Dragon scale mail
[[[[[[[[[         <color> dragon scale mail | |
|---|---|
| Appearance | <color> dragon scale mail |
| Slot | body armor |
| AC | 9 |
| Special | <Varies by color> |
| Base price | (red, blue, white, orange, yellow, green) 900 zm (black, gray, silver) 1200 zm |
| Weight | 40 |
| Material | dragon hide |
Dragon scale mail, also known as dragon mail and commonly abbreviated as DSM, is a type of magical body armor that appears in NetHack. It is naturally made of dragon hide.
Generation
Dragon scale mail is not randomly generated, though it can be wished for or found in bones.
Dragon scale mail can be created by reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant armor while wearing a set of dragon scales: the scales will transform into dragon scale mail of the corresponding color if the scroll enchants them, and a blessed scroll will add one point of enchantment.
Player monsters that are not monks and are generated on the Astral Plane have a 1⁄9 chance of generating with dragon scale mail as their initial body armor before role-specific replacements are applied.[1][2]
Description
While worn, all forms of dragon scale mail confer 9 base AC, the most of any single piece of body armor. Dragon scale mail also confer extrinsic properties while worn, based on the color of the armor:
A hero or monster that undergoes uncontrolled polymorph while wearing dragon scale mail will turn the wearer into that color of dragon and revert the mail to the appropriate color of dragon scales.[3][4][5] Black, gray, and silver dragon scale mail have a base price of 1200zm, and all other types of dragon scale mail have a base cost of 900 zm.
Strategy
Dragon scale mail is the strongest and most sought-after type of armor in NetHack: it provides a stellar amount of AC for only 40 units of weight, is made of an intrinsically erosion-proof material, and does not block spellcasting—even the least useful dragon scale mail is likely to do much more for a hero than most other body armor, and it is the most common suit of armor for ascension kits. One of the few things it does not provide is magic cancellation, which can be remedied with other armor or items such as a high-MC cloak.
The most common methods of obtaining dragon scale mail are:
- Wishing for it directly—dragon scale mail is a common early game wish, especially when a hero finds a random wand of wishing. It is also the method of choice for players that are observing illiterate conduct and/or not going wishless.
- Acquiring dragon scales in some manner and making them into mail by reading a scroll of enchant armor, for players that are going wishless and/or are not observing illiterate conduct.
- A fortunate player may happen across the bones of a former hero with dragon scale mail in them, though whatever killed that hero may prove to be trouble for the finder as well.
When wishing for your preferred dragon scale mail, make sure to spell out and phrase the wish properly, or you may end up with a scroll of mail.
Take care to avoid polymorph traps and other sources of polymorph while wearing dragon scale mail that is not gray in color, especially if you lack a source of magic resistance: while dragons are decent polymorph forms, the loss of body armor and AC is quite annoying even in a best-case scenario, since re-crafting the dragon scale mail will also take another scroll of enchant armor, and scales with an enchantment of +4 or above risk being evaporated entirely by the effects of the scroll.
Gray versus silver
The most coveted varieties of dragon scale mail are silver (for reflection) and gray (for magic resistance), though players disagree as to which of the two is more useful in particular circumstances. The article linked at the top of this section goes in-depth with regards to which choice may be most appropriate for a given hero and/or scenario, particularly in regards to early game wishes and availability of other sources for either property.
Other colors
Even with the popularity of heroes using gray or silver dragon scale mail, there are certain builds and strategies where another color is preferred. Some examples of these use cases are listed below.
- Green dragon scale mail is a viable early-game wish candidate for a hero that does not yet have poison resistance: although poison damage from various monsters and hazards is not as guaranteed to be lethal in comparison to previous versions, its immunity to sickness also gives it a use case for preventing disease once the hero obtains poison resistance through some other means—it can prove especially worthwhile for those heroes seeking to hunt down Demogorgon or switching suits of armor to prepare for Pestilence on the Astral Plane.
- Orange dragon scale mail grants the hero sleep resistance and free action, protecting them from sleeping gas traps, sleep rays, potions of sleeping (including their vapors), and the orange dragon's breath weapon. Free action is a valuable property whose coverage makes orange DSM a good choice of color for some players, as paralysis becomes a much more frequent threat in the late game and end game, and the armor frees up a slot in some builds that is usually taken by the ring of free action for other purposes.
