Armoured Cloak?

[Artisan]

Hey there. While being ill, bored and searching through my various books, I came across the Combat Cloak Expert, and I was wondering...

Would it be all that strange to actually make a combat cloak? Would it simply be an unusual form of a shield, or would you make it something more?

[Altair_the_Vexed]

There's the duelling cloak - a cloak of tough material used to tangle up the opponent's blade, weilded in the off-hand. Remember the first fight in Highlander? Fasil (the one who gets killed) used his trenchcoat to try to tangle MacLeod's sword. That's the kind of thing. It's less of a passive protection and more of a cloth shield.
crystalkeep.com has stats for it in their equipment summary. I believe in the d20 stats it functions like a shield in some respects, and allows disarm attacks. It may need a feat to use.

For an ordinary cloak to be armoured... Well, you could have a mithral chain cloak (which I'd stat just the same as a a chain shirt, for convenience).
In my humble experience, a leather cloak would work as a form of armour if it were tough enough. I'd stat that less like leather armour, more like a small shield - it's sort of about getting in the way of attacks and misdirection, with minimal toughness and resistance.

Hope that helps.

[Fhaolan]

I have this vague memory of a book.... One of the secondary characters in it was a 'cloak fighter'. The cloak had significant weights along the hem, and blades hidden away in it, as well as a garrot in the collar, all hidden away so that you couldn't tell it wasn't a normal cloak.... Blast it, I can't remember the book. That vague memory has the character leaping up and beating the begeezus out a post while practicing.

Anyone? Am I hallucinating this book? :)

[Mephibosheth]

I know that the feather cloak appears in Sandstorm as a form of armor (granting something around +2 armor bonus to AC). I think that Races of Stone may have some sort of gnomish cloak/armor thing. At least, I think that it does...

Mephibosheth

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Remember the first fight in Highlander? Fasil (the one who gets killed) used his trenchcoat to try to tangle MacLeod's sword. That's the kind of thing.
I got thinking about Bullseye in Daredevil. When fighting in the church, Bullseye uses his trenchcoat in a manner a bit closer to how it's handled in the Cloak Dance (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#cloakDance) feat.

Yeah, combat cloaks are cool. I'm pretty sure an issue of Dragon had rules for duelling cloaks.