Leatherworking
Leatherworking covers the preparation, curing, shaping, stitching, hardening, lining, and finishing of hides, skins, furs, scales, shells, chitin, membranes, sinew, gut, and similar creature-derived materials in the Andórë Crafting System.
Leather is used for armor, straps, packs, pouches, sheaths, scabbards, bindings, grips, saddles, harnesses, tents, cloaks, boots, waterskins, shield coverings, book covers, drumheads, flexible joints, and countless practical goods.
In ACS, leather is not cataloged by every possible animal or monster. Instead, leather quality is based on the potency of the creature it came from, while the material’s form determines what it is suitable for.
A wolf hide, hydra scale, ankheg chitin plate, dragon wing membrane, and basilisk skin are not the same material. But they can all be handled by the same basic rules.
Leather Use in Recipes¶
Most mundane recipes care about the material’s form and suitability rather than its exact source.
A recipe that calls for common leather may use ordinary tanned hide, cured skin, suede, rawhide, fur-backed leather, or another appropriate worked material unless the recipe says otherwise.
A recipe should name a specific source only when the identity matters.
For example:
- dragon scale mail requires dragon scales;
- a cloak made from phase spider silk requires actual phase spider silk;
- boots made from displacer beast hide may require that specific hide;
- a shield covered in ankheg chitin requires rigid chitin plates, not soft leather;
- a fire-resistant mantle may require hide from a creature associated with fire resistance.
Leather quality determines whether the material can support a recipe of a given rarity.
Leather identity determines special properties.
In short:
Leather quality determines crafting tier.
Leather identity determines form and special properties.
Crafting Units¶
A crafting unit is one usable quantity of prepared material suitable for item-scale crafting.
For leatherworking, a crafting unit might be:
- one prepared hide;
- a bundle of treated scales;
- a set of chitin plates;
- a cured pelt;
- a preserved membrane;
- a quantity of sinew, gut, or tendon;
- or another worked creature-derived material.
The exact physical form depends on the source creature and the recipe.
A single crafting unit is usually enough for one major crafting use, such as a cloak, armor base, shield covering, saddle, harness, large binding, or several smaller goods.
Unless otherwise noted, one crafting unit of hide, fur, scale, shell, chitin, or similar worked creature material weighs 10 pounds before final crafting.
Material Quality¶
Crafting units of hide, skin, fur, scale, shell, chitin, membrane, and similar materials use the same potency scale as creature harvesting and essence.
The creature’s CR determines the maximum quality of crafting units normally harvested from it.
| Source Creature CR | Potency | Leather Quality | Typical Crafting Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0–2 | Minor | ★ Common | Common magic items, mundane gear, ordinary armor, simple bindings |
| 3–6 | Lesser | ★★ Uncommon | Uncommon magic items, durable monster gear, reinforced armor |
| 7–12 | Potent | ★★★ Rare | Rare magic items, dangerous monster armor, specialized protective gear |
| 13–18 | Greater | ★★★★ Very Rare | Very Rare magic items, elite armor, planar or legendary-grade craft bases |
| 19+ | Mythic | ★★★★★ Legendary | Legendary magic items, unique relic-grade leatherwork |
Leather quality does not make the material magical by itself.
A hydra’s hide may be Potent quality because it comes from a CR 8 creature, but that does not mean every strip of hydra hide contains distilled magical essence. It means the material is tough, rare, dangerous to acquire, and suitable for higher-tier crafting if the recipe can use it.
If the hide, scale, shell, chitin, or membrane is itself magically significant, the DM may also treat it as a raw magical component.
Mundane and Magical Leather¶
Leather materials fall into two broad categories.
Mundane Leather¶
Mundane leather includes ordinary hide, fur, scale, shell, chitin, feathers, and similar materials that are useful because of their physical properties.
Examples include:
- bear hide;
- wolf pelt;
- giant boar leather;
- crocodile skin;
- mundane serpent scales;
- ordinary shell;
- nonmagical chitin;
- fur suitable for cold-weather gear.
Mundane leather is useful for crafting, trade, armor, clothing, containers, and survival goods, but it does not produce magical essence unless the creature itself has supernatural traits.
Magical Leather¶
Magical leather is hide, scale, shell, chitin, membrane, or skin that retains supernatural significance.
Examples include:
- dragon scales;
- basilisk hide;
- displacer beast skin;
- phase spider silk;
- ankheg chitin;
- remorhaz hide;
- celestial skin;
- fiendish hide;
- fey-touched fur;
- undead flesh preserved by necromancy.
Magical leather retains its identity as a raw component.
It may be used directly in recipes that call for that material. It may also contain essence if the DM assigns part of the creature’s magical yield to that material.
Forms of Leather Material¶
Hide and Skin¶
Hide and skin are flexible materials used for armor, clothing, containers, grips, bindings, boots, saddles, harnesses, and coverings.
Common hide is easy to work but offers little special protection. Monster hide may be unusually thick, elastic, resistant, slick, spined, luminous, cold to the touch, warm to the touch, or otherwise distinctive.
Fur and Pelt¶
Fur and pelt are hide with hair, wool, bristle, or similar growth preserved.
They are most useful for warmth, padding, cloaks, bedding, disguise, trophy goods, insulation, and weather-resistant garments.
Fur is usually less suitable for precise bindings or hardened armor unless shaved, split, or backed with another material.
Scales¶
Scales are overlapping plates attached to skin.
They are useful for scale armor, shield coverings, reinforced clothing, protective mantles, and items that require layered defense.
Scales usually count as scales, shell, chitin, or thick hide for harvesting difficulty.
Dragon scales, basilisk scales, hydra scales, and similar materials may also matter as specific raw components.
