Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
In the thread about devising a simple encumbrance system, I brought up the subject of making Strength more important through armor with Strength requirements rather than encumbrance penalties. Since @Laurefindel expressed interest in seeing my take on that, I thought I’d post it in its own thread, so here is my work-in-progress revision of the weapon and armor tables. Keep in mind, these haven’t been tested yet in actual play. I am willing to hear feedback on them, but I have pretty much overthought these things to death and at this point reallu want to see it in actual play before I fiddle with it any more.
Conversion rates:
Armor:
Jacks
A jack is a protective coat-like garment that extends to the elbows and knees, worn on its own or under a cuirass to distribute and absorb the force of incoming blows. While wearing a jack, you can use the Jack’s AC rating to determine your armor class. It is generally considered more socially acceptable to wear a jack in public than other forms of armor.
Padded: Also known as a gambeson or an aketon, a padded jack is made from many layers of linen.
Quilted: Similar to a padded jack, a quilted jack is made from thick wool batting sewn between two layers of cloth to cut down on bulk.
Hide Sometimes called a buff coat, this jack is made of thick cow or aurochs leather, minimally cured so that it is tougher than normal leather but more supple than rawhide.
Gousseted: A gousseted jack is made by sewing small patches of mail sometimes called “voiders” to a padded or quilted jack to cover vulnerable areas.
Mail: Mail is made of small interlocking metal rings, riveted together at the seams to resist breakage. A “mail jack” is actually a coat of these rings worn over a thin cloth garment or sewn to a leather backing for comfort and additional protection against percussive force.
Cuirasses
A cuirass is an armored chest piece worn over a jack to protect the wearer’s vital organs. When worn, a cuirass adds its AC bonus to the armor class granted by your jack. You must be wearing a jack to benefit from wearing a cuirass.
Brigandine: This armor is made of many small overlapping metal plates, sewn or riveted to the inside of a a cloth or leather garment like a doublet.
Breastplate: A plate cuirass, or “breastplate,” is a protective shell made from two solid metal plates. Breastplates and their accompanying backplates need to be custom-made to fit the wearer.
Guards
“Guards” is a catch-all term for various limb protection such as gauntlets, vambraces, rearbraces, pauldrons, and greaves. They are usually worn in addition to a jack and cuirass to cover the parts left exposed, though they can be worn on their own. When wearing guards, you add their AC bonus to your armor class. If your Strength score is less than the Strength requirement for a set of greaves, your speed is reduced by 10 feet while wearing them.
Splint: Splint guards are made of leather and reinforced with long strips of metal, wood, or bone.
Plate: Plate guards are made from solid plates of metal secured to the limbs with leather straps.
Shields
Shields are made of wood, sometimes with a leather rim or covering to resist splintering, strapped to the arm to provide the wearer partial cover from attacks. A shield occupies the hand when worn, preventing the wearer from using it to wield weapons, use items, or interact with the environment.
Heater: A heater shield is a compact, angular shield, roughly the shape of a clothes iron. When worn, it grants the wielder half cover.
Kite: A kite shield is long and tear drop shaped, making it more cumbersome than a heater, but extending its protection to the lower body. When worn, it grants the wielder three-quarters cover.
Getting Into and Out of Armor
The time it takes to don or doff armor depends on its type.
Donning and Doffing Armor
Weapons
New Weapon Properties
Parry
When a creature you can see hits you with an attack and you’re wielding a weapon with the Parry property, you can use your reaction to increase your AC against the attack by 2, potentially turning the hit into a miss.
Firearms
To make a ranged attack with a firearm, you must expend one use of smokepowder in addition to one piece of ammunition. The ammunition of a firearm is destroyed upon use.
Special Weapons
Dagger: When you take the Attack action and attack with a melee weapon that you’re holding in one hand, you can use a bonus action to attack with a dagger that you’re holding in the other hand. You don’t add your ability modifier to the damage of the bonus attack, unless that modifier is negative.
Improvised Weapons (revised from PHB)
Any object you can wield in one or two hands can be used as an improvised weapon. Improvised weapons can be thrown at a normal range of 15 feet and a long range of 30 feet, and deal 1d4 damage of an appropriate type (determined by the DM) on a hit, or 1d6 damage if wielded in two hands. At the DM’s discretion, a character can apply their proficiency bonus to an attack with an improvised weapon that is similar to a weapon that character is proficient with.
If a character uses a ranged weapon to make a melee attack, throws a weapon that does not have the thrown property, or attempts to use a weapon to deal damage of a type it does not normally deal, it is considered an attack with an improvised weapon.
