Pykrete Armor as a non-metal Druidic defense option?

[Ventruenox]

A recently necro'ed thread brought up the possibility of making sling bullets out of pykrete (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete), and variations on the idea have been nagging at me since.

- Woodcarver's Tool Proficiency: on Xanathar's pg 85 indicates that woodcarver's tools allow you to craft intricate objects from wood.
- Shape Water cantrip allows you to freeze water within a 5' cube for an hour as long as there are no living creatures in it.
- the Goliath's Mountain Born trait would allow it to be encompassed by freezing temperatures without suffering levels of exhaustion. DMG pg 110 also indicates that wearing cold weather gear will have the same effect towards freezing temperatures.

RAW would seem to require that armor made from pykrete would have to be donned and doffed in order to refreeze it every hour, but would this be a cheap and viable means for a Druid to wear non-metal armor?

[Corpsecandle717]

It could work in a pinch, but I don't think it's anything that anyone would want to rely on. There's probably durability issues as the material seems like it wouldn't hold up very well against direct assault and there's also probably some additional concern about the straps and snaps to hold the whole thing in place due to the constant cold. You'd also have to re-craft it every morning you decide you want spell slots back.

[GlenSmash!]

I already allow Medium and heavy armor made out of Bone, Exoskeletons, magical Hardwoods, and other "Natural" materials, so sure. Why not.

[MaxWilson]

A recently necro'ed thread brought up the possibility of making sling bullets out of pykrete (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete), and variations on the idea have been nagging at me since.

- Woodcarver's Tool Proficiency: on Xanathar's pg 85 indicates that woodcarver's tools allow you to craft intricate objects from wood.
- Shape Water cantrip allows you to freeze water within a 5' cube for an hour as long as there are no living creatures in it.
- the Goliath's Mountain Born trait would allow it to be encompassed by freezing temperatures without suffering levels of exhaustion. DMG pg 110 also indicates that wearing cold weather gear will have the same effect towards freezing temperatures.

RAW would seem to require that armor made from pykrete would have to be donned and doffed in order to refreeze it every hour, but would this be a cheap and viable means for a Druid to wear non-metal armor?

I'd buy this as DM. Your biggest problem would be "how do you keep your armor from melting overnight," but if the player can do the homework to show that it will survive overnight without softening significantly, I'm game. This might involve creating some actual pycrete and leaving it outside overnight.


It could work in a pinch, but I don't think it's anything that anyone would want to rely on. There's probably durability issues as the material seems like it wouldn't hold up very well against direct assault and there's also probably some additional concern about the straps and snaps to hold the whole thing in place due to the constant cold. You'd also have to re-craft it every morning you decide you want spell slots back.

My understanding is that pycrete is pretty tough, tougher than you seem to be assuming here. Are you guesstimating or speaking from a position of extensive knowledge? I'm speaking from a position of relative ignorance, coming mainly from science fiction novels/essays on alternate construction materials, so if you know more than me I'm more than willing to be corrected.

[Temperjoke]

According to the Mythbusters episode that explored pykrete, it's not the durability that's the issue, it's the temperature. Under normal real-life conditions, it's subject to normal melting and when it starts melting it becomes more prone to falling apart. Mechanically, sure it's technically possible, but it seems like a lot of work and discomfort to maintain it.

Small portion of reference, but they did all kinds of tests with the stuff, a whole episode dedicated to it


https://youtu.be/UMKis4FPykw

[Tiadoppler]

With Shape Water, temperature wouldn't be an issue for the first hour. The things I'd be considering:

Does Pykrete have the same strength to weight ratio as hardened steel armor? I'd say no. It would have to be heavier than properly hardened steel armor in order to have the same effect. It would also end up much bulkier than steel armor because it would require a certain minimum thickness to avoid being brittle. Greater Strength requirement to wear? Penalty to Dexterity checks?

The point of Pykrete, iirc, was that it could be created cheaply in massive quantities and served as an adequate replacement for armor when temperature and weight weren't factors. Honestly, I think the druid in question would be better off making a laminated wood/plywood armor suit rather than doing maintenance on this. Would Dispel Magic make the armor dissolve into wet cardboard?

[Corpsecandle717]

My understanding is that pycrete is pretty tough, tougher than you seem to be assuming here. Are you guesstimating or speaking from a position of extensive knowledge? I'm speaking from a position of relative ignorance, coming mainly from science fiction novels/essays on alternate construction materials, so if you know more than me I'm more than willing to be corrected.

Yeah it looks pretty tough, but there's a difference between being a load bearing structure and being able to survive repeated high force impacts over a small area (after all a sledge hammer is still a viable method to break up concrete). This is mostly instinct on my part; I don't have the math or the materials science background to back it up, but I imagine the material would crack and lose chunks rather than rend like metal does. I think the lack a malleability would be a major problem and you'd risk the whole thing cracking open in the middle of combat. Of course there could be rules to take all this into account, but I think they'd start making themselves overly complicated.

All that said, this is entirely too much real world speculation for a DnD game. After mulling on it a bit more I figure this could work in the right game. The Druid metal armor restriction has essentially become fluff and isn't related to balance, and this doesn't break anything. If I was running a game (with my limited DM experience) I'd probably allow it and make the maintenance so tedious the fun would wear off pretty quickly. I would't want them to somehow abuse the material in the future.

[Vogie]

I could certainly see it as a way to show regional differences of armor. Druids in the Far-North, definitely-not-Hoth or your specific land of nearly-endless winter, may commonly use Pykrete as a building material, and may even have a regional cantrip of "Create/Produce Pykrete", which they can turn into buildings or even what is effectively full-plate armor.

You could make the same argument about aquatic/undersea druids figuring out how to use what is effectively biomimetic armor based on conch shells or forest druids having the ability to craft an exoskeleton similar to Ironclad Beetles.

[Ganymede]

D&D and Forgotten Realms lore already features weapon and equipment made from ensorcelled ice, so I don't think ice armor is beyond the realm of possibility.

That said, a suit of armor made of plates of pycrete sounds like heavy armor, not medium armor.

[Mikal]

A recently necro'ed thread brought up the possibility of making sling bullets out of pykrete (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete), and variations on the idea have been nagging at me since.

- Woodcarver's Tool Proficiency: on Xanathar's pg 85 indicates that woodcarver's tools allow you to craft intricate objects from wood.
- Shape Water cantrip allows you to freeze water within a 5' cube for an hour as long as there are no living creatures in it.
- the Goliath's Mountain Born trait would allow it to be encompassed by freezing temperatures without suffering levels of exhaustion. DMG pg 110 also indicates that wearing cold weather gear will have the same effect towards freezing temperatures.

RAW would seem to require that armor made from pykrete would have to be donned and doffed in order to refreeze it every hour, but would this be a cheap and viable means for a Druid to wear non-metal armor?

Meh. I wouldn't allow it. Intricate objects is one thing, industrial sawdust used to create pykrete is something else.