Armor shredding

Armor shredding (or armor-shredding) is a mechanic and damage type that occurs in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. Armor shredding attacks that hit a hero or monster will lower the enchantment of affected armor, and can even destroy armor that has lost enough enchantment.

Description

The term "armor shredding" is a catch-all for armor destruction attacks that use this damage type flag, as well as melee-based disintegration attacks, and attacks from weapons with the flaying object property.

Armor shredding attacks

An attack that deals armor-shredding damage–which uses the AD_SHRD damage type flag–will disenchant a random armor piece by one point if it hits: if a non-artifact piece of armor would be disenchanted enough to provide 0 AC or DR combined, it will instead be destroyed, while artifact armor is disenchanted as normal. The armor piece is chosen at random, with shredding only targeting the outermost layer of worn armor, i.e. body armor will never be chosen if covered by a cloak, and shirts will never be chosen if they are covered by body armor. After any disenchanting and/or destruction has occurred, physical damage is dealt as with a normal attack.

Demogorgon and Blibdoolpoolp, graven-into-flesh (the Drow Healer quest nemesis) both have special rending attacks that deal armor-shredding damage: these disenchant the randomly selected armor by 1d4+1 points instead of 1, and as with other shred attacks any damage "left over" after a piece of armor is destroyed will not be applied, with the attack having no further effect in that case; the attacks can also destroy artifact armor the same way as with normal armor, though with only a ¹⁄₁₀ chance (10%) of doing so. If the attack targets a hero or monster with no body armor and selects a body armor slot, the attack will shred them instead, resulting in instant death—noncorporeal and amorphous targets "merely" take double damage when this occurs, as they lack a meaningful body to rip apart. As rending attacks, Demogorgon and Blibdoolpoolp will only use these rending attacks after both of their previous attacks successfully hit, and Blibdoolpoolp only uses her rending attack as part of the routine she switches to against a hero with high insight.

As an inventory-damaging effect, both preservative engines and the preservation intrinsic will protect a target's inventory: A preservative engine counts shredding as a physical damaging attack, and therefore negates the entire attack (including any rends) when the item triggers; the preservation intrinsic will only protect inventory from being damaged, but does not stop a target without body armor from being rent in twain.

The following monsters have armor-shredding attacks:

• x bebelith (claw attack x2)
• K netzach sephirah (claw attack + offhand claw attack)
• " Adamach (claw attack x2)
• @ Blibdoolpoolp, graven-into-flesh (rending attack; insight-gated)
• & Good Neighbor (reach attack x4)
• & Dagon (tentacle attack x2)
• & Demogorgon (rending attack)
• Defunct and deferred monsters:
  • 7 Apollyon (claw attack)
  • & Lucifer (weapon attack x2)

Armor disintegration

Though they both use the AD_DISN damage type flag, melee disintegration attacks in dNetHack and its derivatives do not behave like ranged disintegration attacks, such as black dragon breath weapons: instead of instantly destroying the outermost layer of armor, they attempt to damage worn armor piece by piece, very similarly to armor shredding.

Melee-attack disintegration will attempt to disenchant a random piece of worn armor, though it uses the damage roll from the attack itself instead of always dealing 1 point of enchantment damage—for each point of damage dealt, it selects its target armor at random (using the same rules as armor shredding) and lowers that armor's enchantment by 1, destroying any non-artifact armor reduced to 0 AC or DR and continuing until damage is fully dealt. Artifacts have a ⁴⁄₅ chance (80%) to resist this form of disintegration, and items that provide disintegration resistance and all quest artifacts are entirely immune to this effect. If the target has no worn armor, or if all of the target's worn armor is disintegrated with rolled damage left over, the target is instantly disintegrated unless they have disintegration resistance as an intrinsic or from another source.

Neither preservative engines nor the preservation intrinsic have any effect on armor disintegration.

Flaying weapons

Weapons with the flaying object property and the lesser excoriating property will also attempt to destroy armor on each successful hit: they function identically to the effects of an armor shredding attack, but use a different type of damage with different side effects.

Flaying weapons that hit a target disenchant worn armor in the affected slot by 1d4 points, while excoriating weapons disenchant by 1 point, and any non-artifact armor reduced to 0 AC & DR as a result is destroyed—as before, any damage "left over" after an armor piece is destroyed will not apply, and no further effect occurs.

Against targets without armor, flaying and excoriating weapons will cause them to scream, with differing effects depending on the target being a hero or another monster: heroes will begin screaming for 1 turn with excoriating weapons, or 2 turns for flaying weapons, alerting monsters to their location and preventing them from performing any other vocal action. Monsters that begin screaming lose 2 movement points for excoriating attacks or 6 movement points for flaying attacks, with a minimum of -12 in both cases; negative movement values will result in the monster delaying their next turn. A target that is thick-skinned or non-living will never scream from being hit with either weapon.

Flaying weapons and excoriating weapons are treated identical to armor shredding attacks with regard to preservative engines & the preservation intrinsic: both will protect the target's worn armor and also prevent the target from screaming, even if they have no worn armor.