Armor (AEG)

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== Gnomish Workman's Leather Armor (AC 7) ==
Description: Gnomish workman's leather armor is a variation of high-quality gnomish leather armor (as described in the Equipment Chapter of The Complete Fighter's Handbook). Gnomish workman's leather is adorned with dozens of tiny tool holders and pouches, typically filled with the most bizarre collection of coins, nails, tools, weapons, widgets, and sprockets ever assembled on one body. For this reason, a set of gnomish workman's leather provides protection identical to studded leather armor.
Campaign Use: Typically, gnomish workman's leather is as silent as normal high-quality gnomish leather armor (no Thieving Skill Armor Adjustment). However, this is before a gnomish workman has gotten anywhere near it. As with most things of gnomish design, the whole is a rather sundry compilation of many disjointed parts.
Strange inventions, secret compartments, locked and trapped pockets, and a dizzying array of tool holders and layered item racks are added, modified, moved, and camouflaged almost daily. From week to week, a gnomish workman's armor may change drastically in appearance and function. The armor has a stowage capacity of 10 lbs., up to half of which can be considered hidden.
Importantly, the special benefits of gnomish high-quality leather armor are lost when a gnomish workman begins collecting items to tuck into this leather garb. While a few items on the belt do not significantly ruin this feature of the base armor, enough gadgets to alter the armor class cannot help but clink and bang into each other, crinkle and spill out when the owner bends over, or accidentally drop off or explode in the most heated battle or flight.
Outside of gnomish society, this type of armor has been rarely seen by non-gnomes.
Humans and elves rarely steal things they cannot use, unless hired to do so, and dwarves, who might squeeze into a suit if offered, find the concept distasteful and the appearance much too garish for their otherwise stoic tastes. Halflings have displayed a weakness for the many secret compartments found in gnomish workman's leather, and halfling thieves in particular might treasure this type of armor above all else. Indeed, the black market for gnomish workman's leather is rumored to be funded entirely by halfling-run thieves' guilds. This only adds fuel to any fires of discontent between halfling and gnomish clans.
In human settlements and cities, gnomes only don workman's armor when working privately, deep in their secret workshops. Since no one around them either appreciates or respects the trappings of "master craftsmanship," there seems to be little need to flaunt them.
Within the gnomish clan, however, there is a constant competition between all gnomish craftsmen, among both masters and apprentices. In some clans, the competitions have become formalized, with actual categories (most items carried, best personal trap, most secure pouch, nicest appearance, etc.) and prizes (clan contracts or a special badge to be sewn onto the armor). These contests are held on high festival days, much like a merchant's bazaar (just another special guild tradition to confuse the newcomer or overnight visitor).
In the largest of clans, many competing craftsman's guilds might sponsor and support individual designs or candidates. Every craftsman in the hall will spend long nights tinkering with his own armor to emulate or duplicate the desired effect. Those who succeed will claim partial credit for "testing and perfecting" the basic design. Those who fail might offer small sums of gold for the secret of the new invention.
== Elven Chain Mail (AC 5) ==
Description: Elven chain mail is the only form of armor made of a legendary elven alloy, a light-weight silvery steel of great strength. Even without enchantment, elven chain mail is typically half the weight of its human-forged counterpart.
Campaign Use: The elves guard the secret of making elven chain mail with more ferocity than they protect even their own children. In the entire multimillennia-long history of the elven race, the number of elven armorers who learn the secrets of forging elven steel can be counted on but one hand. Needless to say, these masters of the art tend to be ancient in the extreme, and the choice of an apprentice comes but once every thousand years. This is the highest honor accorded to any single elf, save being chosen by his peers to lead the elven race.
Apprenticeship is not a gift bestowed by the wealthy or powerful, but chosen by magical testing in a secret ceremony. Some outsiders would argue that the training makes the armorer, but tradition holds great sway in elven circles.
Human and dwarven armorers have been able to divine at least some of the secrets of the elven armorers, but not the most important ones. They know, for example, that mithril silver, that part of mithril which gives this purest of metals its glimmer in the moonlight, is somehow alloyed with other materials. The process of alloying has never been duplicated outside of an elven master forge, so most armorers believe some form of magical manipulation is involved in the process somewhere. Furthermore, anyone hoping to forge elven armor must be able to see the magical emanations radiating from it. While this may be done artificially through magic, this task is geared more toward the elves' natural eyesight. Drow armorers (described later) work under similar conditions.
