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Do I understand this correctly?
Dragonhide: Armorsmiths can work with the hides of dragons to produce armor or shields of masterwork quality. One dragon produces enough hide for a single suit of masterwork hide armor for a creature one size category smaller than the dragon. By selecting only choice scales and bits of hide, an armorsmith can produce one suit of masterwork banded mail for a creature two sizes smaller, one suit of masterwork half-plate for a creature three sizes smaller, or one masterwork breastplate or suit of full plate for a creature four sizes smaller. In each case, enough hide is available to produce a light or heavy masterwork shield in addition to the armor, provided that the dragon is Large or larger. If the dragonhide comes from a dragon that had immunity to an energy type, the armor is also immune to that energy type, although this does not confer any protection to the wearer. If the armor or shield is later given the ability to protect the wearer against that energy type, the cost to add such protection is reduced by 25%.
Because dragonhide armor isn't made of metal, druids can wear it without penalty.
Dragonhide armor costs twice as much as masterwork armor of that type, but it takes no longer to make than ordinary armor of that type (double all Craft results).
Dragonhide has 10 hit points per inch of thickness and hardness 10. The hide of a dragon is typically between 1/2 inch and 1 inch thick.
It appears that dragonhide armor confers no real benefit to anyone but a druid. It has the same hardness, fewer hit points, weighs just as much, and gives the same penalties as normal masterwork armor. And it costs twice as much. I see only two benefits to this stuff. A druid can avoid the penalties associated with metal armor. It is less expensive to add protection against one energy type.s normal masterwork armor.
Am I missing something here?
I ask because my character just gained access to a suit of full plate made of red dragon hide (PFS rules, so dragon hide armor is not normally available). Since he is a cleric, he would need to use a feat to be proficient with the armor. I just cannot see any reason why anyone would want this item.
If the dragonhide comes from a dragon that had immunity to an energy type, the armor is also immune to that energy type, although this does not confer any protection to the wearer. If the armor or shield is later given the ability to protect the wearer against that energy type, the cost to add such protection is reduced by 25%.
Well, you quoted yourself the one mechanical benefit that could help any PC. The (non-magical) dragonhide armour costs double what a normal suit would cost, but you can save yourself a ton of money if you eventually want to give it any sort of fire resistance. Greater energy resistance adds 66K to the value of magical armour so a 25% reduction saves you 16.5K Heck - even if you're doing the crafting yourself you'll save 8250gp.
A penny saved is a penny earned and there's lots of things out there you can spend that 16K on. Besides, wearing red dragon armour has got to look amazingly cool!
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The "cool factor" does have a pretty powerful allure.
Under organized play rules, I may or may not ever earn enough prestige to buy that energy resistance, but, hey, you never know.
And since the character is a dwarf he won't suffer the reduction in speed that heavy armor normally imposes. And it seems that the non-proficiency penalty for armor isn't all that bad, so I could argue that the AC justifies the armor. But I might be better off to wait until I could buy the fire resistance. Under the new rules, once an item becomes available through a chronicle sheet, it is always available.
Decisions, decisions, decisions...
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it's a druid item, you said it. it's a must for a melee-oriented druid, but you must have enough cash to make it a +1 wild dragonhide fullplate... druids don't know what to do with their feats anyhow so heavy armor feat is not a biggie... considering you're getting +14 to AC while in wildshape form from it...................
Same goes for chill metal and rusting grasp! wooooozaaaaah!
I still favor my oaken wild breastplate with the iron wood spell applied.
Ruyan.