Editing 23a:Armor

Giving your dwarves protective garments (clothing and armor) will help to keep them alive in combat, as well as safe from the elements. It will also protect them against [[sparring]] injuries and may develop their [[Armor user]] skill.

While clothing is not something that you need to worry about in the first few years of your fortress, after some time the clothing your dwarves wear will start to [[wear]] away. Wearing old or tattered clothes creates unhappy [[thought]]s, and having clothing wear away completely creates an even bigger one, enough to make an otherwise ecstatic dwarf begin to [[tantrum]]. As far as armor goes, Civilians will not wear armor other than clothing. Assign them to be miners or lumberjacks if you're concerned about them, since they'll carry axes and picks then even if they're not drafted.  

Garments fit on different body parts depending on the item in question, and require different orders based on material sometimes. They may additionally protect upper and lower arms and legs, depending on the garment. Dwarves do not seem to make a distinction between genders when selecting clothing to wear, so don't be startled when you see males running around in dresses. There is no real difference between armor and clothing, except that maybe only non-clothing garments may increase the [[armor user]] skill.

!Body Part!!Clothing!!Weight!!Block!![[Cloth|Fiber]]/[[Silk]]!![[Leather]]!![[Bone]]!![[Shell]]!![[Metal]]!![[Wood]]!![[Size]]!![[Armor#Size, Permit, and layering armor|Permit]]!!Layer

|rowspan="5"|Head||Cap||10||20||Clothes||Clothes|| || ||Leather|| ||10||15||Over

|rowspan="12"|Upper Body||Dress||10||3/3||Clothes||Clothes|| || || || ||10||50||Under

|Backpack*||10|| || || || || || || ||50||200||Cover

|Quiver*||10|| || || || || || || ||30||200||Cover

|rowspan="4"|Hands||Gloves||10||60||Clothes||Clothes|| || || || ||10||10||Under

|Gauntlets[S]||25||60|| || ||Chain||Chain||Chain|| ||20||15||Armor

Some clothing articles may not be crafted in fortresses of a given [[civilization]] - only those items marked as 'common' for that civilization may be crafted.

The "weight" figure is for items made of stone or metal - see the [[weight]] article for more information. Note that certain items (such as Leather Armor) cannot be made of metal, so their weights will always be half that listed in the table.  

In '''[[adventurer mode]]''', the permit of each garment is checked at the time it is put on, which allows you to put on several cloaks (permit 150) on top of several layers of armor.  In [[fortress mode]], the lowest "permit" value for any given body part is used: for instance, if a dwarf is wearing a dress (permit 50) and a total of 50 or more ''size'' worth of clothing on the upper body, it cannot put any more clothing on the upper body.  This explains why [[dungeon master]]s tend to wear several cloaks: they arrive at the fortress wearing only a cloak on the upper body (permit 150), and can put on a total of 10 of them, at 15 size each.

Beware! Dwarves can not wear any armor that is named 'large', 'narrow' or 'small' ([[elf|elves]]', [[goblin]]s',[[kobold]]s') (except [[large rat]] leather armor). Human and goblin metal armor can be melted down and made into dwarf-scale gear, however.

Creating plate mail requires three [[bar]]s of metal to [[forge]]. Chain mail and greaves require two bars. All other metal armor requires one bar per piece. Note that making gauntlets or boots will always produce a pair (a left and right gauntlet, or two boots) from one bar of metal. A full suit of leather armor requires four leather pieces to manufacture, a full suit of chain armor requires six metal bars, and a full suit of plate armor requires eight metal bars. This does not include shields.

Depending on the type and material, different specific [[labor]]s and [[workshop]]s are needed to make similar items of armor, and different [[skill]]s will apply. While items of [[clothing]] made by a [[clothes maker]] aren't technically "armor", they do offer limited protection. Shell and bone armors are made by a [[bone carver]] at a [[craftsdwarf's workshop]]. Chain mail and plate mail are made by an [[armorsmith]] at a [[metalsmith's forge]]. Leather armors are made at a [[leather works]] by a dwarf with the [[leatherworking]] labor enabled. The type of [[metal]] used affects the effectiveness of the armor, but all leather, bones and shells are equal in their protection multiplier (see table below). Higher skilled craftsdwarves, leatherworkers and armorers will, on average, produce items of higher [[quality]], that increases the effectiveness of the armor.

|  [[Adamantine]] || 500

|  [[Steel]] || 133

|  [[Iron]] || 100

|  [[Bronze]] || 75

|  [[Copper]] || 66

| Other ([[leather]], [[cloth]], [[bone]], [[shell]], [[wood]], etc.) || 50

[[Quality|Item quality]] increases its protection (or damage, in the case of [[weapons]]) in a fairly straightforward manner - a masterwork item is twice as good as a base-quality item, and the multipliers for other quality levels are distributed evenly.

