Armor Spikes: Unpractical?

[Gothmog]

Wouldn't this also apply just as equally to simply wearing, say, rigid armor?

Yep, you'd run into some of those same problems with rigid armors, but not as much as if you used armor spikes. The bulkiness and restriction armor imposes is shown in D&D as the Armor Check Penalty and Max Dex Bonus. If I were to use spiked armor in my games, I'd add an extra -1 penalty to the Armor Check Penalty, and a -1 or -2 penalty to Max Dex Bonus to reflect the impeded movement.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Yet, since D&D alchemy isn't RW chemistry, and D&D alchemy can create a universal antitoxin, and alchemy in folklore and myth might even change base metals to gold, create life, or grant immortality, I don't think that it is too far-fetched to say such a thing could be possible in a D&D world.

Not impossible...just a lot more expensive and less available or reliable (esp. if what repels one critter doesn't repel them all) than getting a bunch of spikes attached to one's armor.

Spikes would be the first and cheapest anti big-enough-to-eat-you-whole beast repellent available.

 

[Arkhandus]

I must be the only one who feels a compulsive grrrrk everytime I see this thread when viewing the General forum, because Numion said "Unpractical" instead of "Impractical."

*twitch, twitch*

/pedantry

 

[Hussar]

Re: Personal body space

Umm, ok, leaving the snarkiness out, which was more intended as a joke than snarkiness anyway, wearing any armor is going to change the distribution of body weight and space. Unless your armor is as tight as lycra, you're automatically making your body bigger and heavier just by wearing armor.

Yet, football players and hockey players are more than capable of operating at peak performance despite hauling around lots of extra weight.

Your trailer analogy falls flat because, with adequate training, you can drive with a trailer just as well as without. Granted, you probably can't go offroading with a trailer, but, that's not because of driver skill but a limitation of the machine itself.

And that's the whole point in a nutshell. Yes, adding armor spikes is going to change how the armor is worn. No one disagrees with that. However, with training, you can overcome that fairly minor change from wearing un-spiked armor.

Armor spikes add very, very little weight to the armor and you're only talking about maybe two or three inches of personal space. People can learn to adjust to that fairly easily. Heck, look at the crap you lug around in the armed forces. Web belts alone add a couple of inches to either side of you. Your backpack adds almost a foot to your thickness (and quite possibly more). Yet soldiers are expected to operate in many environments carrying all of this.

 

[Thurbane]

IMHO, Armor Spikes should add (fairly significantly) to the Armor Check penalty of any armor, and recude the max Dex bonus. They should be lmited to the types of armor they can be attached to (leather cuirasse and a breastplate seem OK, but spiked chainmail?).

I also think that that using the spikes as an offensive weapon should provoke an attack of opprtunity, just like when a tiny creature attacks, because you are essentially moving into the enemy's square to attack.

 

[Hussar]

Meh, that's adding a fair level of complexity where none is needed as far as the AOO goes. Why bother? Is it really all that different from using a knife? Hrm, Spiked guantlet draws an AOO but 3 inch knife doesn't. Opening this can of worms is far and away too much trouble.

I do agree on limiting the types of armor though. Spiked Chain doesn't make a lick of sense.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Not impossible...just a lot more expensive and less available or reliable (esp. if what repels one critter doesn't repel them all) than getting a bunch of spikes attached to one's armor.

Spikes would be the first and cheapest anti big-enough-to-eat-you-whole beast repellent available.

I accept that you believe that, but you have put forth no argument that actually makes it true.

RC

 

[Shadeydm]

I never liked the idea that having a few spikes on your armor means you threaten adjacent squares.

 

[VirgilCaine]

I never liked the idea that having a few spikes on your armor means you threaten adjacent squares.

More like 50...and do you ban spiked gauntlets? What about daggers?

 

[werk]

I never liked the idea that having a few spikes on your armor means you threaten adjacent squares.

Only if you are weilding them, and that means 'fighting this way.'

*twitch, twitch*

Completely agree.