A colossal dragon ranch?

[scott2978]

Ok, so by RAW, a medium size dragon hide breastplate costs 900gp.

Sounds pretty cheap. I think I'll go buy some at "Ye 'Ole Armour Shoppe".

But "hold on" says you, "dragon hide armor doesn't grow on trees, it grows on dragons. You can't just go to the shop and buy some."

So your PC's decide to go find a dragon to kill to make their dragon hide armor that supposedly is only worth 900gp...

Dragonhide: Armorsmiths can work with the hides of dragons to produce armor or shields of masterwork quality. One dragon produces enough hide for a single suit of masterwork hide armor for a creature one size category smaller than the dragon. By selecting only choice scales and bits of hide, an armorsmith can produce one suit of masterwork banded mail for a creature two sizes smaller, one suit of masterwork half-plate for a creature three sizes smaller, or one masterwork breastplate or suit of full plate for a creature four sizes smaller. In each case, enough hide is available to produce a small or large masterwork shield in addition to the armor, provided that the dragon is Large or larger.

So, by this rekoning, the PC's would need to find a colossal size dragon to make one suit of medium size masterwork breastplate armor. And it's only worth 900gp? How on Greyhawk can it be so cheap? Just how many colossal size dragons are out there? For the supply to be so plentiful that it costs less to make a breastplate from dragon hide than it does to make normal, non-magical, non-masterwork full plate there must be hundreds of 'em! Does someone have a dragon ranch where they "raise 'em big" just to slaughter them and claim their hides?

This whole business of requiring a dragon to be 4 sizes bigger than the medium size, medium type armor it can yield is just silly. Has anyone house-ruled this?

Scott

 

[Sekhmet]

Absolutely. I make them roll a Survival check to determine how much of the hide they can procure in a usable state.
A large dragon could, for a skilled skinner/tanner/survivalist, produce enough tough scale and hide to craft one set of medium sized armor.

Likewise, multiple medium sized dragons could create dragon -leather- armor. Their scales are typically not fully hardened yet, and probably couldn't make decent scale or plate armor.

A colossal dragon could produce multiple suits of plate or scale.

 

[frankthedm]

Yes, house ruled Dragonhide to be far more expensive and almost never available for purchase.

 

[Samloyal23]

I would rule the 900gp is labour, not materials, and the adventurers must provide all the materials to the armourer...

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Dragon's shed skin. Any chance the material comes from discarded scales and skin that the dragon leaves behind? Safely gathered while the Dragon isn't around?

 

[Lwaxy]

I remember someone balefully polymorph someone into a dragon and then slay him because they needed more hide for an armor

I usually make the finished armors almost impossible to get and if you get the material, the 900gp is just the labor spend on it.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Baleful Polymorph changes the target into a 1HD, small or smaller animal. I don't think that spell means what that person thinks it means.

Polymorph could do that.

 

[Greenfield]

But as soon as they die, they revert to their original form.

If you try to skin them alive? Well, as soon as the parts are separated, they revert to their natural form.

Specifically, Baleful Polymorph says that it functions like Polymorph, except...

And Polymorph says it functions like Alter Self except... "If slain, the subject reverts to its original form, though it remains dead."

And Alter Self says... "Any part of the body or piece of equipment that is separated from the whole reverts to its true form."

So...

1) Craft a statue of a Dragon. (Wall of Stone gives a good start, actually).
2) Cast Stone to Flesh, converting the statue into a real dragon, albeit a dead one.
3) Skin it.
4) Convert it back to stone.
5) Stone Shape or Fabricate to reform it as an unskinned dragon.
6) Rinse/repeat, starting at step 2, until the stone mass is too small to do it with any more.

7) Profit.

At least until your DM casts Dispel BS on the plan. (Note, by the time you can do this, 900 gp per cycle will be pocket change.)

 

[scott2978]

LOL that's pretty clever Greenfield

Not sure how I would go about nixing that idea from my players, though. I hope they never read this thread

 

[Greenfield]

How to nerf it? That's easy.

Just because you made it look like dragon hide doesn't mean that it is. Perhaps, when converted to flesh, flesh is all it is. Maybe it has all the toughness of raw meat, and no more.

But the fact is that, if they applied all that magic to just about anything else they'd make far more profit than they will faking Dragonhide armor.