Orange dragon scale mail

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[   orange dragon scale mail   Orange dragon scale mail.png
Appearance orange dragon scale mail
Slot body armor
AC 9
Special
Base price 900 zm
Weight 40
Material dragon hide

Orange dragon scale mail is a type of body armor that appears in NetHack. It is made of dragon hide like all dragon scale mail.

Generation

Orange dragon scale mail is not randomly generated. Reading a non-cursed scroll of enchant armor that targets worn orange 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 19 chance of generating with orange dragon scale mail as their initial body armor before role-specific replacements.[1]

Description

While worn, orange dragon scale mail confers 9 base AC and sleep resistance. Uncontrolled polymorph while wearing orange dragon scale mail will revert them to scales and turn the wearer into a orange dragon.[2][3]

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

Per commit ef1eeed7, both the scales and scale mail also provide free action.

Strategy

Main article: Dragon scale mail

Orange dragon scale mail is somewhat more useful at a glance compared to some other colors of dragon mail: many of the items, traps and attacks that can put a character to sleep are not able to be countered by reflection other than the breath weapon and wand of sleep. Being put to sleep is also quite deadly in its own right, as many monsters can get in several attacks before you wake up, and there are relatively few other extrinsic sources of the resistance - a ring of free action only protects against the potion of sleeping and its vapors.

With this in mind, there are many corpses that provide intrinsic sleep resistance in some form, particularly those of elven monsters, and elven characters obtain the intrinsic at experience level 4. Once a long-term source of the property is obtained, orange dragon scale mail is generally unlikely to see use. One use case involving the dragon mail is a non-elven foodless atheist character, who has much fewer means to obtain the property and is at particularly high risk from sleeping gas traps.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

Orange dragon scale mail is more likely to be considered for characters since it confers free action: this can free up a vital ring slot for a character not reliant on body armor for reflection or magic resistance.

History

Orange 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, orange dragon scale mail is created by polymorphing the corpse of a orange dragon. Orange dragon scales are introduced in NetHack 3.1.0, along with the current method for converting them into dragon scale mail.

Variants

Main article: Dragon-scaled armor

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 orange dragon scale mail additional properties while worn, and may even introduce other forms of orange dragon scale armor. Variants that implement partial intrinsics and/or object properties may also make orange dragon mail and other colors more worthwhile.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, gnoll warriors have a 120 chance of generating with orange dragon scale mail.[4]

SporkHack

In SporkHack, worn orange dragon scale mail passively inflicts slowing on attackers.

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.

Orange dragon scale mail is effectively replaced by sleep dragon scale mail, which confers only 5 base AC like all dragon scale mail in UnNetHack.

dNetHack

In dNetHack and notdNetHack, worn orange dragon scale mail additionally confers free action and hallucination resistance.

FIQHack

In FIQHack, worn orange dragon scale mail additionally confers free action. It also weighs 300 aum like all dragon scale mail in FIQHack (which is halved while worn).

References