Re: Re: SUPERnatural armour?
I seem to have stirred up a hornets nest here, remember at this point I am still contemplating its introduction - which was why I asked everyones opinions...thanks for all the responses.
I'll reply to you all in turn.
Hi poil brun mate!
poilbrun said:
Sorry to hear that. I hope you're well...
Thanks! I think I am over the worst of it, no more headaches, just a runny nose.
poilbrun said:
Now, on to the subject at hand :
I can see why you would do this : it's true that a succubus' skin is not particularly tough, and I agree that it may be considered supernatural. I differ, however, about the magical aspect of it.
Logically, if the armour isn't natural (or manufactured), then it must be supernatural.
poilbrun said:
I can't see why an antimagic field would reduce an outsider AC.
Simply that Anti-Magic blocks supernatural abilities.
poilbrun said:
Furthermore, you'd need to lower the CR accordingly.
Not necessarily. Do you alter the challenge rating of a 20th-level Wizard simply because of the 'possibility' they will get caught within an anti-magic field, no, of course not.
poilbrun said:
An outsider already looses its magical abilities if it is subjected to an Antimagical Field. If it AC also drops by 13, he's only dead meat even before the beginning of combat...
Remember of course that anyone in the Anti-Magic Field will also have magical bonuses negated. In my estimation all things will still be even.
poilbrun said:
But there is something missing in your post : why would you do this? If there is a really good reason behind this, I could understand it.
In my opinion if you have natural armour; you have to look like you have natural armour! Otherwise you have supernatural armour.
For a long time now I have been searching for a clear method of determining natural armour from supernatural armour to answer a number of fundamental questions:
- Why should deities who are not naturally armoured have the same natural armour as those that are!?
eg. Should Odin have the same or better Natural Armour than Tiamat?
No, certainly not! Likely a better Armour Class, but not Natural Armour. Tiamat is a colossal dragon deity with incredibly thick scales. Her size and heavy natural armour keep her Dexterity at 10. Odin on the other hand has an incredibly high Dexterity (I anticipate in the low 80s). He can benefit from wearing armour, Tiamat cannot.
- If having high natural armour makes you look freakish as well as reduces your dexterity, it must therefore be superior to supernatural armour.
At a base level all this need represent is that natural armour functions within Anti-Magic.
However, you could also decree that Natural Armour reduces damage (in effect duplicating resilience) rather than increasing AC. Something I have advocated ever since Simon introduced (what was then Armour Value) into our own campaign years ago. Although I refrained from headlining it in the WPS; even though from what I can tell it not only makes more sense but is the rule set to be used in many forthcoming d20 variant systems. Including D20 Modern (if I'm not mistaken) according to the interview with Anthony Valterra on the EN Main News Page.
Obviously Tiamat is easy to hit, but not to hurt!
poilbrun said:
However, if it is only for flavor, I think it would be easier to keep on using the Natural Armor as it is now, knowing that it implies both a toughness of the skin and some supernatural protection.
At the moment I am leaning towards using the supernatural armour idea.
However, remember that it will be an optional rule in the WPS (albeit one which I advocate). Within deity descriptions you won't need to change a thing if you don't wish to utilise supernatural armour, since both NA and SnA will be calculated into the Armour Class.
The only modification would be if you planned to incorporate Natural Armour as Resilience.
poilbrun said:
It would also raise some other questions : what if the Balor from the example has more hit dices? Does his AC also become higher?
Technically there are 2 methods to this (depending on whether you wish to have Natural Armour increase AC or reduce Damage). I'll have the second worked out later - in fact just thought of it.
Method #1 (Natural Armour = AC increase)
As a simple rule of thumb (for Outsiders) I would always keep Supernatural Armour equal to Hit Dice.
39HD Balor
Supernatural Armour = +39
Natural Armour +10 (original 7 + 3 for size increase), +5 of which is determined by size, leaving a remaining +5; meaning a Balor has skin like chainmail.
Dexterity becomes 10.
66HD Solar
Supernatural Armour = +66
Natural Armour +5 (original 2 + 3 for size increase)
Dexterity becomes 17.
However, deities won't gain this automatically, but rather must manifest the power by expending worship points.
Method #2 (Natural Armour = Reduced Damage)
Same principle as before (SnA = Outsider HD) except that any Natural Armour subtracts from Supernatural Armour.
13HD Balor
Supernatural Armour = +13
Natural Armour +7
Supernatural Armour Reduced to +6. (13 - 7)
Dexterity becomes 10.
66HD Demogorgon
Supernatural Armour = +66
Natural Armour +15
Supernatural Armour Reduced to +51. (66 - 15)
Dexterity reduced by 15 (probably to about 20).
So Demogorgons Ac would be about 64* and you would need to deliver in excess of 15 damage to hurt him.
49HD Tiamat
Supernatural Armour = +49
Natural Armour +48
Supernatural Armour Reduced to +1. (49 - 48)
Dexterity reduced by 48 (obviously to 10).
So Tiamats AC would actually be 3* but you would need to deal over 48 hit points damage in a single attack to hurt her!
*Not counting Magic Items.
Technically you could also presume that the NA increase from size didn't detract from SnA - but I will have to have a think on this point.
poilbrun said:
Do spells like Mage Armor stack with this supernatural protection or not?
In my estimation supernatural armour is like a sort of innate mage armour. Personally I wouldn't allow them to stack, simply chose the highest figure.
poilbrun said:
I don't think this change is necessary, but if you could expand a bit over it, maybe the reasons why I'm not sure about this change would become meaningless.
Thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt mate!
