Freeze breaking items

[Gobbopathe]

Hello, I am playing back Sil after a few years, and I have a simple question : how could I prevent items from being broken by frost attacks (snow trolls, this unique giant I killed but ouch it was hard, etc.). Does being resistant to freeze prevent this ?
Thanks

[wobbly]

It makes it a lot less likely. I'm pretty sure the odds are dependent on damage like in angband. The only way to prevent it is to take 0 damage. Generally not feasible but if your evasion is high enough melee frost/fire attacks aren't hitting (this is part of why Rauko-bane is such a standard by the way), your shield counts against breathe attacks. Block, Heavy Armour, Fire resistance. I've hit a point where Great Fire Drake will do 0. More normally, just pack a shield & rfire and it'll be rare, but happens.

[Pete Mack]

The only ways to avoid all elemental breakage are either
1. Be immune to the element
2. Don't carry anything that can break whilst fighting elementsl monsters. (Cache them in some out of the way place)
3. Don't fight thr monsters in the first place.

At various times, I have used all three methods, but 3 is by far the most useful. Note that minimum elemental breakage probability is 1% per item*, so carrying around a big stack of healing potions is a bad idea unless you are immune to cold, fighting a boss, or playing ironman.

* max is 3%

[Gobbopathe]

Thanks a lot to both of you

[Quirk]

Just to note: Sil does not have cold immunity. Resistance however makes a big difference to the probability of this happening.

Additionally, carrying around a large stack of healing potions is pretty much par for the course in Sil - there's nowhere else to keep them safe but your pack, they're quite precious, and there are a limited number of cold damage enemies. It is worth noting healing herbs are safer than potions if you have to choose though in general I would take both.

[Pete Mack]

Whoops, did not see the forum name when I posted. But resistance works similarly to in V: the less damage you're taking, the less likely things are to break.

[Derakon]

It's also worth mentioning that carrying lots of items or "decoy" items does not afford you any additional protection. Each vulnerable item rolls separately for whether it is destroyed by a given attack, and there's no cap to how many items may be destroyed at once. In theory one chilling touch could shatter 99 potions, though the odds of that happening are vanishingly unlikely (on the order of one in a googol).

[wobbly]

One thing to add is if it's snow trolls that are the problem then flaming arrows from the otherside of the room is safest. The unique giant your best of just filling with poison or flaming arrows. They throw rather then shoot so they are a bit less dangerous at range. If you step backwards a giant is eventually going to throw a boulder giving you space. Just make sure you can take the hit. Realistically if you can't take the hit at range you wont in close either but maybe you can heal 1st.