How would samurai armor be classified? Scale? Banded? Splint?

[Legacy_Neverwinter_Knight77]

               It's really hard for me to tell.  When you research armor online, obviously, not everything is classified as simply as in a game.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Dante2377]

               Well most of it would be a mixture of somewhere between leather and chain with respect to NWN armor class groups.  Something heavier like a laced armor would have been pretty rare.  I'd say the average samurai armor is probably a 4/4 (base/max dex) or 5/2 set.  There were also ceremonial armors used different from everyday armors...
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               D&D actually breaks down and falls apart when you introduce non-western armor, weapons and tactics.

But I created an armor called lamellar in our module to simulate the kind of armor you are talking about. Its not the same thing, but fills the same niche. I'd say the kinds of Japanese armours you see can be approximated between studded leather and breast plate. But the only way I get it to work properly is to add damage resistance against certain kinds of damage to all base armours (DR versus bludgeon, slashing, piercing with each type of armour having a different mix).
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MagicalMaster]

               Why do you need to know?

That's a serious question.  If your goal is to have samurai LOOKING armor intended for strength based characters, in NWN you want it to be full plate.  If it's for dexterity based characters, it should honestly probably be leather initially and then transition to padded armor and then cloth at higher levels.

If you DON'T do that then most likely no one will ever use your armor.  Game mechanics trump fashion sense.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_PLUSH HYENA of DOOM]

               Most armours of the Sengoku Jidai, which is what most in the west are familiar with when they consider "samurai" armour, were, in terms of classification, near impossible to place under a single heading. Some of the lacquered materials used wouldn't really have a straight counterpart in standard NWN descriptions anyway.
"Leather" can be anything between what your jacket is made of to hardened, lacquered plate which, if well made, can provide significant protection, so it's a pretty vague term and might therefore be the best. Ashigaru soldiers had cloth, for the most part, usually with only a cuirass and greaves (to use western terms) of lacquered leather or such...
In terms of classifying it in a NWN Module, it's just a practical choice, as Magical Master noted, based on what you want the armour to do and be. In other words, forget the exact materials and think "heavy" or "light" and work from there. (As opposed to cumbersome, medieval full-plate armour of the kind that requires a knight to be winched onto his long-suffering steed because he can't move worth a damn, then I'd see Japanese armours, even the strongest and most ornate, as definitely being light).

That's without querying whether it might be Arcane Samurai Armour with all manner of ethereal attributes which will again alter its categorization and probably make it go a silly colour.

(In my own Modules, I tend to classify all armours and weapons more by the place and culture of origin than the type - Eg:- Pretty much all Aradanth armour is chainmail though styles and types vary considerably. If you're introducing samurai-type armour for a certain race, city or whatever in a Module, you could try simply classifying it by those criteria; players may then wish to collect matching armour and weapons for that culture if they choose to side with them or just like their style, etc).

PS:- To answer your specific question specifically, using the specific three words you specifically gave, then I'd call samurai armour "banded".
               
               

               

                     Modifié par PLUSH HYENA of DOOM, 07 décembre 2013 - 12:26 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_metatheurgist]

               Oriental Adventures has D&D stats for some Japanese armors.

Ashigaru armor +3 +5
Lamellar +5 +3
Great Armor +7 +2 (samurai armor)

The rules deviate a bit from standard D&D where you can add extra pieces to Great Armor at extra cost for protection.

There's more rules and armor types in the book.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Pstemarie]

               Check out this link for a brief, but well-written evolutionary history of Japanese armor...

www.myarmoury.com/feature_jpn_armour.html

From its description in the above reference, lamellar armor would probably best equate to banded armor due to its construction and the materials used. 
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Pstemarie, 07 décembre 2013 - 11:09 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Neverwinter_Knight77]

               

Pstemarie wrote...

Check out this link for a brief, but well-written evolutionary history of Japanese armor...

www.myarmoury.com/feature_jpn_armour.html

From its description in the above reference, lamellar armor would probably best equate to banded armor due to its construction and the materials used. 

This is kind of what I figured.