Blue dragon scale mail
[ blue dragon scale mail 
| |
|---|---|
| Appearance | blue dragon scale mail |
| Slot | body armor |
| AC | 9 |
| Special | |
| Base price | 900 zm |
| Weight | 40 |
| Material | dragon hide |
Blue 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
Blue dragon scale mail is not randomly generated. Reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant armor that targets worn blue 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 blue dragon scale mail as their initial body armor before role-specific replacements.[1]
Description
While worn, blue dragon scale mail confers 9 base AC and shock resistance. Uncontrolled polymorph while wearing blue dragon scale mail will revert them to scales and turn the wearer into a blue dragon.[2][3]
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 9942b65d, extrinsic sources of an elemental resistance now has a 99⁄100 chance of protecting your inventory from that type of damage. Per commit ef1eeed7, both the scales and scale mail also provide extrinsic speed.Strategy
Blue dragon scale mail is rarely used by most characters, since reflection can protect a character against the wand of lightning and the lightning monster spell, and ranged attacks or another source of shock resistance can help avoid or protect from many other types of shock damage. Puddings and gelatinous cubes in particular may confer shock resistance to a character before they meet a monster that deals non-reflectable shock damage, and other sources of the property (e.g. the ring of shock resistance) will often be encountered before blue dragons or their scales.
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.
Blue dragon scale mail is much more likely to be considered for characters since it confers extrinsic speed and shock resistance: they both gain a valuable source of shock damage protection for their inventory, especially against revamped shocking spheres, while also potentially freeing up their boots slot for other options; blue dragon mail may be the best option for certain builds that do not use body armor for reflection or magic resistance and/or are not as concerned about magic cancellation.History
Blue 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, blue dragon scale mail is created by polymorphing the corpse of a blue dragon. Blue 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 blue dragon scale mail additional properties while worn, and may even introduce other forms of blue dragon scale armor. Variants that implement partial intrinsics and/or object properties may also make blue dragon mail and other colors more worthwhile.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, gnoll chieftains have a 1⁄10 chance of generating with blue dragon scale mail.[4]
SporkHack
In SporkHack, worn blue dragon scale mail additionally confers extrinsic speed.
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.
Blue dragon scale mail is effectively replaced by electric dragon scale mail, which confers only 5 base AC like all dragon scale mail in UnNetHack.
dNetHack
In dNetHack and notdNetHack, worn blue dragon scale mail additionally confers speed.
FIQHack
In FIQHack, worn blue dragon scale mail additionally confers extrinsic speed and protects against sources of slowing. It also 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 random DSM, with equal probability
- ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 501
- ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 518
- ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 705
