<span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 24pt;">Armor: Classes and Types</span><br/><br/><br/>Armor chart for this era and world:<br/><br/>10 -- no armor or simple clothing<br/>9 -- shield only<br/>8 -- leather armor or padded armor (gambeson)<br/>7 -- leather/padded + shield, or studded leather<br/>6 -- studded leather + shield, or brigandine<br/>5 -- brigandine + shield, or chainmail<br/>4 -- chainmail + shield, or scale armor<br/>3 -- scale armor + shield, or platemail<br/>2 -- platemail + shield<br/><br/>These are the only varieties of armor in the game, although they may come in enchanted or magical varieties as well.<br/><br/>A gambeson is a padded jacket, quilted and well-fitting, and was worn beneath a chain hauberk or heavier armor in medieval times.  As armor wasn't worn except when going into combat or ceremonial duties, knights, men-at-arms, and others who served as warriors would often wear a gambeson as normal clothing<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/thumb/e/e2/Gambeson-medieval-underarmour-combat-padding.jpg/399px-Gambeson-medieval-underarmour-combat-padding.jpg)<br/><br/>Leather armor is not much different than a leather jacket of today, still supple enough for rogues and spellcasters to move around in, and often padded but not quilted like a gambeson.<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/thumb/2/26/Thieves_guild_armor.png/744px-Thieves_guild_armor.png)<br/><br/>Studded leather is any<em>cuir bouillli</em>--leather treated in boiling oil to stiffen it--sometimes reinforced with metal rivets or studs.  Although not really a separate class of armor to itself in reality, it takes up a spot here or we'd have no straight AC 7 :P<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/thumb/6/6f/Warlord-leather-armor-black--mw-302281-1.jpg/442px-Warlord-leather-armor-black--mw-302281-1.jpg)<br/><br/>Brigandine is specific to certain regions or social/ethnic groups in the world, tending to be found more in the west.  It tends to be a leather jerkin with thin metal plates sewn or riveted on.  The plates are not anywhere near the thickness of, say, plate mail segments, and it's a cheaper but effective armor for warriors who haven't got the money for chainmail.<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/thumb/3/3c/Brigandine.png/366px-Brigandine.png)<br/><br/>Chainmail is ubiquitous and found all over the world, in human as well as non-human peoples.  It represents the pinnacle of armor for most warriors in the world.  At the level of technology and the relatively low populations, there simply aren't enough armorers to make significant numbers of chain hauberks, so an entire army outfitted in chain would be both very expensive and very rare.  A chainmail hauberk was almost always worn over a gambeson or something similar depending on the culture, and similarly, a chainmail coif, or head covering, was also worn over a padded head covering.  Chain rings could be driven into the skin of a wearer by a weapon, and the armor was never worn directly against the skin.<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/a/a1/Riveted-chainmail.jpg)(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/thumb/e/e9/293603474.jpg/302px-293603474.jpg)<br/><br/>Scale armor, though, is much rarer, as it is often magical, or at least made of the scales of some rare beast, or the scale armor made of normal metal like iron or steel is specific to certain cultures.<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/thumb/0/02/H01-18.jpg/450px-H01-18.jpg)<br/><br/>Plate mail is both rare and extremely expensive, and fitted to its owner...often passed down and refitted to children of a former owner.<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/thumb/a/a7/642057463752351a39def141b18a7db4.jpg/368px-642057463752351a39def141b18a7db4.jpg)<br/><br/>So plate mail would consist of underclothes, a gambeson, a chain hauberk, and then strategically-placed plate segments such as a breastplate, greaves, pauldrons, and gauntlets.  Overall a lot of weight, and only for the most physically fit and wealthy/successful warriors of the world.  Of all the races in the world, dwarven warriors tend to be found most often in plate mail.