likely don't already have reflection. Stand on Elbereth and use a ring of Elbereth squares to keep the dragons in melee range - that way, they cannot use their breath attack. In the diagram above, engrave Elbereth on the squares marked @,* and put a coin on * squares only. Under the coins, 6 intact dust-Elbereth are enough because you can smudge at most 5 letters during the one turn moving off. On the fighting spot (@), a permanent Elbereth, levitation, or at least a maximum length string of semi-permanent Elbereth is recommended (made with hard gems or some rings).
Bad fighters and pacifists can either use a ring of conflict and tame/teleport/paralyze the last dragon, or let a powerful pet do the work. In the latter case, you want to protect your pet with semi-permanent Elbereth on all squares marked E,) in the diagram below. Use cursed objects such as darts on the ) squares to keep your pet from smuding the engraving. Your pet needs to be at least level 13 if reverse-genociding as a low-level player on dungeon level one, e. g. a pet vampire lord.
|---------| |.........| |..)))))..| |..)EEE)..| |..)E>E)..| |..)EEE)..| |..)))))..| |.........| |.........| |--------+|
Since silver dragons breathe frost, cold resistance and a bag to store potions is also effective protection.
Gray or silver?
Gray and silver are widely considered the two best types of dragon scale mail, but players disagree as to which is more useful in particular circumstances. Gray provides magic resistance which protects against monster spells and polytraps; silver provides reflection which protects against wands and breath attacks.
Other colors
In general, one will always want GDSM or SDSM. However, there are some corner cases where one might use another color:
- Wishless ascensions: Of course, one can obtain DSM without wishing via reverse genocide. However, some unlucky characters may find neither the scroll nor enough magic markers to write one. In this case, it is worth enchanting the first dragon scales found, simply for the AC benefit and weight reduction.
- Foodless ascensions: While players attempting a foodless ascension can get most resistances through crowning, this may be undesirable (and impossible for a foodless atheist) and still does not provide sleep resistance. The extra intrinsic may thus be worthwhile, particularly if the player already has MR and reflection from other sources. Red dragon scale mail, to protect against the fire traps in Gehennom, is likely the most desirable, but can be superseded by the ring. Sleep resistance, from orange dragon scale mail, cannot be entirely superseded by a ring of free action, making that DSM also useful. One advantage of gaining intrinsics from DSM over rings is that DSM does not have a randomized appearance.
- If you really hate acid attacks: Short of self-polymorph or the MC 1 alchemy smock, yellow dragon scale mail is the only way to obtain acid resistance. Acid attacks are rarely threatening, however.
SLASH'EM
Getting dragon scale mail is a bit different in SLASH'EM. Baby dragons take much longer to grow up, and it is not feasible anymore to polymorph pets into dragons. However, there are many dragons in the Wyrm Caves, and there are the guaranteed gray dragon scales in the Lawful Quest and the gray dragon scale mail worn by One Eyed Sam. The last two may be somewhat difficult to liberate from their previous owners.
New Colors In SLASH'EM
| Color | Extrinsic |
|---|---|
| Shimmering | displacement |
| Deep | level-drain resistance |
Sporkhack
In SporkHack, all colors of DSM save gray and silver have some kind of secondary effect. Spork also adds an additional color, gold, which acts as a permanent light source.
| Color | Extrinsic | SporkHack secondary extrinsic |
|---|---|---|
| Blue | shock resistance | speed |
| Black | disintegration resistance | passive blinding attack |
| Gray | magic resistance | none |
| Green | poison resistance | passive poison attack |
| Orange | sleep resistance | passive slow attack |
| Red | fire resistance | +1d6 to all melee damage |
| Silver | reflection | none |
| White | cold resistance | freezes water under foot |
| Yellow | acid resistance | stun resistance |
New Colors In SporkHack
| Color | Extrinsic |
|---|---|
| Gold | radius 2 light |
