D20 Future Equipment Bonuses to Defense

[Salcor]

Today I was looking through D20 Modern and D20 Future, and it kind of clicked that their really isn't any differences between the armor in D20 Modern and D20 Future. In fact it seems like the armor in D20 Modern provides better equipment bonuses to defense than the armors in D20 Futures (that is until you get to PL 8). I'm just wondering how those improvements were figured when creating them. I know you don't want too much armor for game balance issues, but when the land warrior armor is the best armor to appear until the Unisoldier or boost armor in PL8 that seems a little odd to me.



Salcor

 

[Aussiegamer]

welcome to the world of finding out that d20 future rules are pretty bad at fitting with d20 modern and basically with themselves as well.

 

[Wycen]

Yep, others have noticed this as well. When designing stuff for Dawning Star I created a little chart to note the stats based on category. I don't know where those notes are anymore, but if I remember, 8 is the number to remember. Most armor seems to hover around providing a max of 8 points of defense. Part of that is equipment bonus and the rest is Max Dex bonus. Thus frequently you don't get the whole 8 points, because Dex's above 18 aren't as common, (at least that is my perception) in d20 Modern/Future.

I think the best way to make d20 Future armor stand out is the gadgets, like environmental seals, equipment slots, etc.

The designers intent behind their decisions aren't clear to me either, unless they want you using the gadgets. Though, you know, d20 Future is often called a toolkit. So bearing that in mind, as a toolkit, it provides you the tools to design armor to your liking.