You talk about both a shield and armor, so I’ll address both.
Silk armor, used by the medieval Japanese, was the first recorded instance of so-called soft body armor. Later, silk armor was used by the musketeers of the seventeenth century. It can actually be argued that these silk armors were the precursor of modern day Kevlar.
Okay, that’s about the extent of my knowledge about silk armor. As for how strong it was, I couldn’t tell you. I can only speculate and make a few suggestions.
First, I would guess it would not be as strong as hide armor. More comparable to leather, I think. However, in regards to freedom of action (i.e. Armor Check Penalty, Chance of Spell Failure and weight) I would think it more comparable to padded. Also, given that it’s made of silk, I’d make it pretty expensive; maybe 150 g.p.? That seems like a fair trade, though, for an amour that protects as well as leather, but provides the freedom of movement of padded. It would be great for thieves, monks, swashbucklers and even magic users.
So, regarding a shield: Presumably, when you say “laminated” you are talking about some kind of natural resin. Is it all silk and resin? Or is it wood or steel wrapped in silk and then sealed with resin? If the former, I can’t even imagine that. I would think that it would start out about as strong as a wooden shield, but I don’t think it would have the same durability. If the latter, however, it would be at least as strong as the base material, plus I’d give it an extra +1 against piercing weapons (like a medieval version of Kevlar).
My understanding of silk's use in battle was that it was more restistant to cuts than flesh. As such it provided protection from missle weapons in an interesting way. An arrow would still pierce the flesh, but would take the silk in with it. I'm not sure if this slowed the arrow down, but it makes pulling it out a hell of a lot easier. This is because silk is soft and smooth yet tough.
Laminating the silk would probably negate this effect by hardening it. I have no idea how it would work as a shield.
I would imagine that a silk shirt would give a nominal AC bonus - perhaps none. A more interesting buff could be something on the order of 50% damage reduction for small piercing projectiles. It could be worn under leather, hide, wood, or similar light weight armors (DM's perogative). I would imagine that heavy armor might not be compatable with silk underlayer.
I believe silk armor is resistant to projectiles with speeds below 400 feet per second.
Silk's resistance to arrows depends on its flexibility when worn as a loose garment. It twists around arrows and makes them easy to remove as Shiny has posted, but does nothing else. It therefore should have no special AC characteristics.
Because its strength relies on flexibility, there is no ESPECIALLY no reason for it to bestow extraordinary defense once it is laminated and made rigid.
Silk armor in japan was silk wrapped around leather or iron plates - so to say the Samurai wore silk armor is not quite correct.
As a defensive material silk has potential even know and in a world of magic I see no issue with silk being enchanted to be protected - some multiple of normal masterwork armor or shield (probably x5 in a game if I were running it) and then enchant it normally. Reduce the weight to 25% of normal (part enchantment part material), reduce the armor check penalty by 2 and increase the max bonus dex limit by 4 (again part of the nature of the material and how enchanting it affects it).
I would also say that a normal armorer or tailor would not be able to provide the necessary skill to create the base item. You would need to find a particularly exotic NPC to do that for you.
The other alternative, would be to have the silk come from a particularly exotic magical creature. Some variety of magical spiders (probably unique to your game for this purpose - phase spiders maybe or some species husbanded by Drow for that specific purpose) OR you might have Norn-like witch/weavers who create magical silk.
This magical silk if crafted into armor could have special properties even if not enchanted.
Lots of way to use those ideas to create something unique.
IMO normal silk armor IS padded armor.
Hope that is useful to you.
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Something you might consider is having silk clothing made as a potential alternative to armor for characters who get less use from armor. Perhaps have it bestow damage reduction overcome by Bludgeoning?
You could even say various grades of silk provide increasing amounts of protection. DR 2/Bludgeoning for weaker, DR 5/Bludgeoning for average, DR 8/Bludgeoning for a stronger grade of silk.
Then you could also include enchanted silks that could make Bludgeoning no longer overcome their damage reduction. As well as enchanting the heavier grades for greater protection like armors.
The limiting factors of course, would obviously be price, people who can work with silk, and so forth.
This "armor" would be ideal for spellcasters, Rogues, Bards, Monks, and maybe even Rangers.
...makes them easy to remove as Shiny has posted...
Come on! Don't judge a man by his avatar - check the name :)
by the by - I know DR in 3.5 doesn't work by percentages but I really think this one should. A big part of an arrow's nastyness comes from pulling it out, but many a man has died with the thing still in him. Thus having a silk shirt make it possible to toatlly negate dammage from a dagger or bolt sorta silly.
Back to the shield - If you have a conceptual desire for one I think you'll have to come up with a magical reason why it works. Also note that if you somehow made silk rigid it would probably be difficult to identify as silk.
Mongoose Publishing has silk armor or shirts or some such in their Equipment Guide. It provide bonuses on heal checks. They used the same idea as posted above it covered the weapon to blunting the edge on weapons. If I remember correctly it didn't say S, P, or B it was just a flat bonus. I'm not sure how silk helps with getting hit with a hammer, but hey?
Fizz
Come on! Don't judge a man by his avatar - check the name :)
Thats too much effort. You'll just have to get used to being called Shiny.
Come on! Don't judge a man by his avatar - check the name :)
Oops.
