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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Empirate" data-source="post: 6152204" data-attributes="member: 78958">I like your retooling of the Dastana,  @<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?u=22424" target="_blank">delericho</a> , but I think that your earlier statement that it "probably shouldn't exist" is entirely more to the point. Dastana are metal bracers. Most armor already includes some form of arm guards. So wearing metal bracers along with it shouldn't do anything. This is reflected in the Dastana rules which say it can only be worn usefully with "padded, leather, or chainshirt armor". These kinds of armor don't have arm guards, so wearing a Dastana with them is fine from a logical standpoint. What is strange is that a Breastplate is not included, and that's where we leave logic behind and go into rulespace.The mechanical implementation ought not to be for the Dastana to provide an AC bonus on its own; or even to just increase the existing AC bonus of the armor worn beneath the Dastana. Because there already is a way in the rules for getting better AC bonus than "padded, leather, or chainshirt armor". I.e., wear the next best thing! That may bump you up to medium armor in the case of Chainshirts, but whatever, wearing more armor than a Chainshirt will obviously encumber you quite a bit! Why introduce a new mechanic into improving armor types, and a mechanic which plays havoc with the stacking rules, when there's a perfectly fine mechanic already in place?I'd do away with the Dastana as a mechanical entity entirely, and instead merely have it as a cosmetic thing. You're wearing light armor, but one step better than leather? Call it "leather cuirass along with metal arm guards" all you like, but mechanically, it's just Studded Leather. You want better protection than with a Chain Shirt, maybe by adding something to protect your forearms? Sorry, but that's just so much metal that it bumps your armor up to medium. "Chain Shirt plus metal arm guards" may be your description, but by the rules, you're now wearing what amounts to Chainmail. You want to "go unarmored, but block the occasional blow with your metal wristguards"? Well, mechanically, you're now wearing Padded armor.</blockquote>

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