Chromatic dragon scale mail (DynaHack)
| [ chromatic dragon scale mail | |
|---|---|
| Appearance | chromatic dragon scale mail |
| Slot | body armor |
| AC | 5 |
| Special | |
| Base price | 2400 zm |
| Weight | 40 |
| Material | dragon hide |
- For the item in other variants, see chromatic dragon scale mail.
Chromatic dragon scale mail is a type of body armor that appears in DynaHack and older versions of UnNetHack. It is made of dragon hide like all dragon scale mail.
Generation
Chromatic dragon scale mail is not randomly generated, but can be found in bones or else wished for wand of wishing. Reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant armor that targets worn chromatic dragon scales will convert them into mail, with a blessed scroll adding a point of enchantment.
Description
While worn, chromatic dragon scale mail grants 9 base AC and several properties: fire resistance, cold resistance, shock resistance, sleep resistance, poison resistance, disintegration resistance, acid resistance, stoning resistance, and reflection.
Uncontrolled polymorph while wearing chromatic dragon scale mail will revert them to scales and turn the wearer into a chromatic dragon. In practice, only a hero or monster quaffing a potion of polymorph, zapping a wand of polymorph at themselves or (for the hero only) casting the polymorph spell on themselves while wearing the scales or scale mail will cause this—it is one of the few ways available to polymorph into a chromatic dragon.
Strategy
Chromatic dragon scale mail is very hard to obtain, with the only sources of chromatic scales being chromatic dragons and Tiamat: Tiamat is a guaranteed source but is only accessible in the Caveman quest, while only three chromatic dragons normally appear in the game within the Dragon Caves. It is possible to obtain scales through various other methods, and a hero far enough in the game to clear the Castle can potentially wish for them outright.
The effort typically required to obtain the scales for how late they occur in the game is well worth it for the benefits they provide: chromatic dragon scale mail is easily one of the best non-artifact armors in the game, providing almost every extrinsic resistance property possible except magic resistance. If the hero has an amulet of reflection, obtaining the dragon mail can free up the amulet slot for an amulet of flying or amulet of life saving.
