Assume for the moment that I am playing a druid, and can't wear metal armors. Assuming I have the correct crafting skills (or the money to do so), can I create a suit of full plate armor out of darkwood, or is darkwood only reserved for shields? Do I require the Ironwood spell to make this armor feasible? And if the armor can exist, does the darkwood reduce the armor check penalty of the armor by 2?
This metal suit includes gauntlets, heavy leather boots, a visored helmet, and a thick layer of padding that is worn underneath the armor. Each suit of full plate must be individually fitted to its owner by a master armorsmith, although a captured suit can be resized to fit a new owner at a cost of 200 to 800 (2d4 × 100) gold pieces.
Darkwood:
HP/inch 10; Hardness 5; Cost 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.
DESCRIPTION
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.
Ironwood:
School transmutation; Level druid 6
CASTING
Casting Time 1 minute/lb. created
Components V, S, F (wood to be transformed)
EFFECT
Range 0 ft.
Effect an ironwood object weighing up to 5 lbs./level
Duration 1 day/level (D)
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no
DESCRIPTION
Ironwood is a magical substance created by druids from normal wood. While remaining natural wood in almost every way, ironwood is as strong, heavy, and resistant to fire as steel. Spells that affect metal or iron do not function on ironwood. Spells that affect wood do affect ironwood, although ironwood does not burn. Using this spell with wood shape or a wood-related Craft check, you can fashion wooden items that function as steel items. Thus, wooden plate armor and wooden swords can be created that are as durable as their normal steel counterparts. These items are freely usable by druids.
Further, if you make only half as much ironwood as the spell would normally allow, any weapon, shield, or suit of armor so created is treated as a magic item with a +1 enhancement bonus.
Darkwood cannot be used to make Full Plate because Full Plate is "not normally made of wood...."
You could use the Ironwood spell to make such a suit, I would assume, but it's not permanent. You'd also need to be 10th level since Full Plate weighs 50 lbs and Ironwood affects 5 lbs per level (Ironwood states that it weighs the same amount as steel).
Lastly, the armor check penalty reduction for Darkwood is only mentioned in relation to a Darkwood Shield, and the Darkwood entry says that "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," so even if you made Full Plate out of Darkwood, there would be no armor check penalty reduction because such an item would not "gain any special benefit from being made of darkwood."
Bonus question: Assume for the moment that I am playing a dwarven druid and have Heavy Armor Proficiency. Would stoneplate be more optimal (roughly same stats as full plate, and dwarves are not encumbered by weight)?