Naturally, when one has a thousand years to perfect the skills for one's job, just about anything is within grasp. The dwarves call this an unfair advantage, while the humans don't even bother trying anymore. Life is too short, they feel, to waste time on creating something that would be easier stolen or discovered in a dragon's horde.
Elven chain mail is used by elven troops, both cavalry and infantry. It is common among the grey (faerie) elves and advanced elven cultures, but less common among the high elves. It is extremely rare among the wood elves.
Since the material is so strong and valuable, in those rare instances when a suit of elven chain mail is damaged to the point of needing repair, the suit is never discarded, but returned to the armorer for repair or replacement.
By the numbers of suits estimated to exist by human military planners and master armorers, best estimates are that it might take upwards of ten years to make just one suit of elven chain. Otherwise, they reason, there would be a lot more of the armor in use by the elves, and many more suits would be found in the lairs and treasure hordes of monsters across the realms.
== Magical Elven Chain Mail ==
Ordinary elven chain mail is rare in the extreme, but magical elven chain is so precious a gift that only a handful of suits have been rumored to exist anywhere but in royal elven hands.
In addition to the normal weight and flexibility advantages of elven chain, magical elven chain mail is so weightless that it can be worn under one's normal clothes. It is so
comfortable and unrestrictive that it can be worn constantly, even while sleeping. Magical elven chain is so soft to the touch that it can be worn without any padding beneath it. This makes magical elven chain the ideal armor for travelers, excluding only the greatest of knights, who by tradition prefer plated armors over all others.
For rogues especially, a set of magical elven chain mail is a more prized possession than even full plate armor +1. Adventurers have lost their lives over mere rumors of magical elven chain.
== Drow Chain Mail (AC 4) ==
Description: Drow chain mail is a finely-crafted, satiny black metal mesh that does not encumber its wearer in the least. It is similar, but not identical to, the magical elven chain mail described previously. It is typically fashioned only into tunics, as drow elves share their forest-bound cousins' preference for armor that adequately protects without being overly weighty or restrictive.
Campaign Use: Much like their cousins in the sunlight, the drow have invented their own form of special armor.
What is known for certain is that drow chain mail uses adamantite, the strongest metal known, as the principal component of their mystical alloy. It is mined by myriad drow- allied races in great quantities, and the drow war machine is wholly dependent on adamantite-related technologies.
This alloy has special properties due to the peculiar nature of the radiation emanating from the drow homeland, giving even the basest form of the alloy the equivalent of a magical +1. Drow weapons, shields, armor, etc., all begin with a +1 bonus, and based on the alloy, the amount of time spent in the forge, and the secret processes used, it can increase to as much as +5. The alloy does not radiate magic in the traditional way (a detect magic spell reveals no trace of magical properties).
Whenever drow-alloyed creations, including armor, are exposed to direct sunlight, their magical bonuses are immediately lost and they begin to utterly and irreversibly decay. This happens even after one short exposure, meaning that even a set of drow armor that is immediately returned to utter darkness or the nearest drow homeland will still decay. Physical decay begins 1d12+8 days after exposure to sunlight. The armor completely falls apart after another 1d12 days have passed.
If extraordinary precautions are taken, an adventurer could theoretically use a set of drow armor, if worn only in the dead of night and returned to complete darkness (e.g., a light-proof chest or vault) before the break of day. However, the armor must be returned to the drow homeland once every two weeks to be re-exposed to the radiation. Armor must remain in the homeland two days per day spent above ground. If the armor is not returned to the underdark before two weeks have passed, the magic of the armor is permanently lost. Decay then begins as described above.
The fragments of metal that remain after drow armor deteriorates may be collected and reused for future forgings. However, the metal is nonmagical until the forging process imbues the enchantment.
The surface elves contend that these conditions are poor workmanship on the part of the drow, but scholars have noted many parallels between elven and drow alloys.
For example, one possibility is that just as the strange magical emanations of the drow homeland aid in the construction of their special adamantite objects, it is has been surmised that moonlight, pure and cool, may have something to do with the forging of elven mithril armor. The fact that mithril is as reflective, light, and pure as adamantite is dull, heavy, and dense has not escaped observation.
