D&D 5E Parrying and Protecting versus spells and othe rstuff

[Chris_Nightwing]

Ahem. Tumbling in full plate is quite possible ("http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm11yAXeegg").

Well that successfully showed me how clumsy you are in full armour.

 

[Vikingkingq]

Well that successfully showed me how clumsy you are in full armour.

Clumsy enough to do cartwheels and pushups, which is a hell of a long way away from "so heavy they had to be craned onto their horses."

The point is, plate is much lighter and easier to move in than lighter D&D armors, because the weight is broadly distributed across the body. There's no reason why you couldn't learn to Tumble in plate with more effectiveness than you could wearing chain or scale or the like.

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

Clumsy enough to do cartwheels and pushups, which is a hell of a long way away from "so heavy they had to be craned onto their horses."

The point is, plate is much lighter and easier to move in than lighter D&D armors, because the weight is broadly distributed across the body. There's no reason why you couldn't learn to Tumble in plate with more effectiveness than you could wearing chain or scale or the like.

I disagree. You cannot curve your back in plate, indeed, this is one of its protective features. You couldn't do a forward somersault, for instance, or hop up from lying on your back. The guy in the video does clumsy cartwheels - I have no doubt he would do better without the armor on.

I guess I would judge restrictiveness on the basis of.. can you break dance in it?

 

[slobo777]

I googled "Dancing in Plate" just for fun, and found this, filmed as a bit of fun during Predator 2: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljEC7HKbP0g]Predators dancing Locking Predator (Locker Lionel Douglass aka Big D. - YouTube[/ame]

The predator getup is of course designed for doing stunts, but it does look the part

Anyway, on this discussion, I'm in a similar mind to Parry/Shield Block. Just call what the guy in platemail does something else, if Tumble offends. It can be the same in game mechanic as Tumble in basic version, and then something different for an advanced skill at higher level, with a mechanic that brings to mind using armour actively to make a move that an unprotected person would not dare attempt.

 

[artfulshrapnel]

Seems to me that a good middle ground was hit on by an earlier post:

Limit the effects of Parry by damage type, perhaps expanding the range of those effects for character carrying a shield.

A new example wording:

Parry
You can use your weapon or shield to turn aside an attack, reducing its impact on you.
Benefit: When you are subject to an effect or attack that deals damage while you are wielding a weapon or a shield, you can spend expertise dice to reduce the damage. This is effective against piercing, slashing or bludgeoning damage types, and any damage dealt by a melee or touch attack.
Roll any expertise die you spend in this way, and subtract its result from the damage against you. If the damage drops to 0 or lower, you are still subject to any other effects of the attack.

Special: If you are wielding a shield, this ability is also effective against fire, frost, acid, electric and force damage types.

It gives fighters the ability to parry things that can reasonably be smacked aside or deflected with intelligent use of armor. (arrows, slingstones, swords, rocks, magically summoned flying spikes, a wizard's lightning covered hands, etc.) It gives an added benefit to shield users by allowing them to deflect a lot of new types of physical sources like streams of fire, lightning bolts, blobs of acid, etc.

It avoids making them impenetrable megatanks by omitting a large array of intangible effects such as poison, psychic, radiant/necrotic, and non-damaging effects.

If feel this ruins certain abilities, you could make specific spells (such as Magic Missile) specifically bypass those effects by adding the line "This spell is not affected by Parry or other damage reducing actions."

 

[Ferrous]

Actually tumbling in full plate has historical precedent, acrobats in plate armour entertained the Kings of England and France at the Field of the Cloth of Gold by tumbling.

However the point that was being made in that the same mechanism could be used to describe differing gameworld techniques?

 

[DerekSTheRed]

Seems to me an effect that works off an attack should also apply to spells that require an attack roll. If it only works off a melee attack, then it should also apply to spells that require a melee attack roll.