- Yellow dragon scale mail grants two rare properties in acid resistance and stoning resistance. Though acid resistance is difficult to obtain short of polymorphing or else wearing an alchemy smock, acid attacks are themselves rare and not often a threat, and acidic passives can be avoided with most forms of ranged attack. Conversely, stoning resistance makes the hero immune to most accidents involving chickatrices, cockatrices and their corpses, and renders Medusa into a complete pushover.
- Black dragon scale mail grants two rare properties in disintegration resistance and drain resistance, with the only other sources of the former being the corpse or tin of a black dragon itself. Reflection can trivialize the threat of a black dragon's disintegration breath weapon, and fully eating their corpse or tin provides further insurance in the event reflection is lost. However, the mail is still worth wearing as a means of early protection if it is obtained from bones, a wish or from crafting them using black dragon scales, especially if the hero is unable to scarf down an entire black dragon corpse in time (which is likely to happen when players are dealing with multiple dragons in areas such as Fort Ludios with no tinning kit available). Even if the threat of disintegration is mitigated, the drain resistance remains valuable for heroes that cannot reliably count on obtaining Excalibur or Stormbringer to cover them against level drain.
Conduct considerations also significantly alter what types of dragon scale mail a hero may prioritize.
- For wishless ascensions, while it is possible to obtain obtain DSM without a wish via reverse genocide, some unfortunate heroes may not find scrolls of enchant armor or genocide or come across a means to write either one in a timely manner—in these cases, it is worth enchanting the first set of dragon scales found, even if only for the AC benefit and weight reduction. This may also be an option for players whose heroes lack a bag of holding and want to manage their inventory weight without resorting to constant stash trips.
- Players attempting foodless or even vegetarian conduct play can get most resistances through crowning, though this may be undesirable in some circumstances (e.g. foodless atheist play, which makes crowning impossible). Heroes observing these conducts that have obtained magic resistance and reflection from other sources may consider the following colors of dragon scale mail:
- White dragon scale mail grants slow digestion, making it incredibly valuable and a possible wish candidate for foodless play.
- Red dragon scale mail grants extrinsic fire resistance that protects against the fire traps in Gehennom and prevents fire damage to the hero's inventory 99⁄100 of the time—while it can be superseded by the ring of fire resistance, the ring must generally be identified in some way first.
- Green dragon scale mail's poison resistance makes it a decent option for foodless atheist play that obtains an early wish source, especially if the player is using a role/race combo that does not gain eventual access to poison resistance from raising their experience level.
- Similarly, orange dragon scale mail prevents the immobilizing effects of sleep and paralysis that can be game-ending hazards even outside of conduct play—compared to poison resistance, sources of sleep resistance are sparse outside of crowning and eating corpses: elven heroes can obtain sleep resistance at experience level 4, and there is a chance of obtaining the property by eating a ring of free action. Wearing a ring of free action also only partially covers the hero against hazards that can put them to sleep.
- Black dragon scale mail is favorable for heroes observing foodless conduct, vegetarian conduct and attempting reflection-less play in order to avoid being surprised by an off-screen disintegration blast, and such players may choose to wish for it or obtain it through some other means instead of genociding black dragons.
Pets and DSM
For heroes that keep pets, intelligent humanoid ones will generally appreciate certain "off-meta" colors of dragon scale mail more, depending on their own intrinsic resistances:
- Mind flayer or master mind flayer pets are especially vulnerable to passive attacks due to their multiple hit dice, and yellow dragon scale mail in particular may be worth considering for them.
- If you lack a spare reflection source, black dragon scale mail can protect a humanoid pet against a black dragon's breath weapon, though the hero may still prefer to genocide black dragons instead.
History
Dragon scale mail first appears in NetHack 3.0.0. From this versions to NetHack 3.0.10, including variants based on those versions, there is only one type of dragon scale mail: it provides fire resistance while worn, and is created by polymorphing the corpse of any dragon.
NetHack 3.1.0 introduces the different colors of dragon scales and dragon scale mail except for silver, and establishes the current methods of creating dragon scale mail. Silver dragons, silver dragon scales and silver dragon scale mail are introduced in NetHack 3.3.0.
In versions up to NetHack 3.6.7, including some variants based on those versions, dragon scale mail only grants a singular extrinsic property while worn, based on the color of the armor:
NetHack 5.0.0 adds gold dragon scale mail via commit 5a09a01a, and adds additional extrinsic properties to worn dragon scale mail via commit ef1eeed7.
