Red dragon scale mail
[ red dragon scale mail 
| |
|---|---|
| Appearance | red dragon scale mail |
| Slot | body armor |
| AC | 9 |
| Special | |
| Base price | 900 zm |
| Weight | 40 |
| Material | dragon hide |
Red 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
Red dragon scale mail is not randomly generated. Reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant armor that targets worn red 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 red dragon scale mail as their initial body armor before role-specific replacements.[1]
Description
While worn, red dragon scale mail confers 9 base AC and fire resistance. Uncontrolled polymorph while wearing red dragon scale mail will revert them to scales and turn the wearer into a red dragon.[2][3]
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.
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 infravision.Strategy
Red dragon scale mail is rarely used by most characters, since reflection is sufficient enough to protect a character against many forms of fire damage, and some other sources of fire are more easily avoidable. It is also likely that you will obtain fire resistance from another source before fire attacks become a serious problem.
Foodless atheist characters may consider red dragon scale mail as an option to protect against the fire traps in Gehennom - while it can be superseded by the ring of fire resistance, the ring must generally be identified in some way first.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.
Red dragon scale mail is more likely to be considered for some characters since it confers extrinsic fire resistance: they gain a valuable source of fire damage protection for their inventory, especially against revamped flaming spheres, while humans are finally given a means to access infravision outside of polymorph. It may see slightly less early game consideration compared to other colors, due in some part to the dwarvish cloak - per commit b98a70e3, dwarvish cloaks protect against inventory damage from fire and cold 9⁄10 of the time.History
Red 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, red dragon scale mail is created by polymorphing the corpse of a red dragon. Red 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 red dragon scale mail additional properties while worn, and may even introduce other forms of red dragon scale armor. Variants that implement partial intrinsics and/or object properties may also make red dragon mail and other colors more worthwhile.
NetHack: The Next Generation
NetHack: The Next Generation adds the Scales of the Dragon Lord, a chaotic aritfact set of red dragon scale mail that is dropped by the Dragon Lord upon death, and can be invoked for a dragon breath attack.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, gnoll shamans have an effective 9⁄50 chance of generating with red dragon scale mail.[4]
SporkHack
In SporkHack, worn red dragon scale mail additionally confers a +1d6 damage bonus to melee attacks.
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.
Red dragon scale mail is effectively replaced by fire dragon scale mail, which confers only 5 base AC like all dragon scale mail in UnNetHack.
dNetHack
In dNetHack and notdNetHack, worn red dragon scale mail additionally confers flight and protection from sliming.
FIQHack
In FIQHack, worn red dragon scale mail additionally confers warning, infravision and see invisible. 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 723
