SCALE MAIL

This is a coat of  soft leather covered with  overlapping pieces of  metal,
much like the scales of a  fish.  It is  just as heavy as  chain mail,  but
offers slightly worse protection.  It has no  significant  advantages  over 
hide or brigandine armor.

Scale mail is an old type of armor,  much like splint mail. It never became
popular in western medieval culture for very long; its production was found 
to be  too time-consuming and thus less efficient  to make in comparison to 
other armor types. 

In real world comparison,  Scale mail is most common in  Dark Age  periods,
in foreign cultures,  or  in those areas where  its materials are unusually 
plentiful.

Some  human cultures,  notably those similar  to the  Byzantines and  other 
eastern and southern kingdoms,  did not pursue the evolution of  armor made
of large plates, but rather chose to make use of small plates.  Where metal
is not forged but is instead cut from sheets of malleable  metal ores,  the 
technology of scale mail and its successors (splint, brigandine, and banded 
armor) predominates.

This is not a matter of primitive versus civilized, but rather two separate
approaches to the same problem.  Where western cultures stress  protection, 
eastern  cultures seek to maximize  flexibility  (and  ventilation  in  the 
hotter climates).

The scales in  scale armor are made smaller in order to make the  suit more
flexible and comfortable when worn. Indeed, in this respect, scale mail far 
exceeds either plate or banded mail.

However,  all those  scales  require  more maintenance,  as the more  items
attached to an armor's backing,  the greater the chance some will fall off. 
Scale armor  not  properly  maintained  loses  one  level  of  armor  class 
protection.

Scale mail suffers the same problems of dirt,  grime,  lice,  and odor that 
studded leather and padded armor suffer.

Scale mail  does  offer protection  as good as that of  brigandine for  the 
same price and at a comparable weight.  The choice between  scale mail  and 
brigandine armor is  likely to be  determined by the nature of the culture.

Slot(s):                                head, neck, torso, legs, feet,
                                        arms, hands
Size:                                   large

Protection against:
 cut                                    very good
 stab                                   very good
 bash                                   excellent
 other                                  very good

List by type: banded plate, battlesuit, chain mail, elfin chain mail, field plate, full plate, mail coat, mail shirt, o-yoroi, padded armour, robe, robes, scale mail, shirt, sleeved coat, sleeved mail coat, splint mail and studded armour.