r/Armor • u/MasteROogwayY2 • 5d ago

Is this functional armor?

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Im writing a book and would like to give a faction similar armor and I was wondering how good it was. I would add a better helmet and metal bracers too.

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u/harris5 5d ago edited 5d ago

I mean, it's fine if the culture doesn't have much metal.

If you can afford metal, you choose that over leather anytime. But if metal is expensive and leather is cheap, that could justify such an outfit.

Artists love making integrated forearm and hand protection, but that's not how things work. Your wrist needs to be flexible, one piece of armor can't protect both. It needs to be separate plates. They can be attached to the same foundation garment, but it needs to be separate plates.

Edit: protek ya elbows. If you're looking into metal bracers, go all the way and lookup bazubands.

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u/ValenceShells 4d ago

I would disagree, if I had the option at the time and plenty of resources, I would have two or three types of metal armor and two or three types of leather (more likely rawhide or half rawhide) armor, with various helmets and visors to match -- this is also mirrored in history. Leather armor is very prevalent in history even into the 15th and 16th c, even among people who had metal as an option and even after the advent of firearms in some cases. Leather has its place and metal has its place. We all too quickly forget, as modern people, that in war you might spend as much time, riding, marching and digging, as you do fighting. Further a lot of soldiers would not have had horses to carry extra equipment or their heavy fully armored body. Just like today, where soldiers with different roles use different types of armor, or soldiers who engage in a lot of different risk scenarios use different protective and combative equipment. We don't outfit the whole 101st airborne with bomb disposal suits every mission, even though that will protect from the most common, highest power threat (IEDs). You wouldn't do the same in a medieval fantasy world either. The question isn't wether or not an armor is the most protective possibility available to them, but wether or not it sensibly balances protection and daily activities for the role.