Armour EP

[phantomdoodler]

These rules tweak the current system, without adding too much complexity.

Each piece of armour provides an increase in Endurance, as the normal rules. Rather than add this value to the targets Endurance, however, the player should keep track of their Armour Endurance Points, equal to the total Endurance bonus of all armour worn. These can be recorded in the characters Endurance box, or under their equipment, if necessary.

When you are hit in combat, you first take your damage from the Armours EP, rather than your own, unless there is a reason you cant. For example, suppose a character is wearing just a helmet, and has been struck in the leg by a nasty scythe trap, realistically, such a character would not benefit from the armours protection, so the Gm rules out doing so on this occasion.

Armour Repair
Damaged armour must be repaired, or else it will remain less effective. This is really a case of maintenance, rather than serious recrafting and requires some basic tools and parts, such a hammer to bash out the dents, needle and thread to stitch together leather, or a few extra chain links to reattach to damaged mail . Often these parts can be salvaged from an opponents armour and so a player doesnt need to pay anything for the repair. However such repairs take time. After an adventure, it is assumed that all armour Ep has been repaired, but if a player wishes to to repair their damaged armour during the adventure, they will need to find a blacksmith or tanner. Such repairs takes a fraction of the time (10 minutes per EP repaired) and costs 2 GC per EP repaired.

For example, Jander Vance the Knight, is wearing a Full Plate armour, which provides 8 Endurance worth of protection. After a few battle, his Armour Endurance is reduced to 0. Knowing he is expecting trouble later that day, Vance doesnt have time to repair his own armour, so he seeks out a blacksmith to repair the damage. He hands over 16 crowns, and after an hour or so, his armour is fully restored.

I have treated the repair of armour as approximately the same cost of buying healing potions, to keep things similar to the standard rules. Its just an attempt to bring a little more realism. I would also allow the use of the Brotherhood Discipline Mend, to repair Armour Endurance if the caster wishes.

 

[Hellebore]

Sounds ok but you will be without armour for most of the adventure. The knight loses 8 EP in the first combat and is now without armour unless he repairs it.

Unless you said something like the first pt of damage per encounter is taken from armour until the armour's EP is used up. This means the knight would take reduced damage in 8 encounters.

But given the amount of damage you take in a single combat, even full plate will be depleted in one or two combats at most.

EDIT: In a similar vein to your idea you could simplify it by having a 'repair kit' that costs a specific amount and repairs a certain amount of armour. That way people can buy healing potions and repair kits and get on with the fighting. Say repair kits come in variations equal to the variation in armour EP. So you could buy a 6 GP repair kit that fixed 6 EP worth of armour.

In this scenario it would take a lot more than some fighting to require an armoursmith's full attention.

Hellebore

 

[phantomdoodler]

I do like the idea of a repair kit! Both items would be backpack items, but unlike healing potions, would require a few minutes to use, so cannot be used during combat.

Light Repair Kit (3 GC)
This set of tools allows a character to repair up to 2 EP to damaged armour.

Medium Repair Kit (5 GC)
This set of tools allows a character to repair up to 4 EP to damaged armour.

Heavy Repair Kit (7 GC)
This set of tools allows a character to repair up to 6 EP to damaged armour.

Alternatively, a character can seek the services of an Armourer, who will restore 1 EP to armour, for each 1 GC spent.

 

[Random Code]

How about another couple of options:

1) Going with your armour EP idea but having any armour EP lost refreshed at the end of a combat encounter but at 1 EP less than it was previously. That way, you keep the idea of armour having separate EPs but also wearing down gradually rather than losing it all (potentially) in one go.

2) Adopting some kind of damage reduction rules rather than armour EP so that armour reduces each attack's damage depending on its rating.

 

[Hellebore]

I sort of went with that last in my house rules. Armour provides ablative EP per fight. To balance that out somewhat, most weapons have a damage bonus.

