Armor Degradation

[Falstaff]

Everyone, thanks a lot for your replies and input. After reading over the posts, I think I will tweak this system a little more. I need to incorporate Hardness rules and I like the idea of "if a touch attack hits, then your armor is damaged (if the damage exceeds Hardness of course)".

Keep the ideas coming!

[Henry, thanks and I'll watch where I'm posting in the future]

 

[Vrecknidj]

You don't have to mess with damaging armor and all that. You can, of course, and certainly please do if that's what you're into.

But, you can also use this system for its descriptive assistance. Let's say someone is wearing armor, a ring of prot., and a shield. Let's say his touch AC is 13 and his AC is 22.

If an ogre gets below a 13 on his roll, this gives the DM a bit more info on describing the miss. Perhaps the DM might say "The ogre's club swings wide as you sway back," or "The ogre apparently lost his grip for a moment and his club thunders against the ground at your feet," or whatever.

A 13 to a 21 is another kind of miss; in other words, this one looks like it should hit but "Your armor takes the blow and you keep fighting!" or "The magic of your ring somehow deflects what would surely have been solid contact!" or "The ogre's club falls against your shield, causing you no damage." or whatever.

Dave

 

[Planesdragon]

I need to incorporate Hardness rules and I like the idea of "if a touch attack hits, then your armor is damaged (if the damage exceeds Hardness of course)".

If you would like a copy of the armor rules I've already got, just shoot me an e-mail and I'll send them tonight.

Have you given any thought as to how you'll adjust balance for this new rule? IMC I give PCs defense bonuses which they never lose, which IMO makes up for the additional number of damage they take.

 

[Falstaff]

If you would like a copy of the armor rules I've already got, just shoot me an e-mail and I'll send them tonight.

Have you given any thought as to how you'll adjust balance for this new rule? IMC I give PCs defense bonuses which they never lose, which IMO makes up for the additional number of damage they take.

Sure, send them to me. I appriciate it. And no, I don't think I'll be too worried about balance issues, since the PCs won't be taking any additional damage, just their armor.

I have been working on a modified system, and I'll post it soon.

 

[Falstaff]

Okay guys, I’ve done some tweaking, and here’s what I got…

As per page 166 of the PHB, a suit of chainmail has 25 hit points and a Hardness rating of 10.

When an attack is successful as a touch attack, the armor/shield is struck and suffers any damage beyond its Hardness rating. The character takes no damage, but their armor/shield takes a beating. This makes armors/shields made from adamantine or mithral very nice, since their Hardness ratings are much higher.

When an attack is successful to damage the character, the armor/shield takes 1 (one) hit point of damage and the rest is applied to the character (regardless of Hardness). So, if an attack deals 12 points of damage, 1 point goes to the armor, and the character suffers the remaining 11 hit points of damage. If the armor/shield is magical, the 1 point is still subtracted, but unless the magical rating is equal to the magical rating of the armor/shield, the armor takes no damage (see below).

For every five hit points of damage a suit of armor/shield suffers, it drops a point in armor bonus rating. This degradation can be repaired as per the Repairing an Item rules in the Craft skill description. Each successful use of the Craft skill repairs the armor up two armor bonus point.

Let’s take an example. Thorik, a 5th level dwarven fighter with a 10 Dex, full plate armor and a heavy steel shield has an AC of 20. His touch AC is 10. On an attack roll of 10 to 19, his armor is getting battered around, but he remains safe in its shell. Damage is applied to his full plate or his heavy steel shield (his choice, he could even divvy the damage up between the two) after a Hardness of 10 is subtracted.

Thorik’s heavy steel shield has 10 hit points and a Hardness of 10. Once his shield is reduced to 5 or less hit points, its armor bonus drops to +1. This reflects that shields, historically, didn’t last very long in an extended combat.

Thorik’s full plate has 40 hit points and a Hardness of 10. Again, for every 5 points of damage his full plate suffers, it drops a point of armor bonus. It would cost Thorik around 300 gold pieces to repair two armor bonus points.

Masterwork armor/shields are designed for better weight distribution, and as such do not grant any bonus in regards to armor damage or degradation.

Only a magical weapon (or the equivalent) equal to the magical bonus of the armor or shield can damage it. So it takes at least a +2 weapon to damage a +2 suit of armor or shield.

let me know what you think?

cheers

[edit: I changed the Craft skill to repair two points of armor bonus with each successful skill check]

 

[Planesdragon]

Only a magical weapon (or the equivalent) equal to the magical bonus of the armor or shield can damage it. So it takes at least a +2 weapon to damage a +2 suit of armor or shield.

You know, I always hated that rule.

Anyway. Don't forget to account for the magical bonuses to hardness and HP. The rule for shields is "+2 hardness and +10 hp" -- no reason not to keep that for armor, which in the core rules can never be attacked. If you do transfer the shield rules, I suggest making attacks have to bypass the magic last--that way, once the "magic hp" are gone, you don't need to re-calculate armor's hardness.

I'd also encourage you to reconsider some form of balance for the armor. When touch hits damage armor, it becomes a very viable tactic for strong foes to go full power-attack, and tear through you PC's armor. Not a big problem with one-off attacks, but vicious in groups.