ACT: Mundane & Exotic Leather Armour

My first article in my series of Armour Customization Tables (ACT) begins with the kind of armour that any aspiring delver should look to for protection before she has looted her first dragon's hoard or troll's bounty and can look to more expensive gear: The Leather Armour. Mundane leather is the cheapest armour available and it is also usually available off the shelf unlike plate or mail armour which can take months to commission if your going for full body armour.

Example #1: Light Soft Leather Jerkin
DR 1 (0 vs pi, imp) Torso + arms to elbows (42%)
Cost $61, Wt 7,56lbs

Armour Types

Basically there are three types of armour:

Example #2: Medium Lamellar Leather Cuirass
DR 2 Chest + Abdomen (22%)
Cost $130, Wt 7,68 lbs

• Soft Leather Skins: flexible cured but not hardened leather or fur, basically leather clothing. Has a DR penalty of -2 to pi and imp but flexible means it can be worn under or over other kinds of armour.
• Hardened Leather: Cured leather skins handened and formed into plates. A little heavier than soft leather and isn't flexible but in return has no DR penalty. The hardening process makes it a little more expensive than soft leather aswell.
• Leather Scale or Lamell: Hardened Leather punched into scales or lamells and then riveted or laced to itself or to a leather backing. Takes a lot more time to make than Hardened Leather due to all the riveting or lacing but results in a slightly tougher(Lesser Wt / DR) piece of armour.

Even to the weight of the end product differs, all three types of armour uses the same amount of raw materials which equals Wt of soft leather of the same DR and leather quality.

The making of all types of mundane and exotic leather except very fine exotic leather count as artistic work which means that Work Hours are halved as long as there are at least two leatherworkers present.

Leather Qualities

There are also three different qualities of leather:

Example #3: Fine Medium Hardened Leather Chestplate
DR 2 Chest + Abdomen (22%)
Cost $147, Wt 6,82 lbs

• Mundane Leathers: Made from skins of Rabbit, Fox, Goat, Cow, Ox, Elk, Deer etc etc. Cheap and Regular quality armour made of mundane leathers is generally available off the shelves while an Apprentice (skill 9+) can make fine armour and a Journeyman (skill 12+) leatherworker will be able to make very fine quality. Price of cured mundane hides is $ 5 per lb.
• Exotic Leathers: Extra tough hides from exotic animals like wyvern, dire wolf, owlbear, giant ape, frost snake etc, it's up to the GM to draw the line between what counts as regular or exotic. Exotic hides could also possess small bonuses like +1 poison resistance for wyvern skin or +1 DR against cold for frost snake etc. Exotic leather is generally not available in cheap quality due to the cost of the material. At least one kind of Regular quality exotic armour is usually available off the shelves  (GM’s decision what kind of exotic game there is to be found in the surroundings) while a Regular (skill 12+) leatherworker can make fine armour and a Master (skill 16+) leatherworker will be able to make very fine quality.Price of cured exotic hides varies around $ 20 per lb depending on availability of hides in the area.
• Otherworldly Leathers: Skin or Scales of truly fantastic beings like demon skin, pegasus hide, astral tiger fur, mermaid scales, etc. On the high end we find hide and scale of dragons. These kinds of leathers always possess magical abilites on top of Damage Resistance (like DRx3 against fire for Dragonhide/scale). Otherworldly leathers will be elaborated in a later post.

			Soft Leather Hide
			Mundane Leather		Exotic Leather
Bulk	Protection	Description	Wt (lbs)	Cost	Wt (lbs)	Cost	Work (h)	Work Qual
Light Flexible	DR 1	Pelts from small animals or young medium sized ones	22,5	$ 96	16,9	-	52	Cheap
			18,0	$ 146	13,5	$ 381	67	Regular
			14,4	$ 278	10,8	$ 627	81	Fine
			12,6	$ 560	9,5	$ 831	88	Very Fine
Medium Flexible	DR 2	Pelts from medium sized animals or large young ones	38,8	$ 262	29,1	-	90	Cheap
			31,0	$ 328	23,3	$ 967	116	Regular
			24,8	$ 540	18,6	$ 1 329	139	Fine
			21,7	$ 1 019	16,3	$ 1 648	152	Very Fine
Heavy Flexible	DR 3	Pelts from Large animals	55,0	$ 646	41,3	-	128	Cheap
			44,0	$ 686	33,0	$ 2 252	164	Regular
			35,2	$ 943	26,4	$ 2 590	197	Fine
			30,8	$ 1 600	23,1	$ 2 955	215	Very Fine
		Traits	Basically clothes made of leather or fur. Can be worn under (or over) other kinds of armour. DR -2 vs pi, imp

