Armor for aquatic settings?

[flamewolf393]

I am going to be in a campaign that is based loosely on stormwrack. A lot of water based fighting, and some deepsea diving. Are there any good armors out there for aquatic races? Surely the underwater denizens would have figured out how to make their own streamlined equivalents of normal armors. Like maybe heavy armor made from Tortise scales. Or fishbone armors. Basically looking for any logical way to make heavy armor for a basic aquatic humanoid that is not absolutely ridiculous to wear.

I am also allowed to run obscure/homebrew stuff by the dm, so if you guys have any interesting ideas you have come up with yourselves let me know.

[SciChronic]

I am going to be in a campaign that is based loosely on stormwrack. A lot of water based fighting, and some deepsea diving. Are there any good armors out there for aquatic races? Surely the underwater denizens would have figured out how to make their own streamlined equivalents of normal armors. Like maybe heavy armor made from Tortise scales. Or fishbone armors. Basically looking for any logical way to make heavy armor for a basic aquatic humanoid that is not absolutely ridiculous to wear.

I am also allowed to run obscure/homebrew stuff by the dm, so if you guys have any interesting ideas you have come up with yourselves let me know.

there are armor crystals and enhancements from MIC that help combat and mobility in water

[animewatcha]

I think there were a couple of magical enhancements that did this. Riverine?

[flamewolf393]

I was hoping that maybe there would be a setting book or something that might describe actual armors/armor abilities, not just the couple enchantments from the normal equipment.

Also on a semi-related note. How would stealth work underwater? I know there is little to hide behind in the open ocean, but look how easy it is for real swimmers (even experienced divers) to not notice large creatures until they are right there with them.

[Nymrod]

Off the top of my head, Races of Faerun had several aquatic armors, including coral and sharkskin. And stormwrack itself has pearlsteel which I love since it is so evocative.

However, underwater combat (indeed all 3D combat) is a lot about speed and skirmish tactics, which makes any speed restriction a serious disadvantage.

[Gavinfoxx]

I like Sharkskin armor from Stormwrack with a Keel, also from stormwrack. Also, one of the lighter chitin armors, like the one in Races of Eberron. Or Mithral Chain Shirt, with that enchantment to not rust from MIC. In fact, just read the entiretly of the equipment section of Stormwrack...

And some of the better weaponry is the Aquatic Crossbow... you guessed it, from Stormwrack.

[Nymrod]

As for stealth, on the murky depths, light penetration is minimal. Even before things go dark, line of sight can be very limited. So if you somehow have superior line of sight to your opponent, you can still sneak up behind him. On the sea floor, camouflage works perfectly.

A great campaign book to check (but 2E I'm afraid) is FR's Sea of Fallen Stars. It has comments on underwater pressure and visibility and tons of stealable ideas for an underwater campaign.

[Krobar]

I played a pirate a while back that had sharkskin armor that allowed the wearer to polymorph into a shark at will. The wearer for obvious reasons had to be in the water, though.

[ArcturusV]

I was hoping that maybe there would be a setting book or something that might describe actual armors/armor abilities, not just the couple enchantments from the normal equipment.

Also on a semi-related note. How would stealth work underwater? I know there is little to hide behind in the open ocean, but look how easy it is for real swimmers (even experienced divers) to not notice large creatures until they are right there with them.

Part of the reason stealth works underwater as much as it does is:

1) Reduced Visibility. In Stormwrack, page 11. You have the rules for how far you can see presuming the sun is out underwater. Basically even at barely under the surface levels your vision is capped at 100 feet. 200 if you have Low Light Vision. So anything beyond that is effectively invisible to you visually. The visibility reduces more and more as you descend until you're at 300 feet and effectively blind.

Remember that Scent is actually your worst foe in this. Even the Shark from MM1 can track you by scent up to 180 feet + Current speeds. A mile if you got wounded somehow, as Adventurer's tend to do. They will know where you are and be ready to attack you long before you can see them.

2) Underwater doesn't mean devoid of things to hide in. Still things like Kelp Forests, schools of fish, coral reefs, etc. If you're dealing with an underwater adventure you're probably going to be close to/among something like this to provide you with hiding spots.