Conversion rates:
| Copper (cp) | Orichalcum (op) | Silver (sp) | Electrum (ep) | Gold (gp) | |
| Copper (cp) | 1 | 1/5 | 1/10 | 1/50 | 1/100 |
| Orichalcum (op) | 5 | 1 | 1/2 | 1/10 | 1/20 |
| Silver (sp) | 10 | 2 | 1 | 1/5 | 1/10 |
| Electrum (ep) | 50 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 1/2 |
| Gold (gp) | 100 | 20 | 10 | 2 | 1 |
Armor:
| Armor | Type | Cost | AC | Strength | Stealth |
| Light armor | |||||
| Padded | Jack | 5 sp | 11 + Dex | - | Disadvantage |
| Quilted | Jack | 10 sp | 11 + Dex | - | - |
| Brigandine | Cuirass | 35 sp | +1 | - | - |
| Medium armor | |||||
| Heater | Shield | 10 sp | 1/2 Cover | - | - |
| Hide | Jack | 10 sp | 12 + Dex (Max 2) | - | - |
| Gousseted | Jack | 15 sp | 13 + Dex (Max 2) | - | Disadvantage |
| Breastplate | Cuirass | 400 sp | +2 | - | - |
| Heavy armor | |||||
| Splint | Guards | 10 sp | +1 | Str 13 | Disadvantage |
| Kite | Shield | 30 sp | 3/4 Cover | - | Disadvantage |
| Jack | 30 sp | 14 | - | Disadvantage | |
| Plate | Guards | 200 sp | +2 | Str 15 | Disadvantage |
Jacks
A jack is a protective coat-like garment that extends to the elbows and knees, worn on its own or under a cuirass to distribute and absorb the force of incoming blows. While wearing a jack, you can use the Jack’s AC rating to determine your armor class. It is generally considered more socially acceptable to wear a jack in public than other forms of armor.
Padded: Also known as a gambeson or an aketon, a padded jack is made from many layers of linen.
Quilted: Similar to a padded jack, a quilted jack is made from thick wool batting sewn between two layers of cloth to cut down on bulk.
Hide Sometimes called a buff coat, this jack is made of thick cow or aurochs leather, minimally cured so that it is tougher than normal leather but more supple than rawhide.
Gousseted: A gousseted jack is made by sewing small patches of mail sometimes called “voiders” to a padded or quilted jack to cover vulnerable areas.
Mail: Mail is made of small interlocking metal rings, riveted together at the seams to resist breakage. A “mail jack” is actually a coat of these rings worn over a thin cloth garment or sewn to a leather backing for comfort and additional protection against percussive force.
Cuirasses
A cuirass is an armored chest piece worn over a jack to protect the wearer’s vital organs. When worn, a cuirass adds its AC bonus to the armor class granted by your jack. You must be wearing a jack to benefit from wearing a cuirass.
Brigandine: This armor is made of many small overlapping metal plates, sewn or riveted to the inside of a a cloth or leather garment like a doublet.
Breastplate: A plate cuirass, or “breastplate,” is a protective shell made from two solid metal plates. Breastplates and their accompanying backplates need to be custom-made to fit the wearer.
Guards
“Guards” is a catch-all term for various limb protection such as gauntlets, vambraces, rearbraces, pauldrons, and greaves. They are usually worn in addition to a jack and cuirass to cover the parts left exposed, though they can be worn on their own. When wearing guards, you add their AC bonus to your armor class. If your Strength score is less than the Strength requirement for a set of greaves, your speed is reduced by 10 feet while wearing them.
Splint: Splint guards are made of leather and reinforced with long strips of metal, wood, or bone.
Plate: Plate guards are made from solid plates of metal secured to the limbs with leather straps.
Shields
Shields are made of wood, sometimes with a leather rim or covering to resist splintering, strapped to the arm to provide the wearer partial cover from attacks. A shield occupies the hand when worn, preventing the wearer from using it to wield weapons, use items, or interact with the environment.
Heater: A heater shield is a compact, angular shield, roughly the shape of a clothes iron. When worn, it grants the wielder half cover.
Kite: A kite shield is long and tear drop shaped, making it more cumbersome than a heater, but extending its protection to the lower body. When worn, it grants the wielder three-quarters cover.
Getting Into and Out of Armor
The time it takes to don or doff armor depends on its type.
