Poisonous cloak
[  [  [  [  Poisonous cloak | |
|---|---|
| Appearance | random |
| Slot | cloak |
| AC | 0 |
| Special | |
| Base price | 40 zm |
| Weight | 10 |
| Material | cloth |
A poisonous cloak is a cloak unique to SLASH'EM. It is dangerous, as it can poison you, possibly fatally. The cloak has a randomized appearance, the dirty rag being the new random appearance added to accommodate it.
Mechanics
When worn, if you lack poison resistance, the cloak delivers a poisoned attack with a 1 in 3[1] chance of being fatal, otherwise doing normal strength/hp damage and identifying the cloak. If you have poison resistance, the cloak has no effect, but gives the message "This cloak feels a little itchy."[2] Although this unambiguously identifies the cloak, it does not actually self-identify in this case. The cloak does not cause any sort of continuing damage, but only hurts you when you wear it with the W command.
Dangers and uses
As the attack has quite a high chance of being fatal, it is obviously undesirable to put these cloaks on before getting poison resistance. It can be difficult to identify them, though, since they are not normally generated cursed, thus, an altar provides no help in avoiding them. Price identification is a useful way to identify them, as no other cloaks have a base cost of 40. Unfortunately, it is not foolproof, as poisonous cloaks, unlike other harmful pieces of armor, are reasonably likely to be generated with a +1 enchantment, giving them the same cost as a cloak of protection or a cloak of displacement. The only surefire ways to identify these cloaks are to formally identify all randomized cloaks you intend to put on, or to cancel every cloak you intend to price-ID, or to use a monster with the need +x weapon to hit property to determine their enchantment.
However, should you put on a poisonous cloak and survive the attack, you should probably not immediately take it off. Although it provides no base AC, it does provide MC 3, a property ironically useful against, among other things, monsters' poisoned attacks. It will not poison you further, unless you take it off and put it on again, and so is harmless to leave in place. Thus, it is best to leave it on until you come across a better cloak or wish to replace your body armor (although be sure not to put the cloak back on if you still lack poison resistance!). If you do have poison resistance, these cloaks are a good source of MC 3 if you can find no others, which happens occasionally.
