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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spatzimaus" data-source="post: 832936" data-attributes="member: 3051">I'm not "forgetting" it, as such, I'm just trying to make it irrelevant.  Let's see if I can explain it a bit better.Right now, practically all armor and weaponry are made of mundane materials, and then enhanced with magic.  There's really no variation in materials or craftsmanship; with only one level of Masterwork and piddly bonuses that often don't stack with magical enhancement, you can see why.  Other than the ubiquitous Mithril Breastplate, I almost never see any exotic materials used.That's where the system I mentioned earlier comes in.  If the entire world is filled with dozens of varieties of metals, crystals, leathers, etc. that can all be turned into armor and weaponry, with nonmagical bonuses that DO stack with magic, balance is maintained and you solve this rarity problem at the same time.Dragonscale armor SHOULD be powerful, but it also shouldn't require a ridiculous rule fudge just to keep it out of circulation.  Part of the problem is that there's no stepping stone in between.  You jump right from low-quality steel to dragonscale with nothing in between.  If there's only that one big jump, and all you need to do is kill a dragon, then all the munchkins out there will go dragon hunting solely for the new armor.But, what if there were other materials?  What if you went from a steel breastplate to mithril to gartine to adamantine to dragonscale?  If I have an Adamantine breastplate, all enchanted up nicely, do I really NEED to go out of my way to kill a Dragon for some new armor?  Is it worth it if I have to sell my old stuff at half value?Don't say "you'll loot it to sell it", either.  Doesn't work that way in practice.  Given the numbers I gave above, where that Ancient Red Dragon dropped enough hide and scales to equip 4-5 people, the total value was still only around 20,000 gp (remember, you're only getting the raw materials, which are only 1/3 of the price; the rest is labor), for a CR 22 dragon... when EL 20 encounters pay on average 80k and dragons have double treasure.  The profit made from armor material is a drop in the bucket.As for making dragons non-disposable, I think the key is to play them as if they had the INT the books give them (i.e., smarter than the party) and have them know when to run away.  If a dragon is overmatched, he'll know it, and he should try escaping before he's down to single-digit HPs.  Oh, and raise their DEX by 8 and give them Combat Reflexes at the cost of some STR and CON.  Trust me, it works wonders.</blockquote>

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