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[Josher]

So, while I understand the benefits of having metal armor when confronted with sharp and stabby weapons, how important is it against, say, a troll's fist? Does it help much in preventing broken bones and tissue twisting injuries?

In a similar vein, if my basic setup is: metal helm, metal chainmail, metal gauntlets, metal high boots, bone/leather legwear; does adding leather armor on-top add much protection? What about a metal breastplate (which are very heavy)?

Finally, say I had some candy, but not a lot, and I've already made some nice sharp weapons, what piece of armor would you prioritize with the leftover? I'm thinking chainmail.

[anewaname]

So, while I understand the benefits of having metal armor when confronted with sharp and stabby weapons, how important is it against, say, a troll's fist? Does it help much in preventing broken bones and tissue twisting injuries?

It is still important, but not as much. But if it reduces damage by 10%, that can be enough in some cases.

In a similar vein, if my basic setup is: metal helm, metal chainmail, metal gauntlets, metal high boots, bone/leather legwear; does adding leather armor on-top add much protection? What about a metal breastplate (which are very heavy)?

I have made uniforms where the breastplate and greaves are made of leather and bone (to conserve weight, and to conserve metal). They are very effective against non-weapon-wielding and non-huge creatures. I found a dozen were-creature bites were deflected by bone greaves in a text search of my gamelog, in just that version of DF. I have used leather armor less, but expect it is as effective. Because leather can be in short supply in some forts, I will often skip the leather armor and rely on the mail shirt, but do attempt to use leather armor or a breastplate when possible, because it is "shaped armor", so it can "deflect"; and while I am not certain(Edit:armor does not need to be "shaped" to "deflect"), I suspect that a successful deflection can reduce the amount of blunt force that is carried through the armor and into the tissues of the dwarf, due to a partial redirecting of the force.

Finally, say I had some candy, but not a lot, and I've already made some nice sharp weapons, what piece of armor would you prioritize with the leftover? I'm thinking chainmail.

I do not recall who posted it, but when a similar question was posted, someone recommended candy breastplates, backed by metal mail shirts. The point I took from that post was that the candy breastplate is less likely to be pierced, so a piercing or slashing hit would be converted to blunt force.

[HungThir]

in my experience, leather armor tends to disintegrate after a couple of good hits (and if it gets so damaged that it falls off, that's a Bad Thought too).  if they're already wearing chainmail anyway, i'm not sure i'd bother adding leather armor -- use the leather to make robes/cloaks and hoods for your civilians instead (which may save them from a werecreature bite)

i think (but i'm not sure) that leather armor and a breastplate can't be worn at the same time?

if you don't give your military dwarfs shields at first, they will train Armor User quite quickly once they start sparring.  once they reach Competent, the weight of the breastplate won't matter anymore, and then you can equip them with shields and let them start training Shield User too

i can't remember offhand what difference the armors make wrt sharp vs blunt attacks (i usually just go with "more armour is better"). the wiki is excruciatingly detailed on all these points but it's a lot to take in!

[Lozzymandias]

in my experience, leather armor tends to disintegrate after a couple of good hits (and if it gets so damaged that it falls off, that's a Bad Thought too).  if they're already wearing chainmail anyway, i'm not sure i'd bother adding leather armor -- use the leather to make robes/cloaks and hoods for your civilians instead (which may save them from a werecreature bite)

i think (but i'm not sure) that leather armor and a breastplate can't be worn at the same time?

if you don't give your military dwarfs shields at first, they will train Armor User quite quickly once they start sparring.  once they reach Competent, the weight of the breastplate won't matter anymore, and then you can equip them with shields and let them start training Shield User too

i can't remember offhand what difference the armors make wrt sharp vs blunt attacks (i usually just go with "more armour is better"). the wiki is excruciatingly detailed on all these points but it's a lot to take in!

I've always given them leather armor to begin with, and a metal shield and weapon, as Shield user, weapon skill and dodge seem to do most of the heavy lifting in a fight, and you just get slow dwarves until they have trained up armor user. Having them train without a weapon so as to speed up armor user is not something i considered (cos it means having them relatively helpless till they have and can use their shields) but that may be something i rethink if i can get them in steel faster. Thanks for the idea!

[Sarmatian123]

Leather/bone is good on your weak marksman Guards squad. Both, because they are weak and for crossbow handling.
Still slap them with metal (steel/adamantine) chainmail and helmet for survival sake.

[anewaname]

in my experience, leather armor tends to disintegrate after a couple of good hits (and if it gets so damaged that it falls off, that's a Bad Thought too).

Yes, leather (and bone) can disintegrate after 3 or 4 hits, but I suspect there is no bad thought from the disintegration since it is an "armor" item and armor items do not give good thoughts from wearing them (it is the leather cloaks and hoods that might cause a bad thought when destroyed in combat, and that can give a good thought when worn). This is partially opinion...

[Josher]

So I gave the wiki a quick reread and I guess I missed this part last time I was there which answers some of what I was wondering: "Even adamantine armor only prevents an estimated 13% of blows, demonstrating the utility of the slow but sure war hammer."

So, somewhat protective, but not overwhelmingly so. I wonder what quality armor was used for the tests, though. If done with only regular then having masterworks should offer fairly significant protection against blunt force trauma. I suppose it's all relative to the size/force of the weapon, though.

[therahedwig]

I seem to recall most of these tests were done inside the arena mode, so I think the tester must have tried masterwork quality.

[HungThir]

"preventing 13% of blows" ain't too shabby if you consider that the point of armor isn't to prevent blows (that's what dodging, parrying and a shield are for), it's to help you survive the ones that hit