Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 El_Commi Mar 01, 2015 15:58:34	My group are running Lost mines, they managed to take down the young dragon in thunder tree (they broke its wing as it tried to fly away...)   One of them has taken its scales in the hope of making armour. I was wondering how this could be done.  I don't want it to be a basic, bring it to a black smith, come back in 5 days...    Any ideas?
#2 Archon007 Mar 01, 2015 16:05:13	What level as your party? That dragon can wipe a party in 1 breathe weapon attack.
#3 supreme_slayer Mar 01, 2015 16:13:22	From what I remember, actual dragon scale armor is way too strong for pcs of that level to have. Not to mention would probably cost way too much time and money to craft. Perhaps let them make something simple out of it, like a helmet or gauntlets with some minor effect, in essence another kind of magic item. Or just let it be flavor.
#4 El_Commi Mar 01, 2015 16:37:23	They are 4x level 4. Shadow monk, life cleric, wild shape Druid, vengeance pally.. They had some impressive strategy, dragon got all the cultists with the breath and only one of the party,  it took off at half hp and they thought of a way to force to to land, and finished it off before it got to breath a second time though they had positioned themselves to the breath would only ever hit one of them. They got a few lucky crits. I fluffed a bunch of rolls, they got super lucky...  They were as surprised as I was.. I landed like 1 hit on the party member, and almost 1 shot him...    Its the the wild shape Druid that wants it, I'm not adverse to giving it to him Just want to make them work for it, I was expecting a semi long quest of some kind... So he'd not get it for a level or two.  Although if you know of a smaller item that would be sufficiently powerful so as not to make him feel cheated I'd be cool with that. :p.     Edit, dragon scale is scale mail +1, with immunity or resistance to damage type of the dragon in question, plus advantage to saving throws on breath weapon.
#5 El_Commi Mar 01, 2015 16:42:24	Sorry, using iPad. Forum doesn't seem to like it!  Forgive typos
#6 Archon007 Mar 01, 2015 16:53:34	El_Commi wrote:
#7 Eck Mar 01, 2015 17:54:17	In the DMG Dragon Scale Armor is a very rare magic item. To craft it by default you'd have to (Page 129)... know the formula for creating Dragon Scale Armor.  Be an 11th level caster Spend 50,000 gp over 2,000 man-days worth of effort This is outside the abilities of a level 4 party to provide.    The final armor comes with lots of cool benefits besides just +1 armor. You get advantage on frightful presense and dragon breath saving throws. You gain resistance to an energy type. You can detect the presense of dragons.   Instead of giving them the full item all at once, let them slowly upgrade the item as they level. Let them turn it into Mundane (but badass looking) armor with a little work. Find a master craftsman able to work with dragon scales. Make them spend a little money or do a sidequest for the guy. After that, figure out what ability would fit best in the powerscale of things and let them start working towards that.    As they level up and go on more quests, give them more opportunities to upgrade the item over time. They can work with other craftsman and/or go on other quests to improve the item. Once they reach level 11, they can start spending some gold and downtime finishing the crafting process.    - Eck
#8 supreme_slayer Mar 01, 2015 17:58:36	One problem with questing for an item or an upgrade to an item is... Only one person can use said item. It's all fine and dandy if the whole party is on board qith building it for just one person, but players are liable to get envious, and perhaps wonder what is in it for them.
#9 Coredump00 Mar 01, 2015 18:14:15	The DMG armor is a joke....  +1 scale is the same as regular half plate.  The other benefits are decent if you fight dragons on a regular basis....   As for these guys... use it has a plot hook to get some needed ingredient or somesuch... and let him have it as non-magical +1 scale armor, with either resistence against the damage type, or advantage on saves against that armor type.  That is the equivalent to Half plate and a ring of resistence.... no big deal.   And I have never come across a DnD quest that didn't provide lots of 'extraneous' treasure and loot.  Sure you are going on the quest for the benefit of one PC, but they will all end up getting something nice out of it.
(Reply to #7) CCS	Eck wrote:
(Reply to #10) AaronOfBarbaria	CCS wrote:
(Reply to #8) CCS	supreme_slayer wrote:
#13 Hibiki54 Mar 01, 2015 19:17:20	Since they are at Thunder Tree, New Neverwinter is nearby and I'm sure there are some interested in buying Dragons Scales and giving PCs a quest to help forge some armor.
(Reply to #11) CCS	AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
(Reply to #14) AaronOfBarbaria	CCS wrote:
#16 PhillPowell Mar 02, 2015 4:11:28	We came up with a similar problem in a game I was playing in and the DM decided we could indeed skin said dragon etc but that we would then need to find someone skilled enough to make the armour, the money to pay him to do it and the time he would then need to craft it.   All of which was completely fair to us and we decided to sell the scale for a tidy sum and use the money to buy armour and weapons we could use right away!
#17 DM_HEEGZ Mar 02, 2015 6:23:31	I think traditionally you had to slay a larger dragon than the one in the starter set in order to gather enough scales to craft a suit of dragon scale armor. However, heroes could usually gather enough scales to make a dragon scale shield. This is the route I would take. The shield would be made of the green dragon scales and provide resistance to poison. It's up to you whether it also provides a +1 bonus to AC. I would probably allow the magic bonus and make it take up an attunement slot. If going this route, I would also roll on the random tables for magic items to give it some more flavor. Maybe a bit of the dragon's personality has magically carried over to the shield somehow when it is created...
#18 supreme_slayer Mar 02, 2015 8:44:58	CCS wrote:
#19 El_Commi Mar 02, 2015 10:30:58	DM_HEEGZ wrote:
(Reply to #18) Eck	supreme_slayer wrote:
(Reply to #15) CCS	AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
#22 El_Commi Mar 02, 2015 13:41:06	Any ideas for a nice quest line to send them on for the shield?  I know most of the usual troupes, was hoping for something a little more fun..
#23 BRJN Mar 02, 2015 16:02:01	There are rules for crafting stuff in the Downtime section; that smith is going to be busy for about a year - or maybe 5 ! - making a single suit of armor.  You think any BBEG who escapes the PCs will not come to hear about that?   A house with arched internal doorways ... whose frames just happen to be shaped and proportioned and colored like dragon ribs ... hmmm.
#24 Greenstone.Walker Mar 02, 2015 17:02:50	Alternatively, for less than 50,000 gp and 2,000 days, they get non-metallic armour. No bonuses, no immunities, no cool stuff except that a druid can wear it (which is actually pretty cool).   I would make the smith ask them for some special ingredients. As the characters are adventuring, they'll have a sidequest to find the items.   "Feh, I ain't got no tools can work that stuff. Get me a set of adamantium augers and I can turn those scales into armour. To sweeten the deal, I'll pay you a fair price for the tools as well, as long as I can keep them after your armour is done. Where would you find adamantium tools? I hear the mayor has tasked you with heading north to Mithril Hall. Those dwarves would have such tools - ask them while you're there."
#25 Coredump00 Mar 02, 2015 18:20:48	The crafting rules are for PCs... not necessarily for NPCs.   I would let them have an NPC turn the the scales into armor, and not worry too much about it.  Make it +1 scale, give it some bonus against poison attacks..  I wouldn't even require a quest, except it can be a cool hook.
(Reply to #21) AaronOfBarbaria	CCS wrote: