Scale mail

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[   scale mail   Scale mail.png
Appearance scale mail
Slot body armor
AC 4
Special
Base price 45 zm
Weight 250
Material iron
For armor made out of dragon scales, see dragon scale mail.

Scale mail is a type of body armor that appears in NetHack. It is made of iron.

Generation

In addition to random generation, general stores and used armor dealerships sell scale mail.

Description

While worn, scale mail confers 4 base AC and MC1.

Strategy

While scale mail is strictly better than ring mail, which weighs the same but provides 1 less AC, both compare poorly with the elven mithril-coat and dwarvish mithril-coat.

History

Scale mail first appears in Hack 1.21 and Hack for PDP-11, which is based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial list of armor for Hack 1.0. From this version to NetHack 3.4.3, including some variants based on those versions, scale mail does not grant any magic cancellation.

Origin

Scale mail is a type of armor made up of small scales fastened to a cloth or leather backing, with the scales themselves made of metal or other hard materials like boiled leather or animal horn. A related form of armor is "lamellar armor", which has scales stitched together without any need for a backing. Both types were made and worn by many cultures, especially in Asia.

Variants

In variants based on NetHack 3.4.3 and earlier versions, worn scale mail may not grant any MC.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, a gnoll warrior has an effective 1930 chance of generating with scale mail.[1]

dNetHack

In dNetHack, scale mail grants 2 base AC and 2 DR while worn, and its weight is reduced to 125 aum (half its weight in vanilla NetHack).

Soldier ants on the Lawful Quest have a 310 chance of generating with scale mail fitted to their body shape, and large dogs have a 125 chance of being generated with scale mail fitted to their body shape.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, scale mail can be created at a forge by combining a ring mail and a helmet. Scale mail can be used to forge a few items:

SlashTHEM

In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, Warriors start the game with non-cursed +0 scale mail.

References