Armor Types

[Felnar]

i'm looking for something to make medium armor stand out as useful.
less movement reduction? no move reduction?
lower armor check penalty?
adding DR of 1/- ? (adding this to heavy armor too)
although, i might just have to remove chain shirt

i'm also looking for an "Armor Specialization" feat.
back in 2nd ed there was "armor proficiency" that halfed the encumbrance of the armor, but thats not useful in 3rd ed (because medium/heavy armor already has move penalties)

any help?
- Felnar

 

[TheLe]

try this

Here's a little something I wrote for 17 Magic Armors:



Prismatic Touch
This enchantment causes the armor to shimmer with all the colors of the rainbow when in daylight. In total darkness however, the enchantment causes the armor to dimly glow purple.

Whenever the wearer of this enchanted armor receives damage from an enemy, 1 charge counter is stored within the armor (max of 1 charge per round). This damage must come from an enemy; a friendly ally that deals damage to the wearer will have no effect.

Once per round as a free action, the wearer may use all the charges to enchant himself with a magical aura. The type of aura he may create is based on the number of charges that are stored within the armor. Consult the chart below:

Charges / Aura
1 / Aura of Defense
2 / Aura of Courage
3 / Aura of Elemental
4 / Aura of Blessing
5 / Aura of Rage

·Aura of Defense – Activating this aura causes a blue circle to appear beneath the wearer’s feet, up to a radius of 20 feet. Any ally within this radius gains a +1 bonus to AC. If the wearer is 10th level or higher, this bonus is doubled.

·Aura of Courage – Activating this aura causes the wearer to briefly flash with bright light. All allies within a 40 feet radius gains +3 bonus to all saves vs. fear effects. This bonus is doubled for the wearer. If the wearer is 10th level or higher, all of these bonuses are doubled.

·Aura of Elemental – Activating this aura causes bright purple globe to appear above the wearer. When first activated, all allies within a 20-feet area will receive Fire Resistance 2, Cold Resistance 2, and Acid Resistance 2. However, at the beginning of every round, the wearer may make any of these Resistances 0 to add +1 to one of the other Resistances). This may be done once per round. These initial resistances double to 4 if the wearer is 10th level or higher.

·Aura of Blessing – Activating this aura causes the wearer’s eyes to become black as night. All allies within a 20-feet radius starts to feel extremely lucky and gains 1 point of luck. They may use this point of luck to re-roll any one save, attack roll, or damage roll. Once the aura ends, any unused luck points will fade and can no longer be used.

·Aura of Rage – Activating this aura causes the wearer’s eyes to glow fiery red. All allies within a 20 feet radius gains a +2 to all melee damage rolls. However, there is a price -- for each ally that is within the 20-feet radius, the wearer suffers a –1 aura penalty to his AC (this is cumulative)

Each aura lasts a number of rounds equal to 1d6 + the wearer’s Charisma modifier. If the wearer is 10th level or higher, the aura will last a number of rounds equal to 2d6 + the wearer’s Charisma modifier.

The enchanted armor will not generate any charges as long as an Aura is active. Auras may be deactivated at will. If the enchanted armor has unused charges for at least 30 minutes, they will all discharge themselves and be lost.

Creation Cost / Market Price
Moderate abjuration; CL 9th; Enchant Arms and Armor, prayer, remove fear, resist energy, shield of faith; Market Price: +2 armor enhancement.

 

[Bront]

Perhaps simply a bit more of an armor bonus. Medium armors always seemed like they sucked to me. Only real use of Breast Plate is +1 AC of chain, but it hurts with all the penalties, so you mostly only see it as mithril.

Perhaps chain mail, breast plate, and armors up need an extra +1 AC mod. Not huge, but makes them more worth considering.

UA has the Armor as DR and combo rules that work well (Medium armors tend to get slightly better DR than light, even with a similar DC). DR will make the game a bit less lethal for PCs at a low level, but I think it would eventualy even out a bit more as levels increased.

Armor specialization - allow for a +1 bonus to AC granted, +1 max Dex, reduced AC penalty by 1, max 0) in one armor type. Must be proficient in the armor type already.

Just a few ideas. Hope they help.

 

[Felnar]

thele - thats an interesting magic property, but i'm really looking for ways to improve mundane armors

bront - good ideas, thanks. Would your Armor specialization be allowed on light armor tho? i assume not.

The -10ft move seems to be the biggest penalty going from light to medium armor, and isnt really worth the +1AC chainmail has over a chainshirt. So what about changing the way medium armor effects movement. Instead of -10ft and full x4 run, change medium armor to full movement but only x3 run speed. (then lose the 10ft going from medium to heavy, instead of losing run speed again).