You could even say various grades of silk provide increasing amounts of protection. DR 2/Bludgeoning for weaker, DR 5/Bludgeoning for average, DR 8/Bludgeoning for a stronger grade of silk.
Silk provides DR 8?
That's kevlar, man. Even DR 2 has no basis in reality. People using DR are giving DR 2 to breastplates and medium metal armors.
I like silk as much as the next guy, but if you're giving it DR you might as well give me DR for wearing these wet cardboard boxes, too.
Maybe the DR silk is from fey silk worms? (or possibly spiders?)
I like silk as much as the next guy, but if you're giving it DR you might as well give me DR for wearing these wet cardboard boxes, too.
Totally agree with this one. If the silk was magical to begin with (as noted above, spun from fey silk worms or the like), then maybe DR 2...
But I'd jack the price of such materials THROUGH THE ROOF. Can you imagine how many people/races would want that kind of protection?
Another good limiting factor would be the silk's deterioration after taking damage. Look at the Earthsilk jersey in Races of Stone. Once the wearer takes a piercing crit, the jersey tears and is useless until repaired. Maybe, once the silk armor takes enough *insert appropriate type of damage here* damage, it tears/rips/breaks/explodes and is useless until repaired.
Personally, I'd say that all armor made from this gives DR 2/ bludgeoning and costs 5,000/10,000/15,000 for light/medium/heavy armor. Light armor can take: 10 fire/acid or 20 slashing/piercing. Medium armor: 15 fire/acid or 30 slashing/piercing. Heavy 20 fire/acid or 40 slashing/piercing. A slashing/piercing crit automatically scraps the armor, requiring major repair.
Craff checks aided by a kit could be used out of combat to maintain the silk and reset/lower the damage cap on it. DC 10 fixes 1 point with 2 hours work. DC 20 fixes 5 points. DC 30 fixes 10 points. DC 40 for major repair from crits.
-Kurocyn
I think we've clearly gone beyond natural silk in this discussion.
I think we should give it a new name. Milk is taken... what about filk?
Light armor can take: 10 fire/acid or 20 slashing/piercing. Medium armor: 15 fire/acid or 30 slashing/piercing. Heavy 20 fire/acid or 40 slashing/piercing. A slashing/piercing crit automatically scraps the armor, requiring major repair.
Inconceivable!
By the way, don't dis cardboard armor, dude! I made a suit of it that in no way resembles my old refrigerator box. It stopped a bullet, I swear!
Salesman at Home Depot: You want to cut what?
Customer: I want to make arm and leg holes in my refrigerator.(DR 30 vs heat and cold attacks)
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A few people have made the assumption that the laminated silk shield would need to use bonded layers, some sort of resin or such. I don’t know that it would. Laminated materials don’t necessarily need to use bonded layers, they can just be layered. So there is no need to make the shield rigid.
I would give a composite layered silk shield over light wooden frame, an AC of +1, no ACP, weight 3 lbs.
True enough.
But the word laminate does mean uniting layers with resins or glues.
So if you want to throw on 40 pairs of silk jammies that's fine, but it's not much different than padded armour. Silk does not have any special resistance against slashing, only piercing, and EVEN THEN it only mitigates the damage done when removing an arrow.
Now if you guys are talking about fey silk from a monstrous vermin that's fine, I'm just telling what I know about the use of silk in armour.
Sure, the Japanese laminated all kinds of materials into their armour and decorated with paint and silscreens, but silk never earned any renown among them for being structurally special, at least not to my knowledge. Today they make a thick weave silk that is strong like canvas yet much more confortable for martial arts training. It is obscenely expensive and you can still stick a dagger through it. The only true renown silk has earned was when it was worn loose as an undergarment by the Mongolian hordes.
Now Kevlar is a miracle fabric and has rightfully earned it's recognition.
As far as yellowdingo's OP, I think laminated silk would be more rigid and more like a resin armour, whereas hide would probably be made rigid by boiling it in wax (like leather armour) and offer a little more freedom of movement and less noise.
So I would compare laminated silk to resin armours, wherever you find your armour rules, and go from there. They are probably light, interfere less with magic and don't suffer from rust monster attacks. More expensive, ka-ching $$$ and you're good to go.
Just my 2c.
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By the way, don't dis cardboard armor, dude! I made a suit of it that in no way resembles my old refrigerator box. It stopped a bullet, I swear!Salesman at Home Depot: You want to cut what?
Customer: I want to make arm and leg holes in my refrigerator.(DR 30 vs heat and cold attacks)
No, not the refrigerator, the box it came in! Why else do you think they put those fragile metal cases inside cardboard? Its to protect them!
Edit: Although, I do admit that opening a big door on the top to reveal my face does have a certain appeal...
Snorter you just gave the the greatest idea for a villain.
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Laminated silk, that is, layers of silk bonded with lacquer or resin, would be pretty similar to fiberglass. It would be quite expensive, but pretty good armor.
Now, since D&D armor has so little relationship to real armor* in its effects, how you want to model that would depend on the effect you are trying for.
* For reference: In real life, hardened leather armor (cuirboilli - probably most similar to hide armor in D&D) protects a bit better than chain, but not quite as well as plate. It's also heavier than steel covering the same areas. Fiberglass would protect quite well for as long as it lasted, but would degrade relatively quickly unless it was quite thick and heavy.