quick note on yellow draconians

[absolutego]

i recently played a yellow draconian to zot and i had a problem understanding the nature of their resists. they get two pips of acid resistance (out of three), but no resistance against corrosion. it's set up so that it stacks with an amulet of resist corrosion, and when you put on one you get rCorr and rAcid+++, which i guess is nearly impregnable.

the problem with that is that you still won't engage a single jelly in melee without the amulet, because you won't get much HP damage but your weapons and armour are susceptible to corrosion. which defeats the point. would it be unreasonable to get innate rCorr/rAcid+ instead? it's not stronger than, say, rElec. and yellow draconians get no unique aptitudes.

[galehar]

The yellow scale mutation gives rAcid+ at level 2 and rAcid++ at level 3. Yellow dracs should have at least the same as yellow scale level 3. Given how late Slime is done, it's not rare to go there with full corrosion proof gear. So having rAcid without rCorr is far from being useless.
Also, you have to explain to me how your corrosion proof scales protect your gear. Where exactly do you carry your backpack?

[absolutego]

i didn't say that it is useless. it can save your life if an early jelly traps you, but that's uncommon, and my point is: you won't engage the jelly anyway, because you're resistant to acid but susceptible to corrosion. it's relevant again in slime, but you likely won't go there without the amulet or a cloak of preservation, which is enough anyway. and slime is optional. not that a single pip of rF is immeasurably stronger, but it has more of an effect.

i didn't think of the scales mutation. you could get rAcid+ at XL8 and ++ at XL14, for instance, if it's not too strong. you could even get rCorr at XL14 instead of 7.

Where exactly do you carry your backpack?

inside your scales, like a turtle? i have a hard time picturing a draconian anyway.
(and as always, if putting on an amulet can acid-proof your backpack we can suspend disbelief for a minute.)

[Galefury]

The backpack would presumably be well shielded by the wings. Not so for the equipment that actually does get corroded though.

I agree that they should get rCorr. rAcid may save your live if shit hits the fan, but unlike all other draconian resists it doesn't enable more options for things you would actually willingly do, because even without any danger of death equipment is very likely to get damaged. rAcid is the least important resist in a 3-rune game, and a second pip of it doesn't change that.

[absolutego]

now that i think of it (galehar threw me off), the items in your backpack never get corroded, only wielded weapons and worn armour, so the backpack is already acid-proof. which makes it harder to find a rationalization, but again, it's not a big deal, at least in this case.

[TwilightPhoenix]

You can always just zap jellies with wands. Polymorphing them might turn them into something potentially nasty, but they won't be corroding stuff anymore. You can also grab a sling and shoot stones at them. And if it comes down to it, go ahead and engage it in melee and keep some back-up weapons and armor in your pack or somewhere safe. It's rare to have something in the early game that you'll want to use in the late game, so it's not a big deal if it gets corroded a little bit.

[absolutego]

i'm familiar with the many ways to deal with jellies. i also pick up stones, slings, and backup weapons, dwarven if possible.
again, the question was whether yellow draconians should have to approach that problem the same way as everyone else.

[sanka]

I simply propose to remove the yellow ones - they are very boring compared to the other ones. I really like the draconians, but I always feel disappointed (and sometimes simply quit) when I got a yellow one. I like all the other ones.

[absolutego]

enemy yellow draconians are reason enough to keep them in. there are few threats with corrosion outside slime.
they could also be made into "earth" draconians (+2 to earth, -2 to air), but there's not much to substantiate that. not that flat apts are terrible.