Magical Armor question

[Rip]

Hey folks,

I was curious about magical armor. When a group fights another group and then wishes to take their armor for themselves, after defeating them, does magical armor heal itself when a new master puts it on? Or would it retain the punctures, tears, and rips it receives during battle?

And what about armor sizes? Does it 'shape' to its new owner as well.

How do you handle this in general?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Magical armor is typically considered to automatically adjust.

This ends up meaning rather silly things as a dwarf puts on full plate armor meant for a half-orc (both medium sized creatures).

The reason this is done is to save people time and effort on all the bookeeping about armor size. For whatever that's worth.

 

[TheEvil]

Well, any damage the armor recieved due to battle would obviously still be there, though given how hard armor is to damage in D&D...
I would assume one of the 'off screen' things that happen in most games is the banging out of dents and other general minor repair issues that real life armor went through on a regular basis. On the other hand, if you don't keep track of the damage the PC's armor takes, I don't know why you would worry about their opponents armor.

 

[Rip]

thanx for the responses.

I do keep track of the damage taken to their armor. Some of the micromanagement I do to keep the feel of it more real.
They have not come up to any magical armor yet until know.

I get very detailed as to where they are hit, type of injury they need to heal etc.

So I've built a situation where, if the magical armor gets pierced, punctured etc, I have to consider the fact that fixing it would be more expensive, or consider something such as, that magical armor can minorly heal itself of such damage...

 

[TheEvil]

Well, I can think of a few options off the top of my head:

Self armor healing armor. The puncture seals itself. I like this the least. Too magical special for 'regular' magic armor.

Another is that magical armor is never damaged. HP lost are the result of concussion and hit locations where the armor didn't protect. The character is bruised below the strike location. This may be a little epic for +1 armor though.

The last is that magical armor is just as easy to repair as any other armor. The justification here is that the enchantments made to strengthen armor have the abuse that the armor will take in mind, and so are not easily disrupted by mundane damage. Sure, the breatplate may have a hole punched in it, but the usual repair methods will allow the enchantment to strengthen it as normal. You could consider this a self-healing enchantment. My personal favorite, since it makes sense without being too special. Besides, who would make magic armor if it was a major hassle to pound out every dent?

 

[Rip]

TheEvil, thanx I like the idea of your last one and there's justification in that, so that would be the one that I would use.

BiggusGeekus, for simplicity's sake that is how I would think of it as well. A la Lord of the Rings, when the ring reshaped itself to fit the finger of Aragorn's dad.


Thanx.

 

[Rel]

the ring reshaped itself to fit the finger of Aragorn's dad.

[Nitpick]That'd be Great (to the Nth Degree) Granddad, Isildur[/Nitpick]