|
I was planning to get darkwood wooden armor for my gnome druid, and I wanted to make sure I was doing this right.
Darkwood costs as much as a masterwork version of the item plus 10 gold per pound of the original item. Wooden armor is 20 gold and 25 pounds, so normally this would cost 420 (170 for MW wooden + 250 for darkwood). However for a small character, the weight of armor is halved. So would I then be paying only half of the darkwood amount (125) because of the halved weight, for a total of 295?
It seems that making wooden armor out of darkwood may have no appreciable effect due to the following:
This rare magic wood is as hard as normal wood but very light. Any wooden or mostly wooden item (such as a bow or spear) made from darkwood is considered a masterwork item and weighs only half as much as a normal wooden item of that type. Items not normally made of wood or only partially of wood (such as a battleaxe or a mace) either cannot be made from darkwood or do not gain any special benefit from being made of darkwood. The armor check penalty of a darkwood shield is lessened by 2 compared to an ordinary shield of its type. To determine the price of a darkwood item, use the original weight but add 10 gp per pound to the price of a masterwork version of that item.
Darkwood has 10 hit points per inch of thickness and hardness 5.
This suit of leather armor has plates of fire-treated wood sewn over vital areas. Though not as effective as metal armor, it offers better protection than leather alone. Unlike metal armor, the wood is slightly buoyant, and the armor check penalty for swimming in this armor is 0.
Emphasis on the relevant portions is mine.
However, if your GM doesn't mind allowing the weight reduction for being made of darkwood, the cost would indeed be 295 gp. 150 gp for the masterwork component + 20 gp for the armor itself + 125 gp worth of darkwood.
More to the point is that the description of darkwood only calls out a lessening of ACP for shields. There is no mention of armor. To be fair though, no wooden armor existed when the core book was published.
So, wooden armor can be Dragonhide, but not Darkwood.
Wooden armor may be able to be made of darkwood, but mechanically it would confer no benefit by a strict reading of the rules. For those who find that silly, it is an easily ignored sentence.
More to the point is that the description of darkwood only calls out a lessening of ACP for shields. There is no mention of armor. To be fair though, no wooden armor existed when the core book was published.
I can see how one would want to apply darkwood to an armor though, especially for a Small and/or low Strength character. The reduced weight alone could be a pretty solid and cheap boon for games in which the carrying capacity rules are being paid attention.
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 seems the math to make dragonhide wooden armor is easy; double the cost of a masterwork suit of wooden armor. However, wooden armor isn't listed in the paragraph detailing how large of a dragon must be used in the creation of a suit of armor (probably because wooden armor was added in later than dragonhide, and because the primary benefit of dragonhide is that it allows druids to wear it which they already could in this case). So that would be up to GM adjudication.
It seems that it could be made of either special material.
Weapons and armor can be crafted using materials that possess innate special properties. If you make a suit of armor or weapon out of more than one special material, you get the benefit of only the most prevalent material. However, you can build a double weapon with each head made of a different special material.
You could use both, but only get the benefit of the most prevalent, which would likely be the dragonhide, since (again only by a very strict reading of the rules) darkwood would confer no mechanical benefit to wooden armor as it is a suit of leather armor with sewn in wooden planks for protection, much like studded leather.
EDIT: For grammar.
I would argue that a standard "wooden" armor is, in fact, primarily wooden - leather serves mainly as backing, with armor plates providing most of protection.
Historically, one can find many variants of wooden armor, most often in some form of scales or small plates on leather or cloth backing, or interconnected; these plates or scales would often be hardened by fire, lacquered or made of unusually hard woods such as ironwood.
Regarding the matter of darkwood armor, I believe important bit is the description of darkwood, namely the bit about normal wood hardness at halved weight. I see no reason why darkwood couldn't be lacquered or fire-hardened, and I would assume reduced weight would provide some degree of benefit to the wearer - though since rules don't address this scenario, it is up to you and your GM. I would probably allow it to reduce ACP by 1, and possibly increase max Dex bonus by 1 (Dex bonus mainly to differentiate it from a plain masterwork wooden armor).
