Dwarf Fortress > DF Gameplay Questions

What are the benefits of leather armor?

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DWARFFRAWD:
It seems to have the advantage of being lightweight,
but it seems useless because it has almost no defense.
 Is it simply used to train when dwarf's armor skills is low?

FourierSeries:
Lessee how well I remember this all.

Leather armor has two meanings in the Dwarf Fortress community.

Informally, generally, it's essentially clothing made of leather. Formally, specifically, it's a breastplate made of leather, and nothing more than that one single armor item. It's a bit confusing if you don't understand what's being referred to.

Generally, leather whatever is better than clothing alone. It's considered relatively easy to mass produce and in higher quality levels in the beginning of your fortress. I suppose it's also a decent trade item. Other than that it's quickly rendered obsolete once you get a proper metal industry and trained armorer set up.

I'll usually throw some leather breastplates on my crossbow dwarfs in the beginning since I'm careful to keep them from charging into melees.

I suspect most players consider it a stopgap at best, and to be discarded as soon as you can.

Tomsod:
Leather has horrible material properties, so leather armor is even less protective than bone, in fact even silk clothing might be stronger than leather (once it was, then it wasn't, now nobody knows if that change was reverted).  It's only useful for training, and to prevent naked tantrums if you can't mass-produce shirts for some reason (being technically armor and not clothing, it won't become worn over time).

anewaname:
If you put most or all "civilian" dwarfs in the military just so their uniform will protect them from the random pond grabber or raven while they are hauling stuff, leather armor is some extra arm and leg protection, and because it is not metal, dwarfs can get a happy thought for wearing it.

Goldbeard:
My unscientific impression is it does something against weaker opponents, I'm just not sure how much. Also keep in mind you can assign it over a metal mail shirt without adding much weight, which again should do something but I'm not sure how much.

What I actually use it for most is in uniforms for my "civilian" military squads. Everyone except miners/woodcutters/hunters gets a squad, just to get them to carry a shield and axe. Then over time I add leather armor, bone greaves, a silk robe and a metal helmet without slowing them too much. But you don't want even the "speedy" metal uniform (i.e. mail but no breastplate) on, say, your stone haulers, the total weight seems to slow them. (Also unscientific impression from fortress play not arena, but I'm pretty sure of this one.)

Possibly I should push harder for bone breastplates instead? Wiki calls leather and bone "roughly equivalent," but it wouldn't be the first time the wiki has been technically accurate but misleading without context.

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