Shell and Chitin¶
Shell and chitin are rigid or semi-rigid external structures.
They are useful for shields, armor plates, helmets, bracers, splints, containers, cases, saddles, and reinforced panels.
Shell and chitin are usually shaped more like armor material than soft leather. Leatherworker’s Tools may prepare, drill, bind, back, pad, and stitch them, but Smith’s Tools, Carpenter’s Tools, or Tinker’s Tools may assist when the material must be riveted, framed, hinged, or fitted into a rigid structure.
Membrane and Wing Leather¶
Membrane includes wing skin, fin webbing, throat sacs, gliding membranes, and similar thin flexible tissues.
It is useful for cloaks, sails, bellows, drumheads, waterproofing, flexible containers, ritual coverings, and items involving flight, gliding, concealment, sound, or air movement.
Membrane is delicate. The DM may increase the harvesting DC if it is torn, burned, pierced, or dried out before preservation.
Sinew, Gut, and Tendon¶
Sinew, gut, tendon, and similar connective tissue are not leather, but they are often processed by leatherworkers.
They are useful for bowstrings, stitching, lashings, bindings, drum tensioning, traps, snares, surgical thread, reinforced seams, and flexible internal supports.
These materials usually support a leatherworking recipe rather than replacing a leather unit by themselves.
Harvesting Leather Materials¶
Use the normal rules in Creature Harvesting.
As a quick reference:
| Material Being Harvested | Harvest Modifier |
|---|---|
| Fur, common hide | -2 |
| Scales, shell, chitin, thick hide | +1 |
A character harvesting hide, skin, fur, scales, shell, chitin, membrane, or sinew may use Leatherworker’s Tools if the DM agrees the tool proficiency is more relevant than the default creature-type skill.
This does not replace the need for a sharp knife, saw, scraper, hook, frame, salt, wrapping, or suitable containers. It represents knowing where to cut, how to avoid ruining the material, how to remove connective tissue, and how to preserve the material before it decays.
Preservation and Tanning¶
Fresh hide is not finished leather.
A harvested leather unit must be preserved, cured, tanned, scraped, softened, hardened, oiled, stretched, smoked, salted, waxed, or otherwise prepared before it can be used in most crafting.
Field Preservation¶
A character proficient with Leatherworker’s Tools may field-preserve a leather unit during travel or rest if they have basic supplies such as salt, ash, oil, wax, smoke, cord, scraping tools, or drying space.
Field preservation keeps the material usable until proper tanning or crafting can occur.
The DM may require a check if the material is delicate, supernatural, badly damaged, oversized, toxic, acidic, burning, freezing, cursed, or otherwise dangerous.
Tanning and Finishing¶
Tanning turns raw hide into stable worked leather.
As a default, a character proficient with Leatherworker’s Tools can tan and finish 1 leather unit per workday in a suitable workspace.
The DM may adjust this for:
- very large hides;
- especially thick scales;
- rigid shell or chitin;
- delicate membranes;
- magical contamination;
- poor tools;
- lack of water, salt, oil, smoke, or space;
- or the need to preserve supernatural properties.
Once properly cured or tanned, ordinary leather does not quickly spoil under normal travel conditions.
Using Leather in Magic Items¶
Leather may serve as:
- the physical body of an item;
- a flexible binding;
- a protective covering;
- an armor base;
- a grip;
- a strap;
- a sheath;
- a container;
- a symbolic skin or boundary;
- or a raw magical component.
When a recipe calls for leather of a specific quality, any suitable leather of that quality or higher may be used unless the recipe names a specific source.
When a recipe names a specific source, the source matters.
For example:
“1 unit of ★★★ leather” may be satisfied by any suitable Potent-quality hide, scale, shell, chitin, or skin.
“1 unit of young blue dragon scales” requires young blue dragon scales or a substitution approved by the DM.
Distilled essence does not replace raw leather unless the recipe allows it. Essence provides magical principle. Leather provides physical form.
Substitution Guidelines¶
A higher-quality leather may usually replace a lower-quality leather if its form fits the item.
For example:
- Lesser owlbear hide can replace common leather in a reinforced cloak.
- Potent hydra scale can replace lesser monster scale in armor if the crafter can work it.
- Greater fiendish hide can replace potent monster hide in a fearsome mantle if the item can tolerate its nature.
The DM may reject a substitution if the material works against the recipe.
For example:
- rigid chitin may not replace soft leather in gloves;
- fur may not replace waterproof membrane;
- undead skin may be unsuitable for a healing item;
- fiendish hide may be unsuitable for a holy vestment;
- slick serpent skin may be poor for weapon grips unless treated.
Common Leatherworking Uses¶
| Item Type | Common Material |
|---|---|
| Backpacks, pouches, straps, belts | Common leather, hide, or skin |
| Waterskins | Treated hide, bladder, membrane, waxed leather |
| Sheaths and scabbards | Leather with wood or metal reinforcement |
| Light armor | Hide, leather, scale, chitin, or layered cured skin |
| Shield coverings | Thick hide, scale, shell, or chitin |
| Cloaks and mantles | Hide, fur, membrane, silk-like fiber |
| Saddles and harnesses | Thick leather, straps, hide, sinew |
| Book covers and bindings | Fine leather, skin, membrane, treated hide |
| Grips and wraps | Soft leather, ray skin, lizard skin, cured hide strips |
| Tents and panels | Hide, waxed leather, fur-backed hide, membrane |
Final Rule¶
Leather remembers the creature’s surface.
Metal carries structure. Wood carries growth. Gems carry clarity.
Leather carries contact: what touched the world, what endured the blow, what kept the creature alive, hidden, warm, armored, terrible, or strange.
Use leather when the item needs a body that bends but does not break.