Master Wade in Denerim's Market District can make amazing drake scale armor if you give him enough drake scales. He seems positively eager to do so.
Walkthrough
The drake scales are found on drakes in the Mountainside Caverns during the quest for the Urn of Sacred Ashes. Slaying six drakes will yield six scales on their corpses. These can then be brought to Wade, at his shop Wade's Emporium, for some rewards.
When talking to Wade you will be given the option to pay Wade for his service. If you choose not to, it will not affect the quality of the drakeskin armor, however it will affect the quality of the dragonscale armor if you choose to have Wade make this for you later.
There are options to pay him extra: 10
to "make it good" (if this is the first commissioned piece), and 20 (if it is the second) in order to make it perfect. If you paid the additional sovereigns for a commissioned Drakeskin piece (first or second), when you give Wade the Dragon Scale he will be able to craft the superior Dragon Scale Armor. If you never pay extra, you will only get the normal version of the Dragon Scale Armor.
Optimum order
In summary, the optimal order is to follow this sequence:
- Give him three Drake Scales and pay 10 to get Wade's Drakeskin Armor
- Hand over the Dragon Scale. This grants you either Wade's Superior Dragonskin Armor, Wade's Superior Heavy Dragonscale Armor, or Wade's Superior Dragonbone Plate Armor, depending on choice.
- Lastly, present three more Drake Scales to get Wade's Superior Drakeskin Armor (shop closes).
Rewards
Wade's Drakeskin armor set and 5 XP
Wade's Superior Drakeskin armor set and 15 XP
Notes
- You can get the Drakeskin Armor, use its fire resistance property to help defeat the High dragon.
- Herren will close the shop once the second Drake Scale Armor is being commissioned.
- Be sure only to commission Wade's Superior Drakeskin armor set after beating three of the storyline quests, as Wade's Emporium will have new stock, which you would otherwise miss out on.
- Paying extra for both sets of Drakeskin Armor will not stop Herren from closing the shop.
- It is possible to end up with more drake scales than are needed for this quest. They serve no further purpose and may be sold.
Bugs
Sometimes the final three drake scales will not drop until the first three have been turned in, this requires the player return to Denerim before killing the final three drakes.- If you ask Wade about the cost of making the first suit of armor (after presenting the Drake Scales to him), Herren will always refer to the Warden as a male.