Sapphire Armor

[Ursus Spelaeus]

Are there any books, official or otherwise, that give stats for sapphire or corundum as special materials for weapons or armor?

How would I price a breastplate crafted entirely from magically-shaped sapphire? What should its hardness and hit point total be?

Also, what if I wanted the material to serve as an incarnum receptacle? Where every point of essentia invested in the material is substracted from the armor's armor check penalty and added to its maximum dexterity bonus? How should that factor into the cost?

*edit*
Would 2,000gp on top of the armor's cost be fair?

[Darrin]

Are there any books, official or otherwise, that give stats for sapphire or corundum as special materials for weapons or armor?


Most of the crystal special materials are in the psionics books. Mundane crystal armor is available in the XPH (same properties as masterwork metal armor). Deep crystal is available for weapons but not apparently armor. There's also blended quartz in the A&EG.



How would I price a breastplate crafted entirely from magically-shaped sapphire? What should its hardness and hit point total be?


If you're going to use mundane crystal from the XPH, then it costs the same as any masterwork armor: +150 GP. 25 HP per inch of thickness and a hardness of 8.



Also, what if I wanted the material to serve as an incarnum receptacle? Where every point of essentia invested in the material is substracted from the armor's armor check penalty and added to its maximum dexterity bonus? How should that factor into the cost?


The Soulbound property already exists in the MIC, so you could just give it that... or not, as the text seems to be confused about what the maximume essentia capacity should be. Decreasing the ACP and increasing the Max Dex bonus seems like a slightly more complicated way to just say, "invest essentia here to increase your AC bonus", with the possibility that your Dex bonus doesn't get any higher, so I'm not sure your property would be worth it.



*edit*
Would 2,000gp on top of the armor's cost be fair?

Cheaper than a +1 enhancement in the long run, but then most armor properties that cost more than 2000 GP just stink.

[Ursus Spelaeus]

Most of the crystal special materials are in the psionics books. Mundane crystal armor is available in the XPH (same properties as masterwork metal armor). Deep crystal is available for weapons but not apparently armor. There's also blended quartz in the A&EG.
If you're going to use mundane crystal from the XPH, then it costs the same as any masterwork armor: +150 GP. 25 HP per inch of thickness and a hardness of 8.


Cool. That's easy enough.



The Soulbound property already exists in the MIC, so you could just give it that... or not, as the text seems to be confused about what the maximume essentia capacity should be. Decreasing the ACP and increasing the Max Dex bonus seems like a slightly more complicated way to just say, "invest essentia here to increase your AC bonus", with the possibility that your Dex bonus doesn't get any higher, so I'm not sure your property would be worth it.


Got it. Don't want to make things more complicated than they need to be. Thanks! :)