Ankehg Armour

[black wagner]

Im playing in a 2nd Gen game and am looking into having Ankheg armour made, but for the life of me can find any stats anywhere as to what is involved.
How much should it cost, how long should it take, is it considered a leather armour (in that druids can wear it), hide, plate. How much does it weigh, ect ect etc.
Has onyone seen anywhere such things are covered.
Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

[Shas aia Toriia]

I believe in the Arms and Equipment there are some new armors, but I don't remember ever seeing Ankheg armor.

[Kioran]

I believe in the Arms and Equipment there are some new armors, but I don't remember ever seeing Ankheg armor.

It´s in Baldur´s gate 1, at least. Dunno where else. If memory serves me right, it was essentially lighter fullplate.

[Shas aia Toriia]

Oh. Well, I don't have that, so. . .

[black wagner]

I saw that in the video game, and was just going to base it off of that, but decided to try for something written, we have a rules lawyer with us and i really like to avoid the inevitable game ending argument whenever something isnt covered in the DMG.

[TheLogman]

I'd treat it as Banded Mail, but with one better Dex bonus, one less armor check penalty, and a 10-15 acid resistance. If you want to be more powerful, I'd give you a Burrow speed, or at least the ability to travel 20-30 feet underground per day. At this point, it would be a magic item, and would cost more.

[AtomicKitKat]

Try Chitin Armour. I believe Sandstorm and Races of the Dragon both have rules for using arthropod exoskeletons as armour. It's non-metal, so should be fine for druids. Probably Medium, due to the mass and stuff.

[daggaz]

Why not just homebrew something reasonable, and see if your DM likes it?

Ankhegs are giant cockroaches, basically (with acid for blood, which gestate their young in living human hosts...Ripley, do you seriously expect us to believe all of this?) oops..sorry. Anyhow, they have a tough outershell made of chitin, which can be pretty damn hard, but obviously is not made of metal.

I would say it is heavy armor, but is considerably lighter and does not give quite the same armor bonus. Why not give it stats identical to Mithril Fullplate, but drop the AC bonus by one or even two, depending on how easy/expensive it is for you to make the stuff?

You might even nab a small acid resistance for wearing it as well, not a lot, but still, kinda fun to have.

Oh, and sense it is clearly not made of metal, I can't see why a druid wouldn't wear it. They were heavily modified wooden armors, and carry around walking staffs, and have well worked leather clothes.. I doubt they would mind fixing up some ankehg armour as well. Nature giveth, and Nature taketh away..

[Dr. Weasel]

You might as well just treat it as a sheet of metal for crafting purposes, maybe cutting the weight a bit. It's an easy solution and generic enough to cover whatever you want to do with it.

[Fhaolan]

Okay, going off of 2nd edition Ankehg Armour, and translating it to 3.x:

In 2nd edition, Ankehg Armour was AC2, nonspecific weight or cost due to unusual materials. AC2 was Plate Mail + Shield, or Field Plate. Half Plate took to place of both Plate Mail and Field Plate, so...

I'd say Ankehg Armour would be the equivalent to Half Plate in statistics, and would be a 'natural' armor for druid purposes. It would take the same amount of 'crafting' cost as half plate, but it full 'off-the-shelf' cost would be much higher due to the uniqueness of the material. i.e. If you want some, go get yer own Ankehg bits.

[Swooper]

Uhm, guys... he's playing 2nd Edition, not 3rd, so talking about Max Dex Bonus and Armour Check Penalty isn't going to help him. Fhaolan, where are those stats from? Maybe that would help him.

[Dullyanna]

If I remember correctly (Big if), it's in the monster manual or something.

[black wagner]

MM just mentions that it can be made into armour AC2. Thats it. And this is all the way back to first gen, so i would think by now that something somewhere would have covered it.

[Logic]

I saw that in the video game, and was just going to base it off of that, but decided to try for something written, we have a rules lawyer with us and i really like to avoid the inevitable game ending argument whenever something isnt covered in the DMG.

Then ban the rules lawyer from the game. Tell him homebrew items are allowed at the DM's discretion. If he doesn't like it, he can leave.

[Dullyanna]

From searching the web and whatnot, it gives an AC of 2 in second edition as well.

Linky:http://www.vanhiel.com/daniel/creatu...tername=Ankheg

[black wagner]

Then ban the rules lawyer from the game. Tell him homebrew items are allowed at the DM's discretion. If he doesn't like it, he can leave.

we rotate DM's and he is one of them.
To avoid problems, because in the end we are all friends, we try to have as much info as possible when introducing things.
My thoughts with this are because it has been mentioned in the game for soooo long, by now there would be something offical, but it is looking less and less to be true.

[Fhaolan]

Uhm, guys... he's playing 2nd Edition, not 3rd, so talking about Max Dex Bonus and Armour Check Penalty isn't going to help him. Fhaolan, where are those stats from? Maybe that would help him.

Ah, sorry. Misunderstood the reference to '2nd Generation'. Okay, the only real thing I've got that goes into any detail whatsoever is Dragon #117 'Ecology of the Anhkheg' by Robin Jenkins. Here's the quote:

For example, the hard, chitinous shell of the creature makes extremely good armor. If cured and preserved properly (otherwise, the shell withers and dissolves with time), the shell maintains an AC of 2 or 4, depending on which area of its body is used. This armor is equal to scale mail in weight and encumbrance, though it offers protection equal to that of plate mail.

[black wagner]

Ah, sorry. Misunderstood the reference to '2nd Generation'. Okay, the only real thing I've got that goes into any detail whatsoever is Dragon #117 'Ecology of the Anhkheg' by Robin Jenkins. Here's the quote:

fantastic, exactally the kind of thing i was looking for, thank you.
ive been combing through old dragons to look for this kind of thing, but so many issues, to little time.
thank you again