Shimmering dragon (monster)
D shimmering dragon 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 20 |
| Attacks |
Breath 4d6 magic missile, Bite 3d8 physical, Claw 1d4 physical, Claw 1d4 physical |
| Base level | 15 |
| Base experience | ? |
| Speed | 9 |
| Base AC | -1 |
| Base MR | 20 |
| Alignment | 4 (lawful) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 4500 |
| Nutritional value | 1500 |
| Size | Gigantic |
| Resistances | magic resistance |
| Resistances conveyed | none |
|
A shimmering dragon:
| |
| Reference | NetHack 3.6.7. - src/monst.c, line 1180 |
- For other implementations of the monster, see shimmering dragon.
A shimmering dragon, D, is a deferred monster in the source code of NetHack. The shimmering dragon is part of the dragon monster class: like all dragons, they are strong, carnivorous, oviparous, thick-skinned, can see invisible, and are capable of flight—they will also seek out gold, gems and magical items to pick up. Shimmering dragons are intended to have displacement from their scales, but monster displacement has yet to be implemented.
Shimmering dragons have a magic missile breath weapon, a strong bite attack, and two claw attacks, and possess magic resistance.
Contents
Generation
As a deferred monster, shimmering dragons are not generated at all, but have rules governing their generation like any other monster.
Randomly generated shimmering dragons will always be created hostile. A baby shimmering dragon can grow up into a shimmering dragon.
Heroes and monsters that polymorph while wearing shimmering dragon scales or shimmering dragon scale mail would turn into shimmering dragons.
Shimmering dragons would appear among the hostile D generated in throne rooms at dungeon levels 15 and below, and would also appear among the monsters randomly generated by looting a throne while confused and carrying gold (provided there is no chest on the level).[1]
Shimmering dragons would have a 1⁄3 chance of dropping a set of uncursed +0 shimmering dragon scales upon death unless disintegrated, which would be reduced to 1⁄20 if the dragon was revived.
History
The shimmering dragon first appears in SLASH 6, a variant based on NetHack 3.1.3, and its vanilla data first appears in NetHack 3.3.0.
Variants
Several variants of NetHack fully implement the shimmering dragon along with its baby form, dragon scales and dragon scale mail, and may grant the monster different or additional traits and abilities depending on the variant.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM, the shimmering dragon lacks the displacement associated with some of its other counterparts, but has better AC than other dragons.
GruntHack
In GruntHack, the shimmering dragon has intrinsic displacement, which projects images of the dragon onto squares near it.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, shimmering dragons are implemented and subjected to the same buffs and mechanical changes as all dragons from NetHack are in those variants: their bite and claw attacks are stronger, they have an additional tail-lashing attack that occurs every global turn and targets an adjacent opponent at random, they have catsight and can track monsters via scent, their base HP is much higher than most gigantic monsters, their effective AC is improved similarly to SLASH'EM, and they also possess natural damage reduction.
Somewhat uniquely to the shimmering dragon, their magic missile breath weapon is exchanged for a random breath weapon that uses damage types identical to that of the Chromatic Dragon in NetHack: magic missile, fire, frost, sleep gas, disintegration, lightning, poison clouds, and acid. Like the breath weapons of other dragons, all possible breath types except for disintegration ignore reflection that is not granted by dragon armor or an artifact that grants dragonbreath reflection.
NetHack Fourk
SpliceHack
EvilHack
In EvilHack, the shimmering dragon has displacement, which behaves more similarly to the displacer beast's displacement.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, the shimmering dragon is subjected to the same buffs as all dragons included in the variant.
Encyclopedia entry
- See the encyclopedia entry for dragon.
