I remember once that the most popular wish is for
+2 silver dragon scale mail. But what's so good about this when you have to constantly recharge it with a ? of enchant armor whenever you hit a polymorph trap? If polymoprh traps are going to be that disruptive, I think there should be a playable role which starts with polymorph control.

On 01.10.2023 00:15, Julian wrote:
> I remember once that the most popular wish is for +2 silver dragon
> scale mail. But what's so good about this when you have to
> constantly recharge it with a ? of enchant armor whenever you hit a
> polymorph trap? If polymoprh traps are going to be that disruptive,
> I think there should be a playable role which starts with polymorph
> control.

Silver dragon scale mail was especially favored by folks playing
Wizards that start with a cloak of magic resistance, being thus
not affected by polymorph traps. My memories (and certainly own
preferences) have been to prefer _gray dragon scale mail_ (that
gives magic resistance and makes you safe from polymorph traps).
(There's a 50% chance that you get the reflection from Sokoban,
that's why I have a clear preference to [usually] not wish for
reflecting scale mail; random pre-Sokoban wishes almost always
go for a gray DSM.) As already implied above, if you're looking
for a role to play safely with respect to polymorph traps, play
a Wizard.

Janis

On Sunday, October 1, 2023 at 2:13:03 AM UTC-5, Janis Papanagnou wrote:
> On 01.10.2023 00:15, Julian wrote:
> > I remember once that the most popular wish is for +2 silver dragon
> > scale mail. But what's so good about this when you have to
> > constantly recharge it with a ? of enchant armor whenever you hit a
> > polymorph trap? If polymoprh traps are going to be that disruptive,
> > I think there should be a playable role which starts with polymorph
> > control.
> Silver dragon scale mail was especially favored by folks playing
> Wizards that start with a cloak of magic resistance, being thus
> not affected by polymorph traps. My memories (and certainly own
> preferences) have been to prefer _gray dragon scale mail_ (that
> gives magic resistance and makes you safe from polymorph traps).
> (There's a 50% chance that you get the reflection from Sokoban,
> that's why I have a clear preference to [usually] not wish for
> reflecting scale mail; random pre-Sokoban wishes almost always
> go for a gray DSM.) As already implied above, if you're looking
> for a role to play safely with respect to polymorph traps, play
> a Wizard.
>
> Janis

As an aside I've decided to try for 30% or less fail on force bolt, 50 % is too high for survival in tight spots, especially when I have bad luck from breaking mirrors. From wiki, I would have made it back to safety if I had only just known:

Equipping or unequipping mithril-coats takes only 1 turn, which is much faster than the 5 turns that it takes for most other body armor.
https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Mithril-coat

On Sunday, October 1, 2023 at 2:13:03 AM UTC-5, Janis Papanagnou wrote:
> On 01.10.2023 00:15, Julian wrote:
> > I remember once that the most popular wish is for +2 silver dragon
> > scale mail. But what's so good about this when you have to
> > constantly recharge it with a ? of enchant armor whenever you hit a
> > polymorph trap? If polymoprh traps are going to be that disruptive,
> > I think there should be a playable role which starts with polymorph
> > control.
> Silver dragon scale mail was especially favored by folks playing
> Wizards that start with a cloak of magic resistance, being thus
> not affected by polymorph traps. My memories (and certainly own
> preferences) have been to prefer _gray dragon scale mail_ (that
> gives magic resistance and makes you safe from polymorph traps).
> (There's a 50% chance that you get the reflection from Sokoban,
> that's why I have a clear preference to [usually] not wish for
> reflecting scale mail; random pre-Sokoban wishes almost always
> go for a gray DSM.) As already implied above, if you're looking
> for a role to play safely with respect to polymorph traps, play
> a Wizard.
>
> Janis

It seems like trading one demon for another. My new nemesis is nymphs pretending to be friendly. Gonna have to train the daggers up.

On Tuesday, October 17, 2023 at 11:49:20 AM UTC-7, Julian wrote:
> [...] Plan on wishing for gray dragonscale armor.

That will work, but only because the wish parsing allows substituting
armor for mail or vice versa and accepts <nothing> or dash or under-
score where the space between "dragon" and "scale" should be. All in
all, better to stick with the canonical spelling "gray dragon scale mail"
as you had in the original post.

It works in 3.6.x. In 3.4.3, "gray dragonscale mail" would have worked
but specifying "gray dragon[ ]scale armor" rather than mail would have
yielded a random item of armor. Relaxation (in some circumstances)
of space vs dash vs underscore vs nothing has been around longer
than accepting armor where mail is expected.

Pat Rankin wrote:
> On Tuesday, October 17, 2023 at 11:49:20 AM UTC-7, Julian wrote:
>> [...] Plan on wishing for gray dragonscale armor.
>
> That will work, but only because the wish parsing allows substituting
> armor for mail or vice versa and accepts <nothing> or dash or under-
> score where the space between "dragon" and "scale" should be. All in
> all, better to stick with the canonical spelling "gray dragon scale mail"
> as you had in the original post.
>
> It works in 3.6.x. In 3.4.3, "gray dragonscale mail" would have worked
> but specifying "gray dragon[ ]scale armor" rather than mail would have
> yielded a random item of armor. Relaxation (in some circumstances)
> of space vs dash vs underscore vs nothing has been around longer
> than accepting armor where mail is expected.
>
I've been working on this spelling and finally got it down. I was
looking up armors for my priestess and dragon hide is pretty good.
Haven't gotten a wish yet. I did use up an enchant armor to fix my
mace. I was thinking about that time I said you can't kill a unicorn
with a mace, but blessed rustproof +2 mace takes a unicorn down in two
hits. Gauntlets of strength helps too.