Breath

Many monsters have breath weapons which they can deploy against you as a ranged attack. Breath weapons are often vexing to low-level characters who do not have reflection or the appropriate resistance.

Types of breath weapons
There are eight types of breath weapon:

The can attack with any breath weapon, chosen at random when attacking.

Defending against breath weapons
There are basically four ways to defend against a breath weapon:
 * Have reflection; any breath weapon that hits you will then be reflected, though all monsters are immune to their own breath weapons.
 * Have the appropriate resistance, either intrinsic or extrinsic. This however does not protect your gear from fire, cold, or lightning.  Disintegration resistance, on the other hand, does extend to armor that would otherwise disintegrate.
 * Fight the monster in melee. A monster will never use its breath weapon if it can hit in melee.
 * Cancel the monster. It will then cough instead of blasting when it tries to use its breath weapon.

Use of breath weapons while polymorphed
While you are polymorphed into a monster with a breath weapon, you can launch a breath blast by using the #monster extended command. This uses 15 points of magical energy.