Is it possible to modify an existing suit of armor in this way by adding additional plates, padding & reinforcement through crafting or some other process?
Sure, just ask your GM how.
There is no reason why you shouldn't be able to, but expect it to cost roughly as much as (+1 fullplate-the cost of +1 half-plate).
It's not gonna save you money overall.
I'd allow the cost of MW fullplate minus half the cost of MW half-plate.
RAW do not have a way to do this, so if you're in PFS the answer is no. Otherwise, what alexd1976 said.
Note that if your GM wants it done by normal (mundane) Craft checks, which is how I would do it, it may take quite a while in game time. Mundane crafting is much slower than magical.
Since it's the rules forum - there's no explicit rule that allows for this. In fact, the Piecemeal Armor rules seem to say you can't do it:
Any individual armor piece can be of masterwork construction or constructed of special materials, or, if it is of masterwork construction, it can be magically enchanted at the standard cost. In this manner, each armor piece is treated as its own type of armor, but most armorers and magic item crafters know that this is an inefficient way of making and enchanting armor.
It goes on like this a bit more.
Perfectly reasonable for a GM to determine a work-around. A couple above seemed reasonable.
I'm actually the GM. One of my players has asked whether it'd be feasible to upgrade an archaic suit dwarven half-plate the party found in a tomb. I was curious whether there was some system introduced that'd make this possible. My first instinct was to say no, for largely the same reasons Oxylepy stated. On the other hand, if it makes the player happy, why not?
I'm actually the GM. One of my players has asked whether it'd be feasible to upgrade an archaic suit dwarven half-plate the party found in a tomb. I was curious whether there was some system introduced that'd make this possible. My first instinct was to say no, for largely the same reasons Oxylepy stated. On the other hand, if it makes the player happy, why not?
Since we're in GM advice mode now - whenever you think "No", consider if you can instead say "Yes, but..."
So, they could get this by selling the half-plate for half price and then buying the full-plate for full price. That difference should be the cost of doing it.
So, they could get this by selling the half-plate for half price and then buying the full-plate for full price. That difference should be the cost of doing it.
I'd crunched the numbers in different ways, but your solution seems the simplest, fairest and most in keeping with the rules. Thanks MeanMutton. :)
I would presume that the half plate has some sort of enchantments or bonuses that makes it enticing to upgrade? I don't see why just paying the cost difference between the two as work and materials and adding some time to craft wouldn't suffice? Why are we valuing the half plate at half value before the upgrade though, he's not technically selling it? We only value things at 50% for the merchant markup for resale.
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Check the rules about piecemail armor. Personally I wouldn't allow that. Half plate is described as a mix of full plate parts with chain mail. Full plate don't cite chain mail at all.
Throwing away part of the armor and adding new parts seem too much of a change to be acceptable.
Full Plate: 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....
Half-Plate: Combining elements of full plate and chainmail, half-plate includes gauntlets and a helm.
I would presume that the half plate has some sort of enchantments or bonuses that makes it enticing to upgrade? I don't see why just paying the cost difference between the two as work and materials and adding some time to craft wouldn't suffice? Why are we valuing the half plate at half value before the upgrade though, he's not technically selling it? We only value things at 50% for the merchant markup for resale.
We're valuing it at half value because under the rules, you can't upgrade magic armor from half plate to full plate. You can sell the half plate and buy full plate, though under the rules so my feeling is that the house rule to accommodate what the player wants to do would mirror what working within the rules would allow.
I mean, what's the purpose here? To try to cheese out some extra gold for the character or to have the character be able to make full use of an item to help move the story forward?
You realize under piecemail armor they do allow mixing and matching armor pieces you get the full bonus each piece would give you for the type or armor it is. The fact ad well under breastplate specifically stats you can upgrade to full place by adding boos gauntlets and a helm leads me to believe you should be able to upgrade half plate to full place as breastplate could be look at half armor, half plate e could be seen as 3/4 armor and full plate would be full armor.Check the rules about piecemail armor. Personally I wouldn't allow that. Half plate is described as a mix of full plate parts with chain mail. Full plate don't cite chain mail at all.
Throwing away part of the armor and adding new parts seem too much of a change to be acceptable.
Full Plate: 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....
Half-Plate: Combining elements of full plate and chainmail, half-plate includes gauntlets and a helm.
Also under Piecemeal Armor, they mention that combining pieces from different piecemeal sets requires each item to be enchanted separately. That would be the significantly more expensive way to go.
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You realize under piecemail armor they do allow mixing and matching armor pieces you get the full bonus each piece would give you for the type or armor it is. The fact ad well under breastplate specifically stats you can upgrade to full place by adding boos gauntlets and a helm leads me to believe you should be able to upgrade half plate to full place as breastplate could be look at half armor, half plate e could be seen as 3/4 armor and full plate would be full armor.Check the rules about piecemail armor. Personally I wouldn't allow that. Half plate is described as a mix of full plate parts with chain mail. Full plate don't cite chain mail at all.
Throwing away part of the armor and adding new parts seem too much of a change to be acceptable.
Full Plate: 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....
Half-Plate: Combining elements of full plate and chainmail, half-plate includes gauntlets and a helm.
Why do you think I suggested him to check the piecemeal armor rules? Because he can find an alternate reply there.
"I don't like it" is referred to doing that with the standard rules.Note that the piecemeal armor rules show that to change a half plate to a full plate you have to remove the chain leg section and add a plate leg section, not simply "adding additional plates, padding & reinforcement" as proposed by the opening post.
As the GM feel free to do what makes the most sense, but personally I'd say it would be very difficult. Assuming that enchanting armor (or anything for that matter) fundamentally alters the item, just adding in the extra protection might well damage the piece. Speaking from personal experience, half-plate armor and full-plate armor are actually constricted very differently. Half plate is made that way intentionally, it's not "partial full-plate" but rather its own style.
If you want to allow this, I would make the craft DC rather hard as you're trying to alter the physical shape and design of the piece without harming the magical enemies that are imbued throughout it.