Swamp dragon scales

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

Name	Swamp dragon scales
Size to wear	Any
Armour Class	7
Encumbrance rating	7
Maximum Enchantment	+7
Grants	rPois
Time to Wear	5

The scales of a swamp dragon. It confers resistance to poison on its wearer.

Swamp dragon scales are an effective body armour for use by low-strength characters and casters, providing respectable AC with a manageable encumbrance rating of 7. They also provide poison resistance, rendering some early- and mid-game threats significantly less deadly.

Unfortunately, these scales can be rare. They may randomly generate when you slay a swamp dragon, but if your particular game did not generate the Swamp, it is extremely unlikely that you'll be able to find any such dragons to slay (and you'll probably want to already have a source of poison resistance before encountering a swamp dragon).

Desirability

Swamp dragon scales are on the lighter side of dragon scales; fire dragon scales are somewhat heavier, but provide a more useful intrinsic and more AC. Conversely, a robe with a powerful ego such as resistance or Archmagi would be more attractive to casters who cannot bear encumbrance.

However, poison resistance as a body armour is still somewhat useful. Apart from poison being the primary threat of the Spider's Nest or Snake Pit, poison clouds deal damage at an alarming rate even when you get to Zot. The ring is normally a better way to get rPois, but if you'd want a light armour anyway, these scales are not a bad pick.

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Swamp dragon scales

History

Prior to 0.19, this item was known as swamp dragon armour, and were obtained by enchanting swamp dragon hide.