Pearl dragon scales

Version 0.28: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Name	Pearl dragon scales
Size to wear	Any
Armour Class	10
Encumbrance rating	11
Maximum Enchantment	+10
Grants	rN+
Time to Wear	5

The nacreous scales of a pearl dragon. It grants its wearer resistance from negative energies.

Pearl dragon scales are an excellent body armour choice, providing the same AC as plate armour, but with a bearable encumbrance rating of 11. They also provide one rank of life protection.

Unfortunately, these scales are rarely found randomly, and pearl dragons can only be found on the holy Pandemonium floor, Ziggurats, and a few special Depths vaults. You can occasionally find sets of scales randomly strewn throughout the Dungeon floors or for sale in shops.

Desirability

These scales are often considered the ultimate armour for an EV-based character, providing the same protection as plate armour with an encumbrance rating that won't badly impact Dodging or Spellcasting. Unfortunately, they are far too rare to rely on finding one before the extended endgame.

Compared to fire and ice dragon scales, pearl armour has the same encumbrance, a few more AC, max enchantment, and gives rN. By the time you find pearl dragons, rN becomes fairly important (though TSO gives rN+++ for free). Its not like rF and rC become less useful, though the former two armours give vulnerabilities, while you'll often encounter both elements at the same time.

History

• Prior to 0.19, this item was known as pearl dragon armour in-game and was obtained by using a scroll of enchant armour on a pearl dragon hide.
• Prior to 0.10, this armour was impossible to curse by any means. This was changed, the rationale being that pearl dragon armour is created by mutilating a holy creature's corpse, as opposed to being an item blessed by the Shining One.

Pearl dragon scales	Image
Mundane
Artefact