VoxRationis
2016-11-28, 08:23 PM
I am building a setting for AD&D (late 2nd edition—after Wizards acquired TSR but before they ditched the TSR brand) that is primarily set in a tropical rainforest. The inhabitants of the rainforest, a storied and historied civilization, have little in the way of metal. In particular, they have little in the way of metal armor, seeing as they mostly live in a tropical rainforest and on or near large bodies of water. So I need some ideas for reasonable armor "progressions" in terms of expense and effectiveness. I don't want the higher-end things to be comparable to plate, since I want the foreign elf- and dwarf-made metal armors to be competitive, but I want something more than padded, leather, and hide. What do people think about wood armor, tortoiseshell armor, bone scale armor, etc.? Do people have any thoughts on them regarding reasonable stats?
Secondly, the people of the rainforest ride dragons—the dragons fulfill roles in their military and society vaguely akin to chariots in Bronze Age China and Egypt. I want the dragons to be significantly more delicate than baseline D&D dragons of comparable size—you can't just land in a cluster of infantry and let the dragon have at it. That said, being a large creature capable of ferrying a man aloft and breathing fire, it should still be formidable, enough that a level 1 party would probably not want to engage one head-to-head if possible. I intend them to have spell resistance for various reasons, and come in a variety of weight classes and intended roles. Does anyone have a good baseline average HD/hp for such a beast?
Secondly, the people of the rainforest ride dragons—the dragons fulfill roles in their military and society vaguely akin to chariots in Bronze Age China and Egypt. I want the dragons to be significantly more delicate than baseline D&D dragons of comparable size—you can't just land in a cluster of infantry and let the dragon have at it. That said, being a large creature capable of ferrying a man aloft and breathing fire, it should still be formidable, enough that a level 1 party would probably not want to engage one head-to-head if possible. I intend them to have spell resistance for various reasons, and come in a variety of weight classes and intended roles. Does anyone have a good baseline average HD/hp for such a beast?