In the campaigns that I have both run and played in, I have often felt that armor is one of the least-explored pieces of item and inventory management. Not to say that the baseline armor system in DND is bad or weak in any way, I just felt it could use some sprucing up in a way that provides players with in-universe ways to upgrade their armor to their liking without relying on the DM to provide them with specially-designed loot. While things like Adamantine, Mithral, and Dragonscale armors existing in the baseline game, I thought I would try my hand at enhancing the standard armors sets with different materials that would grant resistances, effects, and other bonuses to the wearer. I have the materials listed out below in a chart that shows each “standard” armor type along with what alternative materials it can be made out of.

     The first thought I had is how to price them. With there being no listed cost of Adamantine armor for example, I wasn’t really sure how to properly upcharge these enhanced armors. After some toying with numbers and percentages and all that, I came up with a different idea. My campaigns never really use Electrum, what if I just made that the currency used by shops that sell higher-tier armor. That then lead me to the thought that all magical items will be bought an sold with Electrum in order to have it make more sense in the world. From a lore perspective, I treat Electrum as the “currency of the mages” and have it be treated as magical in it’s own right.

     Alongside the additions of alternate armor materials, I felt that a purchasable armor “class” for magic-users was also worth looking into. As many veteran DND players can attest to, purely magical classes get a bit hosed when it comes to ways of increasing their AC from a purely mundane perspective. Of course there are spells that can temporarily increase AC (Mage Armor and Shield being the first that come to my mind) and there are magical items that can increase defensiveness, but no single item type that plays into the physical aesthetic of a powerful wizard or sorcerer. Most magical classes are proficient with leather armor but tend not to get much out of the Dexterity scaling.

     So, I developed my own version of “cloth armor” that stylistically looks and functions like mage’s robes to match the spellcaster’s visual fantasy, and mechanically scale off of Intelligence. That said I wanted to ensure that they didn’t absolutely eclipse light armor options, so much like medium armor there is a maximum amount of scaling a character can receive. Additionally, unlike other armor weights, all standard cloth armor types have a base AC of 11, and the more effective armors can gain a higher scaling cap rather than an increase in the base protection of the item. From a story-telling standpoint, I like to think of it as the more advanced cloths allow the wearer to channel more of their innate magical power into the fabric to provide a greater level of protection.

     One more change I made (because I’m borderline incapable of seeing a management system without needing to customize the hell out of it) is including what parts of the body an armor type covers. This was primarily done to aid the player, as some armors will list in their flavor text if they include a helmet, grieves, etc. but as far as I could find there is no place that simply lists out coverage. So, using the “official” art of each armor type I devised a small chart that indicates what areas of the body are protected by an armor type. In addition, this allows players to know what all needs to be worn for the armor to work at maximum effectiveness. For example, leather armor does not include a helmet, therefore they can opt to wear a helmet or not with no negative effect. However, plate armor DOES come with a helmet, so wearing anything but a helm designed to go with heavy armor will result in an AC reduction of 1. This goes for any part of the armor that’s missing; if you aren’t matching the coverage requirement, you lose 1 AC for each part you’re missing.

     To go along with the above, I have indicated that some armor coverage is “replaceable.” If a piece is considered replaceable, then you can swap that piece out for an item of the same armor class and be okay. Meaning, for example, if you are wearing plate armor and want to replace your helmet with a magical item you found you can do so as long as that magical item is also considered heavy armor. If that magical item is NOT heavy armor you can still swap it out and gain most of the benefits of the plate armor, you just lose 1 AC due to having a missing piece. While this does require a bit more management on the players side (and for the DM to classify any magical armor they want to give out as loot), it makes it very clear to the player what they must do to keep their maximum AC while still being able to use the magical items they want. Also, as a side note, adding coverage to armors that do not require them, such as adding a helmet to leather armor, does not increase the AC of the armor. I did not want players to simply be able to Voltron their way to making leather armor with the same base AC as plate. Finally, any part of the coverage listed simply as “yes” is an unreplaceable piece and cannot be swapped out.