Leather armour

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Name	Leather armour
Size to wear	small and medium
Armour Class	3
Encumbrance rating	-4
Maximum Enchantment	+3
Grants	nothing
Time to Wear	5

A suit made from layers of tanned animal hide, this light armour provides basic protection with almost no hindrance to elaborate gestures or swift, stealthy movement.

Leather armour is the lightest common body armour with a non-zero encumbrance rating. It offers only marginally more AC than a robe, but the additional GDR it provides can make enough of a difference that dodgers and casters may choose it over a robe in spite of the penalty.

Desirability

Leather armour is often maligned, and its detractors have some points: robes are more likely to have useful egos, while lighter dragon armours such as steam, mottled, swamp and fire dragon armour give far more AC for comparable encumbrance. However, it is useful in a number of situations:

• For an early EV-reliant character, this is often better than an unbranded robe. For 1 point of EV, you will get at least 1 more AC, and some minimal GDR.
• A leather armour with a useful brand (such as fire resistance) can be competitive with the lighter dragon armours, and is often more easily found. Its value is debatable, though, since any character capable of wearing a leather armour of fire resistance can also wear a fire dragon armour without undue difficulty.

One thing to keep in mind when considering whether or not to use leather armour is that the effect of its GDR is usually fairly minimal.

	Common	Elven	Orcish
Mundane
Magical
Artifact		N/A	N/A