The ultimate expression of victory over a monster is not killing it or taking its treasure - it's making armor out of its hide. Adventurers are bound to come across all sorts of interesting and thickly armored creatures that they might want to turn into armor - not only is it an excellent trophy of your victory, but it is also a great way to add a dash of unique flair to your character's look. After all, who is going to forget the grizzled dwarven hero decked out in black beetle armor, or the salty sea captain wearing a cuirass made from the rubbery hide of a giant squid?
Presented here are rules for creating both hide and chitin armor with variable levels of protection depending on the natural armor bonus of the creature they come from. After all, mammoth hide should be stronger and heavier than wolf hide, and ankheg armor is going to be more protective than a cave fisher breastplate.
The following rules in gold and their accompanying tables are available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2015 Jonah Bomgaars and d20 Despot.
Hide Armor
This tough armor
is made from plates and strips of hardened hide, usually less treated and
refined than normal leather armor. Its
appearance and functionality vary widely depending on how it is made and what
beast the hide was taken from.
Sometimes, especially with hide armors constructed in cold environments,
the fur is even left on. Fur armor does
not cost extra to create, nor does it improve the quality of the armor, but it
does provide a +5 circumstance bonus to Fortitude saves made to resist the
effects of cold weather and impose a -9 circumstance penalty on Fortitude saves
made to resist the effects of hot weather (this includes the -4 penalty for
wearing armor of any kind).
The AC bonus of
any given hide armor is equal to half the total natural armor bonus of the creature
it came from (rounded down, minimum 1). Hide
armor with an AC bonus of +3 or less is light armor, +4 or more is medium
armor. No matter the natural armor bonus
of the creature it came from, hide armor can never have a base AC bonus of more
than +6 or it becomes too thick and restrictive to wear. The hide of a creature with higher natural
armor can be used to make thinner hide armor than it usually would at the
option of the creator at no extra cost; this does not reduce the amount of raw
material required (for instance, mammoth hide usually produces a suit of hide
armor that has a +6 armor bonus, but it could be scraped down and specially
treated to produce a suit of hide with a +4 armor bonus).
It takes the
hide of one Large creature, two Medium creatures, or four Small creatures to
create one Medium-sized suit of hide armor (half as much for a Small suit of
hide). Doubling the amount of raw
materials produces a suit with an armor bonus +1 greater because it allows the
armorer to select only the thickest parts of the hide or double-up on thinner
areas. For example, the pelt of one
brown bear (a Large sized creature) provides enough raw materials for one suit
of Medium sized hide armor that has a +3 armor bonus, but the addition of
another brown bear pelt provides enough raw materials to make hide armor with a
+4 bonus, and yet another brown bear pelt could yield a suit of hide with a +5
armor bonus. Most hide armors available
for sale are produced in this fashion from layered cowhide.
Ideally, the
hide should come from a creature that has been killed primarily with
bludgeoning and/or piercing damage and without the use of fire or acid. Hides that have been excessively slashed
might require the use of one or more mending
spells before they are suitable for crafting into armor, per the GM’s
discretion. Crafting or wearing the hide
of certain creatures may be considered an evil act. The suitability of any given creature’s hide
for the construction of armor is a decision for the GM.
Chitin Armor
This exotic
armor resembles plate, except instead of metal it is made from the natural
carapaces of giant vermin. Gaps between
the shaped plates of chitin are protected with leather or mail. Chitin armor is lighter than steel and never
rusts, but its plates are generally bulkier and less fitted than steel
plate. Chitin armor is not commonly
available for sale, as the secrets of its manufacture are not widely
known. It is most common among races
that dwell deep underground, or in places such as deserts, swamps, and the
ocean, where the carapaces of giant vermin are easier to obtain than iron. Like plate armor, chitin must be made to fit
each individual wearer. A captured suit
of chitin armor has a 10% chance of fitting a new wearer, otherwise it must be
resized. Resizing a suit of chitin to
fit a new wearer of the same size category costs 100 to 400 (2d4x50) gold
pieces.