Hellebore

 

[phantomdoodler]

How about another couple of options:

1) Going with your armour EP idea but having any armour EP lost refreshed at the end of a combat encounter but at 1 EP less than it was previously. That way, you keep the idea of armour having separate EPs but also wearing down gradually rather than losing it all (potentially) in one go.

Yes i like the ablative idea a lot. I would just say that, given enough time between combats, characters can tinker and fix these minor repairs. Once the maximum Armour EP is reduced to zero, armour must be repaired by an Armourer during an adventure (say 2 GCs per point of Maximum Armour EP restored) - or fixed between adventures by the character for free.

It makes armour much more useful though (full plate would be able to absorb 36 total EP, rather than 8 ) so i may include penalties for wearing armour which apply to athletic and movement based rolls ( suffer -1 for each full 2 EP of armour, not including bonuses from magical or superior armour )

 

[Sir Brad]

I personally run a custom Armour system where half the listed EP value is it's Damage Reduction. I'm starting to tinker with Armour Damage where the more damaged your Armour gets the less it's DR and even a CS Penalty.

 

[phantomdoodler]

I think i am only resistance to damage reduction because players generally take so little damage from an enemy to begin with - up to 8, and thats at -7 CR. Typically its only 2 or 3 , so any amount of armour reduction means with a high enough CS and armour, you become effectively bullet proof

 

[Random Code]

I think i am only resistance to damage reduction because players generally take so little damage from an enemy to begin with - up to 8, and thats at -7 CR. Typically its only 2 or 3 , so any amount of armour reduction means with a high enough CS and armour, you become effectively bullet proof

You could offset armour DR with damage bonuses for weapons. Appreciate that's kinda like creating something (armour DR) and then cancelling it out again with another rule (weapon damage bonuses) but it does allow for mechanical variations to work within that extreme.

 

[phantomdoodler]

Well i have incorporated weapon damage with the modified combat system i intend to run (applying CS bonuses with weapons when attacking), so i suppose i could try armour adding CS bonuses when defending against attacks. But i think i will stick with Ep for armour to keep it related to the gamebooks, just with a little tweaking

 

[Hellebore]

Rather than just a flat damage reduction per hit, I went with damage reduction per encounter. So if you have 5 pts of armour then you ignore the first 5 pts of damage in an encounter. But also added weapon damages as well.
http://www.nationaldinosaurmuseum.com.au/Staff/Warhammer/LW%20Magnamund%20Miscellania.pdf


Hellebore

 

[Sir Brad]

With my DR system only half the EP counts as DR, so Full Plate has a DR of 4, a Mail Vest has DR2, Helmet DR1 and so on.

 

[Hellebore]

With my DR system only half the EP counts as DR, so Full Plate has a DR of 4, a Mail Vest has DR2, Helmet DR1 and so on.

Does that include weapon damage modifiers? Because without that armour becomes pretty awesome. As was said earlier, the PC even at the greatest difficulty won't take more than 7-8 damage. On average they might take 1-2. So all it would take is 1-2 pts of armour (or 2-4 EP as you halve it) to make you immune to most attacks.

I don't mind the idea of ablative EP so I tried to stay within the design frame of the gamebooks. It also means you have high levels of armour and thus differentiate between them easier.

Hellebore

 

[Sir Brad]

most big cool weapons, hand and a half and two handed get a CS bonus when used 2 handed this pumps up the damage dealt, also I impose athletics and discipline (stealth, hunting and such) penalties for whereing big armour or stacking on the piecemeal bonuses, so Rangers an Kai with their Wilderness & healing skills normally stick to a Vest and maybe helmet or some limb guards.

Knights & Bor who can't heal in short order without outside help go for the big armour. Then they tend to get banged up worse any way if they are RP'ing right because they have to go wading in to strait up fights taking on the biggest enemies or pick a fight with Mobs of smaller Mobs where the other PC's get to play it smart.