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[AutomataKittay]

Are there benefits to wearing leather clothes rather than cloth?

Leather are slightly cheaper to import than bolts of cloth and threads, assuming it's not a rare one. And you'll already have a leather shop set up if you're making cheap boots, cheap as possible shield, waterskin and quivers, so there're less infrastructure and skill needs.

I've tested out leather and cloth in arena before, most likely around 31. so it may have changed, and leather was slightly better at resisting blunt instruments, but IMO not enough over cloth if you want to make it locally. Either will help dwarves a lot over being naked, though.

[Hyndis]

Your absolute highest priority is to protect the head. This means make helmets out of the best material possible and of the high quality.

Shields should also be made of the highest quality to help with blocking, though shield material doesn't matter as much. Its quite rare that a shield is used to attack things. Material only matters if a dwarf loses hold of their weapon for some reason and is shield bashing.

Then after helmet and shield, protect the torso. Breastplate or chainmail works well.


Protecting the arms and legs is a much lower priority. While dwarves will generally not die from injuries to their extremities, they may be crippled in combat. If a dwarf is knocked out in combat they're helpless to additional attacks. Injuries to the extremities are also easy to patch up in a hospital.

So, the heavy armor would be metal helmet, shield, breastplate. Then after the metal pieces, give them leather leggings, gloves, and boots. That shouldn't weigh down dwarves too much while still providing them decent protection.

Historically, a helmet and breastplate were by far the most common armor set up. The limbs were not protected. It sacrificed some protection in favor of mobility and not tiring the armor wearer or overheating them in hot climates. It still protected the vital organs.

[Sutremaine]

Leather is thought to be the best shock absorber. Its material properties would suggest this, although I don't think there's been much testing done on how much difference this makes practically.

This then begs the question - is the best "realistic" armour set a combination of metal armour and leather clothes e.g. leather trousers, metal greaves etc?

I would say yes. The metal parts of the armour are hard to cut but weaker against blunt attacks, whereas leather is easy to cut but stronger against blunt attacks. Availability of cloth, leather, and silk being equal, leather and metal are the most effective pair and realistically would be the one chosen.

[Noobazzah]

Would a "medium" set consist of metal helm, breastplate and mail shirt, leather leggings and maybe bone gauntlets?

[Joben]

Silk has a really high Shear_Yield, which should theoretically make it hard to cut, but like Sut said for leather and bludgeoning I donno how much practical difference it makes.

IRL layered fabrics work pretty well against slashing and arrows, but DF doesn't seem to simulate that well. I wonder if the raws can be tweaked....I want linen armor.

[Owlbread]

Silk has a really high Shear_Yield, which should theoretically make it hard to cut, but like Sut said for leather and bludgeoning I donno how much practical difference it makes.

IRL layered fabrics work pretty well against slashing and arrows, but DF doesn't seem to simulate that well. I wonder if the raws can be tweaked....I want linen armor.

In that case, could you wear silk and leather undershirts and an adamantine breastplate for maximum protection?