Dragonhide armor
- Thread starter dama
- Start date
You guys are all talking heavy armor as the only option from dragonhide. Straight out of The 3e Monster Manual: "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.
Because dragonhide armor isn’t made of metal, druids can wear it without penalty.
Dragonhide armor costs double what masterwork armor of that type ordinarily costs, but it takes no longer to make than ordinary armor of that type.
Dragonhide has 10 hit points per inch of thickness and hardness 10."
There's got to be a way to make light & medium armor, not just heavy armor from ANY hide or skin that is thick enough or an ample enough supply. Alligator skin (porobably the closest thing to a dragon in the real world) is used to make boots. That's thin, supple leather! There's a huge, untapped market for dragonhide light & medium armor! I know it!! What I don't know is what the attributes would be.
Ok, for my next trick, i will pull sets of dragonhide armor out of my... hat. Dragons in the MM are divided into 12 ages. Each age allows for a corresponding +to natural AC inherent in the armor. This is NOT automatic. The crafter has to roll IN ADDITION to determining if the armor is masterwork or not. 20 on a 20 sider works for me. A wyrmlings maximum armor bonus would be +1 in addition to the armor type; leather is AC2, full plate is AC 8. That's without enhancements, but pricing & rarity would treat the armor as if it were enhanced. So, a set of wyrmling dragonhide LEATHER armor would be AC 3, full plate made from wyrmling dragonhide (we are talking 16 wyrmlings for a medium sized set of armor) would be AC 9. UNENHANCED full plate made from the hide of a great wyrm would be AC 20. There's only enough "suitable"
no pun intended dragon hide on a colossal sized dragon for 1 set of medium sized full plate armor.
For those of you that say that's too uber & everybody will want one, i say this. 16 wyrmlings to make one set of medium sized masterwork armor, 1 out of 20 sets of masterwork dragonhide armor has the additional natural AC bonus. All things being equal, the party has to kill 20 great wyrms to get one set of AC 20 full plate. Breastplate is supposed to be the same amout of dragonhide to make, but you can make twice as many sets of banded suits from the same amount of dragonhide. That's crazy. Full plate is AC 8, chain shirt is AC 4, leather is AC 2. If you can make 1 set of full plate, you can make 2 sets of AC 4 armor or 4 sets of AC 2 armor or 8 sets of AC 0 armor.
I also think dragonhide should have resistance to the breath of that kind of dragon. Going back to the 12 ages, I say 3% resistance for each age. The worked dragonhide from a white dragon wyrmling would have 3% resistance to white dragon breath. The worked hide from a gold dragon great wyrm would have 36% resistance to gold dragon breath.
Sound fair?
Because dragonhide armor isn’t made of metal, druids can wear it without penalty.
Dragonhide armor costs double what masterwork armor of that type ordinarily costs, but it takes no longer to make than ordinary armor of that type.
Dragonhide has 10 hit points per inch of thickness and hardness 10."
There's got to be a way to make light & medium armor, not just heavy armor from ANY hide or skin that is thick enough or an ample enough supply. Alligator skin (porobably the closest thing to a dragon in the real world) is used to make boots. That's thin, supple leather! There's a huge, untapped market for dragonhide light & medium armor! I know it!! What I don't know is what the attributes would be.
Ok, for my next trick, i will pull sets of dragonhide armor out of my... hat. Dragons in the MM are divided into 12 ages. Each age allows for a corresponding +to natural AC inherent in the armor. This is NOT automatic. The crafter has to roll IN ADDITION to determining if the armor is masterwork or not. 20 on a 20 sider works for me. A wyrmlings maximum armor bonus would be +1 in addition to the armor type; leather is AC2, full plate is AC 8. That's without enhancements, but pricing & rarity would treat the armor as if it were enhanced. So, a set of wyrmling dragonhide LEATHER armor would be AC 3, full plate made from wyrmling dragonhide (we are talking 16 wyrmlings for a medium sized set of armor) would be AC 9. UNENHANCED full plate made from the hide of a great wyrm would be AC 20. There's only enough "suitable"
no pun intended dragon hide on a colossal sized dragon for 1 set of medium sized full plate armor.For those of you that say that's too uber & everybody will want one, i say this. 16 wyrmlings to make one set of medium sized masterwork armor, 1 out of 20 sets of masterwork dragonhide armor has the additional natural AC bonus. All things being equal, the party has to kill 20 great wyrms to get one set of AC 20 full plate. Breastplate is supposed to be the same amout of dragonhide to make, but you can make twice as many sets of banded suits from the same amount of dragonhide. That's crazy. Full plate is AC 8, chain shirt is AC 4, leather is AC 2. If you can make 1 set of full plate, you can make 2 sets of AC 4 armor or 4 sets of AC 2 armor or 8 sets of AC 0 armor.
I also think dragonhide should have resistance to the breath of that kind of dragon. Going back to the 12 ages, I say 3% resistance for each age. The worked dragonhide from a white dragon wyrmling would have 3% resistance to white dragon breath. The worked hide from a gold dragon great wyrm would have 36% resistance to gold dragon breath.
Sound fair?
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Sejs
First Post
Not at all. We're talking about medium and heavy armor as the only options. Oh, and shields. Can't forget the shields.
As for making light armor from dragonhide? Er... no. If you make a leather-type armor from a creature with a thick, armored hide, such as a rhino (or a dragon) you end up with hide armor. As for the alligator skin comparison, personally I would see 'gator skin being about on par with the skin of a hatchling dragon. By the time they get big enough to make a man-sized suit of armor out of, their hide has become substantially thicker.
As for the rest.. erm, no thanks. Not my bag. If it works for you in your game, cool, more power to ya.
Ankh-Morpork Guard
First Post
Agreed. By the Core books, Dragonhide is essentially crap. Now, Dragoncraft items from the Draconomicon are another story all together...Nail said:
John Q. Mayhem
Explorer
Nifft has some interesting ideas on this. I saved them somewhere, but I think it was on another computer.
kigmatzomat
Legend
kigmatzomat said:
dcollins said:
Except it has virtually no special properties I can discern other than being craftable (unlike every other naturally armored creature). Being wearable by druids is not a special property as it is an assertion of the fact dragonhide is not made of metal.
There are a lot of "jewel encrusted" "precious metal inlayed" magic items in the DMG. I'm merely stating that the "double" portion of "double masterwork" would apply as an "exotic material" used to craft otherwise normal armor.
Sejs
First Post
It's a non-metal substance that can be made into armors that are normally required to be made of metal. That's its primary special property. Because it's not metal (but can serve in its stead), it's immune to being heated, chilled, transmuted into wood, rusted, and can be worn by folks with a no-metal-armor restriction. Oh, and won't set off the metal detectors at the airport.
Nifft
Penguin Herder
John Q. Mayhem said:
Honestly, I'm going to have to start paying you for your pimp service!
I'll be happy to post my stuff again... just post something over in House Rules and I'll follow up.
ObTopic: Yeah, Core Dragon Scales aren't what they used to be. Why, my Paladin in Baldur's Gate 2 was all jiggy with the Red Scale armor...
