Dragon scale mail
Dragon scale mail is the strongest single piece of armour available. Its base AC reduction is 9, for a weight of 50 and an extremely useful intrinsic. The most coveted varieties are silver dragon scale mail, for reflection, and gray dragon scale mail for magic resistance.
DSM may be acquired quite simply; kill a dragon, put on any scales it drops, and read a scroll of enchant armor at them. If you have any extra scrolls of genocide and enchant armor, this will be quite useful for making money. Reverse genocide a species of dragon, produce DSM, and sell it. Dragon scales are worth 5-700 zorkmids, while DSM is worth 9-1200 zorkmids. Also, DSM is considered to be magical armor for the purposes of polypiling; plain scales are not.
Other ways to acquire DSM:
- via wish (e.g. blessed +2 silver dragon scale mail)
- polymorph into a dragon of desired variety and hatch some eggs (#sit command), grow those babies (into non-baby silver dragons), get them killed, with any luck they will drop dragon scales, wear those scales and recite a non-cursed scroll of enchant armor
