Darkwood, greenwood, ironwood, etc.and swimming.

[Mario_Rocket]

Hello friends,

I´m trying to find a certain relation between wearing armor made out of these special materials and swimming. Wood floats right... Suppose my character who wears a darkwood breastplate falls into the water, considering Amor Check Penalties and all, would the wood from the armor helps at all in the floating/ not drowning process?

Thanks for your wisdom.

Mario.

[Sarrah]

Not all wood floats. There is an entire tv show about hicks attachings buoys to wood that has sunk and raising it to the surface to sell for profits.

[MurphysParadox]

It isn't that the armor is heavy, it is that the armor is bulky and restrictive. That's why there's ACP to more than just swim and climb. It is also why Agile versions of the armor reduce the ACP.

Of course, it is also an abstraction, so your GM may decide it does reduce the swim check penalty.

[Mario_Rocket]

I agree with you guys, i was aiming at a more simple aproach, which is wood floats, not all of them, it was a random tought,not oriented into geting benefits under circumstances.

Thanks!

[MurphysParadox]

And, really, have you tried swimming in a life jacket? Those things don't make it any easier (assuming you know how to swim...)

[Lincoln Hills]

If it's worth it to you to house-rule such levels of detail, you could rule that such armor does not apply its ACP to simple "stay afloat" checks - only to the more difficult swimming maneuvers.

I wonder if I could surf on a darkwood tower shield?...

[Ascalaphus]

APG has wooden light armor that imposes no ACP on swimming.

[blackbloodtroll]

Ironwood is different.

It is basically steel. Acts like, and sinks like, steel.

[Weirdo]

Normally darkwood can't be used to make metal items such as breastplate, so I'm assuming there's already a houserule in play.

By RAW darkwood only reduces the general ACP for a shield by 2, with no special bonus for swim checks. However there's a precedent for wooden armour being easier to swim in - The "wooden" armour type (normal ACP -1) has an ACP for swimming of 0. You can extend that to say that for special wooden armours, the ACP for swimming is also reduced by one, since the buoyancy helps somewhat but your movements are still restricted and you're probably not very hydrodynamic. Lincoln Hills' suggestion to waive ACP entirely for staying afloat, but not for movement, is also sound. I would not grant a bonus to swim checks for wearing wooden armour.

Ironwood has the same weight and presumably density as iron and impedes swimming normally.

[Lincoln Hills]

It's kind of scary where this line of thought leads me...

Cork Armor: Light armor. AC Bonus: +1; skill check penalty, -3; Max Dexterity Bonus, +3; Arcane Spell Failure Chance, 20%; Weight, 15 lbs.

Cork armor consists of panels of cork sewn onto soft leather and worn over the torso and limbs. It is terrible at pretty much everything. It is very bulky, very awkward, and provides almost no protection. It has two benefits: one, a piercing weapon that fails to penetrate cork armor is "wedged" until a move action is spent to wrench the weapon free. Two, it reduces the DC to stay afloat with a Swim check to DC 0.

[Mario_Rocket]

Now I have a clear idea that it can´t be used to stay a float. THANKS!

It was just a random idea I had and you guys helped alot. BTW cork armor is not that crazy as it may seem, specialy for pirates and sea fighters.