Golden dragon scales

Golden dragon scales are one of the heaviest body armours in the game, tied with crystal plate armour. While these scales offer less AC than crystal plate, it offers a resistance to fire, cold, and poison. Since the encumbrance is so high, casting, dodging, and stealth are very difficult.

This item has a 33% chance to generate when you slay a golden dragon. The unique troll Parghit always wears a highly enchanted set of golden dragon scales.

Desirability

With 3 resistances and excellent AC, a set of golden dragon scales is a strong choice for any high-strength melee brute. However, the chances of finding one before Depths or Zot are very low. You can get +10 plate armour or so well before then, which will generally outperform a +0 GDS. You could wait to enchant your gear, but the time spent waiting for GDS is time that your scrolls of enchant armour are doing nothing.

If you do get one in a timely manner, though, or get one that is already well-enchanted, it's very good for heavy melee characters. Parghit's scales, for instance, are often well worth using. Dodgers, casters, and ranged weapon users will find these too heavy to effectively use, at least for a 3 rune game.

History

• Prior to 0.32, this armour was named gold dragon scales.
• Prior to 0.19, this armour was named golden dragon armour and was crafted by using a scroll of enchant armour on a gold dragon hide.
• Prior to 0.16, this armour's encumbrance rating was 25.
• Prior to 0.14, this armour's encumbrance rating was 27.

Golden dragon scales	Image
Mundane	File:Gold dragon armour.png
Artefact	File:Gold dragon armour artefact.png
Scales of the Dragon King	File:Armour of the dragon king.png