Armored Kilt


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


Alright so I'm having some problems with the armored kilt in one of my games. A player was looking to add a kilt to a breastplate which is fine by the rules. I hadn't thought much about the kilt before and looked it over...and a breastplate with an armored kilt is superior in almost every way to half of the heavy armors.

Splint mail is 20gp cheaper but the max dex is worse, the ac penalty is worse, the spell failure is worse and its heavier!

Banded mail is 5 pounds lighter but costs more, the max dex is worse, the ac penalty is worse, and the spell failure is worse!

The field plate doesn't even beat a breastplate and armored kilt combination in any category!

So why would anyone ever wear any of these three armors when you have the breastplate and armored kilt combination?


People pretty much only use the top armor in a category.

Studded Leather and Hide exist for druids. If encumbrance is a major concern Banded Mail may get the nod over Full Plate. That's it. If encumbrance is a major concern on a non-caster that usually means high dex though, and in that case a Breastplate without Kilt is already better than any heavy armor except Full Plate. You might see Banded Mail at low levels with <14 dex, but the reduced ACP alone is worth the 50 gp it costs over Splint Mail even with <12 dex.

So really the Armored Kilt only replaces Banded Mail. All the other heavy armors are hopeless anyways.


Well for one most people don't seem from my experience to know the armored kilt even exists. Though Atarlost is right in the fact that people really do only go for the top of a set. Fighters, Paladins, and other heavy armor wearers use fullplate over anything else in that category. Breastplate take over for your Barbarians, Clerics, and other classes who either don't have the proficiency for the heavier armor or it in some way is suboptimal as in the Barbarian losing fast movement. Then finally your light armor which is where most of your casters are if they even wear any at all.

The only time I have seen an armored kilt used was on a Gnome Sorcerer as a small boost to his abysmal Ac without taking the spell failure chance. It is a good item though as a whole really is lesser known and isn't the top rank kind of deal like the other that get chosen like they are going out of style.


Yeah Armor Kilt isn't that great... till you realize that it can hold an armor bonus all it's own.

Had a fighter run around in plate mail +3, an armor Kilt, +2, and a Heavy steel Shield +2.

Gm wanted me dead so badly.


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Kayote wrote:

Yeah Armor Kilt isn't that great... till you realize that it can hold an armor bonus all it's own.

Had a fighter run around in plate mail +3, an armor Kilt, +2, and a Heavy steel Shield +2.

Gm wanted me dead so badly.

Actually the devs have already said this wouldn't work. Add a kilt to an armor and it becomes that armor with kilt so you can only enhance the armor overall and not an individual piece. As he said it would be like trying to add an enhancement to the studs on studded leather armor. Doesn't work. Plus you can never add a kilt to plate anyway. So...your GM was right to be upset on this one.


Now, as an arcane spellcaster, could you wear an armored kilt by itself and armor it up like normal armor? Freeing up your bracer or ring slot for Something else?

Liberty's Edge

Kerbouchard wrote:
Kayote wrote:

Yeah Armor Kilt isn't that great... till you realize that it can hold an armor bonus all it's own.

Had a fighter run around in plate mail +3, an armor Kilt, +2, and a Heavy steel Shield +2.

Gm wanted me dead so badly.

Actually the devs have already said this wouldn't work. Add a kilt to an armor and it becomes that armor with kilt so you can only enhance the armor overall and not an individual piece. As he said it would be like trying to add an enhancement to the studs on studded leather armor. Doesn't work. Plus you can never add a kilt to plate anyway. So...your GM was right to be upset on this one.

It is more a factor of them both being enhancement bonuses to armor bonus. Those two don't stack. You can enchant them separately, but you will only get the highest of the two

Shadow Lodge

gigglestick wrote:

Now, as an arcane spellcaster, could you wear an armored kilt by itself and armor it up like normal armor? Freeing up your bracer or ring slot for Something else?

I prefer the Silk Ceremonial armor from UC for my spellcasters. :) 180 for +1 ac vs 1000 for a +1? yes please! Now, if only the devs could agree on what happens with a mithral kilt is added to light non-metal armor... :/

Liberty's Edge

Eric Clingenpeel wrote:
gigglestick wrote:

Now, as an arcane spellcaster, could you wear an armored kilt by itself and armor it up like normal armor? Freeing up your bracer or ring slot for Something else?