Donning and Doffing Armor
| Type | Don | Doff |
| Jack | 1 minute | 1 minute |
| Cuirass | 5 minutes | 1 minute |
| Guards | 5 minutes | 3 minutes |
| Shield | 1 action | 1 action |
Weapons
| Weapon | Cost | Damage | Properties |
| Simple Melee | |||
| Axe | 2 cp | 1d6 slashing | Versatile (1d8) |
| Club | 2 cp | 1d6 bludgeoning | Versatile (1d8) |
| Flail | 5 cp | 1d4 bludgeoning | Finesse, versatile (1d6) |
| Hammer | 1 sp | 1d6 bludgeoning | Thrown (range 20/60) |
| Hatchet | 1 sp | 1d4 slashing | Light, thrown (range 20/60) |
| Javelin | 5 cp | 1d4 piercing | Thrown (range 30/120), versatile (1d6) |
| Knife | 2 sp | 1d4 piercing | Finesse, light, thrown (range 20/60) |
| Maul | 3 sp | 1d10 bludgeoning | Heavy, two-handed |
| Pick | 3 sp | 1d10 piercing | Heavy, two-handed |
| Scythe | 2 sp | 1d8 slashing | Heavy, reach, two-handed |
| Sickle | 1 sp | 1d4 slashing | Finesse, light |
| Spear | 5 cp | 1d4 piercing | Reach, versatile (1d6) |
| Staff | 2 cp | 1d6 bludgeoning | Reach, two-handed |
| Simple Ranged | |||
| Bow | 25 sp | 1d6 piercing | Ammunition (range 80/320), two-handed |
| Crossbow | 25 sp | 1d8 piercing | Ammunition (range 80/320), loading, two-handed |
| Dart | 1 cp | 1d4 piercing | Light, thrown (range 20/60) |
| Sling | 1 cp | 1d4 bludgeoning | Ammunition (range 30/120) |
| Martial Melee | |||
| Battle axe | 5 sp | 1d6 slashing | Light, thrown (range 20/60) |
| Buckler | 5 sp | 1d4 bludgeoning | Light, parry |
| Dagger | 5 sp | 1d4 piercing | Finesse, light, special |
| Estoc | 20 sp | 1d6 piercing | Finesse, versatile (2d4) |
| Greataxe | 30 sp | 1d12 slashing | Heavy, two-handed |
| Greatsword | 50 sp | 2d6 piercing or slashing | Heavy, two-handed |
| Lance | 10 sp | 1d12 piercing | Reach, two-handed, special |
| Long knife | 15 sp | 1d6 slashing | Finesse, light |
| Longsword | 15 sp | 1d8 piercing or slashing | Versatile (1d10) |
| Mace | 5 sp | 1d8 bludgeoning | |
| Poleaxe | 20 sp | 1d10 piercing or slashing | Heavy, reach, two-handed |
| Round shield | 10 sp | 1d6 bludgeoning | Parry |
| Short sword | 10 sp | 1d6 piercing or slashing | Light |
| War hammer | 15 sp | 1d8 bludgeoning or piercing | Versatile (1d10) |
| War knife | 20 sp | 1d6 slashing | Finesse, versatile (2d4) |
| War pick | 20 sp | 1d10 bludgeoning or piercing | Heavy, reach, two-handed |
| Martial Ranged | |||
| Arbalest | 50 sp | 1d10 piercing | Ammunition (range 100/400), heavy, loading, two-handed |
| Longbow | 50 sp | 1d8 piercing | Ammunition (range 150/600), heavy, two-handed |
| Firearms | |||
| Musket | 500 sp | 1d12 piercing | Ammunition (range 40/120), heavy, loading, two-handed |
| Pistol | 250 sp | 1d10 piercing | Ammunition (range 30/90), loading |
New Weapon Properties
Parry
When a creature you can see hits you with an attack and you’re wielding a weapon with the Parry property, you can use your reaction to increase your AC against the attack by 2, potentially turning the hit into a miss.
Firearms
To make a ranged attack with a firearm, you must expend one use of smokepowder in addition to one piece of ammunition. The ammunition of a firearm is destroyed upon use.
Special Weapons
Dagger: When you take the Attack action and attack with a melee weapon that you’re holding in one hand, you can use a bonus action to attack with a dagger that you’re holding in the other hand. You don’t add your ability modifier to the damage of the bonus attack, unless that modifier is negative.
Improvised Weapons (revised from PHB)
Any object you can wield in one or two hands can be used as an improvised weapon. Improvised weapons can be thrown at a normal range of 15 feet and a long range of 30 feet, and deal 1d4 damage of an appropriate type (determined by the DM) on a hit, or 1d6 damage if wielded in two hands. At the DM’s discretion, a character can apply their proficiency bonus to an attack with an improvised weapon that is similar to a weapon that character is proficient with.
If a character uses a ranged weapon to make a melee attack, throws a weapon that does not have the thrown property, or attempts to use a weapon to deal damage of a type it does not normally deal, it is considered an attack with an improvised weapon.
Last edited:
