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Dalor Darden
Great Reader
USA
4211 Posts |
 Posted - 26 Nov 2019 : 04:37:13
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I'm looking for all references to dwarven plate armor I can find. Specifically, how much it might cost for a dwarf to buy this armor in a dwarf-held hold or city.
Thanks!
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The Old Grey Box and AD&D for me! |
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Madpig
Learned Scribe
Finland
148 Posts |
Posted - 26 Nov 2019 : 06:35:50
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| For whats it worth, my take always has been that prices do not reflect well on humanoids. I mean, more than likely Dwarf could get he's plate from city his/her city, if he is member of guard/army, and is veteran. IE like 3th level. But do you mean like visiting dwarf from other city, or something? Also with dwarfs you always have to take account about clan affiliations and such. It might affect the price rather heavily. |
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George Krashos
Master of Realmslore
Australia
6666 Posts |
Posted - 26 Nov 2019 : 11:42:28
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I'm pretty sure that dwarven plate was a thing from the 2E Complete Book of Dwarves. Not sure such a thing has ever been specifically noted in FR products save for the reference to "Earthfast Plate" in FR11 Dwarves Deep (p.62) which states that it is equivalent to full plate +2 (in 2E terms) without being magical. It doesn't give a price but notes that it is "staggering". Given 5E's rules re attunement, I would say that the 5E price would be "extra staggering".
-- George Krashos |
"Because only we, contrary to the barbarians, never count the enemy in battle." -- Aeschylus |
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Hoondatha
Great Reader
USA
2449 Posts |
Posted - 26 Nov 2019 : 13:42:05
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| Dwarven plate was introduced in 2e's Complete Fighter's Handbook as an example of high quality racial armors. It shows up again in the Arms and Equipment Guide. A&EG doesn't give a price, but Complete Fighter's says that high quality armor costs 10x the normal price, if you're of the same race (so a dwarf getting dwarven plate) or x15 if a different race (a gnome getting dwarven plate). |
Doggedly converting 3e back to what D&D should be...
Sigh... And now 4e as well. |
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
7989 Posts |
Posted - 27 Nov 2019 : 03:59:21
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PHBR1 Complete Fighter's Handbook is a good reference for all the "boring" and "ordinary" details of weapons/armors. 2E didn't go nuts with playing-card stat block adjectives and modifiers the way 3E and 4E did.
I think Dwarves' Deep mentioned that a suit of dwarven plate costs slightly less than a suit of elven chain. For a dwarf. Such armor is (almost) never sized for non-dwarves - and not designed for to accommodate non-dwarves, it doesn't have the quite the same placement of joints, freedom or range of movement, distribution of weight, etc - it's thick, heavy, reinforced, unbalanced, and uncomfortable.
Dwarves have refined dwarven plate at the forge and on the battlefield for thousands of years. It's perfected for dwarven use. Dwarven smiths capable of making it would likely consider it a waste of time to fashion a suit of their precious armor for ungainly, misproportioned, delicate creatures like humans. |
[/Ayrik] |
Edited by - Ayrik on 27 Nov 2019 04:10:22 |
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Diffan
Great Reader
USA
4438 Posts |
Posted - 27 Nov 2019 : 07:05:48
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3rd Edition's Races of Stone has a small quip about Dwarvencraft Items, saying that armor made in such a manner is stronger and harder than comparable masterwork items. A Dwarvencraft item's hardness increases (by 2), it gains an additional 10 hit points, and a +2 bonus on all saving throws (here I'm going to assume that it means when left unattended). Further, there are multiple "better" versions of Armor in the Races of Stone book, such as Interlocking plate, Battle Plate, and Mountain Plate. I'd say that using this info, a Dwarvencraft Battle Plate would be the equivalent to what one would envision as "Dwarven armor". Battle plate gains one additional bonus to AC but it's Armor Check Penalty dips more to -7.
