Gladiator Armor

There are three normal types of gladiator armor: Thracian, Gallic, and Samnite.

	Armor Type	Class
	Thracian	9
	Gallic	7
	Samnite	5

They're all made up from several smaller pieces of armor, which include:

		Wgt
Armor Piece	Cost	(lbs)
Belt:
Protective metal
belt at waist	2 gp	5
Cuirass:
Leather or metal
chest plate	50 gp	20
Fasciae:
Leather bands
on legs	10 gp	5
Galea:
Visored Helm	10 gp	5
Galerus:
Shoulder piece
on weapon
shoulder	5 gp	3
Manicae:
Leather sleeve	10 gp	5
Myrrmillo:
Visored helm
resembling
sea fish	10 gp	5

Also used by the gladiators are the parma (a small shield, either square or round) and scutum (an oblong medium shield).

These armor types are named for real-world sites (Thrace, Gaul, and Samnos); if you have gladiators in your campaign, you may want to rename these types according to place-names more appropriate to your setting.

Thracian

The Thracian gladiator wears only fasciae on his legs. This gives him AC 9, or 8 with a shield—and he carries a shield, a parma. In gladiatorial combat, the Thracian gladiator fights only with a dagger. In the field, adventuring, he could use anything he wants.

Gallic

The Gallic gladiator wears the galea, the belt, manica on his weapon arm, and fasciae. This confers an AC of 7. He also carries a scutum, to bring it to a 6. The Gallic gladiator fights with any number of weapons.

Samnite

The most heavily-armored type of gladiator, the Samnite, wears a cuirass, fasciae on his legs, manica on his weapon arm, and the galea helmet. His basic AC is 5, or 4 with the scutum he carries.

Should someone just wear the cuirass, his base AC would be 7.

Table of Contents