CombatWombat51
First Post
I think helmets should be more important (read: makes SOME difference) in combat. I was thinking that they could be incorporated into the game as good ol' mundane armor. Say, a couple different degrees of helmets, like a skull cap, chain coif, great helm, etc. A helmet wouldn't add AC, but it would add to your AC against critical confirmations. Of course, every character would start wearing a helmet, so a drawback would be in order. I think a penalty to Listen, Spot, and maybe Initiative checks. The amount of the penalty would scale with the amount of protection that the helmet provided. So a skull cap probably wouldn't provide any penalties, but would only give +1 or +2 to AC vs. crits. A full helm would give +4 or +6 (I'm just throwing numbers out there), but would impose -6 or so to Spot and Listen, and maybe a -2 to Initiative. Like I said, I'm just throwing numbers out there. Come to think of it, a penalty to Initiative probably isn't a great idea, since the penalties to Spot and Listen would make it more likely that the character would be surprised.
Armor of fortification is certainly cool, but I don't like the mechanic. I was thinking that instead of using a flat percentage roll to negate criticals, fortification could give a bonus to the wearer's AC against critical confirmation rolls. I don't have any specific numbers in mind, but something like +3 for light fortification, +6 for moderate, and +9 for heavy. To me, it seems like it's more in the spirit of opposed rolls and using existing mechanics than the d100. Using that flat percent chance reminds me too much of 1E/2E thief skills; success has nothing to do with your opposition.
Any thoughts? Good idea, terrible, scrap it?
Armor of fortification is certainly cool, but I don't like the mechanic. I was thinking that instead of using a flat percentage roll to negate criticals, fortification could give a bonus to the wearer's AC against critical confirmation rolls. I don't have any specific numbers in mind, but something like +3 for light fortification, +6 for moderate, and +9 for heavy. To me, it seems like it's more in the spirit of opposed rolls and using existing mechanics than the d100. Using that flat percent chance reminds me too much of 1E/2E thief skills; success has nothing to do with your opposition.
Any thoughts? Good idea, terrible, scrap it?