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, the 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.
Scrolls of enchant armor will always target worn dragon scales instead of other worn items: a blessed scroll will bless the body armor that the scales are melded to and repair any erosion (but will not erodeproof it), while a cursed scroll will cursed the body armor and lower its enchantment by 1 point. If the armor is already dragon-scaled, fusing another set of scales replaces the previous color. If reading a scroll of enchant armor while wearing scales without body armor, the hero will polymorph into the matching type of dragon, with polymorph control allowing you to choose whether to transform - if read while confused and wearing both scales and body armor, the scales fuse into the armor before your character polymorphs into a dragon.
Dragon-scaled armor is implemented in NetHack Fourk, xNetHack, EvilHack, and Hack'EM—these implementations differ from the proposal and from each other, and are covered in detail by the article linked above.
Several variants also give dragon scale mail additional properties while worn, and may even introduce other forms of dragon scale armor. Variants with object properties and/or partial intrinsics can also shift the use of other colors of dragon scale mail as well, generally creating more useful options.
SLASH'EM
SLASH'EM retains all forms of dragon scale mail from NetHack 3.4.3 and previous contemporary versions, and introduces two new types of dragon scale mail:
| Color | Extrinsic |
|---|---|
| Shimmering | displacement |
| Deep | drain resistance |
SLASH'EM also makes several changes with regards to how dragon scale mail can be made or obtained:
- Baby dragons are more common to encounter in the dungeon, but are generated at a lower level and thus take much longer to grow up into adult form.
- Polymorphing for monsters in SLASH'EM works as it does for the hero, meaning that pets cannot be polymorphed or otherwise reliably farmed for scales.
- The Wyrm Caves generates several adult dragons at level creation, providing a plentiful source of various scales.
- Shopkeeper services for used armor dealerships may include the ability to enchant armor—this allows illiterate heroes to obtain dragon scale mail without wishing, though only 1⁄4 of such shopkeepers will offer it.
- There are sources of guaranteed gray dragon scales/dragon scale mail in the Lawful Quest and the black market, respectively, though both are quite difficult to liberate from their owners.
- Some gnolls can be generated with dragon scale mail:
- Gnoll warriors have a 1⁄20 chance of receiving orange dragon scale mail.[6]
- Gnoll chieftains have a 1⁄10 chance of blue dragon scale mail.[7]
- Gnoll shamans have a 1⁄10 chance of silver dragon scale mail, and otherwise have a 1⁄5 chance of generating with red dragon scale mail.[8]
Though gray and silver are still popular colors of dragon scale mail, strategic uses of other colors are more common as well, especially for heroes that seek to obtain magic resistance and reflection by other means: SLASH'EM features several more level-draining threats, such as the wand of draining and the breath weapon of deep dragons; shimmering dragons are tougher to hit than other monsters, while making displacement obtainable without sacrificing the cloak slot typically used for MC3; and stronger acidic threats such as the shoggoth and giant shoggoth make yellow dragon scale mail's acid resistance much more viable.
NetHack brass
NetHack brass retains all colors of dragon scale mail from NetHack 3.4.3 and changes their weight to 250 aum while lowering their base AC to 8.
GruntHack
GruntHack retains all colors of dragon scale mail from NetHack 3.4.3. The variant's implementation of object properties makes it possible for dragon scale mail and other magical items to have an additional property, unlike implementations of object properties in later variants. Since it is possible and commonplace to wish for an item that provides both magic resistance and reflection (e.g. usually "blessed greased +3 dragonhide cloak of magic resistance and reflection"), the remaining properties are usually covered via other wishes.
The result is that the choice between gray and silver dragon mail (or most other colors) for wishes is rendered moot: assuming a first wish to cover both magic resistance and reflection such as the example provided, "yellow dragon scale mail of decay" (which adds drain resistance) is the most common secondary wish for a majority of heroes, as it blocks two of the most pressing remaining threats: drain life and acid blast, which hostile spellcasters of certain levels can have access to. Most heroes that obtain wishes can also tailor their dragon mail choices to fit other desired builds—heroes of laying races that cannot wear body armor, such as giants, will have to consider a different series of wishes altogether for their property coverage.
