Dragon armor (dNetHack)
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, dragon armor is significantly altered from NetHack and SLASH'EM, with both dragon scales and dragon scale mail being given additional properties that apply while they are worn—these variants also include dragon scale shields as well.
Contents
Description
All forms of dragon armor have a default object material of dragonhide.
Dragon scales and scale mail
Dragon scales and dragon scale mail both weigh 150 aum compared to vanilla NetHack. Dragon scale mail is created through the standard method of reading a scroll of enchant armor and having it target worn dragon scales in the suit slot—additionally, canceling a set of dragon scale mail reverts it to the corresponding scales.
Dragon scale shields
If the process to create dragon scale mail is done while confused, the scales will instead be made into a dragon scale shield—canceling a dragon scale shield reverts it to the corresponding scales. Dragon scale shields weigh 75 aum.
In notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, dragon scale shields are the only form of dragon armor that etherealoids can use. Armorsmiths can convert dragon scales to shields.
List of properties
Below is a list of the base resistances and additional properties conferred by each color of dragon scales or scale armor:
Most sets of dragon scales grant 1 base AC and 2 base DR while worn, most suits of of dragon scale mail grant 3 base AC and 5 base DR while worn, and most dragon scale shields grant 3 base AC and 0 DR. Deep dragon scales are the exception in all cases: the scales grant 1 base AC and 4 base DR while worn, deep dragon scale mail grants 3 base AC and 8 base DR while worn, and deep dragon scale shields grant 4 base AC and 0 DR.
Artifacts
There are also artifact sets of dragon scales and dragon scale mail, each of which can safely be converted to scale, mail and shield form as with other dragon armor:
- The Steel Scales of Kurtulmak are a lawful artifact set of grey dragon scales that are made of iron rather than dragonhide. They serve as the crowning gift for lawful gnomish Rangers.
- The Chromatic Dragon Scales are an unaligned artifact set of black dragon scales.
- The Platinum Dragon Plate is an unaligned artifact set of silver dragon scale mail.
Armor breath weapons
If a hero wears dragon armor (scales or scale mail) together with a matching dragon scale shield, then they gain the ability to use a matching breath weapon, usable via the #ability command. For example, if a hero wears both red dragon scale mail and a red dragon scale shield, then they can breathe fire which deals the same damage as the breath of the corresponding at the same level - in dNetHack and notdNetHack, breath attacks gain 1 damage die per 3 levels, with a maximum of 10 bonus dice at level 30 or higher. Using breath weapons this way costs 15 energy and sets a cooldown of rnz(100) turns each for the armor and shield, with 4⁄5 of the duration for Cavepeople - both the armor and shield must complete their cooldown before the breath weapon can be used again. Artifact dragon scales and scale mail have no cooldown, but artifact dragon shields still do.
Some artifact dragon scales count as additional types of dragon or breath weapon for the purpose of matching. If shield and armor match despite being different base colors, then the breath weapon type used is based on the base type of the shield.
Worn dragon armor and shields that match the innate breath weapons of half-dragon heroes and monsters enhance that breath weapon's damage: the size of their damage dice is increased by 1⁄2 for each worn dragon armor that matches, i.e. a 1.5x multiplier if wearing either a matching set of scales/scale mail or shield, and a 2x multiplier if wearing both the matching mail and shield. If their worn dragon armor matches their innate breath, they will not receive an additional breath weapon from their armor, but if their worn mail and shield match each other but not their innate breath, then they will receive an additional breath weapon.
