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General Tabletop Discussion
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Why would a "modern" fantasy world with firearms still have swords and plate mail?
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<blockquote data-quote="Atticus_of_Amber" data-source="post: 163256" data-attributes="member: 2683"><p>When firearms first appeared, soldiers still wore armor, though lighter armor. See the standard breastplate of the British Civil War era soldiers.</p><p></p><p>(Note that the biggest danger to modern bullet proof vest and helmet wearing SWAT-style police is not firarms, but bladed weapons. They are almost totally vulnerable to this sort of melee attack (their armor "cushions", it doesn't deflect sharps). And they do a lot of fighting in close quarters like houses...)</p><p></p><p>I think the way it worked was that armor was increasigly useless agains firearms but still very effective against melee weapons. However, the presence of armor also tended to make mobility more important. Thus the balance in the eternal protection/mobility trade-off with armor was changed - armor was suddenly less protective and mobility was suddenly more important, hence the move to lighter armor.</p><p></p><p>Note, however, that armor is probably of *some* use against pre-modern firearms. That's why, IMC, firearms *halve* (round down) the AC bonus of armor.</p><p></p><p>So, imagine a world with late renaissance firarms tech and DnD magic. Firearms are simple weapons that do somewhat better than crossbow damage (say, 1d12/19-20(x3) for muskets and 1d10/19-20 for pistols), have a somewhat smaller range increment than the longbow (until the invention of rifling) and a heavy crossbow's rate of fire; but halve all armor bonuses to AC. </p><p></p><p>Now, remember that the firearms only halve the *armor* bonus, not deflection bonuses. Thus while full plate only gives you a +4 AC bonus, +5 full plate will give you +9. Magic armor is still worth it.</p><p></p><p>In my view, in this imaginary world, there would be a move towards lighter armors, but still, people would wear armor.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Atticus_of_Amber, post: 163256, member: 2683"] When firearms first appeared, soldiers still wore armor, though lighter armor. See the standard breastplate of the British Civil War era soldiers. (Note that the biggest danger to modern bullet proof vest and helmet wearing SWAT-style police is not firarms, but bladed weapons. They are almost totally vulnerable to this sort of melee attack (their armor "cushions", it doesn't deflect sharps). And they do a lot of fighting in close quarters like houses...) I think the way it worked was that armor was increasigly useless agains firearms but still very effective against melee weapons. However, the presence of armor also tended to make mobility more important. Thus the balance in the eternal protection/mobility trade-off with armor was changed - armor was suddenly less protective and mobility was suddenly more important, hence the move to lighter armor. Note, however, that armor is probably of *some* use against pre-modern firearms. That's why, IMC, firearms *halve* (round down) the AC bonus of armor. So, imagine a world with late renaissance firarms tech and DnD magic. Firearms are simple weapons that do somewhat better than crossbow damage (say, 1d12/19-20(x3) for muskets and 1d10/19-20 for pistols), have a somewhat smaller range increment than the longbow (until the invention of rifling) and a heavy crossbow's rate of fire; but halve all armor bonuses to AC. Now, remember that the firearms only halve the *armor* bonus, not deflection bonuses. Thus while full plate only gives you a +4 AC bonus, +5 full plate will give you +9. Magic armor is still worth it. In my view, in this imaginary world, there would be a move towards lighter armors, but still, people would wear armor. [/QUOTE]
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Why would a "modern" fantasy world with firearms still have swords and plate mail?
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