Homebrew Whacky Half-Formed Idea for Armor as DR...

[JohnSnow]

Okay, I know it's been done a thousand times, but I've started enjoying a lot of the rules I'm seeing in games like Dragonbane, Daggerheart, Nimble, and Vagabond where armor reduces the damage of an incoming strike. But I also know that one of the things I want to avoid is slipping yet another roll into the mix, so here's my crazy, half-formed, idea: the Armor DR Dice Ladder!

In short, armor reduces the damage from attacks by cranking down the damage they do, following the dice ladder.
d12 -> d10 -> d8 -> d6 -> d4 -> d3 -> d2 (1 hp?) -> 0?

As an entirely untested system, light armor would reduce it 1 steps, medium armor 2 steps and heavy armor 3 steps (minimum 1d2). I am totally open to these shifting, but this is just an example to lay out the skeleton of the idea.

A long sword used 2-handed against plate (1d10) would drops down the dice ladder 3 steps -> d8 -> d6 -> d4.

A dagger? Except on a critical hit, or some kind of armor bypassing strike, it's ineffective against a plate-armored knight. I am also open to the idea that, say, d4 (or d3, or whatever) is the bottom of the ladder. So this is the point where knights in armor start wrestling with each other to try to shove a dagger through the other guy's visor.

This is an entirely untried and untested concept, it just hit me as I was perusing ideas for armor as DR, so I'm tossing it out to the community to see if anyone likes it enough to develop it further.

This probably could or should go along with radically altering how hit points work, as well as the damage monsters and spells do. And obviously you'd want to think about effectiveness of armor against different kinds of attacks.

 

[Distracted DM]

That's a very fun idea! You're going to find people arguing with the idea that a dagger isn't going to be able to hurt heavy armor, and I think a lot of peoples first instinct is going to think about how this would work in dnd5e.

This would likely also require reworking weapons though, which would probably just make it a headache. Making it so a mace could hurt plate armor etc.

But I wouldn't say give up on it ... Using the dice chain is definitely an interesting idea.

 

[aco175]

I'm not sure it is an easier idea than just reducing the damage based on the armor. I might just lead to people trying to use the biggest weapon all the time to limit the reduction to nothing. The problem I would have as the DM is the extra time and questions from the players about type of armor the monster is wearing and how much is taken off. Times each combat.

Maybe something with reducing one step for medium and two for heavy armor.

 

[aramis erak]

Okay, I know it's been done a thousand times, but I've started enjoying a lot of the rules I'm seeing in games like Dragonbane, Daggerheart, Nimble, and Vagabond where armor reduces the damage of an incoming strike. But I also know that one of the things I want to avoid is slipping yet another roll into the mix, so here's my crazy, half-formed, idea: the Armor DR Dice Ladder!

In short, armor reduces the damage from attacks by cranking down the damage they do, following the dice ladder.
d12 -> d10 -> d8 -> d6 -> d4 -> d3 -> d2 (1 hp?) -> 0?

As an entirely untested system, light armor would reduce it 1 steps, medium armor 2 steps and heavy armor 3 steps (minimum 1d2). I am totally open to these shifting, but this is just an example to lay out the skeleton of the idea.

A long sword used 2-handed against plate (1d10) would drops down the dice ladder 3 steps -> d8 -> d6 -> d4.

A dagger? Except on a critical hit, or some kind of armor bypassing strike, it's ineffective against a plate-armored knight. I am also open to the idea that, say, d4 (or d3, or whatever) is the bottom of the ladder. So this is the point where knights in armor start wrestling with each other to try to shove a dagger through the other guy's visor.

This is an entirely untried and untested concept, it just hit me as I was perusing ideas for armor as DR, so I'm tossing it out to the community to see if anyone likes it enough to develop it further.

This probably could or should go along with radically altering how hit points work, as well as the damage monsters and spells do. And obviously you'd want to think about effectiveness of armor against different kinds of attacks.

Been tested by others than you. Works OK, but the big flaw is not knowing what dice to roll, so the classic speedup of roll damage dice with the attack roll cannot be used comfortably unless/until armor is revealed, and it automatically reveals the AV.
If AV varies by location, it futher restricts the ability to roll both together.

Not everyone minds revealing the AV. I do, so for me, it's a big problem.

 

[GMMichael]

This probably could or should go along with radically altering how hit points work, as well as the damage monsters and spells do. And obviously you'd want to think about effectiveness of armor against different kinds of attacks.

This would likely also require reworking weapons though, which would probably just make it a headache. Making it so a mace could hurt plate armor etc.

Is there an underlying assumption that this is supposed to apply to D&D? Otherwise, I'm not seeing how hit points, monsters, weapons and spells need reworking.

Armor as DR works just fine as a static number if you're trying to avoid another roll. If it's a reduction of the die type, it loses its extreme value (as an average roll or a high roll): each step of better armor is worth, on average, 2 points off the highest roll, 1 point off the average roll, and 0 points off the minimum roll. Not that there's anything wrong with that!