What is certain about the two magical types of armor is that such parallels cannot be sheer coincidence. Somewhere in the distant past of the two races, when times were better and before the dark elves retreated to the earthen depths, there must have been one common armor technology. The drow took the secrets of forging elven metals with them when they left, but had to discover something to replace both the mithril and moonlight components of the ancient secret art.
What they eventually discovered, perhaps after many centuries of experimentation, was a magical alloy more abundant than mithril, yet not as stable as elven chain.
== Dwarven Plate Mail (AC 2) ==
Description: The forged black iron plate made by the dwarves exclusively for their own warrior leaders is both heavy and unattractive by human and elven standards. However, dwarves have traditionally placed less emphasis on appearance than on personal defense. Dwarven warriors who wear dwarven plate are often called "waddling cauldrons" by their enemies due to the bulk of this armor.
Campaign Use: As detailed in both The Complete Fighter's Handbook and The Castle Guide, high-quality dwarven plate is the boilerplate version of human plate armor. It is 50% heavier than equivalent mails, making a single suit of dwarven-sized plate mail armor weigh approximately the same as a set of human-sized plate mail.
Additionally, the denser armor affords protection equivalent to plate mail +1, and the armor itself saves against equipment damage at +6, in addition to any bonuses permitted if the dwarven plate in question is also magically enchanted. Stories about dwarven plate armor withstanding the smelting fires of a red dragon's breath may be boastful exaggeration, but it is an established fact that dwarven plate often survives an attack that its wearer does not.
As mentioned, dwarves prize combat effectiveness over a warrior's appearance. It is therefore very rare for the iron appearance of dwarven plate mail to be adorned in any way.
Much like the elves, dwarves do not make dwarven plate for non-dwarves. Not only is it considered impractical to spend one's time building a suit of armor no dwarf can ever hope to wear (a waste of time), but the dwarves will admit to having no skill in working with the peculiarities of the human body. Dwarves tend to ignore things like flexible joints, as their range of movement is already restricted by nature. An ancient dwarven warrior's saying goes something like "If it doesn't fit, bend it. If it still doesn't fit, break it!" Along those lines, another popular dwarven saying is "Never let your armor impede a good fight."
Dwarven field and full plate armor do not exist. Not only would dwarves look like miniature iron golems when so protected, but dwarves prefer to let their facial expressions speak for them in combat. The problem of free movement plays a big part in this practical decision as well.
No human has ever managed to convince a group of dwarves to forge a set of full plate armor for them. If such a task were even to get past the bargaining phase, it would quickly become apparent to all concerned that the dwarves have no experience or knowledge of such constructions and lack the motivation to learn it. Dwarves themselves claim they'd rather be "beating their hammers on orc skulls than beating them in the forge."
Curiously, gnomes have offered to give full plate their "best shot" from time to time, but so far, no human has been brave or foolish enough to accept the offer.
Dwarven plate mail lasts longer than its human counterpart. As detailed in The Complete Fighter's Handbook, dwarven plate mail can sustain twice as many points of damage as normal plate mail (if the optional armor damage point system presented therein is being used).
== Magical Dwarven Plate Mail ==
Magical dwarven plate mail is only as encumbering as ordinary plate mail. The enchantment is cumulative with the natural +1 to armor class dwarven plate possesses. Therefore, dwarven plate mail +1 is actually equivalent to ordinary plate mail +2 for purposes of armor class (but not saving throws). It may be easier for the DM and player if the base armor class for dwarven plate is remembered to be 1, equivalent to field plate armor for humans.
== Sea Elf Scale Mail ==
The most intricately constructed demihuman scale mail is found in the undersea kingdoms of the sea elves. More as a matter of appearance and ceremony than for additional protection, the sea elves adapted the idea of scale mail to their own peculiar designs. Their armor can be worn underwater, as it is made of metals that do not rust, and the scales are affixed to a backing of eel-skin, which does not disintegrate as leather does in salt water. Brought forth only in times of war or of great ceremony, this expensive armor is worn only by the noble elven elite.
This scale mail is unique among others for its beautiful silver coating. Some armorers wonder whether this coating is silver, platinum, or even mithril. It is generally agreed that the rare scale mail of the sea elves is nearly as valuable as elven chain mail (q.v.).