[3.5 / PF] Woven Fibre armour (PEACH)

[Chiron]

In my game world, magic items are going to be relatively rare, (still working on some stuff for divine enchantments) but while building up some cultural information for the hobgoblin society I came up with a great idea for some alternative armours.

The hobgoblin kingdom in this world is semi-nomadic and has only one truly permanent city. All the others tend to move about, making forges somewhat more rare. As such, metal is a precious commodity in their homeland. While there are steel blades around, making things like full plate mail requires a resources and equipment the hobgoblins just don't have. Additionally, being horsemen by trade, Being encased in a suit or heavy, rigid metal falling off your horse is a death sentence in battle. Instead, they applied their ingenuity in other ways. Using the fibres of a native reed to weave armour just as effective as steel but significantly lighter and somewhat more flexible. The armour itself would come in two varieties. One made into rigid panels, and a second a flexible matting useable on the inside of joints for the lighter armours.

{table=head]Armour | Cost | AC Bonus | Max Dex | Check penalty | Arcane Failure (%) | Speed (20 / 30) | Weight
Light Armour
Fibre Cuirass | 1000 gp | +4 | +5 | -2 | 15% | 20 / 30 | 7 lbs
Fibre Breastplate | 2000 gp | +5 | +4 | -3 | 20% | 20 / 30 | 15 lbs
Medium Armour
Fibre Banded | 2500 gp | +6 | +2 | -4 | 30% | 15 / 20 | 20 lbs
Fibre Half Plate | 4000 gp | +7 | +1 | -5 | 35% | 15 / 20 | 25 lbs
Fibre Full Plate | 8000 gp | +8 | +2 | -4 | 30% |15 / 20 | 30 lbs
[/table]

The costs in the above table are meant to reflect the rarity of the product in the main region of my campaign, feel free to adjust as you see fit.

There are a couple of rare instances of woven fibre armour in history. The most notable being from Kiribati, their armour was somewhat flexible and made from coconut fibres. Also, I do remember hearing of one example of coconut fibre armour that was capable of being made into rigid plates and was rumoured to be capable of stopping a musket ball. How true that last part is I don't know, but for steel-equivalent armour, this fills a nice niche and could be considered a good substitute for +X armour

[iain62a]

Are you telling me that woven fibre full-plate armour gives the same AC bonus as normal full-plate?

[Kornaki]

I'm trying to find stuff about coconut armor on google, and there isn't a lot. It seems it was worn by some Pacific tribes, due to a spiritual belief that coconut made you invincible. The armor was ineffective to the point that they would also kill a stingray and use its hide as protection from spears for their stomachs

[Dragonus45]

I love the idea, i tend to run very very low magic in my campaigns. And even in a normal campaign this armor could be pretty useful.

[thevorpalbunny]

Have you seen the Eberron setting book? They have some armor called leafweave and darkweave (made of leaves, surprise!) that were similar. Their reason was a bunch of elves in a jungle, but a similar lack of metal.

[Siosilvar]

Are you telling me that woven fibre full-plate armour gives the same AC bonus as normal full-plate?

Yes. Yes, he is. But look at the price: 8000 GP is nothing to scoff at; it's about the price of +2 banded (and the cost to reduce the ACP and increase the Dex bonus).