Cost: Dwarvencraft Battle-Plate: 2,650 gp; +9 AC, +1 Max Dex bonus, armor check penalty -7. In dwarven communities, I'd say that the price would be the same if a Dwarf purchased this item, but a 10-15% mark-up for any other humanoids to buy it. This extra cost is to deter non-dwarves from buying it but also to compensate the complexity of sizing such a suit to feet non-dwarf needs.
4th Edition stats for Dwarven Armor are found in both the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Kit, but can be applied to either Chainmail, Scale-mail, or plate armor. It starts out low at Level 2 as an Uncommon magic type, then scales to 7/12/17/22/27 by giving better bonuses. It is kinda cool as it provides the wearer with a constant property of gaining Endurance equal to the bonus of it's level and 1/day as a free action you can regain 1/4 your total hit points. It's certainly one of the better armor enhancements you can get in the game and free healing is nothing to scoff at mid-battle. Still, it leaves a bit to be desires "lore wise", for which I'd point the 4th Edition's enhanced armor types. These are the style and make for which armor is made, always better than your standard fare and here we have what is called War-Plate (similar in theory to 3e's Battle-Plate). The description of the armor is as follows: " Legend holds that Moradin made the first godplate armor, and ancient dwarf smiths copied his patterns imperfectly to make warplate armor." So a +4 dwarven armored warplate would have an astounding +12 to AC, grant the wearer a +4 bonus to Endurance checks, and allow a free heal 1/day. Yes please!
Cost: Dwarven Armor - chain, scale, or plate: Level 2 - 520; level 7 - 2,600; level 12 - 13,000; level 17 - 65,000; level 22 - 325,000; and level 27 - 1,625,000 gp. I'd say that in similar circumstances that it would cost a dwarf character this price in a dwarven stronghold and anyone else that wanted their armor magically enhanced with dwarven runes would charge an up-cost in it's crafting and creation. In human-centric lands, I'd say that the cost shown is what the Dwarves charge everyone but Dwarven customers get a 10-15% discount.
5th Edition describes Dwarven Plate in the Dungeon Master's Guide, giving it a very rare rating though it doesn't require attunement. When wearing it, you're AC goes up by +2 and you can use your reaction to reduce forced movement by 10-feet. There's really no other effects or factors here. Some DMs might say that it's Dwarven-forged nature suggests it can't be magically altered, such as making it better with +1 to +3 enhancement bonuses BUT some would say you can, I don't know if there ever was an official word on the ruling? As for being very rare (thus exceptionally expensive) and only being 'meh' in terms of what it does, I have to say I'm kind of let down.
Cost: Dwarven Plate - No cost is shown. The DMG, and 5th Edition at large, do not price any magical items in the game. They leave ALL of that up to the DM to determine in terms of campaign needs, rarity, and really any arbitrary thing the DM wants to create. Many sites suggest anywhere from 25,000 to 50,000 in gold prices. Some pdf's I've seen down-play it's cost - citing it somewhere around 9,000 to 10,000. So really once a price is determined, then go up or down a percentage in favor of selling to dwarves.
Edit: I didn't realize that I never added in the costs of such items, or how they would be sold - sorry about that. |
Edited by - Diffan on 30 Nov 2019 20:24:10 |
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TomCosta
Forgotten Realms Designer
USA
971 Posts |
Posted - 01 Dec 2019 : 15:28:53
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| Not sure if the mention above was for the 2E source, the 2E Arms & Equipment Guide (love that book) has a full page description of dwarven plate. |
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Dalor Darden
Great Reader
USA
4211 Posts |
Posted - 01 Dec 2019 : 19:10:51
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quote:
Originally posted by TomCosta
Not sure if the mention above was for the 2E source, the 2E Arms & Equipment Guide (love that book) has a full page description of dwarven plate.
Thanks all, but Tom's mention of the 2e book will be best for my purposes since it is closest in "mechanics" to the 1e AD&D that I play. |
The Old Grey Box and AD&D for me! |
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Dwarven Plate Armor
