Can the Druid Wood Shape and Ironwood spells be used to create armor?

Question

A player in my group is trying to figure out the logistics of creating armor by using a combination of Wood Shape and Ironwood.

Is it possible the he could create a Darkwood Breastplate out of a chunk (whatever the appropriate size chunk would be...) of Darkwood using Wood Shape? If so, would there be any associated cost / crafting duration / penalties?

Wood Shape

Ironwood

Answer 1

It implies under the above link for Wood Shape that things can only be made crudely, and armor is something that in general an adventure doesn't want to take chances on. You can certainly allow them to make armor that way, but I think they'd likely be taking penalties (either GM- fiat'd, or if they exist, rules for crude or improvised armor).

You could also include a craft check, in place of the Wood Shape spell, to craft the device from wood in the first place, and then cast Ironwood on it to harden it... but again, explicitly under the spell, Ironwood only last for a day a level. You'd probably want to keep close track of that as a GM, because it could be hilarious/tragic if their armor turned to normal wood mid-combat.

Answer 2

Yes, you can.

It is a case explicitly stated in the Ironwood spell's text.

[...] Using this spell with wood shape or a wood-related Craft check, you can fashion wooden items that function as steel items. Thus, wooden plate armor and wooden swords can be created that are as durable as their normal steel counterparts. These items are freely usable by druids. [...]

So a relevant skill check is required. The most relevant skill among those listed in the manual is Craft (armor). Being the list of craft skills not exhaustive, I think that Craft (woodcarving), Craft (woodchanting) or other wood related skill could be reasonable.

The check - as per the Craft (armor) skill (see table) - has a DC = 10 + AC bonus. That is: 16 for a breastplate.

However, as already stated by Rhylok, Ironwood has a limited duration. So, if you're going to make a magic wood armor (with a bonus higher than the enhancement +1 bonus the spell itself provides), you should cast it over and over. Sadly, the spell is not listed among the ones naively susceptible to Permanency, but you could ask your GM. With his/her allowance, it would cost 15'000 gp to be rendered everlasting, and will require a Sorcerer or Wizard with a minimum caster level of 14.