Black dragon scale mail
[ black dragon scale mail 
| |
|---|---|
| Appearance | black dragon scale mail |
| Slot | body armor |
| AC | 9 |
| Special | |
| Base price | 1200 zm |
| Weight | 40 |
| Material | dragon hide |
Black dragon scale mail is a type of body armor that appears in NetHack. It is made of dragon hide like all dragon scale mail.
Contents
Generation
Black dragon scale mail is not randomly generated, though it can be wished for or found in bones. Reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant armor that targets worn black dragon scales will convert them into mail, with a blessed scroll adding a point of enchantment.
Player monsters that are not monks generated on the Astral Plane have a 1⁄9 chance of generating with black dragon scale mail as their initial body armor before role-specific replacements[1] - wizards have an effective 1⁄4 chance of forcing black dragon scale mail in place of their initial body armor.[2]
Description
While worn, black dragon scale mail confers 9 base AC and disintegration resistance. Uncontrolled polymorph while wearing black dragon scale mail will revert them to scales and turn the wearer into a black dragon.[3][4]
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
Per commit ef1eeed7, both the scales and scale mail also provide drain resistance.Strategy
Black dragon scale mail is rarely used by most characters, as reflection is sufficient enough to protect a character against most forms of disintegration minus the wide-angle disintegration beam: this requires either deliberate action, a horrendous mistake (or several) or profoundly bad luck on the part of the player to occur. In the former case, it can be used to survive a god's smiting for bragging rights.
Black dragon scale mail can be applicable for reflection-less play, even though the property can be superseded by eating a black dragon corpse or tin - most characters will be able to do right after killing their first one, unless they are playing foodless as well. It can also be more than sufficient as a character's first dragon scale mail, particularly if they are unable to obtain another desired color, e.g. playing wishless and trying to boost AC.
Black dragon scale mail can also be given to a humanoid pet if a character is not willing to spare a source of reflection or else lacks any others.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
Black dragon scale mail is more likely to be considered for characters and pets since it confers a source of drain resistance, which is very difficult to obtain outside of polyself or artifacts.History
Black dragon scale mail first appears with most other colors of dragon scale mail in NetHack 3.0.0. From NetHack 3.0.0 to NetHack 3.0.10, including variants based on those versions, black dragon scale mail is created by polymorphing the corpse of a black dragon. Black dragon scales are introduced in NetHack 3.1.0, along with the current method for converting them into dragon scale mail.
Variants
In some variants, dragon scale mail is phased out in favor of dragon-scaled armor, whose implementation is based on a proposal by dtsund. Instead of being made into mail of its own, dragon scales are treated as a cloak, and reading a scroll of enchant armor melds them onto a worn set of body armor, generally augmenting that armor by adding its AC and conferred extrinsic properties to it. Dragon-scaled armor is implemented in NetHack Fourk, xNetHack, EvilHack, and Hack'EM.
Several variants also give black dragon scale mail additional properties while worn, and may even introduce other forms of black dragon scale armor. Variants that implement partial intrinsics and/or object properties may also make black dragon mail and other colors more worthwhile.
SporkHack
In SporkHack, worn black dragon scale mail can passively blind attackers.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, dragon scales and dragon scale mail have randomized powers and appearances in each game - to wish for dragon armor or scales by its corresponding power, either type of armor must be formally identified first, e.g. by using a scroll of identify on dropped dragon scales (which identifies the matching scale mail along with it) or by witnessing the dragon use its breath weapon. Only wishes from a wand of wishing can create dragon scale mail directly.
Black dragon scale mail is effectively replaced by disintegration dragon scale mail, which confers only 5 base AC like all dragon scale mail in UnNetHack.
dNetHack
In dNetHack and notdNetHack, worn black dragon scale mail additionally confers drain resistance. Dragon scale mail also weighs 150 aum.
FIQHack
In FIQHack, worn black dragon scale mail additionally confers drain resistance, and weighs 300 aum like all dragon scale mail in FIQHack (which is halved while worn).
References
- ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 156: initial body armor for Astral playermons is DSM, with equal probability of each
- ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 249: 1⁄2 for wizards to get specific DSM and 1⁄2 to get black DSM
- ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 501
- ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 518
