Lead lined armour

[Draxar]

How much do you think it would cost to put a thin lead lining on the inside of a suit of armour? And would it slow you down appreciable.

For fun, detection avoiding, shenanigans.

[Thrice Dead Cat]

How much do you think it would cost to put a thin lead lining on the inside of a suit of armour? And would it slow you down appreciable.

For fun, detection avoiding, shenanigans.

It shouldn't slow you down...

[Foryn Gilnith]

Wouldn't you have to fully encase yourself to completely hide your divinatory-related signature/aura?

[erikun]

Wouldn't you have to fully encase yourself to completely hide your divinatory-related signature/aura?

Yes, you would, at it still wouldn't block detecting magic on the armor itself (or anything carried).

[EDIT] It also only blocks those cone-emanation divinations, at that. A lead helmet is not a Mind Blank spell. (Unless your DM houserules that it is.)

[barteem]

Seems awful meta-gamey to me, but if the DM allows it, you could probably figure out the mathematics of it pretty easily.
Not that I have math skills.

[Foryn Gilnith]

Seems awful meta-gamey to me

How is this even vaguely meta-gamey? The only reason this would work is in-universe justification. OOC, by RAW, this is impossible. IC, lead's ability to block divinations would be explored further.

[awa]

First i think it would be entirely impractical becuase armor needs openings to function like for you to breath out of or see through.

Ninja
That said i don't consider it meta gaming if your charecter in game has a desire to hide from scrying and knows lead blocks scrying it is a logical assumption that some one will try something like this i just don't think it will work.

[taltamir]

How is this even vaguely meta-gamey? The only reason this would work is in-universe justification. OOC, by RAW, this is impossible. IC, lead's ability to block divinations would be explored further.

yes, it is a well known in character fact that many spells are blocked by lead...
it will, however, be a problem because you need holes to see through and breath through...

just get a magic item that provides non detections (they exist)

[Demented]

What if your character is made of lead?

[taltamir]

What if your character is made of lead?

then you are either a construct, or a living construct.
The first is immune to enchantment, and auto fails all saves against illusion.
The second is affected normally by both enchantment and illusion.

[Fhaolan]

What if your character is made of lead?

....

....

You know, I hadn't even considered that one. That's interesting, and I think technically possible with warforged and other golem-types.

[Squark]

Then you have bigger problems. Lead's pretty soft, with a hardness (That's Moh's Scale of Hardness, not game mechanics) of 1.5. You can scratch it with your fingernail. So a decent sword will cut through you like butter, and your sheer weight will prevent you from dodging blows.


So no, leaden warforged are a bad idea.

[madtinker]

yes, it is a well known in character fact that many spells are blocked by lead...
it will, however, be a problem because you need holes to see through and breath through...

just get a magic item that provides non detections (they exist)

Depending on the wavelength of the magic, it could still be blocked with the small holes. That's how a microwave works without killing us.

[taltamir]

plus, the spell is actually hitting your body... the lead sheet trick is that the lead blocks the spell before it reaches you. If you are made out of lead, then the spell is reaching your body, thus I would say it works :P

[Squark]

Err... I think it'd have to be a pretty big wave length to have meaningful ventilation and air holes... A quick wiki check says that the wave length of a microwave is about a millimeter. A bit more research indicates that a radio wave (some of which can have wave lengths of a meter) might work, but considering Magic is generally longer ranged than a radio wave, I'd say Lead Lined armor is probably not practical.

[madtinker]

But radio waves travel across the solar system and we still get high-res photos, so that's pretty long range. Unless magic doesn't travel at the speed of light, then physics might not apply.

[Draxar]

The joy of added context – the armour would be encasing undead, doing so completely, with no air holes, to give them the appearance of in fact being constructs.

[Squark]

But radio waves travel across the solar system and we still get high-res photos, so that's pretty long range. Unless magic doesn't travel at the speed of light, then physics might not apply.

Depending on your interpretation of how the planes work, Magic seems to be able to transcend reality, so it probably isn't radiation in the traditional sense.

[awa]

still cant see
and the joints are going to be iffy theirs not a lot of room in their for extraneous metal

[SurlySeraph]

The joy of added context – the armour would be encasing undead, doing so completely, with no air holes, to give them the appearance of in fact being constructs.