The qualities of
chitin armor vary depending on what beast the carapace belonged to. The armor bonus of a suit of chitin armor is
equal to the total natural armor bonus of the creature it came from. The carapaces of creatures with a natural
armor bonus under +4 are too thin and fragile to be made into armor. Chitin armor with an AC bonus of +4 to +6 is considered
medium armor, and +7 to +9 is heavy armor.
No matter the natural armor bonus of the creature it came from, chitin
armor can never have a base AC bonus of more than +9.
It takes the
carapaces of two Large creatures, four Medium creatures, or eight Small
creatures to create one Medium-sized suit of chitin armor (half as much for a
Small suit of chitin), because the armorer must select just the right plates to
serve as parts of the armor. Carapaces
provided to the armorer must be fresh (under a week old) and cleaned of flesh
or they begin to rot and are useless.
Once selected for the armor, the plates of chitin must be soaked and
treated in a bath of special alchemical ingredients costing 1,000 gp (this is
factored into the cost of the armor) that strengthens the material and allows
the armorer to mold the plates to better fit the wearer. Because of the difficulty of crafting chitin
armor, the Craft DC is 4 more than it normally would be.
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I don't know why, but it really bugged me that all hide armor had +4 armor bonus. Shouldn't we be able to make heavier hide armors from thicker hides and lighter hide armors from thinner hides? Well, now you can. You'll notice that the only thing different about the +4 hide armor from the basic hide armor given in the Core Rulebook is the price - 40 gp instead of 15. To make this 'variable-bonus hide armor' thing work, I needed a simple progression of armors from +1 to +6, and having the mid-level version cost only 15 gold was just too restrictive. Instead, the cost of hide armor increases exponentially with its armor class bonus.
I really needed to add chitin armor because, like most people who grew up playing Baldur's Gate, I think ankheg armor is awesome. Chitin armor also evokes that otherworldly, fantastical aesthetic that I associate with Morrowind or Dark Sun. But also, the Pathfinder rules system lacked the rules for making armor out of giant bugs, and I decided it was about time that got fixed. With a little bit of creativity, the rules for chitin armor can be applied to other chitin items as well, like shields or even weapons. Imagine a svirfneblin warrior bearing a tower shield made out of the wing-case of a giant beetle and brandishing a pick made from the beetle's horn.
These two variable-bonus armors add a lot of flexibility to the armor tables, especially for druids, who are forbidden from wearing metal armor. To keep things balanced, I made sure that most instances of each chitin and hide armor were comparable to, but ultimately not as good as (or at least different from), other armors providing the same AC bonus. +3 hide armor, for example, has a higher armor check penalty than studded leather. +2 hide armor is also slightly inferior to leather armor, to show that hide armor is rougher and less refined. With chitin, +7 chitin armor has the +1 max Dex bonus of banded mail but the inferior -7 armor check penalty of splint mail. Plus it costs a couple thousand more gold pieces.
The added expense of chitin armor is important for a couple of reasons. First of all, it adds another barrier to its acquisition by druids. Druids are scary powerful - they don't need easy access to plate armor at low levels on top of that. Secondly, it make the armor rarer and therefore more special. You should be able to have rhinoceros beetle armor, but it shouldn't be a common thing. Now, getting that special armor becomes like a mini quest. Of course, in a campaign setting where chitin armor was supposed to be common, a GM might make it cheaper.
Another important thing to note about both of these armors is that the GM controls a player's access to them. You can't just find crocodile skin armor or ankheg plate in any given store (unless your GM wants that). You need to go out and find the monsters, kill them in a way that leaves their hides or carapaces in a salvageable condition, haul them to a skilled armorer before they rot, and wait around for the armor to be finished. The GM can make each of those steps and easy or as hard as it needs to be to feel right for the campaign world.
-your sclerotized d20 despot
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