TomeNET

(5.10) Destruction of items by elemental attacks                                
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Items in your inventory can be destroyed if you are hit by an elemental
attack. Those attacks can even have a very slim chance of damaging an item
that you have equipped (see (5.10a) subsequently)!

For the basic four elements, fire, cold, acid and lightning the damage done to
your inventory or equipment depends somewhat on the amount of damage the attack
does. Very low-damage attacks will even have no chance to pentrate the backpack
hull, so your inventory won't be harmed at all by those.

There are two different cases, inventory items and equipped items:

-Inventory items can get destroyed or in some cases damaged by various
 elemental attacks, or disenchanted (equipment only) or discharged
 (by lightning: Magic devices, amulets, ethereal ammo), depending on the
 item type and element type.
 See (5.10a) below for details on disenchantment and discharge.

 Having resistance will reduce the chance of inventory items getting destroyed
 somewhat. To protect your inventory effectively though you will need to have
 double resistance (*), ie static + temporary resistance. This will protect
 inventory items completely from getting destroyed by that particular element.
 Being immune to an element will also protect all your inventory (and euqipment
 too) from any damage from that element.

-Equipped items can get damaged by certain elemental attacks (armour) or they
 can get damaged when used to attack an elementally affine monster (weapons) or
 when blocking attacks of such a monster (shields).

 Having resistance will reduce the chance of equipment items getting damaged
 somewhat. Having double resistance* will greatly reduce the chance of damage.
 Being immune to an element will also protect all your equipment from any
 damage from that element.

(*) "Double resistance": Static resistance gained from an equipped item or an
 intrinsic character class/race resistance or a resistance acquired by training
 a skill, plus temporary resistance gained from either consumables (usually
 potions) or castable spells or activatable items that grant you temporary
 resistance on activation - also see (5.15).)

Some items have IGNORE_xxx flags which let them ignore certain elements,
completely preventing them from being destroyed or damaged by that element.

Items usually ignore an element if they have the according resistance (usually
due to ego powers), for example a leather shield of resist fire will ignore
fire damage. This is not a given though, so maybe double-check the presence of
the IGNORE_ flag.

All artifacts, random and static ones, cannot be harmed by elemental attacks
of any type.

As a specialty, all items that resist or ignore disenchantment (eg Dark Swords)
can also not be damaged by any elemental attacks!

Here is a table of items and which elements they are susceptible against:
"Impact" happens if you fall into a pit, smashing some potions on hitting the
floor. Items that IGNORE_COLD also resist impact damage.
Usually items that contain wood, leather or stuff are susceptible to fire and
acid, while things that consist only of metal are just susceptible to acid.

                    Acid    Elec    Fire    Cold    Impact* Water   Shards
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Arrows              x               x
Bolts               x               x
Pebbles
Shots

Slings              x               x
Bows                x               x
Crossbows           x               x
Wooden boomerangs   x               x
Metal boomerangs    x
Razor boomerangs    x

Swords              x
Axes                x               x
Blunt               x               x
Polearms            x               x

Leather caps/Hats   x               x
Metal caps/Helmets  x
Crowns              x
Leather shields     x               x
Shields             x

Boots               x               x
Gloves              x               x
Cloaks              x               x
Soft Armour         x               x
Hard Armour         x
DSM Armour

                    Acid    Elec    Fire    Cold    Impact  Water   Shards
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scrolls             x               x                       x       x
Parchments          x               x
Potions/Flasks                      x       x       x
Bottles                             x               x

Lamps               x               x
Wooden chests       x               x
Metal chests        x
Skeletons           x               x
Junk                x

Rings                       x
Amulets
Wands                       x
Staves              x               x
Rods

Spell Scrolls       x               x                       x
Spell Crystals      x       x
Beginner Handbooks  x               x
Handbooks (**)      x               x                       x
Tomes (**)          x               x
Greater Crystals            x
Custom Books        x               x

(*) Impact-based attacks (includes force- and sound-based attacks):
 These do not hurt items in your inventory. For example impact hounds breathing
 at you will not destroy any potions in your backpack.
 However, there are some cases where impact-type destruction can happen to your
 inventory items:
 1) Falling through a trap door/chasm without having 'Feather Falling'.
 2) Rocket attacks, if you do not resist both, shards AND sound!
 3) Inferno/detonation damage, if you do not resist both, shards and sound.
    However, inferno and detonation damage cannot be caused by monsters.

(**) Some tomes or spellbooks will resist certain elements, for example a
 Tome of the Eternal Flame cannot be harmed by fire.