Chromatic Dragon
D Chromatic Dragon 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 23 |
| Attacks |
Breath 6d8 random, spell-casting 0d0 mage, claw 2d8 quest-artifact-stealing, bite 4d8 physical, bite 4d8 physical, sting 1d6 physical |
| Base level | 16 |
| Base experience | 586 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 0 |
| Base MR | 30 |
| Alignment | -14 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Unique |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 4500 |
| Nutritional value | 1700 |
| Size | Gigantic |
| Resistances | Fire, cold, sleep, disintegration, shock, poison, acid, stoning |
| Resistances conveyed | Fire (17%), cold (17%), sleep (17%), disintegration (17%), shock (17%), poison (17%) |
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The Chromatic Dragon:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line3210 |
- For the monster as she appears in variants, see Chromatic Dragon (disambiguation).
The Chromatic Dragon, D, is the Caveman quest nemesis. She is also referred to as Tiamat in the encyclopedia and the data for the quest branch's goal level. The Chromatic is a unique dragon that guards the Bell of Opening and The Sceptre of Might. She is strong, can see invisible, and will follow the hero to other levels if she is adjacent - somewhat unusually, she is the only dragon that cannot fly, though she is covetous and capable of warping. The Chromatic Dragon will pick up any gold, gems and magical items she comes across, and desires the Caveman quest artifact.
The Chromatic Dragon has a breath weapon that is randomized from the following breath types:[1] magic missile, fire, frost, sleeping gas, disintegration, lightning, poison clouds, and acid. She also has the ability to cast one mage monster spell per round of attacks, a strong claw attack that can steal back the quest artifact if the hero managed to obtain it, two strong bite attacks, and a sting attack. The Chromatic Dragon possesses the resistances of all dragons: fire resistance, shock resistance, cold resistance, sleep resistance, disintegration resistance, poison resistance, acid resistance, magic resistance, and reflection.
The Chromatic Dragon's corpse is poisonous to eat, and eating her corpse or tin grants one of the following properties with a 1⁄6 chance of each: fire resistance, cold resistance, sleep resistance, disintegration resistance, shock resistance, and poison resistance.
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 fe34d4e3, the Chromatic Dragon will leave behind a mass of poison clouds upon death. Per commit 8b9a93f7, the hero will not be blamed for damage done by poison clouds from killing a quest nemesis.Contents
Generation
The Chromatic Dragon is always generated hostile, and is not a valid form for polymorph.
The Chromatic Dragon is generated meditating on the Caveman quest goal level, where she is placed in the middle row of squares on the left side of her chamber with the Sceptre of Might underneath her. She is always generated carrying the Bell of Opening.
Strategy
The goal level you encounter the Chromatic Dragon in is a large and open hexagon-shaped level with a few shriekers, which may wake her from her meditative sleep if she is already not alerted to your presence.
It is probably best to stay on the upstairs and let her teleport to you, especially if you lack reflection. Using a scroll of scare monster is also advised, as are ordinary methods of waking monsters, such as beating a drum; you can also idle on the upstairs with s or . and allow the shriekers on the level to come to you, with one of them eventually shrieking and causing her to wake up. If you can bring a pet into the lair, it may attack the Chromatic Dragon for you while you wait on the upstairs.
Combat
Shaman Karnov's advice to "keep moving" when fighting the Chromatic Dragon will likely prove counterproductive: stepping away from her exposes you to her breath weapons if you remain lined up with her, which can mean taking serious damage up to and including instadeath by disintegration. Her covetous behavior generally ensures that she will stay within melee range, and moving over to attack her will likely cause her to warp to the stairs and possibly swarm you with repeated castings of summon nasties.