Example #4: Fine Light Soft Leather Hood
DR 1 (0 vs pi, imp) Skull, Neck and Shoulders (16%)
Cost $44.5, Wt 2,3 lbs

Example #5: Heavy Soft Leather Jacket
DR 3 (1 vs imp, pi) Torso, Shoulder, Upper Arm (39%)
Cost $268 Wt 17,16lbs

			Hardened Leather Armor
			Mundane Leather		Exotic Leather
Bulk	Protection	Description	Wt (lbs)	Cost	Wt (lbs)	Cost	Work (h)	Work Qual
Light	DR 1	Pelts from small animals or young medium sized ones	28,1	$ 108	21,1	-	68	Cheap
			22,5	$ 176	16,9	$ 443	88	Regular
			18,0	$ 352	13,5	$ 775	105	Fine
			15,8	$ 722	11,8	$ 1 046	115	Very Fine
Medium	DR 2	Pelts from medium sized animals or large young ones	48,4	$ 282	36,3	-	118	Cheap
			38,8	$ 381	29,1	$ 1 073	151	Regular
			31,0	$ 667	23,3	$ 1 583	181	Fine
			27,1	$ 1 297	20,3	$ 2 019	198	Very Fine
Heavy	DR 3	Hardened Leather Sheets from Large animals	68,8	$ 676	51,6	-	167	Cheap
			55,0	$ 761	41,3	$ 2 403	214	Regular
			44,0	$ 1 123	33,0	$ 2 951	257	Fine
			38,5	$ 1 995	28,9	$ 3 482	281	Very Fine
		Traits	Hardening makes this type a little heavier and more timeconsuming (and thereby more expensive) to make than Soft Armor but has no DR penalties

Example #6: Very Fine Heavy Exotic Hardened Leather Chestpiece
with Shoulderpads, Vambraces & Tassets
DR 3 Torso, Arms except elbows and top of hand (52%)
Cost $1.811, Wt 15.0 lbs

Example #7: Fine Furlined Heavy Hardened Leather Tassets
DR 4 (3 vs pi, imp) Pelvis, Waist (12%)
Cost $168, Wt 7.0lbs

			Leather Scale
			Mundane Leather		Exotic Leather
Bulk	Protection	Description	Wt (lbs)	Cost	Wt (lbs)	Cost	Work (h)	Work Qual
Light	DR 1	Soft Scale or Lamellar Leather	25,3	$ 185	19,0	-	171	Cheap
			20,3	$ 388	15,2	$ 866	229	Regular
			16,2	$ 914	12,2	$ 1 900	293	Fine
			14,2	$ 2 336	10,6	$ 3 198	384	Very Fine
Medium	DR 2	Hardened Lamellar Leather (Laced) or Hardened Scale (Rivetted)	43,6	$ 330	32,7	-	246	Cheap
			34,9	$ 589	26,2	$ 1 410	315	Regular
			27,9	$ 1 227	20,9	$ 2 640	378	Fine
			24,4	$ 2 562	18,3	$ 3 633	413	Very Fine
Heavy	DR 3	Scale or lamell riveted or sewn (brigandine) to hardened leather armor	61,9	$ 485	46,4	-	279	Cheap
			49,5	$ 807	37,1	$ 2 053	391	Regular
			39,6	$ 1 517	29,7	$ 3 386	447	Fine
			34,7	$ 2 970	26,0	$ 4 371	469	Very Fine
		Traits	Scrap leather can be used for making scale lowers material cost. Rivetting or lacing is very timeconsuming but yields a lighter armour compared to sheets of hardened leather.

Example #8: Heavy Scale Cuirass
DR 3 Torso, Groin, part of shoulders (35%)
Cost $282, Wt 17.3lbs

Example #9: Fine Light Scale Sleeves
DR 1 Arms (18%)
Cost $165, Wt 2.92lbs