I think it's lame that a suit of dragonhide armor doesn't protect you against the dragon's breath weapon. Dragon's are generally immune to whatever their breath weapon is, and I think it's safe to assume that it's their scales that do it (since that's what would be affected first if they were hit with the effect).
Would it be terribly unbalancing to give dragonhide armor resistance 5 to the same energy type as the dragon's breath weapon? Or if the breath weapon doesn't deal damage, such as a shadow dragon, then a +2 save vs. whatever the breath weapon does?
Maybe it could scale up as well; resistance 5 or +2 save for light armor, resistance 10 or +3 save for medium armor, and resistance 15 or +4 save for heavy armor.
I would be happy with resistance 5/+2 across the board, though.
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I think it's lame that a suit of dragonhide armor doesn't protect you against the dragon's breath weapon. Dragon's are generally immune to whatever their breath weapon is, and I think it's safe to assume that it's their scales that do it (since that's what would be affected first if they were hit with the effect).
Would it be terribly unbalancing to give dragonhide armor resistance 5 to the same energy type as the dragon's breath weapon? Or if the breath weapon doesn't deal damage, such as a shadow dragon, then a +2 save vs. whatever the breath weapon does?
Maybe it could scale up as well; resistance 5 or +2 save for light armor, resistance 10 or +3 save for medium armor, and resistance 15 or +4 save for heavy armor.
I would be happy with resistance 5/+2 across the board, though.
Here's what I've house ruled.
Dragonhide is immune to the element associated with the dragon it came from and grants the wearer resistance 5 to the same element. For example, a suit of Red Dragon Full Plate is immune to fire damage and grants Resist Fire: 5 to the wearer.
I've never used any realms dragons so when I made that rule I didn't think about a shadow dragon's breath.
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This is something we House ruled a while back. Resistance 5 for energy type of dragon. I agree this should at least be considered. The Dragonscale armor is rather uninteresting right now.
Only bonus is a druid/fighter (or druid with heavy armor proficiency) can wear dragon fullplate without losing abilities
it's always been a problem to me that a Dragon(i mean, the game is named after them!) is reduced to mere hide and you can buy it with no problem whatsoever, so i alwyas useed chitin with same rules as dragonhide, and real dragonhide was almost epic armor, unto itself, with no arcane spellcasting failure and energy resistance 30(coresponding to type of brath weapon)
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it's always been a problem to me that a Dragon(i mean, the game is named after them!) is reduced to mere hide and you can buy it with no problem whatsoever, so i alwyas useed chitin with same rules as dragonhide, and real dragonhide was almost epic armor, unto itself, with no arcane spellcasting failure and energy resistance 30(coresponding to type of brath weapon)
In my game I tell the players that if they want dragon hide they must go hunt for it. Nobody is going to be running around win dragon full plate at low levels.
anyone else find it funny the first few posts all have dragon avatars?
As to resistance, I firmly believe the good dragons should have energy resistance. Evil dragons, no.
** spoiler omitted **
Sorry to ruin it, but I have to comment on my agreement to the energy resistance 5, and the item being immune to that element type!
Also as to obtaining it, good dragons like to sell their scales to help in a fight against an evil dragon.
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anyone else find it funny the first few posts all have dragon avatars?
Also as to obtaining it, good dragons like to sell their scales to help in a fight against an evil dragon.
Heh, didn't even think about that. From my point of view playing for many years and DMing or playing a few draconic characters, their view on dragon armor is horrific. Here's, what I remember, a discussion the players had between a half-dragon paladin and the party leader wearing red dragon full plate. "It'd be like you seeing an orc wearing a human skin leather armor. Yeah sure he says he got it off a necromancer but is it any less wrong?" (oh and just to stop the alarms going off the Gods have outlawed necromancy in my world, "white" necromancers are very few, usually the players but they are treated akin to drow.)
Heh, didn't even think about that. From my point of view playing for many years and DMing or playing a few draconic characters, their view on dragon armor is horrific. Here's, what I remember, a discussion the players had between a half-dragon paladin and the party leader wearing red dragon full plate. "It'd be like you seeing an orc wearing a human skin leather armor. Yeah sure he says he got it off a necromancer but is it any less wrong?" (oh and just to stop the alarms going off the Gods have outlawed necromancy in my world, "white" necromancers are very few, usually the players but they are treated akin to drow.)
My biggest complaint about Dragonhide is the amount required. You need 2 sizes large of a dragon to make a suit of armor. Medium armor requires a Huge Dragon, I'm pretty sure all the tailors and armorsmiths in the D&D world are incompetant. A huge dragon is the size of a 747 Jetliner if not bigger and the best you can make is one human-sized suit of hide?!
Bringing this back to the story above, that means you would need approx. 12 human necromancer skins to make a full suit of hide. Or one Huge human... eh... Hill Giant? Nah, not the same.
Personally, I think Dragon hide should be added to the exotic materials section. It should have the combined properties of Mithril and Adamantine and be very, very expensive. It should be the end all/ be all of armor building material. Give it back some reverence for gods sake, as it is right now its just another unused armor to throw on the pile with the rest...unless you are a druid.
A huge dragon is the size of a 747 Jetliner if not bigger and the best you can make is one human-sized suit of hide?!
???
Um, A huge dragon fits in a 15 ft. x 15 ft. square. And if you manage to kill a dragon, chances are it wasn't a one-hit-wonder; you probably beat on it for a good long while before killing it and likely wrecked most of the scales that you could use to make armor. I think that rule makes sense.
Dragonhide is immune to the element associated with the dragon it came from and grants the wearer resistance 5 to the same element. For example, a suit of Red Dragon Full Plate is immune to fire damage and grants Resist Fire: 5 to the wearer.
I've never used any realms dragons so when I made that rule I didn't think about a shadow dragon's breath.
While I agree that dragon hide is very blend at the moment, I'm not so sure about the energy resistance thing.
Steel is immune to cold (as in you cannot damage steel with cold damage, at least according to the rules). A full suit of steel armor doesn't grant cold resistance because of that.
Even if red dragonhide itself is fireproof, it shouldn't help you if you jump in an oven (one a 1 point of damage per round scale.) I could see that it may make you more likely able to survive a sudden flame wave however, like a fireball or a dragon breath. But in all reality, why dragonhide more than steel?
In this light, I'd grant dragonhide a bonus to saving throws rather than energy resistance; or if you feel generous, the equivalent to the evasion feat vs. the corresponding element.
'findel
Check out Draconomicon page 116: Dragoncraft Items.
Sure it requries a specific feat to create these items but check this entry from page 117. "A suit of dragoncraft armor... grants the wearer resistance 5 against a specific type of energy, as approprate to the dragon."
Um, A huge dragon fits in a 15 ft. x 15 ft. square. And if you manage to kill a dragon, chances are it wasn't a one-hit-wonder; you probably beat on it for a good long while before killing it and likely wrecked most of the scales that you could use to make armor. I think that rule makes sense.
A huge creature is 16 feet to 32 feet from nose to base of tail, based on the chart in the Monster Manual.
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ok i wont read everything, but i read the premise
dragonhide doesn't give any better protection for 1 reason...
the protection is part of the full dragon's biology, the skin is only tought... but even if you cut his skin and the dragon used the breath over the wound it would not have effect
but dragonhide couldvery well be used to create magical armor with protection against this dragon's element.