- Felnar

 

[TheLe]

Armor specialization - allow for a +1 bonus to AC granted, +1 max Dex, reduced AC penalty by 1, max 0) in one armor type. Must be proficient in the armor type already.

+1 AC and +1 Max Dex?

How about:
Armor specialization - This feat trains you to better meunever in your armor. Armor you wear now has a +1 max Dex bonus, Arrmor check penalty reduced by 1, Arcane Spell failure chance reduced by 5%, and +5ft bonus to speed. Must be proficient in the armor type already. When you take this feat, you must apply it to light, medium, or heavy armor. You may take this feat several times, but when you do you musy choose a new armor type.

Pretty much same as Bront, but with a little more.

 

[Bront]

you could only make medium armor slow you down 5 feet, but that leaves short people out of luck. (Same with any feat that gives you +5 move).

I understand the move is an issue, but I've never seen it be that big of one. Small characters in light armor move 20, and it's not a problem, so a medium one moving 20 shouldn't be too bad. That's why I suggested increasing the armor value by for medium and heavy armor, to make the tradeoff make you say "Hrmmm". Your run speed idea has merit too however. I wouldn't do both.

Specializing in Light Armor is doable, but there are other abilities that require light armor, so I don't see a problem in not allowing it. Most characters who use light armor are more likely to do other things with feats anyway.

I'd probably want to playtest the ideas before I went with one (A possable way would be to run the same character using the differen rules against each other in a few mach combats and see what happens.)

 

[Bront]

+1 AC and +1 Max Dex?

How about:
Armor specialization - This feat trains you to better meunever in your armor. Armor you wear now has a +1 max Dex bonus, Arrmor check penalty reduced by 1, Arcane Spell failure chance reduced by 5%, and +5ft bonus to speed. Must be proficient in the armor type already. When you take this feat, you must apply it to light, medium, or heavy armor. You may take this feat several times, but when you do you musy choose a new armor type.

Pretty much same as Bront, but with a little more.

the idea was to make the feat usefull to all. I'd drop the +1 max dex before the +1 ac. Generaly more universaly usefull. (not everyone has a high dex, that's why they tend to wear heavier armor in the first place).

On a side note, I could see 3 different specializations for the 3 different armor types, doing different things.

 

[General Barron]

Ha!

Ha! My first post on this forum. I was about to write how amazing this is, that I was just thinking about this same thing for my campaign, until I realized that the thread starter (Felnar) is one of the people in my group! Hahaha! Well, I thought it was funny...

Anyway, I could just call Felnar up on the phone, but I guess posting my ideas here would be better, because then others could critique them.

Here is what I am thinking. It does modify the rules a bit, but I'm coming from 2nd edition, so really it just makes it more along those lines anyway:


Instead of having a "max-dex bonus" for armor, there would be a "dexterity penalty". This would reduce your effective dexterity by said number for anything related to agility (AC, saving throws, certain skills; but not missle attacks, weapon finess, etc). If this ends up giving you a dex penalty, then you do NOT take that penalty to your AC. (Dex penalties to AC don't make too much sense anyways, to me. So if you are flat-footed and have dex penalties, you get better AC???)

I'm not sure about the exact dex penalties yet, but I'm thinking something like -1 for studded leather, up to -3 or -4 for plate. I'd also throw in similar penalties for shields, such as -1 for small, -2 for large and -3 for tower, or possibly -0/-1/-2 respectively. Since these dex penalties would double-up on the armor check penalties to some degree, I might also reduce that penalty by 1 for every -2 to dex the armor gives.

Encumberance would have to do the same thing: give a dex penalty instead of a max dex bonus.

The reason behind this? Well, it doesn't make much sense to me that someone with 12 dex wearing full plate would dodge blows just as well as someone with 18 dex (or 25 or 40). Game-mechanics-wise, it then makes all armors just a sliding scale: either low AC bonus, but low dex penalty, or high AC bonus, and high dex penalty. Deciding which armor to choose is just a matter of deciding how much dex you are willing to sacrifice.


With this system, an 'armor specialization' feat could then decrease the dex-penalty for that type of armor, for one thing. I also like the 2nd ed rule where it halved the encumberence of the armor, although with the movement restrictions, it kind of doesn't make a difference, since you are still restricted. Of course, doing it the other way around (reducing armor move penalties) also doesn't make a difference, since the weight of the armor is almost always going to bump a character into medium encumberance.

Just my $0.02. Let me know what you guys think.

 

[S'mon]

Making medium armour speed 25' (or -5') would help.

 

[glass]

If this ends up giving you a dex penalty, then you do NOT take that penalty to your AC. (Dex penalties to AC don't make too much sense anyways, to me. So if you are flat-footed and have dex penalties, you get better AC???)

No, you don't. If you are flat-footed you lose you Dex bonus to AC. A penalty is not a bonus.


glass.