Armourer

This skill is related to that of Weaponsmith, and an Armourer who is a more skilled weaponsmith expends only three quarters of the necessary Experience Points to acquire or improve this skill. The reverse is also true. An Armourer's progress in their skill is inhibited by a low Manual Dexterity, and aided by a high Manual Dexterity. An Armourer has an increased Experience Point cost of 5% for each point of Manual Dexterity less than 16. An Armourer decreases their Experience Point cost by 5% for each point of Manual Dexterity greater than 20.

Benefits

Some categories require other categories as prerequisites and cannot be learned before their prerequisites. All Armourers begin with the cloth category at rank 0.

An Armourer may gain additional categories after achieving rank 10 by the expenditure of 10,000 Experience Points per category.

An Armourer can make increasingly effective armour as their rank increases.

An armourer may positively affect any of the 4 attributes of armour (Weight factor, Protection, Agility Modifier and Stealth Modifier) or any combination thereof. Some of the attributes are harder to affect, and this is reflected in the number of ranks an Armourer must have to do so. Also, some of the attributes have maximums (e.g. the Agility Modifier may not be decreased beyond 0). The ranks required and the attribute maximums are:

Weight: 1/2 a factor per 3 full ranks. Never lighter than WT 1.
(This attribute may not be affected for the cloth, leather or mithril categories).

Protection: +1 per 4 full ranks.
(This attribute may not be affected for cloth, furs or soft leather, and no more than 1 additional point of protection may be added to hard leather).

Agility Modifier: 1 per 6 full ranks. Never better than 0.

Stealth Modifier: +1% per rank. Never better than +5%.

Note: These effects are not cumulative. For example a rank 7 Armourer could make a suit of armour with 1 less weight factor and 1% better stealth, or 1/2 a weight factor less and 1 point more protection, or any of the other non-cumulative combinations. An Armourer may always make a suit of armour at a lower effective rank than their true rank.

Armour statistics shown on the Alusian Armour Chart are for armours manufactured with an effective rank of 0, i.e. of the mass-produced, off the peg variety. The Armourer who made them may have been of greater rank but the level of skill used was elementary.

The time and cost required for an Armourer to construct a suit of armour is dependent on the effective Rank used and the category of armour.

Time: The time required to construct a suit of armour is the following --
(Rank/2 +1) x number of days below.

The fitting time for the armour (the time spent with the Armourer by the wearer-to-be) is a number of hours equal to the base number of days (e.g. 6 hours to fit a suit of chain mail). The hours need not be consecutive but all must be done in the first half of the manufacturing time.

Cost: 80% of the Base Cost as shown on the Armour Chart x (Effective Rank + 1) silver pennies.
Note:this is the cost to the Armourer, not the sale price.

Fixing and Modifying Armour

An Armourer is treated as a Merchant of their armourer rank when attempting to buy or value armour from categories with which they are familiar. If the armourer is not familiar with an armour category they act as a Merchant of half their rank (rounded down).

Costs

It costs 2000 silver pennies to construct a workshop and 500 silver pennies per year to maintain it with tool and materials. A basic tool kit will cost (100 + 100 x rank) silver pennies. It costs only 20% of the above amount to add to a Weaponsmith's workshop so as to make it usable by an Armourer as well. The reverse is also true. A workshop may be rented at the rate of 10 silver pennies a day.