SporkHack
SporkHack retains all colors of dragon scale mail from NetHack 3.4.3 and adds gold dragon scale mail, which act as a permanent light source while worn. Most sets of dragon scales and dragon scale mail are also given a secondary extrinsic:
| Color | Extrinsic | Secondary extrinsic |
|---|---|---|
| Blue | shock resistance | speed |
| Black | disintegration resistance | passive blinding attack |
| Gold | light source | none |
| Gray | magic resistance | none |
| Green | poison resistance | passive poison attack |
| Orange | sleep resistance | passive slow attack |
| Red | fire resistance | +1d6 to all melee damage |
| Silver | reflection | none |
| White | cold resistance | freezes water and lava under foot |
| Yellow | acid resistance | stun and confusion resistance |
UnNetHack
UnNetHack retains all colors of dragon scale mail from NetHack 3.4.3 and lowers the base AC they grant while worn to 5. The powers of dragons and their scales (and thus scale mails) are also randomized in each game, with each dragon and set of scales/scale mail renamed accordingly:
| Appearances | Powers (randomized each game) |
|---|---|
| tatzelworm | "magic" |
| amphitere | "reflecting" |
| draken | "fire" |
| lindworm | "ice" |
| sarkany | "sleep" |
| sirrush | "disintegration" |
| leviathan | "electric" |
| wyvern | "poison" |
| glowing* | "stone"** |
| guivre | "acid" |
| chromatic | all |
Stone dragon scale mail and chromatic dragon scale mail are both wholly new to UnNetHack.
A glowing dragon will always emit light within a 2-square radius around itself—glowing dragon scales (and glowing dragon scale mail) do the same while worn. The dragon that produces stone dragon scales will always have a breath weapon that creates lava.
UnNetHack also makes significant changes to wishing rules: in particular, dragon scale mail and other magical items can only be obtained by a wish from a wand of wishing; dragon scales are non-magical and can be obtained from any wish source in UnNetHack. Any set of dragon scales or its corresponding mail can be wished for by appearance, e.g. wishing for "guivre scales", or "guivre scale mail" from a wand of wishing, will always work. To wish for dragon armor by its corresponding power, the 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. The name of the power can then be used in the wish, e.g. "reflecting dragon scale mail". Chromatic dragon scale mail (or scales) cannot be wished for, and will produce a random color of dragon scale mail/dragon scales instead.
dNetHack
dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack retain all colors of dragon scale mail from NetHack 3.4.3, and deep dragons and shimmering dragons are added along with their scales and armor.
Dragon scales can made into dragon scale shields as well as dragon scale mail: reading a scroll of enchant armor while confused will harden worn dragon scales into a shield rather than creating dragon scale mail. All dragon armor and corresponding scales are given one or more secondary properties similar to SporkHack and other variants, with some being exclusive to particular types of scales or armor. Dragon scales and dragon scale mail also weigh more than they do in NetHack, with their weight raised to 150 aum.
FIQHack
FIQHack retains all colors of dragon scale mail from NetHack 3.4.3, and also un-defers and implements the shimmering dragon and its scales (and scale mail). All types of dragon scale mail weigh 300 aum, and the weight of all worn armor in FIQHack is halved. Dragon scale mail (and their corresponding scales) also grants additional benefits while worn:
| Color | Extrinsic | Secondary extrinsic |
|---|---|---|
| Blue | shock resistance | speed, slowing resistance |
| Black | disintegration resistance | drain resistance |
| Gray | magic resistance | none |
| Green | poison resistance | sickness resistance |
| Orange | sleep resistance | free action |
| Red | fire resistance | infravision, warning, see invisible |
| Shimmering | Displacement | stun resistance |
| Silver | reflection | behaves like vanilla reflection (reflects dragonbreath and rays from wands used at Skilled or higher) |
| White | cold resistance | automatic searching, swimming, magical breathing, wetproof inventory |
| Yellow | acid resistance | stoning resistance |
Encyclopedia entry
Stephen had argued, and the expert armorer had grudgingly
admitted, that dragonscale shield or armor, provided it proved
feasible to make at all, ought to offer some real, practical
advantages over any metal breastplate or shield -- gram for
gram of weight, such a defense would probably be a lot
tougher and more protective than any human smiths could
make of steel.
by Fred Saberhagen ]
References
- ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 151: initial body armor for Astral playermons is random DSM, with equal probability for each
- ↑ src/mplayer.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 200: monks playermons never wear body armor
- ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 477
- ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 506-L508
- ↑ src/polyself.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 626-L663
- ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 691
- ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 705
- ↑ makemon.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 718
