Baby yellow dragon
D baby yellow dragon 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 13 |
| Attacks |
Bite 2d6 |
| Base level | 12 |
| Base experience | 200 |
| Speed | 9 |
| Base AC | 2 |
| Base MR | 10 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 1500 |
| Nutritional value | 500 |
| Size | Huge |
| Resistances | Acid, petrification |
| Resistances conveyed | Cures stoning |
|
A baby yellow dragon:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line1085 |
A baby yellow dragon, D, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is a juvenile yellow dragon that is associated with the element of acid. Like all dragons, baby yellow dragons are strong, carnivorous, thick-skinned, and capable of flight - they will also seek out gold and gems to pick up among other items.
Baby yellow dragons have a single bite attack and possess acid resistance and stoning resistance.
Baby yellow dragons are acidic to eat, but eating a baby yellow dragon corpse or tin cures stoning.
Contents
Generation
Randomly generated baby yellow dragons are always hostile. A baby yellow dragon can grow up into a yellow dragon, and yellow dragon eggs can hatch into baby yellow dragons.
Baby yellow dragons are only randomly generated within levels and branches that are biased towards a particular alignment, e.g., the Oracle and Sokoban.
The fourth variant of Medusa's Island has a nest of baby yellow dragons generated behind Medusa's dwelling at level creations, with 1-3 baby yellow dragon eggs and up to two live baby yellow dragons that are generated asleep alongside their mother.
Strategy
While they have decent AC and a somewhat nasty bite, a character sufficiently prepared for the mid-game should not have much trouble with baby yellow dragons. As pets they can be decent fighters and used as flying steeds, but their low speed makes movement while riding and raising them to adulthood time-consuming - making a baby dragon fast raises their speed to a respectable 12, and a magic whistle or blessed eucalyptus leaf may be especially necessary if a character has their own source of speed. Baby yellow dragon corpses can be decently filling for meat-eating pets and characters, though they can only be eaten safely with acid resistance.
History
The baby yellow dragon first appears in NetHack 3.0.0.
Variants
Many variants alter the baby yellow dragon and other baby dragons to make them more varied and/or threatening.
SLASH'EM
As with most other baby dragons in SLASH'EM, baby yellow dragons have their base level lowered to 4 and difficulty lowered to 5. They hit as a +1 weapon, and can be randomly generated on ordinary levels with a frequency of 2 - this makes them somewhat of an early-game danger for SLASH'EM characters.
Baby yellow dragons are also eligible for generation on many levels that place random D at level creation, and can appear in dragon lairs and the Wyrm Caves.
GruntHack
In GruntHack, baby yellow dragons have their difficulty slightly increased to 14, and possess two claw attacks and a strong bite attack.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack and DynaHack, all dragons have their breath weapons, resistances, and names randomized each game, allowing any non-chromatic dragon to appear as yellow - the default type of baby acid dragon is the baby guivre.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack, and notnotdNetHack, baby yellow dragons are not randomly generated on any dungeon levels, and they have the same changes to base level and difficulty as in SLASH'EM.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, baby yellow dragons are made chaotic along with their adult forms, and like all baby dragons they are buffed similarly to GruntHack: they have a strong bite attack and two claw attacks (rearranging the same damage dice from GruntHack).
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, Acid Mages that are at experience levels 7-13 can polymorph into a baby yellow dragon via the #youpoly extended command.
Encyclopedia entry
In the West the dragon was the natural enemy of man. Although preferring to live in bleak and desolate regions, whenever it was seen among men it left in its wake a trail of destruction and disease. Yet any attempt to slay this beast was a perilous undertaking. For the dragon's assailant had to contend not only with clouds of sulphurous fumes pouring from its fire breathing nostrils, but also with the thrashings of its tail, the most deadly part of its serpent-like body.
"One whom the dragons will speak with," he said, "that is a dragonlord, or at least that is the center of the matter. It's not a trick of mastering the dragons, as most people think. Dragons have no masters. The question is always the same, with a dragon: will he talk to you or will he eat you? If you can count upon his doing the former, and not doing the latter, why then you're a dragonlord."