Reflection and magic resistance are optimal for the fight against the Chromatic Dragon, though they may be difficult to obtain; Dragonbane can prove to be a decent sacrifice gift for this purpose, though other gifts from sacrifice or crowning such as Excalibur may be preferable in terms of damage. Reflection will solve the problem of her breath weapons should she get away from you, while magic resistance will reduce the hindrance from the curse items spell. Standing on a burnt Elbereth or scroll of scare monster will deter her from casting most of her spells, including destroying your armor; magic resistance can be foregone if you are confident you will be able to remain standing on the scroll, though be aware that her fire breath can destroy the scroll. While risky, her breath attacks can also be avoided by staying out of her line of fire (i.e. any straight line in the eight cardinal directions from her); she will also not use her breath attacks within melee range.
Once she is dead, the hero can secure and invoke the Sceptre of Might for conflict if necessary to help deal with any remaining summoned monsters.
History
The Chromatic Dragon first appears with most other quest nemeses in NetHack 3.1.0.
Origin
In Dungeons & Dragons, Tiamat is a supremely strong and powerful draconic goddess and the queen and mother of evil dragons. A member of the setting's default pantheon, Tiamat was introduced to the game in the first supplement Greyhawk, where she was only known as "the Dragon Queen" and "the Chromatic Dragon", but did not yet have a personal name. Her name is derived from the Mesopotamian religion, where Tiamat (Akkadian: 𒀭𒋾𒊩𒆳 DTI.AMAT or 𒀭𒌓𒌈 DTAM.TUM, Ancient Greek: Θαλάττη, romanized: Thaláttē) is a primordial goddess of the sea symbolizing the chaos of primordial creation, and is often portrayed as a sea serpent or dragon
In the Enûma Elish, the Babylonian epic of creation, Tiamat bears the first generation of deities; when her husband Apsu correctly assumes that they are planning to kill him and usurp his throne, he makes war upon them and is killed, enraging Tiamat into continuing the wars against her husband's murderers. Tiamat births the first dragons, whose bodies she filled with "poison instead of blood", and births multitudes of other monsters; she is finally slain by Enki's storm-god son Marduk, who uses her body to craft the heavens and the earth.
In the Dungeons & Dragons settings, Tiamat's symbol and most common appearance there is that of a five-headed dragon, each corresponding to five chromatic dragons: black, blue, green, red, and white. Tiamat's body is a blending of various chromatic dragon forms with an appropriately multicolored hide, a poisonous stinger-tipped tail, and the powers of those respective chromatic dragons; she has also been known to manifest as a dark-haired human sorceress. Some settings also describe her as a denizen of the Nine Hells, with her lair containing the main gate to the second of the Nine Hells, Dis; others additionally include tales of her battles with the Babylonian god Marduk and her opposite number, the metallic dragon Bahamut. Tiamat is also one of the first deities to have aspects, or lesser avatars, which may appear as either powerful versions of her chromatic children, or as versions of her own five-headed form.
Variants
UnNetHack
UnNetHack renames the quest nemesis to Tiamat, and she will always drop chromatic dragon scales upon death unless her corpse has been revived before. Non-unique chromatic dragons can be encountered on the last level of the Dragon Caves, and killing them can produce chromatic dragon scales as well.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, the Chromatic Dragon is much stronger than she is in NetHack, with still more resistances and the ability of flight.
Non-Caveman players have a chance of encountering the Chromatic Dragon on her special level in Gehennom. She always drops chromatic dragon scales upon death, and these artifact scales provide several extrinsic resistances minus magic resistance and reflection. While eating the Chromatic Dragon's corpse or tin confers all six resistance properties that can be obtained from her meat in NetHack for the hero permanently, the scales provide extrinsic properties that also protect the hero's inventory, as well as sickness resistance and stoning resistance that cannot be gained intrinsically from eating corpses.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, Tiamat is made into a demon princess, and her lair can appear in the third tier of Gehennom. She is much stronger than she is in NetHack, gaining flight and drain resistance alongside her stronger attacks and increased stats, and has a chance of dropping scales upon death. Annam, a monster with similar AC and resistances, replaces her as the Caveman quest nemesis.
Encyclopedia entry
Tiamat is said to be the mother of evil dragonkind. She is extremely vain.
References
- ↑ src/mthrowu.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 812: uses all valid breath types up to AD_ACID
