Which is better?
- Thread starter codybob
- Start date
Celebrim
Legend
It's hard to tell whether you are being trolled by the other posters.
Brigandine is the more advanced higher quality protection. Unfortunately, Brigandine hasn't had much of an appearance in D&D since the 1e era. In 1e, Brigandine was intermediate between mail and plate in the protection it provided.
Brigandine is from the root 'brigand' - meaning 'foot soldier', and not as it later meant 'bandit'. It consists essentially of lamellar armor* sandwiched between two layers of cloth, generally allowing the armor to be lighter than scale for the same level of protection and avoiding the problem of scales being broken and falling off the armor, especially when the scales were small and allowed for the greatest flexibility. Brigandine replaced mail as the standard armor of a foot soldier by the high middle ages, as it was cheaper to construct and offered better protection than all but the highest quality double linked riveted mail.
*Lammelar armor is an early armor similar to scale but the plates don't overlap, and they are sewn together rather than to a cloth backing. Lammelar armor wasn't highly developed in the west (except as brigandine and similar armor types) but became the root of most of the advanced forms of eastern armor, possibly because the east had better access to silk and thus much stronger thread.
Scale armor was largely obsolete by the high middle ages, being generally replaced by mail and later brigandine and plate. It's rare in Europe by the end of the dark ages. It's fairly ubiquitous in the mid-east during antiquity though, particularly in Persia, but in both Europe and parts further east tends to be replaced by more advanced forms of armor.
"Studded Leather" is a non-historical form of armor presumable being leather armor with metal studs in it. It's become very popular in the movies to represent this armor, but the stuff you see in the movies offers no real protection at all. The vast majority is soft uncured leather that is equivalent to at best padded armor, but the presence of the metal studs actually reduces the protection by reducing the padding. Wherever there is a metal stud, the force of the blow can be directly transferred to you at best, and at worst it's just like having nails ready to pound into your body. The closest real world armor to what's called 'studded leather' is actually ring armor, which is padded armor with a layer of metal rings sewn over the top to provide extra protection against slashing attacks. Ring armor is simply a variant therefore of scale armor, being lighter and cheaper to construct but offering inferior protection.
Brigandine is the more advanced higher quality protection. Unfortunately, Brigandine hasn't had much of an appearance in D&D since the 1e era. In 1e, Brigandine was intermediate between mail and plate in the protection it provided.
Brigandine is from the root 'brigand' - meaning 'foot soldier', and not as it later meant 'bandit'. It consists essentially of lamellar armor* sandwiched between two layers of cloth, generally allowing the armor to be lighter than scale for the same level of protection and avoiding the problem of scales being broken and falling off the armor, especially when the scales were small and allowed for the greatest flexibility. Brigandine replaced mail as the standard armor of a foot soldier by the high middle ages, as it was cheaper to construct and offered better protection than all but the highest quality double linked riveted mail.
*Lammelar armor is an early armor similar to scale but the plates don't overlap, and they are sewn together rather than to a cloth backing. Lammelar armor wasn't highly developed in the west (except as brigandine and similar armor types) but became the root of most of the advanced forms of eastern armor, possibly because the east had better access to silk and thus much stronger thread.
Scale armor was largely obsolete by the high middle ages, being generally replaced by mail and later brigandine and plate. It's rare in Europe by the end of the dark ages. It's fairly ubiquitous in the mid-east during antiquity though, particularly in Persia, but in both Europe and parts further east tends to be replaced by more advanced forms of armor.
"Studded Leather" is a non-historical form of armor presumable being leather armor with metal studs in it. It's become very popular in the movies to represent this armor, but the stuff you see in the movies offers no real protection at all. The vast majority is soft uncured leather that is equivalent to at best padded armor, but the presence of the metal studs actually reduces the protection by reducing the padding. Wherever there is a metal stud, the force of the blow can be directly transferred to you at best, and at worst it's just like having nails ready to pound into your body. The closest real world armor to what's called 'studded leather' is actually ring armor, which is padded armor with a layer of metal rings sewn over the top to provide extra protection against slashing attacks. Ring armor is simply a variant therefore of scale armor, being lighter and cheaper to construct but offering inferior protection.
Last edited:
Cap'n Kobold
Hero
Depends on what stats your DM has given to brigandine.
The "Studded leather = Brigandine" thing is because the only reason that studded leather exists as an armour type is one of the D&D team saw a picture of brigandine that used rivets to help hold the plates in place. They didn't realise that the point of the armour was the plates under the leather, and assumed that the rivets were just studs in a simple leather jack.
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