[Daemon Loki]

I'm working on making a character, I was picking skills. He's very self-reliant so he makes pretty much everything he uses, but I came across a problem, maybe I'm just dumb, but no chart specifies what skill it takes to make leather armor. Would it be Craft (leatherworking) or Craft (Armorsmithing). All evidence would point to the latter, but that seems dumb. Does anybody know, for sure which it is? Or is it just a house decision?

Any help would be appreciated.

Deamon Loki

[Cuilean]

Actually, the table does exist: D20SRD.org: Craft Skill

However, I know that some DMs use common sense, making Craft: Armorsmithing only apply to armors that are, well, *smithed*. Thus, it becomes a house rule that leather armor is created by leatherworkers, and padded armor by tailors. (And in rare instances, woodworkers for certain types of wooden armor, potters for ceramic... )

A blacksmith of some sort still has to be partially involved there for the studs in studded leather, and one might argue that unless you sew yourself into your armor, some small amount of metalwork is necessary for buckles and the like. But that's possible to roll into the "material costs", as the plate-and-chain folks need leather straps to attach and adjust the pieces, too.

[BrotherMouran]

Ideally, you would need more than one skill to make armor. Armorsmith and blacksmith for crafting metal armors or armorsmith and leatherwork for making leather based armors. Armorsmithing is a specialized field of work but to become one you'd have to have the basics of the other craft.

Also, as pointed out above, almost all armor types make use of a small amount of the other craft; I would assume they are simply purchased as part of the materials.

[Cuilean]

Agreed with BrotherMouran --- and that's the part that's not really clear in the d20 SRD; it doesn't state that you have to know anything about leatherworking to make leather armor, but also doesn't differentiate between armorsmithing and blacksmithing except in the case of weapons.

[Axel]

As an armour smith specializes in making protective garments, one could argue that they should be capable of crafting any form of armour that they would have encountered. Which would provide at least a form of balance. Else why bother with armoursmithing when blacksmithing is so much more versatile? I would say the armoursmith knows enough of both fields to be useful at his craft, but without the greater experience that an experienced blacksmith or leather-worker would have.

[BrotherMouran]

Axel, on Jul 2 2008, 08:10 PM, said:

As an armour smith specializes in making protective garments, one could argue that they should be capable of crafting any form of armour that they would have encountered. Which would provide at least a form of balance. Else why bother with armoursmithing when blacksmithing is so much more versatile? I would say the armoursmith knows enough of both fields to be useful at his craft, but without the greater experience that an experienced blacksmith or leather-worker would have.

I approach this with a bit of personal experience; I know modern day folks who do some armor work. Those who do chainmail work don't know a lick about leather work - the reverse is also true. As far as blacksmithing being more versatile than armorsmithing, that is true, but not every blacksmith is capable of armorsmithing. Think of it this way... blacksmithing is equivalent to basic arithmetic while armorsmithing is akin to advanced calculus. You can do quite a bit with arithmetic but you need to have that base knowledge to move onto the calculus.

[Dthclaw]

This sort of situation is why I came up with a broader list of crafting skills as part of designing a d6 system. I'll probably post it at some point, but I'm just catching up tonight since I've got work and grad school tomorrow morning