Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25159376-20140315221615/@comment-25345260-20140505213428

SsVivid wrote:

Cloth may or may not have any special effects at all. It's possible that the use of compostable materials, like cotton or silk, facilitate the weaving of magic, but by my conjecture it seems much more likely that cloth in general is both more comfortable (for those who don't need to wear armor) and much more receptive to magical enchantments and buffs than metal or leather. So, the particular effectiveness of a cloth garment could vary radically depending on the exact enchantment on it, if there is one at all. It could be enchanted with anything between a powerful blow-stunting resistance that softens anything short of a direct stab to a completely offensive boost that helps the mage power up his spells stronger and faster. Cloth actually makes for fairly interesting armour, if you look at the designs of it.

The video to the left of this is a test of a Gambeson against arrows. Gambesons were typically worn under plate armour, acting as padding to prevent chafing. Though hot and itchy, they were effective in stopping arrows. They were also worn on their own, in cases where the knight was in a hurry, training, or just casual protection for a stroll.

Comparatively, we also have the Greek Cloth armour, the Linothorax. Linothorax is flax-linen, layed up to 8 to 18 layers with glue in between. As demonstrated, it stops arrows fairly well, enough that even if you bleed, you will live. The cost to make a Linothorax cuirass over a traditional bronze one was a deciding factor in it's use as Bronze became more difficult to find in Greece.

Both designs show qualities of hybrid armour. Not metal, and therefore do not conduct Magic extremely well. Not a single layer, so it isn't easy to slice or shoot through. Overall, they're not great at any one thing. Just an all-around light, cheap armour.