Dragon scale mail is made of the scales of one kind of dragon. Sometimes dragons collect their cast-off scales and gift them to humanoids. Other times, hunters carefully skin and preserve the hide of a dead dragon. In either case, dragon scale mail is highly valued.
While wearing this armor, you gain a +1 bonus to AC, you have advantage on saving throws against the Frightful Presence and breath weapons of dragons, and you have resistance to one damage type that is determined by the kind of a dragon that provided the scales (see the table).
Additionally, you can focus your senses as an action to magically discern the distance and direction to the closest dragon of the type of armor within 30 miles of you. This special action can't be used again until the next dawn.
Dragon | Resistance |
---|---|
Black | Acid |
Blue | Lightning |
Brass | Fire |
Bronze | Lightning |
Copper | Acid |
Gold | Fire |
Green | Poison |
Red | Fire |
Silver | Cold |
White | Cold |
Notes: Bonus: Armor Class, Advantage: Saving Throws, Resistance: Acid, Resistance: Cold, Resistance: Fire, Resistance: Lightning, Resistance: Poison, Detection, Combat, Warding, Stealth Disadvantage
Great for Druids who can't wear metal
Especially for Druids who want to be metal. \m/
the description at the end is a little confusing... if this is made OF dragon scales and some clarification may be needed.
I assumed as a druid, I would be able to wear this armor because it is made of all natural components, but the last part of the description says.
"This armor consists of a coat and leggings (and perhaps a separate skirt) of leather covered with overlapping pieces of metal, much like the scales of a fish. The suit includes gauntlets."
Now, I looked at the description of Scale Mail and this is an exact duplicate of that description, so I further assumed that this was just a basic description of how scale mail is designed in general, and to replace the "overlapping pieces of metal" with 'overlapping dragon scales' or something similar.
BUT because there is nothing official, this becomes an argument.
Can we get a clarification? Or is it more of a "DM's choice" kind of thing?
That basic description is on all pieces of armour based on scale mail. Magic items based on plate mail have the plate mail description as well. This armour is made of dragon scales, not metal.
This is just how Scale Mail is made, doesn't matter what material it is made from. You could do the exact same scale mail pattern with boiled leather (and was historically done, as replacing one or two scales was a lot easier than trying to fix an entire leather breastplate). As this is overlapping dragon scales, as long as the scales are held together with either leather cordage or sinew, then you should be fine. That is unless the DM decides to be a dick and declares that dragon scales are made of metal.
im gonna put this on a goblin hahah
This appears to be broken. Scale mail is normally AC 14 + Dex modifier (max 2), but the description says it adds a +1 bonus to AC. I equipped it on a few characters, and it provided no such +1 bonus. It was the standard 14 + Dex modifier (max 2).EDIT: Ignore me. Forgot to attune.
Whats the base AC for it then?
What if you wanted to sell this very rare armor, how much would be a good asking price?
question how many pieces of armor can you get from 1 dead dragon.
From a technical standpoint, would it provide advantage against Tiamat's Frightful Presence or breath weapons since she isn't considered a dragon? In my personal opinion I would make it work against her breath attacks, but not against her Frightful Presence but I'm curious how anyone else would handle it.
Tiamat is literally one of the two dragon gods and the mother of all chromatic dragons. she's as much a fiend as bahamut is a celestial.
Would ya'll allow someone to make a Dragonscale Breastplate (no stealth disadvantage), rather than Scale Mail? And if yes, and they already have a crafter as part of the party and the Dragon Scales, how much would you say it should cost (time and money)?
Here's a question, if someone tried using two or more types of scales, would they gain resistances to both types? Or would the item be non-magical or some other kind of penalty?
Also, what about scales from something like a Faerie Dragon? The monster manual indicates that it's scales change color based on it's age, and that the creature itself can turn invisible at will, so why not a set of armor that reflects on those details?
Its "Scale Mail" so standard AC14 .... +1 so AC15 for this item.
Can someone tell which size of dragon I need to collect enough dragon hide? Will wyrmling be sufficient for this purpose if my caracter is medium size likewise the creature?
I say it is DM's choice, but I do believe that the official rule is that it is made of all natural materials and no metals.
I would say that the size of the dragon could make armor for a creature less than its size.
So a wyrmling is medium and could make one suit of armor for a small creature.
A young is large, so could make one suit for a medium, two for a small
huge would be one for a large, two for a medium, and three for a small (maybe four depending on how you wanted to do it)
gargantuan would be one huge, two large, multiply for smaller as you see fit etc.
That is how I would do it.
So just have a party of 16 Halflings, kill an ancient dragon, and you've all got matching suits of this.
If we use the downtime rules from Xanathar’s as a guide, a very rare item would require overcoming a CR 13-18 enemy for the crafting components. That’d map to an adult dragon, so you’d need the scales of a huge dragon.