|
In my PA pathfinder game I ran into a conundrum. The PC's downed a mutated ostrich with a very high natural armor. They then wanted to process the hide (yes one had armor smithing and another had Profession - Tanner =) in the hopes of creating a tougher set of leather or hide. Are there any official Pathfinder rules for this? How would you DM's rule?
I'd just say that item turned out to be hide armor... hide armor is made out of creatures with really thick, tough hides already.
the closest official source that comes to mind are the rules for dragonhide armor. I've always found those silly, though. the size requirements alone would make the armor exceedingly difficult to obtain, to say the least.
for houseruling, I would say that you could base the AC bonus using the bison's NA (+8) as a guideline (bison being the closest entry to cattle). and scale proportionately from there.
In my PA pathfinder game I ran into a conundrum. The PC's downed a mutated ostrich with a very high natural armor. They then wanted to process the hide (yes one had armor smithing and another had Profession - Tanner =) in the hopes of creating a tougher set of leather or hide. Are there any official Pathfinder rules for this? How would you DM's rule?
If your players are willing to spend the months it takes to tan it (I've done both deer and cow using swords & sorcery appropriate methods, the deer took 4 months and the cow took a little over 6) and can acquire the appropriate materials for doing so (lye for preparing the hide, oak bark liquor for the actual tanning, waxes and fats for finishing... remember that the profession skill doesn't provide these for the player unless they own and pay upkeep on a shop and knowing how to use the chemicals doesn't equate to knowing how to make them) I would allow it with all the proper profession checks.
Tanning also isn't a dunk it & leave it process. The hide has to be agitated periodically (at least every 3 days early in), and growth on top of the solution has to be scummed off, etc. That means the player would have to hire someone to keep an eye on it or give up adventuring for a fairly long while and take to tanning full time.
Making proper armour is also an involved process, and can easily take a month or more depending on how fitted the result is expected to be (and they do want it to be fitted, or you can impose all sorts of penalties). They'd also need to acquire all the proper rivets, buckles, wooden forms for stretching and shaping, etc... all of which which can get pricey. Like most craft professions, armourers make money by buying their wholesale materials in bulk, working on several suits at a time, having unpaid apprentices do the grunt work, etc.