Composite Laminate Armor

[Celedwyn]

Wall of Stone indicates that a 5x5 square of stone has Hardness 8 and 15 hp per inch of thickness, while Wall of Iron says that such a square of iron has Hardness 10 and 30 hp per inch of thickness.

Therefore a sheet of Iron 1/30th of an inch thick has 1 hp and 10 Hardness, while 1/15th inch of stone has 1 hp and 8 Hardness.

When an attack breaks through one layer of a wall, the hardness of the subsequent layer is taken off the breakthrough damage before being applied to the next layer.

A wall of 10 slices of stone sandwiched between 10 sheets of iron is an inch thick, has 20 hp, and a semi ablative damage hardness of 180. It is Fully capable of stopping a 200 damage attack before being destroyed, but is somewhat vulnerable to weaker attacks. If a single attack does 11 damage, it will break the first layer, exposing those behind it, dropping the stats to 19hp; hardness 170. If one attack does at least 20 damage, it breaks through the first 2 layers, etc. etc.

Manufacture:

• Cast Fabricate to turn a pile of Iron into 20 gauge sheets
• Slather a very thin layer of mud onto the backs of the sheets
• Press the sheets together, with the mud in between
• If the Armoring is destined for a use with a curved facing, such as a ship hull, flex the sheet metal mud thing into an appropriate shape.
• Cast transmute mud to rock on the composite

a ninth level wizard can Fabricate enough sheet metal for 8 5x5 panels with one casting.
A single transmute mud to rock can cover 960 of these panels per level
if you use wall of Iron for raw materials, one casting supplies 36 panels at lvl 9.

Benifits:
Non magical, can't be dispelled
made with cheap materials
permanent
high damage resistance
can be moved, unlike a wall of force.
appears as a normal iron plate.
successive layers grant protection from rusting.
use gm fiat against him. if he says that shatter affects the whole thing, then make whole should repair the whole thing, including layers already lost. if the opposite, spells won't have line of effect except on the front layer.
costs no xp

Cons:
Some DM's may not let you take knowledge (Materials Science) or Craft (Composite Armoury)
complicates taking damage quite a bit. (I simplify, and assume every full 10 damage on an attack breaks through 1 layer.)
not as quick as a wall of iron, or as durable as a permanent wall of force

[oslecamo]

The hardness of the armor has no direct relation to how well it protects you. You could make it out of indestructible unobtainum and it would still offer the same protection as second-grade iron. In particular because the whole D&D AC is that an attack that gets trough usually means the attacker found a chink on the armor, not that it broke trough it (your armor doesn't get damage when you do after all).

Not to mention something as an adamantine weapon or stone dragon maneuver that ignores hardness easily punches trough it.

Science-wise, you also need something to hold the layers togheter, in particular because both stone and metal get extremely fragile at such low tickness. It would probably wear down and break just from your movement over time.

[Maat Mons]

I assume this is for building fortresses and stuff.  It's interesting, though still vulnerable to an adamantine weapon.  Of course, I can't think of a cheap wall isn't. 

I'd have probably gone with stone shape and shape metal (Races of Faerun).  They're also castable by a 9th-level wizard, and they don't require craft checks.  The stone metamorphosis spell (Underdark) allows you to get the stones hardness up to 9. 

It strikes me that clerics of Dumathoin are pretty good builders. 

• Fabricate: dwarf 5
• Shape metal: cleric 4
• Stone metamorphosis: cleric 4
• Stone shape: cleric 3
• Wall of iron: metal 5
• Wall of stone: cleric 5

[phaedrusxy]

I assume this is for building fortresses and stuff.  It's interesting, though still vulnerable to an adamantine weapon. 

And Mountain Hammer.

[littha]

And now I want to make a tank... thanks for that.