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Message: <blockquote data-quote="weldon" data-source="post: 6494755" data-attributes="member: 18817">My brain hurts.I can get behind the idea that druids favor less technology, but then why single out armor when swords are fine? That's the part that doesn't make sense. If druids are against metalworking technology, then shouldn't they be offended by all metal objects?Also, the level of technology here is pretty low. Bronze age started around 3000BC. Iron age around 1200BC.Thanks for taking my comments in good humor. Steel is iron hardened with carbon (as barrelhouse pointed out). But steel (as we know it) wasn't widely available until much more recent times. The romans used iron for armor and weapons and sometimes hardened the outside of finished pieces with carbon (but it wasn't really steel all the way through).Once people figured out how to work iron it quickly replaced bronze (copper and tin alloy) in large part because it was more easily available. Tin is relatively hard to find, and iron is abundant. Iron swords are probably not much harder than bronze swords and didn't win out because it was harder or held a sharper edge than bronze. It won out in large part because once the right techniques were discovered (you have to work iron at higher temperatures), there was a lot more of it available.Then shouldn't there be a blanket prohibition against using metal objects, not just armor? I don't really have a problem with someone saying that druids are focused on living things and shun metal. There's a logic to that position. I could also see a different fantasy world where druids are in love with rocks and minerals. That has its own logic.I'm arguing against the inconsistency of saying that druids are perfectly fine with metal unless its armor.The problem isn't that iron is too brittle, but that it's too soft. Iron swords would bend in battle. Adding carbon (to make steel) makes the metal more brittle (not less) and steel wasn't usable for weapons until tempering was discovered to remove some of the brittleness (while still keeping most of the hardness). Cast iron has even more carbon than steel and is extremely brittle. You can break it with a hammer.Still some of the techniques were known relatively early. The romans used case hardening (using carbon) on their iron pieces to put a hard layer on finished armor. This is a little different than working with steel directly though.Of course, now I've wandered off the original point which is that I don't understand the logic of the restriction against metal armor. I'm OK if you say that druids are focused on living things, or they are against technology, with restrictions that follow from their ethos. But then I also think that there is the possibility of a druid circle that is focused on rocks and minerals. Why not have animal, mineral and vegetable druid circles?</blockquote>

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