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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 5874270" data-attributes="member: 63">How would this look?* AC of unarmored human 10 to 14 (Dexterity-based)* Light armor adds up to +2 to that.* Heavy armor negates Dexterity bonus, but can go as high as +6. You need high Strength to avoid being slowed by it.* Light shield adds +2. Heavy shield adds +4 but you need high Strength to avoid being slowed by it.So AC ranges from 10 to 20. A nimble tribal warrior in no armor with a light shield might be 16, equivalent to a conquistador in a breastplate with a light shield. A knight in full plate and heavy shield is 20. A spartan with high Dex, high Str, no armor, and heavy shield is also 20 with a less onerous penalty to skills.If we include some severe penalties to Endurance based on weather, you provide a real-life reason for not trudging around in heavy armor all the time. Like, every hour in high heat make an Endurance check to avoid being fatigued (taking a -2 penalty to everything). The DC is based on how hot it is, and armor imposes a penalty to this check. Now, as for weapons, let's say tier one is spear, mace, and sword -- all useful, but with perks in different situations. Tier two is light weapons like daggers, heavy weapons like greatswords, and double weapons like staffs - not typically ideal for warfare, but with special uses all their own. Tier three is the weird stuff: whips and other flailing weapons, weapons with hooks and tines to snag and bind, and unarmed.How can we differentiate weapons? I think it basically breaks down into two options: we can give them bonuses to particular things, or we can provide special actions that can only be taken with them.Simple Version - If we don't want to complicate the rules with stuff like armor-based DR.Spears grant you a +2 bonus to AC against melee attacks by enemies who weren't able to reach you at the start of their turn.Maces grant you a +2 bonus to your attack roll against heavily armored targets. Creatures would have to be marked as heavily armored or not (a dragon is, a bullette is, a troll isn't).Swords should probably crit more often, since they have more angles of attack. Maybe crit on a 19 or 20.(Axes should deal the most damage of any weapon, but that's all they're good for. Raw damage.)Light weapons can be concealed, and you don't take a penalty to use them in a grapple. Heavy weapons deal extra damage against creatures larger than medium. The idea here is that a huge maul hitting a person will knock them back, so some of the force is transferred into motion instead of injury; but against a large enough creature, all that force is delivered into the target's body.Double weapons don't help you make extra attacks (two swords can go in two directions at once, but a staff has to wobble back and forth; it'd be just as fast to thwack twice with a club). Instead, they give you versatility. You can choose to get a bonus to AC (parrying), attack roll (which side's going to attack? catch foe off guard), or damage (grab it with both hands and swing really hard).Whips, hooked weapons, and unarmed should probably all give you access to special maneuvers. Or rather, there are special maneuvers -- grab, trip, disarm, sunder -- and these weapons give you a bonus to the roll, or let you do them from afar.</blockquote>

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