Just my tuppence - I hope it helps.
Also, you may want to glance at Eastern armors if you want a broader selection of non-metal protection. Leather and horn lamellar are boh druid-friendly; on the lighter side lamellar cuiras offers less AC but more Dex, no ACP and very low weight.
|
|
Thank you all for your input--especially Jackalope and Andro, you've been very helpful. Were I running the game I'd probably allow the darkwood to be full benefit, but as this is a PFS character it's sounding like I won't be able to. Unless a dev says otherwise I'll look at other equipment. And thanks for the tip on the eastern armor, I hadn't even looked at that.
My character does have low strength, which was why I was looking at this option (with studded leather and her current equipment, just adding a spool of silk rope puts her into medium load). I'll start thinking about picking up some medium armor for better protection, since I'll probably be going up into medium load anyways. The issue now becomes balancing better protection with the armor check penalty--negatives in things like climb and swim are always frustrating.
This also brings me to another question then. The Inner Sea World Guide's equipment section has Leaf Armor, which I find interesting for a cosmetic/roleplaying application. It's always considered masterwork, and has the same stats as MW studded leather (light, 3 AC, 5 max dex, 0 armor check penalty, 15% spell failure, 20 lb). However at 500 gold, it costs nearly three times as much as MW studded. Is there something about this I'm missing, or should I just count it out of consideration?
Leaf Armor: Druidic elves use alchemical compounds to treat special leaves used in crafting armor for their warriors. Leaf armor is always of masterwork quality.
I agree, at 500g, Leaf Armor is a bit steep, though important question is, what kind of druid are you playing?
If you're going feral, armor will need some enchants on it anyway to benefit you in wildshape; if you're dominantly a caster, utilizing a Barkskin when extra protection is necessary and using something lightweight, like Lamellar Cuirass (eastern) as a defensive baseline (notice Barkskin and Lamellar Cuirass would stack).
Considering that Lamellar Cuirass gives you 1 less AC than Leaf, at 8lbs compared to 20lbs, and at 15gp compared to 500gp, it means you could pack a Lamellar Cuirass -and- a Heavy Darkwood shield to net you 1 AC more than Leaf, and still save over 200 gold and about 40% encumburance compared.
To quantify:
Lamellar Cuirass + Darkwood Heavy Shield: 290g; +4AC +4Dex ACP 0; 13lbs
Leaf Armor: 500g, +3AC +5Dex ACP 0; 20lbs
(I believe armor/shield weights get halved for small creatures, so that'd be 6-7lbs and 10lbs, comparatively.)
|
|
I agree, at 500g, Leaf Armor is a bit steep, though important question is, what kind of druid are you playing?
This druid is set primarily as a caster, with her lion companion taking care of most of the direct combat (also planning on getting the companion some decent armor as well). Unfortunately her dex isn't anything particularly impressive either, so none of the druid-available medium armors would restrict that in any way.
Considering that Lamellar Cuirass gives you 1 less AC than Leaf, at 8lbs compared to 20lbs, and at 15gp compared to 500gp, it means you could pack a Lamellar Cuirass -and- a Heavy Darkwood shield to net you 1 AC more than Leaf, and still save over 200 gold and about 40% encumburance compared.
This is certainly an appealing setup. While it won't be giving me the AC of any of the frontliners, I'm hoping to avoid that for the most part anyways.
Several spells to consider:
Barkskin (Druid 2) Will give you a natural AC bonus, thus stacking with armor, shield, or enchantment/deflection AC bonuses.
Mage Armor (Wiz/Sorc 1) will give you +4 armor AC, replacing your armor with weight-less one, if you have someone to cast it on you.
for a druid, forget the wild enchant. Its cheaper to get barding for your different forms and just have your p arty get you dressed in advance.