Poison resistance

Poison resistance is considered one of the most essential intrinsics the game. This resistance protects against the harmful effects of poison, including instadeath. For example, a dart trap might shoot out a deadly poisoned dart.

Sources

Many corpses that offer poison resistance are themselves poisonous (a notable exception is the corpses of shriekers, which can usually be found early). There are, however, many safe ways of acquiring poison resistance. For example, rings and amulets both include one that protects you against poison. Green dragon scale mail also protects against poison.

Barbarians, healers and orcs have a natural poison resistance. Monks get a natural poison resistance when they reach experience level 3 and tourists at level 20. Poison resistance is also granted when you are crowned.

You can safely obtain poison resistance from a corpse in one of the following ways:

• Eat a non-poisonous corpse that grants the intrinsic.
• Use a tinning kit to make a poisonous corpse safe. (Bear in mind that not all poisonous monsters grant poison resistance.)
• Wear an item that grants poison resistance. This could be a ring of poison resistance, an amulet versus poison, an alchemy smock, or green dragon scale mail or scales.
• Use a unicorn horn to negate the strength drain caused by eating a poisoned corpse. (This works because unlike poisoned attacks, corpse poison cannot cause instadeath, although it causes some HP loss.)
• Wear a ring of sustain ability to avoid the strength drain from eating a poisonous corpse.

Safe Corpses

The following corpses provide a chance (given) of gaining poison resistance, and are not dangerous to eat:

Monster	Probability
black unicorn	27%
blue jelly	13%
brown mold	3%
cave spider	7%
centipede	13%
flesh golem	12%
golden naga	67%
golden naga hatchling	20%
gray unicorn	27%
guardian naga hatchling	20%
quasit	20%
quivering blob	33%
red mold	3%
red naga	20%
red naga hatchling	10%
shrieker	20%
white unicorn	27%

Unsafe Corpses

The following corpses are among those that provide poison resistance, but are mildly dangerous:

Monster	Danger	Probability
black naga	Acid	53%
black naga hatchling	Acid	20%
black pudding	Acid	22%
brown pudding	Acid	11%
Chromatic Dragon	Poison	17%
cobra	Poison	40%
giant beetle	Poison	33%
giant spider	Poison	33%
gray ooze	Acid	7%
green dragon	Poison	100%
gremlin	Poison	33%
guardian naga	Poison	80%
homunculus	Poison	7%
jellyfish	Poison	20%
killer bee	Poison	30%
Master Kaen	Cannibalism	100%
pit viper	Poison	40%
queen bee	Poison	60%
scorpion	Poison	50%
Scorpius	Poison	100%
snake	Poison	27%
soldier ant	Poison	20%
tengu	Teleportitis	13%
violet fungus	Hallucination	20%
water moccasin	Poison	27%
Wizard of Yendor	Cannibalism	50%
xan	Poison	47%
yellow mold	Hallucination	6%

For more information, see Eating Corpses For Food And Intrinsics

Messages

"You feel healthy"

Upon receiving poison resistance

"You feel especially healthy"

Upon receiving poison resistance while having extrinsic poison resistance (such as a ring or amulet)