Post/Author/DateTime

Post

Jack Daniel 05-08-04, 10:54 AM

In trying to come up with a better way to combine defense bonus and DR, I hit upon the idea of leaving the defense bonus in the book to unarmored characters only -- make it work just like the monk's AC bonus, so wearing armor disables it. That's nearly what the sidebar in UA suggests, but that same part of the book raises another concern: as characters level, DR becomes less useful against creatures that deal high damage than AC would. This is compounded by the fact that I'm using low massive damage threshold. So, I figured, why not advance the ACs of armored characters in order to offset the lessening advantage of DR as time goes on? I made the progression slower, 1 point per 5 levels rather than per 3 levels, since characters can always get magic armor, but still, armored characters should be able to improve their ability to dodge, parry, or generally defend themselves, the same as unarmored characters. UNARMORED DEFENSE A B C D =============================== 1st +2 +3 +4 +6 2nd +2 +3 +4 +6 3rd +3 +4 +5 +7 4th +3 +4 +5 +7 5th +3 +4 +5 +7 6th +4 +5 +6 +8 7th +4 +5 +6 +8 8th +4 +5 +6 +8 9th +5 +6 +7 +9 10th +5 +6 +7 +9 ... ......+1/3 levels...... The unarmored defense bonuses are the same as the ones in UA, but I reorganize them a little by class. I move the cleric down to column C, the druid down to colmn B, and the bard and ranger up to C. ARMORED DEFENSE Level A B C D ============================== 1st +1 +2 +3 +4 2nd +1 +2 +3 +4 3rd +1 +2 +3 +4 4th +1 +2 +3 +4 5th +2 +3 +4 +5 6th +2 +3 +4 +5 7th +2 +3 +4 +5 8th +2 +3 +4 +5 9th +2 +3 +4 +5 10th +3 +4 +5 +6 ... ......+1/5 levels...... Column A is used by anyone wearing cloth or leather. Column B is used by characters wearing studded leather, hide, chain shirt, or scale mail. Column C is used by characters in chainmail, breastplate, splint mail, or banded mail. Column D is used for half plate and full plate.