Ice dragon scales

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Name	Ice dragon scales
Size to wear	Any
Armour Class	9
Encumbrance rating	11
Maximum Enchantment	+9
Grants	rC++, rF-
Time to Wear	5

The scales of a cold-breathing dragon. It provides great protection from cold, while rendering its wearer more susceptible to fire.

Ice dragon scales are a medium-weight body armour. They provide 2 ranks of cold resistance (rC++), but 1 rank of fire vulnerability (rF-).

This item has a 1/3 chance to generate when you slay an ice dragon.

Desirability

Ice dragon scales offer almost as much AC as a plate armour, but at a much lower encumbrance. They make sense on casters and EV-based fighters, who can afford to have more weight, or melee brutes with no heavier scales available. It's often best to wait until you have a source of fire resistance, as taking 150% damage from fire can be dangerous.

Compared to fire dragon scales, ice scales offer +1 base AC (and +1 max enchantment), at no extra encumbrance. However, players may prefer fire resistance over cold resistance. This mostly applies to Zot - orbs of fire exist, but not orbs of ice.

Paradoxically, a Fire Magic specialist may actually find these scales useful: combined with a staff of fire and a ring of fire, such a character would have two spell enhancers, and a level each of fire and cold resistance.

Trolls and Ogres, unable to wear normal plate armour, may want to wear these even without fire resistance. Just be careful with it.

History

• Prior to 0.19, ice dragon scales were called ice dragon armour in-game, and it was obtained by using a scroll of enchant armour on a ice dragon hide.

Ice dragon scales	Image
Mundane
Artefact