Future: Advanced PL Armor Question

Well, though they're both based off the same thing, I try to keep Modern and D&D seperate.

This is because of two related issues I've noticed with the system:

In D&D, AC doesn't scale with AB. First two or so levels, AC is a major player, making the game a real roll of the dice. By mid to late levels, however, AC becomes harder to come by while increasing Str, BAB, and other factors tend to make the average character relatively easy to hit. (By monsters, mostly. High Str, high BAB creatures, etc)

In Modern, AB doesn't scale well with Def. Between Class defense, the concentration on Dexterity, and additions from other class features, most characters have relatively high "AC" while multiclassing and the lack of 1/1 BAB progression classes means most characters will have relatively low attack bonuses.

That's the big issue I wrestled with when I was looking at Armor.

--fje
 

log in or register to remove this ad

Compiled Armor Table

Here is a D&D/modern/Future armor table with all the armors (and shields and accessories) sorted by Armor/Defense Bonus (and then alphabetically). Actually now that I look at it, it does seem that things get better. There are no PLs here and there are no rules interpretations (blanks are for rules that don't exist in one game or another).

I do think they are compatiable. There are a few rules that don't exist in one or the other game.
 

Attachments


HeapThaumaturgist said:
I did want to introduce a better form of "Impromptu" armor. The leather jacket isn't the end-all, be-all of no-feat-required armor. Thus Carbon-Fiber Weave.

This one defeated me when I tried to introduce it into D20 Future. How can you give out +3 or so Defense without a feat or ACP and still expect it to be balanced? Literally everyone will wear a CF long coat - everyone did in my Alternity campaign.

(A direct conversion makes a CF long coat give you a bonus of +5 Defense!)

Also included is the Deflection Inducer, an item I lifted from Alternity. There it couldn't be combined with Armor, but in D20 "Deflection" bonus stacks with "Equipment" bonus, so.

This one is even worse. Let's say the bonus is +2. So, for no feat, no ACP, or anything like that I get a +2 bonus to Defense. Worse, it stacks with armor. No, I'm not seeing this as being balanced.

IMC it doesn't work with armor, and is (using the information provided in the Alien Compendium II) the main armor of the medurr. I made it take the feat, too (no way of explaining that sensibly, but since at the moment only medurr and fraal use it it's not too bad).
 

Well the CF-Clothing I statted at +2.

I'm trying to toe the line between what Alternity offered and what d20 offers. In Alternity there WAS a bit of an armor bloat ... and yes, everybody wore CF, but I think that was a design choice that they wrote in specifically. "In the future, you can buy a bulletproof suit-coat." "In the future, we will shoot short-lived singularities at people." also came into play.

I see the Deflection Inducer as sort of like a Tower Sheild in D&D ... D&D you get +4 armor for -2 attack and one hand used. This is +4 AC for -4 attack bonus. Popular, but with BABs so low in this game it'll probably be rough. Remember, in Alternity the bonus from a Deflection Inducer more or less added both to AC and physical saves, so this is still toned down.

Then again, I built these with three core design elements in mind.

1) Staying true to the feel of Alternity's equipment.
2) Staying within the bounds of d20
3) My own game will be centered around the Externals War, with military PCs, so I'll have more control over who gets what equipment.

Note that the Soft E-Suit still requires Light Armor Prof. I would say that denying armor to somebody in a Deflection Inducer would probably better balance it, but I was mostly noting that DEFLECTION is an armor type in d20 and DEFLECTION INDUCER would seem a little strange if it didn't grant, y'know, deflection. Like Alternity, it would be a hand-wave scenario as even they didn't really explain why armor (even a CF Coat) would keep a DI unit from functioning. (Other than the fact that everybody and their sister would want a DI). Though really, I don't see WHY everybody wouldn't want their own personal non-directional gravitational force field if they could have one.

Hrm. An idea would be to add a -4 ACP to the Deflection Inducer ... it would keep you from performing most actions well.

--fje
 

Remove ads

Top