! [[Copper]]

! [[Bronze]]

! [[Iron]]

! [[Steel]]

So at a glance we can see that even a no-quality steel item is the equivalent to the best copper item possible, and that no copper item will ''ever'' be as good as a +fine iron+ one. ''(It is not known whether [[artifact]] quality items have ''additional'' modifiers above and beyond "masterpiece" level.)''

[[Adamantine]] items start at a multiplier of 5.00 for no-quality items, and skyrocket from there - a piece of masterwork adamantine armor provides 10 times as much protection as base-quality iron, but good luck actually producing one (outside of a [[strange mood]]) before the "[[too deep]]" ending occurs...

Shields and bucklers come in all the same material flavours as armor, but offer a slightly different form of protection. While armor absorbs some of the damage from all successful attacks, a shield provides complete protection from some attacks. In [[Adventure Mode]], a successful block may also grant the defender an immediate free counterattack. Bucklers weigh less than shields, but also provide less protection.

Shields offer a unique bonus, a chance for an instantaneous deflection.  Shields provide a 20% chance of total deflection, while bucklers provide a 10% chance of deflection.  This chance of deflection is then altered by the wielder's [[Shield user]] skill, although the exact mechanics are unknown.

To tell a [[dwarf]] to wear armor in Fortress Mode, {{k|v}}iew the dwarf, go to {{k|p}}references, then {{k|s}}oldiering.  There you can select the highest level of armor he should wear: clothes, leather, chain, or plate.  Shield level is selected separately.  You can also set the armor level for many dwarves at once on the {{k|m}}ilitary screen, under {{k|w}}eapons.

Upgrading a civilian dwarf's armor level will not take effect unless they are activated as soldiers.  Civilians will not wear armor other than [[clothing]], except for those given the [[Ambusher|Hunting]] [[labor]] (provided their armor level is set above "clothing").  This will, however, cause them to go out into the wilderness and hunt any wild animal they encounter.

If you set dwarves' armor level above their current set of armor (for instance, 'plate' when they are wearing chain armor), they will replace their current armor level and use armor of the better armor level when it is available. Similarly, when set to 'shield' they may pick up a buckler, but switch on their own to a shield as soon as one becomes available. Unfortunately, dwarves do not make a distinction between different [[materials]] or [[quality|item qualities]], so if they are already wearing a [[helm]] (of, say, copper), they will not pick up a steel helm, as they are of the same armor level.

The solution is to set the dwarf's armor level to 'clothes', so that they drop their armor altogether, then station them standing on top of the pieces of armor you want them to wear (typically located on an armor [[stockpile]] or still in the [[forge]]) and set their armor to the desired level again.  Hopefully you can get them to complete the operation without wandering off to find a set of civilian clothes to wear first.  A similar technique can be used to get dwarves to change [[weapons]] as well (from an iron short [[sword]] to an [[obsidian]] one, for instance). This can be effectively managed by using the ['''q'''] tool to edit stockpiles to store only certain kinds of item materials. You could, for instance, keep a Stockpile of bone and wood [[bolt]]s as well as silver weapons behind a door near the [[barracks]], so you can lock up the crappy stuff when the [[goblins]] are at the door.

Sometimes dwarves will ignore the armor they are standing on top of, and go put on the armor they had just removed.  The best way to avoid this is to get rid of the inferior armor, either by [[chasm]]ing it, [[melt]]ing it (if metal), or [[trading]] it away.  This may take some time to carry out, meaning you must leave some of your soldiers at "clothing" armor level for a while until the unwanted pieces are disposed of).  Keep in mind when melting armor pieces that only about 30% of the metal is recovered, so you should avoid making excess quantities with your most precious metal (steel, generally) unless you have a [[legendary]] armorsmith.

Heavy armor can reduce dwarves' [[speed]], especially when they wear several pieces.  Being [[attributes|Strong]] will reduce this problem, as will [[Armor user]] skill (gained by fighting or sparring in armor).  Extremely Strong dwarves can generally wear a complete suit of plate armor without being burdened.  Armor User at "Expert" level is also generally enough to eliminate the burden of a full suit of plate, even for a dwarf without any Strength attribute. Experiment in adventure mode in order to find out more how this system works.

As an emergency measure, a dwarf who is about to be [[justice|hammered]] can be turned into a [[military]] recruit and set to "Plate" armor level; if they manage to don the suit before being captured, it will reduce the damage they take.

* You may also find them with other stray items in one or both hands, such as an extra gauntlet or a pair of leggings, as a result of [[wrestler|wrestling]].  This will make them unable to use their shield or weapon.  Switch them to "clothes" armor level until they drop everything, then back to plate to force them to dress themselves properly.