Then they don't need air, so there's no problem in completely encasing them with lead, so it should be entirely doable. As for stats, I'm going to say -1 to the armor penalty and add 5 pounds to the weight just to keep things simple.

[Arbitrarious]

Bottle of air for breathing? Invisibility on a strip of it for sight? As for hardness their our a few spells that can increase an items hardness. More fun, what about lead that's been hardened and turned to cloth via shrink item? What could you do with that. So long as the frame you put it over can support it's weight in normal form (adamantinium strips?) and the path of least resistance is expanding outward, a dispel magic that kills the shrink item would only cause the lead to explode outward possibly hurting those nearby but leaving you safe if immobile.

[Draxar]

Then they don't need air, so there's no problem in completely encasing them with lead, so it should be entirely doable. As for stats, I'm going to say -1 to the armor penalty and add 5 pounds to the weight just to keep things simple.

Sounds about right. The armour is magically bonded to them, so that should solve any flexibility issues.

[Demons_eye]

The joy of added context – the armour would be encasing undead, doing so completely, with no air holes, to give them the appearance of in fact being constructs.

Border line golem at that point.

[fusilier]

Well, I'm not going to speculate on D&D physics, but returning to the original question:

I believe lead can be made into foil, like aluminum foil, and was used to make air-tight seals on shipping crates. So if all you need is any amount of lead shielding it can probably be added with negligible weight.

[Draxar]

Border line golem at that point.

Perhaps, but easier and cheaper to create – all I need is the Black Opals (assuming I don't bypass them with Pale Master or somesuch), and the armour, and four corpsecrafting feats

Corpsecrafting + any two other Corpsecrafting based feats are the prerequisites for a custom feat which melds and armour or weapons on a corpse when it is raised into the resulting undead. The benefit being that they count as having proficiency with those things melded to them.

Well, I'm not going to speculate on D&D physics, but returning to the original question:

I believe lead can be made into foil, like aluminum foil, and was used to make air-tight seals on shipping crates. So if all you need is any amount of lead shielding it can probably be added with negligible weight.

Jolly good. TBH, I'm not too worried if it does give minor penalties, as I don't need the things to be tap-dancing. I just wanted to get range of opinions on what penalties and effects there might be.

[Jack_Simth]

As to those saying the armor must be completely sealed to function? D&D has these nifty rules about line of effect, which include the rather useful bit of:

A line of effect is a straight, unblocked path that indicates what a spell can affect. A line of effect is canceled by a solid barrier. It’s like line of sight for ranged weapons, except that it’s not blocked by fog, darkness, and other factors that limit normal sight.

You must have a clear line of effect to any target that you cast a spell on or to any space in which you wish to create an effect. You must have a clear line of effect to the point of origin of any spell you cast.

A burst, cone, cylinder, or emanation spell affects only an area, creatures, or objects to which it has line of effect from its origin (a spherical burst’s center point, a cone-shaped burst’s starting point, a cylinder’s circle, or an emanation’s point of origin).

An otherwise solid barrier with a hole of at least 1 square foot through it does not block a spell’s line of effect. Such an opening means that the 5-foot length of wall containing the hole is no longer considered a barrier for purposes of a spell’s line of effect.

(specific text from Here, emphasis added)

Which, you know, means that if the gap is less than one square foot, it still counts as a solid barrier as far as magic is concerned - so breathing holes and eye slits are not a problem (other than Fireball's exception, shared by inheritance with Delayed Blast Fireball and possibly a few others). This is why you put arrow slits in castle walls - if they are two inches wide, they don't pass spells... but they still pass outbound arrows pretty easily.

[taltamir]

who says magic is made of waves? magic has an area of effect, in this case a cone... why is it not infinitely divisible cone of infinite perfect straight lines?

[UserClone]

Good show, Jak_Simth!

I'm totally getting lead-lined armor for my characters now!

[Draxar]

Good show, Jak_Simth!

I'm totally getting lead-lined armor for my characters now!

Especially given that this comic is in fact, innacurate on how detect evil would work – there'd be no difference from the absence of evil (or specific evil aura on the second turn) and 'no reading' from being blocked by lead.

[Yuki Akuma]

who says magic is made of waves? magic has an area of effect, in this case a cone... why is it not infinitely divisible cone of infinite perfect straight lines?

Because a gap less than one foot across blocks line of effect - so magic obviously has a wavelength of one foot.

Which is huge.