Shadow dragon scales

Version 0.29: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Name	Shadow dragon scales
Size to wear	Any
Armour Class	11
Encumbrance rating	15
Maximum Enchantment	+11
Grants	Stealth++++
Time to Wear	5

The scales of a great umbral dragon. It is heavier than most dragon-scale armours, but despite this, blends in so well with the shadows as to provide a substantial benefit to the wearer's stealth.

Shadow dragon scales are a fairly heavy suit of armour, providing defensive stats superior to plate armor. As such, these scales make spellcasting and evasion significantly more difficult, but oddly enough, actually provide a boost to the wearer's stealth.

It is possible to obtain a set of shadow dragon scales by killing a shadow dragon.

Desirability

Most characters who wouldn't mind the casting and EV penalties would have already found and enchanted a plate armour, or otherwise will use the more generally useful storm or gold dragon scales, by the time these scales are common. A heavy armour character finding these early on will find these scales superior than an unbranded plate armour, at the very least.

Characters which focus on stabbing unaware opponents will get fair results from this gear, aiding in their stealth attempts and helping keep them alive when those attempts fail. However, the penalty to EV and spell success rate still remain significant. With necessary resistances covered in other equipment slots, shadow dragon scales are an interesting option for characters that never intend to cast particularly high-level spells.

Note that the normal heavy armour stealth penalties apply to the shadow dragon armour, so for stealth purposes the armour is similar to a robe with Stlth+.

History

• Prior to 0.29, shadow dragon scales only provided 10 AC.
• Shadow dragon scales were known as shadow dragon armour before 0.19. They were created by using a scroll of enchant armour on a shadow dragon hide.
• Shadow dragon armour was added in 0.16.

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Shadow dragon scales