Armor Degradation

[Falstaff]

If you are the type of DM that likes to monitor damage to armor and how it relates to game mechanics, then you might find my variant rule useful.

I devised these variant rules for a few reasons. First, I like this kind of attention to detail (but I also like to avoid cumbersome rules). Second, they allow me add a little more verisimilitude to my descriptions of equipment and other items. Third, I like to devise ways to force my players to spend their hard-earned coins (thus keeping them in need of more coins, which drives them to want to adventure that much more).

Armor & shields accumulate Degradation Points (DPs) each time they suffer critical damage. A suit of armor or shield can sustain DPs equal to 10 x armor/shield bonus before any degradation occurs. For example a suit of chainmail can sustain 50 DPs before it starts degrading and a light wooden shield can suffer 10. Once a suit or shield takes on more DPs than it can hold, it drops to the next lowest armor/shield bonus. For example, as soon as a suit of chainmail suffers more than 50 DPs, its armor bonus drops to +4 and now it can sustain 40 DPs before it drops to +3, and so on until it is totally ruined. Once a suit or shield has reached +1 armor/shield bonus and it sustains more than 10 DPs, it is beyond repair and essentially useful only to a hungry Rust Monster.

A PC who wields a shield and wears a suit of armor, can decide which piece of equipment sustains the DPs. This makes wielding a shield a little more beneficial.

I understand that this variant rule requires a little more paperwork on the part of the player, but he/she simply has to have a space on his/her character sheet noted as DPs and just keep a tally.

To repair damaged armor or shields, use the rules for Repairing Items under the Craft skill on page 71 of the PHB. Each successful craft skill check repairs a suit or armor or shield up one armor bonus. For example, if a suit of chainmail that has suffered enough DPs to have an armor bonus of +2, would take 30 g.p. to repair up to +3 armor bonus, or 90 g.p. to repair it back to +5 armor bonus. This is calculated on the 1/5 cost in material needed to repair the suit. A player paying an armorer to repair their armor or shield would pay more, maybe a 50% to 100% mark-up.

Masterwork armor and shields can sustain 10 more DPs. So, a masterwork suit of chainmail will be able to sustain (at +5 armor bonus) 60 DPs before degrading.

Magical armor and shields are immune to degredation.

Remember that ONLY critical damage causes armor or shields to degrade.

Let me know what you think of these rules and if you have any suggestions on how to streamline them any.

cheers and happy gaming!

 

[Umbran]

So you know, Falstaff, we have an entire House Rules Forum for such things.

 

[Falstaff]

So you know, Falstaff, we have an entire House Rules Forum for such things.

Yeah, I am a dork, how do I move it to the right forum?

 

[Planesdragon]

Ack.

You're abandoning the extant rules for damaging objects and adding in an entirely new ad-hoc system. Shame on you.

IMC I use a simliar system. Every attack against a person that touches but doesn't hit is an attack against that person's armor--which has its own hardness and HP, just as if it were sitting on the ground.

I jiggled the HP & hardness a bit from core and don't have armor degredation--but I took what was already there and modified it to suit the game. I didn't reinvent the wheel, and neither should you.

 

[Caliber]

One of the helpful mods here will no doubt move this over once they notice it. Personally, I like your system.

I'd suggest that Magical Armor and Shields aren't Immune ... but they can't be degraded except by Weapons/Attacks of equal or greater plus.

In addition, I'd say each plus would give another +10 DPs per rank, as if it was an Armor or Shield bonus.

 

[mac1504]

I use a weapon and armor degradation set of house rules for my Midnight campaign that I recently started. I kept it simple and just imposed a -1 AC penatly and an increase of 1 to the Armor Skill Check whenever the wearer suffered a critical hit. With weapons, I ruled that any 1 rolled on an attack with a melee weapon caused the weapon to suffer 1d4 points of damage (goes right over Hardness rating). Masterwork and magical items are immune to this rule.

I agree that it adds a degree of verisimilitude to the game, especially if you have a grim n' gritty setting like Midnight.

Ack.

You're abandoning the extant rules for damaging objects and adding in an entirely new ad-hoc system. Shame on you.

IMC I use a simliar system. Every attack against a person that touches but doesn't hit is an attack against that person's armor--which has its own hardness and HP, just as if it were sitting on the ground.

I jiggled the HP & hardness a bit from core and don't have armor degredation--but I took what was already there and modified it to suit the game. I didn't reinvent the wheel, and neither should you.

That's what's great about house rules- you can reinvent the wheel if you like, and if it works for you (and your group) then it doesn't matter what others say!

 

[Kax Tuglebend]

i like it Falstaff!

but it would be better if the amount of damage it took to degrade was based on the material the armour was made from, tho i'm not to sure how i would apply that..

maybe something like
AC x 5 for Leather Armour
AC x 7 for Bronze Armour
AC x 11 for Iron Armour
AC x 14 for Steel

edit: few points i thought up but didnt want to waste another post on

i dont like the 'only on a critical' so i would use the following:
if the attack roll was high enough to score a Touch hit then the armour or shield would take damage (defenders choice)

if the attack HIT the character then i would apply equal damage to the armour and the character (but not the shield, since if it had hit the shield it wouldnt have dont hp to the character)

another option would actually be to have the shield take damage if the attack roll was 5+ (but not enough to score a Touch hit) to represent the defender deliberately blocking the blow

of course those ideas would mean LOTS of damaged weapons and equipment.. but then i've probably been playing Morrowind too much.. (now if only Mongoose would License THAT!)

 

[sellars]

I like it too! it is not too cumbersome, but still fairly detailed.

I'm gonna try this!

 

[ElvishBard]

2nd edition

The 2nd edition book Complete Fighters Handbook has rules for this, it's old so should be cheap.

 

[Henry]

Moved to House Rules.

Oh, Falstaff? If you ever need a thread moved, please feel free to e-mail a mod, or drop into the Meta Forum and place a request. We'll be glad to place it for you!

Thanks!