I prefer the Silk Ceremonial armor from UC for my spellcasters. :) 180 for +1 ac vs 1000 for a +1? yes please! Now, if only the devs could agree on what happens with a mithral kilt is added to light non-metal armor... :/

You are not fundamentally changing the armor. The base armor would be just as restrictive. If you have a 1960 hotrod and add a fiberglass side skirt, it doesn't change anything about the main body of the car or anything dealing with it.


Do the dex modifiers form the armors stack how do you determine it? and if if add the kilt to a breast plate doesnt it become heavy armor?


gigglestick wrote:

Now, as an arcane spellcaster, could you wear an armored kilt by itself and armor it up like normal armor? Freeing up your bracer or ring slot for Something else?

I believe that's correct. Which makes it a "must-have" item for every wizard/sorcerer. In my book, it is cheesy, more so than the mithral buckler.


Haramaki: 3gp, can be worn under clothes, zero penalties, +1 armor. Better than Silken Ceremonial, IMO.

My Witch has an Adamantine Haramaki. You can't do that with Silken as it's not primarily metal.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Can you make a Haramaki out of mithral and adamantine?


Ravingdork wrote:
Can you make a Haramaki out of mithral and adamantine?

Logically, yes.

"Also called a belly-warmer, a haramaki is a simple silken sash lined with chainmail or articulated metal plates and tied about the stomach to protect it."

You can make the chainmail portion or the metal plates out of any metal.


AerynTahlro wrote:
Ravingdork wrote:
Can you make a Haramaki out of mithral and adamantine?

Logically, yes.

"Also called a belly-warmer, a haramaki is a simple silken sash lined with chainmail or articulated metal plates and tied about the stomach to protect it."

You can make the chainmail portion or the metal plates out of any metal.

Yup. Given that it also hides under...for example...formal wear, party dress, etc., you can take it places that Ceremonial Silk just won't go.


Our local sorcerer has been rocking the Haramaki + Kilt combination since the start of the campaign. He's a gnomish globetrotter, so he doesn't particularly mind being fashionista's nightmare. If anything, the rest of his outfit is even more of a culture clash.


Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Maps, Rulebook Subscriber

Armored Kilt is great and if your Magus with Mithril Chain Shirt by 6th lvl all you have to do is by a Mithril Armored Kilt at 7th and that is all you have to buy then opposed to buying full sit of new armor plus being mithril is considered light armor and you can sleep in it.


I'm assuming an ironwood kilt could be worn by a druid...

BTW Atarlost, druids can't wear studded leather. Or so I've been told on these boards.


Druids can where studded leather. The studs don't have to be made of leather, although they usually are. They could be made of bone, stone, or another hard, non-metal substance. A suit straight out of the Core Rulebook would be a no go, but a custom made one is a different story.


Please forgive, but I seem to be missing something. Doesn't adding an armored kilt to armor increase its weight type (light+kilt=medium)? Wouldn't someone proficient in medium armor not be able to wear a breast plate with a kilt because it would be heavy armor? Wouldn't a sorcerer wearing a haramaki and a kilt be wearing medium armor?


pocsaclypse wrote:
Wouldn't a sorcerer wearing a haramaki and a kilt be wearing medium armor?

Yep. The only thing that it does is slow you down though. There is still no spell fail or armor pent.


graystone wrote:
pocsaclypse wrote:
Wouldn't a sorcerer wearing a haramaki and a kilt be wearing medium armor?
Yep. The only thing that it does is slow you down though. There is still no spell fail or armor pent.

I see, because neither the haramaki nor the kilt have acp or spell fail, those zeroes are just added together to stay zero even though the armor is medium. But a character only proficient in medium armor would have to deal with the non proficiency application of acp if he added a kilt to medium armor, right?


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pocsaclypse wrote:
graystone wrote:
pocsaclypse wrote:
Wouldn't a sorcerer wearing a haramaki and a kilt be wearing medium armor?
Yep. The only thing that it does is slow you down though. There is still no spell fail or armor pent.
I see, because neither the haramaki nor the kilt have acp or spell fail, those zeroes are just added together to stay zero even though the armor is medium. But a character only proficient in medium armor would have to deal with the non proficiency application of acp if he added a kilt to medium armor, right?

Yep. Still neat for people with heavy armor proficiency who don't want to wear full plate for some reason like say too much dex or trying to keep your acp low.

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