Dragon (SLASH'EM)
In SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM, the dragon monster class is significantly changed from NetHack.
Contents
List of dragons
The following dragons are present in SLASH'EM, with monsters that are new to the variant highlighted in bold:[1]
- Adult dragons
- Baby dragons
- Other dragons
- Unique monsters
- Deferred monster
- D Smaug
SlashTHEM
SlashTHEM retains the monsters listed above and adds the following to the monster class:
- Adult dragons
- Baby dragons
- Other dragons
Common traits
All of the dragons from NetHack (including the un-deferred shimmering dragon) have their stats improved: the baby dragons have their base monster level lowered to 4 from 12, and their difficulty is lowered to 5 or 6 from 13; adult dragons have their base level raised to 15 from 18, their difficulty is typically raised to 25, their melee attacks are made stronger, and exclusively in SlashTHEM, the first claw attack is also replaced with a lashing attack. The newly added dragons that have adult and baby forms follow the same patterns in both cases.
Most baby dragons in both SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM hit as +1 weapons with the exception of baby deep, silver and shimmering dragons, while most adult dragons in both variants hit as +3 weapons with the exception of silver and shimmering dragons; of the newly-introduced dragons that lack baby forms, the hydra, wyvern and undead dragon all hit as +2 weapons.
Chaotic adult dragons have a chance of turning traitor while tame, while lawful adult dragons with the exception of the orange dragon do not.
Generation
All randomly-generated dragons are normally created hostile.
Baby dragons can randomly generate on ordinary dungeon levels with a frequency of 2: in NetHack, they are only generated in aligned dungeon levels and branches such as the Oracle and the Gnomish Mines. Being randomly generated also makes baby dragons eligible to appear on any of the levels that generate D at level creation. Adult dragons have their frequency raised to 3 in order to balance their increased difficulty so that they are not as relatively rare.
As in NetHack, hostile dragons can be generated in throne rooms, and can also appear among the monsters randomly generated by looting a throne while confused and carrying gold (provided there is no chest on the level).[2] Various dragons also appear in dragon lairs and the Wyrm Caves.[3]
Strategy
Several of the listed changes to dragons and overall changes to mechanics such as polymorph make the stronger dragons harder to encounter reliably and make procuring dragon scale mail from them much more difficult as well: polymorphed monsters return to their previous form when killed, and baby dragons take much longer to grow up to adulthood, making it impractical for a hero to raise them solely for their dragon scales. This leaves reverse genocide and wishing as some of the more reliable means to procure dragon scales or scale mail.
The addition of new dragon scale and dragon scale mail types also make certain dragons more desirable to seek out: deep dragon scales and deep dragon scale mail in particular grant drain resistance while worn, which make them an ideal counter to the many additional sources of level drain in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM, e.g. the wand of draining. Yellow dragon scales and yellow dragon scale mail also become much more desirable due to the presence of much stronger acidic monsters such as the giant shoggoth.
As pets
While dragons are generally better pets than in NetHack, the difference in base level between baby and adult dragons make it much harder for tame baby dragons to gain enough experience to grow up into adults. The rat level has several weak and slow monsters that pets can gain experience from with little risk, though the stronger monsters such as the Rat King and rabid rats can still pose a danger to a hero's pets or the hero themselves.
