dragons and armor

Ambrus said:

MarkB and Zzyzx have the right of it in my opinion. I've been playing a gold dragon wyrmling for years and the best armor he can manage conventionally is a mythral breatsplate; which I imagine is fairly fashionable as well. It counts as light armor but did inflict a -1 penalty to his attack rolls since he was non-proficient until he took a level of swordsage.

As for dragons and armor, I do imagine that dragons normally disdain the idea of wearing armor, but if used to adventuring alongside humanoids who frequently wear some it's a matter of 'when in rome'.

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Yep I do imagine dragons would go for the bling. In fact I imagine they would go for the most tastelessly extravagant armor they could afford decoration wise. They aren't minimalists by any means considering their idea of interior decorating is a big heap of the most expensive stuff they can loot.

Far as armor goes I don't see any dragon going for heavy armor and even medium being rare. What I see especially in the younger dragons is light armor like a chain shirt equivalent or say mithril chainmail or breastplate. They would be trying to take the edge off an attack just that little extra to to turn a glancing blow away.

On a tangent has anyone else described any dragon body art? I've periodically thrown in dragons that have gilded horncaps or big gaudy studs in their earfrills. Also described them having geometric or knotwork-like designs painted across their scales in contrasting colors, frequently in enamels of precious metal such as gold/silver/platinum. Or a big recognizable arcane mark type insignia painted on the surfaces of their wings.

Its the putting on/off of armor that is a problem for solo dragons.


The last adventure had a pair of whites living with frost giants, and they had armor that the giants would put them in when violence was expected.

additionally I have used Dragons as adventures, or who travel with adventuring parties, and magic armor is practically required for them, usually with a PC level. (monk, rogue, fighter, barb)

Evilhalfling said:

Its the putting on/off of armor that is a problem for solo dragons... The last adventure had a pair of whites living with frost giants, and they had armor that the giants would put them in when violence was expected.

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Check out a few images of their talons, they aren't going to be expecially dexterous but I'd consider them capable of basic opposability. They're not going to pick up a pen and write in elegant cursive but opening doors or tightening fitting straps shouldn't be out of the question

One thing to consider: Dragons grow. All the time. So they need magical armors that adjust the the wearers size.

For young dragons, that's often too much money, assuming that they find someone who crafts an armor for them.

Darklone said:

One thing to consider: Dragons grow. All the time. So they need magical armors that adjust the the wearers size.

For young dragons, that's often too much money, assuming that they find someone who crafts an armor for them.

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Of course, magical armor resizes for its wearer, within reasonable limits. So we'd be talking about a once a century shopping expedition.

I'd assume any dragon would wear barding with magical properties ... heck even a set of magical padded barding (with cold resistance or fortification) would be helpful ... even better if it still works when the dragon polymorphs.

Darklone said:

One thing to consider: Dragons grow. All the time. So they need magical armors that adjust the the wearers size.

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Yeah, if you consider "all the time" to be decades or centuries. Excluding the first 50 years (juvenile & below) where they grow at demi-human rates, dragons grow a size class every 150-400 years. Even if the armor needs resizing twice a HD, that's 25-100 years between refittings.

Since I run DL, dragon armors are inherent in the literature of the campaign. They aren't used all the time since IMO it takes dragons 5 minutes to put on chain armor and >1 hour for plate, barring enchantments like called and, like most nobles, dragons generally feel pretty invulnerable in their own skin. The exception being raids, facing another dragon, or foes of great reknown.

Most young dragons are trying to keep a low profile until they get big enough to survive a challenge and it can be hard to keep from drawing attention when you are getting armor fittings. Once they reach a certain level of confidence they will either dominate a small tribe of beings that have the ability to make armors, kidnap a smith and his tools, or will find a way to coerce a smith into making the armor in secret such as threatening to eat their children.

Greater dragons IMC who have minions or histories with the various armies will have custom armors made for them. Most of my dragon armors are also weapons; serrated blades on the tails, sharp edges on the front of the wings, armor spikes on the belly for crush attacks, and possibly carry weapons like nets or chain-whips that can entangle aerial foes leading to quick victories or stifle irritating archers and casters. My simple rule is that weaponized armor adds +1 die size to attacks, much the way spiked gauntlets boost unarmed punching.

Note: the SRD says:
"A creature with a fly speed can move through the air at the indicated speed if carrying no more than a light load. (Note that medium armor does not necessarily constitute a medium load.)"

However, the Mounts And Related Gear section (page 131 of the Player's Handbook) says:
"Flying mounts can’t fly in medium or heavy barding."

This is confirmed with the RotG saying:
"A creature that has a fly speed from wings or similar appendages cannot fly when wearing medium or heavy armor."

Therefore, a dragon would normally want to stick with (at most) mithral breastplate armor. Also since even this might be a pain due to proficiency, comfort, and difficulty in donning it, I assume that most dragons would avoid it (especially since they already consider themselves on top of the food chain in regard to physical formidability).

Still, an armored dragon makes for a great image. I've seen a statue of one and it looked great, but it would've looked silly if it was more heavily armor. Mithral breastplate seems reasonable.

I'd let a dragon fly wearing custom-built armor, even if it were full plate, providing, of course, that the dragon is proficient with the armor being worn.
In another RotG article (I think it was RotG), one of the carrying capacity ones, it was mentioned that dragons count as quadrupeds while flying with regards to carrying capacity, because dragons are seen as being incredibly strong, so, using that arguement, it would be permissible to have a dragon flying in heavy armor. The carrying capacity is sufficiently large that it'd be a light load for most dragons (exceptions being extremely young dragons).

For irony's sake, a dragon should wear armor made out of druid skin.