Armor Spikes: Unpractical?

[Kunimatyu]

I personally am grateful that armor spikes, as written in D&D, are not effective, because if they weren't, we'd have all characters running around with the idiotic things, just the same way characters will often go shopping in full plate armor with a greatsword strapped to their backs.

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Yeah, they might logically speaking be great against tentacled grapplers, but 99% of the time, they'd be a huge, useless hassle.

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For some people, verisimilitude adds a great deal to the experience, and little details matter.

It's true - armor spikes should probably require a separate feat (Exotic Weapon Prof, Armor Spikes), and they should deal double damage when something attempts to make a grapple check against you, and then add their damage to the opposing grapple check. It's a little complicated mechanically, though...

I cannot for the of me reconcile the two statements above. In a world with life-threatening grapplers(even just of the mundane animal variety), it seems like any person trained in armor would wear spikes. Imagine a world where EVERY SINGLE HUMAN SETTLEMENT had tigers around it -- that's roughly the equivalent of D&D's huge array of human-eating predators.

I think your "verisimilitude" problem stems from the fact that D&D is so vastly different from the real world, not armor spikes. Medieval Simulation it ain't.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

The objection I've heard to them is that they're a handicap when facing weapons. An enemy's weapon can glance off of them, changing a miss into a hit, and changing what would have been a glancing blow into a straight-on hit.

 

[Klaus]

An easy compromise could be reached: armor spikes deal damage (1d4 piercing) to creatures atacking the wearer with natural attacks, unarmed or grappling, but reduce the AC bonus by 1 and increase the armor check penalty by 2. The armor spikes also increase the wearer's grappling and unarmed damage by 1d4 piercing.

There.

 

[Dr. Prunesquallor]

The objection I've heard to them is that they're a handicap when facing weapons. An enemy's weapon can glance off of them, changing a miss into a hit, and changing what would have been a glancing blow into a straight-on hit.

Maybe as a house rule you could bump their effectiveness against grapplers and natural attacks up to say, 2D6 damage but give armed attacks against the wearer a +4 to hit and damage bonus. That might make spiked armor, especially at lower levels, superb against beasts/natural predators and a death trap against armed humanoids. Encourage the PCs to do some research on their foes.

Edit. D'oh. Late.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Magical armour with retractable spikes... now that'd be good! Flick-Plate?

Recall having a PC in one of my games with Wounding spikes on his armour. Was really unpleasant to large grappling monsters. But always seemed a dangerous thing to wander round with to me."Hello, nice to me... DOH! CLERIC!!!"

 

[mmu1]

I cannot for the of me reconcile the two statements above. In a world with life-threatening grapplers(even just of the mundane animal variety), it seems like any person trained in armor would wear spikes. Imagine a world where EVERY SINGLE HUMAN SETTLEMENT had tigers around it -- that's roughly the equivalent of D&D's huge array of human-eating predators.

Cost, practicality and comfort have trumped protection time and time again throughout human history. The simple fact is that, even when they could afford it, most people chose not to wear armor in their everyday life. Hell, plenty of people living in the nastiest, poisonous vermin-infested holes on Earth didn't even wear much in the way of clothes or serious shoes.
Even today, you see examples of this, when plenty of cops still choose not to wear bulletproof vests on duty. (despite the fact they know they're highly effective at saving lives)

If there are tigers around the settlement, you don't start wearing spiked armor - you clear the forest to make room for crops, which generally tends to reduce the number of people eaten to a level the community is willing to accept. (assuming the animals actually act like animals, as opposed to D&D monsters of the animal type)

D&D already has unreasonably high amounts of armor as the defult - there's no need, in my opinion, to increase it any higher. (or add more impractical junk on to it)

Though I suppose the right kind of magic can make even the most impractical thing useful, but magical retractable wounding armor spikes don't exactly grow on trees. (and you have to consider what else you could get for the money they'd cost you)

 

[Irda Ranger]

An alternative to spike armor is sharpened armor. A fellow PC IMC has plate armor, and he has had all of edges of the overlapping plates sharpened to a razor's edge. Every time he flexes an arm or knee a sharp edge pops out. He does extra damage while grappling, and is always considered armed when being grappled. Plus, it's lethal as opposed to subdual.

But the no-spikes means no correcting the angle of a weapon attack. That's a real problem, since plate armor was primarily designed to deflect attacks, not simply absorb the impact full stop.

 

[Irda Ranger]

Cost, practicality and comfort have trumped protection time and time again throughout human history. The simple fact is that, even when they could afford it, most people chose not to wear armor in their everyday life. Even today, you see examples of this, when plenty of cops still choose not to wear bulletproof vests on duty. (despite the fact they know they're highly effective at saving lives)

If there are tigers around the settlement, you don't start wearing spiked armor - you clear the forest to make room for crops, which generally tends to reduce the number of people eaten to a level the community is willing to accept. (assuming the animals actually act like animals, as opposed to D&D monsters of the animal type)

D&D already has unreasonably high amounts of armor as the defult - there's no need, in my opinion, to increase it any higher. (or add more implausible junk on to it)

D&D != real life. Ogres are more dangerous than Crips. Displacer beasts and Ogrillons are more powerful than tigers. Wear armor.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I figure that in a world where giants and assorted other big critters can grab someone, soldiers and adventurers would spike their armor to keep from being picked up. Maybe soldiers and guards don't don it unless they know something specific is coming to attack, but adventurers have to prepare for the unexpected. Let logic dictate when and where it's worn - underground may not be so good, since spikes and narrow passages don't mix. But when you wanna waltz in the front door of the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, it's a good wardrobe choice.

 

[NilesB]

Armor spikes are more inspired by the Lambton Wurm than by aesthetics. ant they might be useful against attacks by natural weapons. But against manufactured weapons they would catch blows that would otherwise glance off, you'd be catching the full force of attacks that otherwise would slide past you. This is also the reason people stopped sculpting bulging pectoral muscles onto breastplates, and why horned helmets were pretty much exclusively ceremonial.