Studded leather armor

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[   studded leather armor
Appearance	studded leather armor
Slot	body armor
AC	3
Special	MC1
Base price	15 zm
Weight	200
Material	leather

Studded leather armor is a type of body armor that appears in NetHack. It is made of leather.

Generation

Studded leather armor makes up ⁹⁄₁₂₅ of all randomly generated armor. General stores, used armor dealerships and antique weapon outlets can sell studded leather armor.

Mercenaries that have not been given body armor have a ⁴⁄₁₅ chance of being generated with studded leather armor that counts for 3 points of their target AC.

Description

While worn, studded leather armor provides 3 base AC and MC1.

Strategy

Studded leather does not inhibit spellcasting, making it a common body armor choice for early Wizards and other builds focused on combat spellcasting; for other players, studded leather is usually a somewhat lighter substitute for heavier starting armor in order to reduce inventory weight.

In most cases, studded leather is eventually replaced with a mithril-coat or dragon scale mail; crystal plate mail does not inhibit spellcasting, but it has more than twice the weight of studded leather.

History

Studded leather armor first appears in Hack for PDP-11, a variant of Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial armor list for Hack 1.0.

Origin

Reconstruction of 15th century brigandine armor

The studded leather of NetHack is borrowed from the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, where it was described as leather armor "to which have been fastened metal studding as additional protection, usually including an outer coat of fairly close-set studs"; this description may be derived from medieval artworks and reconstructions of brigandine armor. Studded leather is also one of the stock armor types in the original Rogue, where it provides two points of AC reduction.

Real-world studded leather armor uses the studs to provide structural support, rather than serving a defensive purpose; they were used to fasten small metal plates beneath the leather exterior or hold the layers of leather together. This is designed to provide improved protection over full-leather armor, while allowing more maneuverability than full-plate armor; the rivets are very rarely included as decoration, since they typically hampers the armor's functionality.

Variants

In some variants with object materials systems, the armor is referred to as simply studded armor, with the name of the material appended in front, e.g. "a leather studded armor".

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, Knights get a weight reduction for any body armor heavier than studded leather armor.

dNetHack

In dNetHack and notdNetHack, studded leather armor grants 1 base AC, 2 DR and MC1 while worn, and its weight is reduced to 50 aum - it naturally has a default object material of leather.