I'll be running an Ankheg encounter next Tuesday and as my players are all CRPG veterans I am quite certain that they will remember Baldur's Gate and the possibility to have a suit of armor crafted from an ankheg's hide. So they will most likely skin one of the beasts and try to find someone who can do this for them.
Provided they make an appropriate Survival check ( I guess DC 25 should do the trick) and find a smith who is capable of handling the exotic material, what would you say should be the pricing and stats of such armor?
Here's what I think:
The ankheg's Natural Armor Bonus is +7 so that should ultimately be the armor bonus and brings it on par with a Banded Mail. However, to give it an edge over that mundane armor I'd raise the Max Dex to +2 and consider it masterwork thus lowering the Check Penalty to -5. Spell Faiulure 30% (as Chainmail which has the same Max Dex) and a weight of 30 lbs to account for the lowered weight of chitin compared to metal, which is also slightly more than Hide Armor.
As for the pricing I'd put the market value somewhere around 1500 gp and raise the wages for the (exceptionally well trained) hireling to 1 gp/day. It should take the smith twice as long than usual to reflect the time he needs to adjust his work to the exotic material.
What do you guys think about it? Does it sound balanced and fair to you?
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In Dark Markets: A Guide to Katapesh there's a sidebar for the 'Gilded Shell' shop which lists a bunch of exotic armours made from various materials and their equivalent 'normal' armour types and prices (it's on page 30). No ankheg listed, but it may help you get in the right ballpark. Giant scorpion shell armour, for example, (where the base creature also has +7 natural armour) costs 250gp and counts as a masterwork breastplate. The masterwork banded mail equivalent is Gorgon hide (so comes from a creature with a +11 natural armour) and costs 350gp.
+1 on treating armor made from ankheg chitin as a masterwork breastplate (Medium, 350 gp, +6 AC, +3 Max. Dex, -3 Armor Check, 25% Arcane Failure, 30 lbs). As far as benefits go, druids can wear it, it's immune to rust and chill/heat metal, it's less costly/rare than dragonhide, and you may wish to allow a slight cost break (5-10%) on adding the acid resistance armor ability.
Note that a desert ankheg would apply the advanced and giant templates (+12 natural armor, huge). If they want armor from ankheg chitin equivalent to masterwork full plate (Heavy, 1650 gp, +9 AC, +1 Max. Dex, -5 Armor Check, 35% Arcane Failure, 50 lbs), then a trip to the desert may be required.
Regarding the weight of chitin vs. metal: chitin may weigh less than an equal amount of steel, but steel is harder/stronger. Chitin armor would therefore need to be thicker to provide the same protection.
You might also want to look at the core book rules on dragonhide, for the sizing of particular armors (the size of the original dragon giving a base of what kind of armor and of what size can be made from it). For a normal ankheg, that would be a single set of banded mail for a Small character (unless the aforementioned Huge ankheg was used, where it would be a Medium set of armor). I would also give the armor acid resistance, and maybe a reduction to the acid resistance magical quality for armor.
To resurect a dead thread, has anyone had any success is doing this?
My ranger who hates magical beasts just ran into a pack of these with the party, and I'm debating between saving the hides or just keeping some mandibles for fetish style trophies. Just curious if it's been entertaining to use in game or a time / money sink.