Armor Taken From The Battlefield

[Water Bob]

I'm curious. In real life, if a survivor picked over a battlefield of corpses, how likely is it that he'd find some good armor for himself?

I wondering this because, in my game, I've made armor pretty scarce up until this point. They're a group of barbarians, and intricate chain link isn't made in this part of the world. But, now, I'm thinking of making more of it available. They're going to have to take it off the dead.

Now, I realize that a lot of armor on a corpse will be bloodied and soaked with gore and most likely damaged--at least from the killing blow. But, if they find some acceptible armor on a corpse (maybe they guy died from a blow to the head), how likely is it that it will fit the PCs?

Very likely, unless their body sizes are very different?

Your thoughts?

 

[Stormonu]

I've got no personal, real-life experience, but some things to think on:

Metal armor (plate, chain, banded, some scale) would be better picking than armors with leather or cloth. The metal plates can just be wiped cleaned, and barring puctures or dents, reused. I'd believe that for plate armors, death would more likely come from areas that were not protected (leaving the plate itself intact) or from stabbing or crushing blows that would be over a small area. Straps that hold the metal in place could be troublesome, as they will often be made of some sort of leather. Chain would just need to be patched where torn, and would most likely require the least work to repair (I mean, it's not like it's going to dent like plate). However, chain usually has some sort of undergarment to prevent chaffing, and would need to be cleaned or discarded.

Hard leather would probably be second best, the others (soft leather, studded leather) may require some intense cleaning to get not only get out blood but sweat, mud and other gore. Fleas, lice and other parasites were not uncommon for medieval rank-and-file soldiers who were out in field for weeks or months; you can imagine what a suit of orcs armor might be like...

As for refitting, plate would be the most troublesome and probably require a bit of time at a smiths to tweak. It'd be easier to downsize than upsize, of course. Chain can be resized with the addition of a few links added or removed, but is generally not fitted like plate is - still, adding or removing links could be a few hours work, even with ready materials. Hard leather would resist refitting the most; you can't add much to it or take it away so unless your probably within an inch or two of the original bearer's girth/height there's not a lot to be done. Soft leather could feasibly be resized just like another's clothes, given the proper materials.

Except for chest plates, given 3-4 suits of enemy armor, I'd expect you'd be able to put together enough of a suit to qualify for a full replacement, though it'd probably look a little guady and be ill-fitting until taken to a smith or otherwise resized.

 

[Ironhead]

It would depend on the size of the adventurers. If they're tall, husky warriors or smaller than an average sized dwarf, then they're going to have to make a trip to the local smithy to make some alterations, but if they're average sized individuals odds are good they can slap on any pieces they find that aren't too dinged up. Personally, I think it might be fun to throw someone a bone in the form of a very nice piece that needs a LOT of work - say a breastplate that once belonged to a legendary general who disappeared on a campaign but his resting place was unknown until now.

 

[Razjah]

For years I tried to do my best to model real life. It is boring. If real life was so awesome why would I spend a few hours a week pretending to be something else? So, I say to ignore reality-although I believe Stormonu has a really solid answer-what do you think works best for your game? Should a party of 5 be able to scavenge the dead of roughly 20 to assemble armor for themselves? If you want you can use Piecemeal Armor rules (Pathfinder but it should work well enough for 3.5/3.0). I think Piecemeal, or some home brew version works best with collected armor.

If chain armor is common among the party's foes, they could start using more bludgeoning weapons in order to minimize the damage to the armor. This method is all in the role play, descriptions, and narrative flow for your game.

Or a simple rule for scavenging- increase the dex penalty by 1-2 for light , 2-4 for medium, and 3-6 for heavy scavenged armor; scavenged armor provides 1 AC less than a proper suit. A smith can spend time equal to making a 150 gold item (masterwork cost for armor in 3rd edition and its offshoots) to remove the dex penalty by fitting the armor. This can also be done to provide full protection (removing the AC penalty) [explain how there are gaps from different smithing designs in the armor's construction or something]. Done! Fitted armor is easier to move in, a proper suit provides better protection, and a smith can fix the scavenged armor to work like a fitted suit. The smith would probably charge something like 300 gp to do either procedure, possibly providing a deal on doing it all at once. Heck, this even gives the PCs a reason to befriend the local smith and perform minor side quests for him/her- side quest XP and a cheaper reduction in the armor fitting cost.

 

[GSHamster]

Not sure about real life, but are you going to have magical armor in this game? If you are, will someone be able to use an enemy's +1 armor? It's pretty traditional than if an enemy uses magical arms and armor it's considered loot for the PCs after the battle.

If you are going to use magical armor, I'd suggest that you follow the same rule for scavenging non-magical armor. It keeps things simple.

 

[delericho]

If the enemy is dead, presumably their armour wasn't all that good anyway.

More seriously, it would depend on the style of the campaign I wanted. For a "grim and gritty" style, I wouldn't let the use captured (mundane) armour straight off - they'd need to spend some time getting it repaired, cleaned up, and potentially resized for them.

For a more standard campaign, I'd just let them go for it - such things are generally more hassle than they're worth, IMO.

In either case, I'd simply let them use magic armour straight away.

 

[Water Bob]

There's no magical armor in my game, and most foes are humans. There's no demi-races. Dwarves and Elves and Orcs and Goblins and the like don't exist.

I'm thinking that most armors were probably not made to custom fit one individual. They probobably had leather ties and belts and buckels to adjust the armor, under the arms and such. A mail shirt might fit a wide range of people.

 

[Umbran]

Very likely, unless their body sizes are very different?

Your thoughts?

Make a list of your friends. Roll a die, to pick one at random. Imagine going to their closet - how likely is it that their clothing or shoes will fit you?

For things like chainmail (sometimes made in bulk for large numbers of men - butted chainmail is quick to produce), you might ask instead how likely their winter coats would fit you. For things like plate armor, it is more akin to how likely it is their more formal suit would fit you.

 

[TerraDave]

Generally for non-magical armor, I assume that it goes the way of the wearer.

Magical armor, by its nature is tougher, and can be salvaged.

Thats it.

 

[Celebrim]

I'm curious. In real life, if a survivor picked over a battlefield of corpses, how likely is it that he'd find some good armor for himself?

Considering that historically, the corpses on a battleifield would often be stripped naked either by the victors or people following behind the battle for that purpose, I'd say the odds would be pretty good.

In my games I don't spend much time tracking damage to armor. It's assumed that basic armor maintainance can be performed by the owner, and that longer term maintainance and refurbishing is provided when the player gets back to town (along with bathing, haircuts, laundry, and a lot of other small tasks that aren't usually played out, but are marked out of the PC's assumed daily cost of living expenses, usually 1 s.p/per character level.) Persumably, to the same extent that a player's armor is recoverable if he's run through and dropped to zero hit points but lives, the armor from the dead is recoverable, could be put to use, and has salvage value.

But, if they find some acceptible armor on a corpse (maybe they guy died from a blow to the head), how likely is it that it will fit the PCs?

There is a fairly good chance that someone on the battlefield has the same stature you have, and in general as a DM I'd always prefer this coincidence unless I had a very good reason otherwise. In general though, this is something D&D has never worried itself about. Historically all 'human sized chainmail' has fit all humans. In general, book keeping always has the danger of slowing down the pace of play unnecessarily, the more players at the table the more this is true, so you have to take some approximation of reality you find acceptable and handwave the rest. Some levels of detail are really only appropriate to a computer game where you can move the burden of the calculations and bookkeeping out of the hands of the players.