Plasteel armor

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Four pieces of plasteel armorhelm, body armor, gloves, and boots—are added in the Jedi patch for SLASH'EM (incorporated into the variants Slash'EM Extended and SLASHTHEM and available as an independent patch). These make up the iconic armor of the stormtrooper and, along with a heavy machine gun or submachine gun and ammunition, are part of their automatic starting inventory in the patch.

All articles of plasteel armor are made of plastic. As such, none of them except the body armor impede spellcasting, and the body armor interferes significantly less than comparable metallic armor.

Origin

Plasteel is a fictional material from the Star Wars series. It is, as its name suggests, a compound of plastic and steel. More precisely, it is a plastic reinforced with the fictional alloy durasteel. The Imperial Stormtroopers' armor is made of thin plates of plasteel, lightweight but providing adequate protection against physical damage.

Plasteel is also the name of a durable steel compound in the Dune universe, as well as a real-life composite of steel and fiberglass used to make automobile chassis.

Plasteel helm

[   plasteel helm  
Appearance plasteel helm
Slot helm
AC 3
Special (none)
Base price 20 zm
Weight 6
Material plastic

The plasteel helm has a natural armor class of 3, one point more than the best non-magical helm, the dwarvish iron helm. However, the plasteel helm covers the entire head and lacks a visor, which imposes some restrictions on its wearer.

While wearing a plasteel helm, you cannot:

To do any of these things you must take off the helmet. A cursed plasteel helm can therefore be a nuisance or even a threat if the wearer has to eat or drink but has no way to uncurse the helm.

Also, players polymorphed into (master) mind flayers will find that they will not be able to wear a plasteel helm because it will not fit over their tentacles.

Plasteel armor

[   plasteel armor  
Appearance plasteel armor
Slot body armor
AC 6
Special (none)
Base price 80 zm
Weight 150
Material plastic

Plasteel body armor has a natural armor class of 6, equivalent to splint mail, banded mail, bronze plate mail, or the dwarvish mithril coat, but weighs significantly less than any of them—with the exception of the dwarvish mail, which weighs the same. Being made of plastic, it interferes less with spellcasting than any of these armors, but it does not provide any magic cancellation.

Plasteel gloves

[   plasteel gloves  
Appearance white gloves
Slot gloves
AC 2
Special (none)
Base price 25 zm
Weight 9
Material plastic

Plasteel gloves have a natural armor class of 2, one point more than leather gloves—and weigh even less than leather gloves. They will not rot, but they can burn.

Plasteel boots

[   plasteel boots  
Appearance plasteel boots
Slot boots
AC 2
Special (none)
Base price 25 zm
Weight 8
Material plastic

Plasteel boots are equivalent to iron shoes and high boots, with a natural armor class of 2, but weigh significantly less than either (8 units, compared to 25 for iron shoes and 20 for high boots).

Strategy

As a general rule, all types of plasteel armor offer a respectable armor class with a relatively low weight, no interference with spellcasting (except in the case of the body armor, where it is less than most alternatives), and no danger of rust or corrosion (though there is the possibility of fire damage from wands of fire, fire elementals, etc.) However, plasteel armor is not likely to be part of a player's ascension kit wish list, because it is only found on stormtroopers, who are only found on the Jedi quest (except in Slash'EM Extended, where they may be randomly generated), and even if it can be found, there are better options.

Jedi will find plenty of plasteel armor from the many stormtroopers they fight during the quest, but not all of it will be useful to them. The body armor will be useless to the Jedi, until late in the game when the penalty for wearing body armor other than a robe can be ignored, and even then the Jedi will probably have found some dragon scale mail, which offers a higher armor class (nine versus six) plus a needed extrinsic like magic resistance or drain resistance. Players other than Jedi who find plasteel armor in a game that includes the Jedi patch (e.g. in Slash'EM Extended) might want to hold onto the body armor if they do not yet have crystal plate mail, a mithril-coat, or dragon scale mail, but only if no better options are available.

As for the other pieces, the helmet, boots, and gloves might be useful to Jedi as an improvement on a dwarvish iron helm, iron shoes or high boots, and leather gloves. But they will probably want to trade them off for magical alternatives (e.g. helm of telepathy, boots of speed or water walking, gauntlets of dexterity, etc.) as soon as those become available, unless a few extra points of armor class are desired more than extrinsics.

In summary, plasteel armor is a good nonmagical choice for any armor slots you haven't been able to fill with your desired magical items, but it is probably not useful enough to change your ascension kit wish list.

References

Reference: Benjamin Schieder's Jedi Patch