Barding

Animal Gear

Price: ×4
Weight: ×2

Description

Barding is a type of armor that covers the head, neck, chest, body, and possibly legs of a horse or other mount. Barding made of medium or heavy armor provides better protection than light barding, but at the expense of speed. Barding can be made of any of the armor types found in the Armor and Shields article.

Armor for a horse (or other Large non-humanoid creature) costs four times as much as armor for a human (a Medium humanoid creature) and also weighs twice as much. If the barding is for a pony or other Medium mount, the price is only double, and the weight is the same as for Medium armor worn by a humanoid. Medium or heavy barding slows a mount that wears it, as shown on the table below.

Flying mounts can’t fly in medium or heavy barding.

Removing and fitting barding takes five times as long as normal (see Getting Into and Out of Armor in the Armor and Shields article). A barded animal cannot be used to carry any load other than a rider and normal saddlebags.

Barding	Speed (40 ft base)	Speed (50 ft base)	Speed (60 ft base)
Light armor	40 ft.	50 ft.	60 ft.
Medium armor	30 ft.	35 ft.	40 ft.
Heavy armor	30 ft.*	35 ft.*	40 ft.*

*A mount wearing heavy armor moves at only triple its normal speed when running instead of quadruple.