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Bladesinger Boy 02-13-07, 06:04 PM

Armour rules, Shields, Check Penalty New Armour Concept Okay, so this system goes off the idea their that the armour a character wears, instead of a single and undividable suit which descriptorily itself covers unidentical regions, is three possible regions to cover on the body. The central body (torso armour), the lower portions (leg armour), and upperportions not covered by torso armour (arm armour). All qualities of each armour piece stack together, thus now a characters armour bonus to AC is a composite of three different values. Likewise, armour check penalty (which we'll just call check penalty) is added together and the maximum dexterity bonus is also cumulatively lessened. Torso armour always has simply a maximum dexterity score, while leg armour or arm armour has both a maximum dexterity score (if worn individually or without torso armour) and a maximum dexterity penalty (if worn with other armour). Also, I have added in a "material" to denote the type of material used, either Organic or Inorganic and Common or Rare. The first category is important for types like Druids (and perhaps other PrCs; I'm not sure), and the second seemed important for the concern of cost and whether "special materials" (like darkwood, mithril, adamantine, etc) were usable to modify some pieces of armour. Proficency and Armour: Light Armour Proficiency up to +4 armour AC, Small Shields and Bucklers Medium Armour Proficiency up to +6 armour AC, Heavy Shields Heavy Armour Proficiency up to +9 (any) armour AC, Tower Shields Materials: (incomplete) Organic Common: Leather, Wood, Padded, Skins Organic Rare: Darkwood Inorganic Common: Steel, Iron Inorganic Rare: Cold Iron, Adamantine, Mithril Armour: Leather Tabard +1AC max dex +8 check 0 Torso Organic Common 8 lbs Leather Leggings +1AC max dex +8 or -1 check -1 Legs Organic Common 4 lbs Leather Bracers +1AC max dex +8 or -1 check -1 Arms Organic Common 3 lbs Chain Shirt +2AC max dex +7 check -1 Torso Inorganic Common 15 lbs Chain Leggings +2AC max dex +7 or -2 check -2 Legs Inorganic Common 9 lbs Chain Bracers +2AC max dex +7 or -2 check -2 Arms Inorganic Common 6 lbs Breastplate +3AC max dex +6 check -2 Torso Inorganic Common 20 lbs Plated Leggings +3AC max dex +6 or -3 check -3 Legs Inorganic Common 15 lbs Plated Bracers +3AC max dex +6 or -3 check -3 Arms Inorganic Common 10 lbs example #1: Leather Tabard, Leggings, and Bracers +3 AC max dex +6 check -2 uses Torso, Legs, Arms Organic Common 15 lbs example #2: Chain Shirt, Leggings, and Bracers +6AC max dex +3 check -5 uses Torso, Legs, Arms Inorganic Common 30 lbs example #3: Breastplate, Plated Leggings, and Bracers +9AC max dex +0 check -8 uses Torso, Legs, Arms Inorganic Common 45 lbs Buckler, Steel +1AC max dex N/A check -2 Arms Inorganic Common not weapon 5 lbs Small Shield, Steel +1AC max dex N/A check -1 Off-Hand Inorganic Common light weapon d3 bludgeoning (if spiked, d4 piercing) 5 lbs (10 lbs spiked) Heavy Shield, Steel +2AC max dex N/A check -2 Off-Hand Inorganic Common one-handed weapon d4 bludgeoning (if spiked, d6 piercing) 10 lbs (20 lbs spiked) Tower Shield, Steel +3AC max dex N/A check -6 Off-Hand Inorganic Common not weapon 40 lbs Check Penalty An idea I thought went well with this was making armour check penalty, which we'll just call check penalty because it's shorter and other things now cause it than only armour, a penalty inccured by various things. These included the standard armour and shields, but also weight, or perhaps other specific things in the game (like moving around with an awkward item like a delicate statue, or maybe as a distraction mechanic from an intelligent item that is mentally telepathizing the target, or as a mechanic for the temporary effects of exhaustion). Weight & Armour Check Penalty Light Load (nothing to 1/3 carriable weight) 0 check penalty Medium Load (1/3 to 2/3 carriable weight) -3 check penalty Heavy Load (2/3 to full carriable weight) -6 check penalty Total Encumberance 0 to -4 Light Encumberance no penalties (aside from armour check itself) -5 to -9 Medium Encumberance 3/4 speed (rounded down to nearest 5ft), max dex +6 -10 to -19 High Encumberance 1/2 speed, max dex +3 -20 or higher Extreme Encumberance 1/2 speed, max dex +1 Shields It made sense to me to modify shields and how they were used/granted benefits to increase the fact that they were indeed for defense. In my eyes, this meant more than simply an AC boost. So, now a shield bonus to AC is doubled when fighting defensively. This was part of my reason for reducing Tower Shields to +3 AC, as now taking a -4 attack to fight defensively effectively grants the user of a tower shield a +6 shield bonus to AC, a net +3 gain (on top of any existing AC bonuses for fighting defensively, such as the standard +2). As well, though one cannot attack with a tower shield, any shield with spikes on it that can normally attack can become effective against charging opponents. When wielding a spiked small or heavy shield (attackable shield) against a charging opponent, the character may make an attack of opportunity against the charger with that spiked shield.