How to justify bikini armour in your game.

[Quartz]

I've just read this article on Quora about justifying bikini armour and thought it might be of interest here.

TLDR: Bikini armour is magical and a way of displaying wealth.

Poor knight:

Rich knight (it works for men too):

 

[Len]

In our games, bikini armour is magnetic so metal weapons & projectiles are attracted to hit the armour. A silly explanation for silly character depictions.

 

[Richards]

My current PC wears even less: nothing but a belt to hang his weapons on and a cloak.

Of course, he's a lizardfolk....

Johnathan

 

[Garthanos]

Knight with less magical culture... knight with more magical culture

I've just read this article on Quora about justifying bikini armour and thought it might be of interest here.

TLDR: Bikini armour is magical and a way of displaying wealth.

Poor knight:

Rich knight (it works for men too):

 

[Tonguez]

I explained it as a Gladiator Fighting Style which emphasizes superlight armour (but gain Cha bonus to AC), fancy footwork (cha) and reckless power blows (str) designed for entertainment. On scoring a critical hit they also heal HP equal to their cha

 

[ccs]

I included a suit of it as a joke in the current campaigns opening adventure.

The PCs started out attending an all night carnival type party. One of the 60+ minis I had painted up for it was a chain mail bikini wearing female barbarian/fighter type I've had for years. I called her Dejah. Some of the players got it, some had no idea who Dejah Thoris is.
Anyways, every NPC at the party had several items of clothing/loot/misc (a few even had "plot devices") that the players could acquire - by interaction or randomly.
All together there were about 500 random items. Each represented as a single copy of a card. And it makes no difference to me what actually gets acquired.

So of course out of this giant stack of item cards the Chain Mail Bikini was one of the 20-some drawn.

The characters woke up the next morning hung over, lost in the woods, missing random things they'd started with, and in possession of random things.
The 1/2elf cleric (male)? Well, the cards revealed said that he woke up missing all of his clothing save his boots & wearing just the golden chain mail bikini.
He opted not to keep/use it. He traded it to another party member for a spare wizards robe.

This particular CMB has the following properties:
*Grants the wearer the Barbarians Unarmored Defense feature, keying off of Dex + Cha
*Operates as a Ring of Warmth
*Magically sizes to fit.
*Magically always stays "just in place"
*Will not function with other armor except shields.
*Will only function when worn "Properly" I.E. openly & visibly. Cloaks/capes may be worn, but only for cosmetic coolness factors.

**Flavor text from card:
"Is it functional? Is it magical? It's definitely inappropriate...."
"You've got to be comfortable in your own skin to wear this stuff effectively."

 

[Shiroiken]

I've generally considered bikini armor to be a showpiece armor put on display for wealth, rather than functional (although an occasional magic armor could be created). A wealthy warrior might have female guards that wear it for ceremonial duties, for example.

Of course, that's not to say that armor/clothing really has to be a thing. My current campaign has a moon druid from a savage land (escaped slave) who wears nothing but a loincloth, relying on wild shape for combat. I also had a male PC back in 4E that had a custom magic item (originally as a joke on another player): an enchanted "banana hammock" that provided a massive AC bonus... so long a no other clothing was worn on the chest and waist.

 

[Garthanos]

In my game world they had quasi magic tech armor that amounted to smaller devices belt buckles and amulets and arm bands which created "force" fields some of which were actually encumbering somewhat like heavier armor (which in real life is nowhere near as encumbering as some games make it seem) and some more flexible or like you were wearing nothing it wasn't necessarily to enable the bikini armor style... but it had that effect, by being incompatible with wearing other physical armor. (causes bad side effects like heating up and paralytics and the like)

 

[Garthanos]

I explained it as a Gladiator Fighting Style which emphasizes superlight armour (but gain Cha bonus to AC), fancy footwork (cha) and reckless power blows (str) designed for entertainment. On scoring a critical hit they also heal HP equal to their cha

Charisma based defenses makes me think of Barbarians wearing Woad and the like. (more intimidation than anything else)

 

[Tonguez]

Charisma based defenses makes me think of Barbarians wearing Woad and the like. (more intimidation than anything else)

Yeah it keyed off the idea that gladiators are performers and their manoeuvres are designed to get response from the crowd (and opponent). So yes there is an element of intimidation too (especially the reckless blows) plus it allows for brutal pit fighters and flamboyant showmen to both be gladiators.

also I didn’t want to do another dex based fighter