Armour penalty

[telsor]

There is an argument that RQ3 massively disfavoured dodge.

In MRQ, dodge is a VITAL skill. Forget trying to avoid other people trying to hit you, just look at the list of free hits under the reaction rules...

"¨ If the enemy readies a weapon. If the free attack causes damage, the enemy must make a Dodge test or drop the weapon instead of readying it."

If for any reason, you need to ready a new weapon while you're in combat and you can't dodge, you're stuffed.

My group noticed this last session and figured 2 options for those with low dodge, neither good...
1) Run away, ready your weapon and come back ( ie, 3CAs spent + at least 1 free hit and if your opponent isn't otherwise engaged, he could just chase you so you can never rearm ).
2) Unarmed combat.

As my character uses a Rapier ( impale & fail aths roll = no effective weapon ), I'm rather concerned about this, especially as my effective dodge is currently negative.

Suffice to say, increasing my dodge has become a priority, even though I may never use it to avoid an attack.

 

[Adept]

As my character uses a Rapier ( impale & fail aths roll = no effective weapon ), I'm rather concerned about this, especially as my effective dodge is currently negative.

Suffice to say, increasing my dodge has become a priority, even though I may never use it to avoid an attack.

A fencer is supposed to be quick and nible. A high dodge is realistically speaking a part of rapier-play.

 

[Rurik]

"¨ If the enemy readies a weapon. If the free attack causes damage, the enemy must make a Dodge test or drop the weapon instead of readying it."

If for any reason, you need to ready a new weapon while you're in combat and you can't dodge, you're stuffed.

Hmm. Hadn't noticed that. I guess dodge replaces DEX times X rolls kinda like Resilience replaces CON rolls and Persistence replaces POW rolls.

You could house rule that you can use Resilience instead of Dodge - Resilience seems to be the save used for most damage taking saves anyway.

Other than that keep another weapon in your off hand - a dagger is a fine parrying weapon, or use a sheild, and parry that free attack.

The more I use the combat system in MRQ the more sheilds grow on me. (They are also excellent against Ignore Armor precise attacks as those don't bypass parries).

 

[telsor]

A fencer is supposed to be quick and nible. A high dodge is realistically speaking a part of rapier-play.

Fair comment, but the same applies to anyone using a spear too... Also, think in terms of your party getting ambushed, bad guys close to close combat range before you've armed.

My group also uses RQ3 fumble tables ( more fun/interesting ), although having seen this, that could change....a dropped/thrown weapon is *bad*.


Rurik. Shield & parrying the reaction...hadn't considered that one

 

[Adept]

A fencer is supposed to be quick and nible. A high dodge is realistically speaking a part of rapier-play.

Fair comment, but the same applies to anyone using a spear too... Also, think in terms of your party getting ambushed, bad guys close to close combat range before you've armed.

Hmm... Parhaps that would be a case where a Dex*5 rolls instead of dodge would be a reasonable houserule. The rule itself sounds pretty silly.

 

[Licheking]

A rapier user in our group did just that, critted and then had to leavce his weapon in the victim, which meant he was unarmed. Now he carries a parrying dagger and has started increasing his Dodge.

 

[Quire]

A rapier user in our group did just that, critted and then had to leavce his weapon in the victim, which meant he was unarmed. Now he carries a parrying dagger and has started increasing his Dodge.

Back in the day, that would have been:

Now his new character carries...



- Q

 

[Deleted_Account]

Toss in an "Armor skill"? (starts at, say Con*2+Strength. Avg human untrained human starts at 33%, enough to wear Leather effectively.)

Start set the required skill for a suit of armor to 3 times the MRQ penalty.

For every point of "armor skill" you are under this value, you get a 1% penalty on most motion oriented skills (weapon, climb, brute, unarmed, etc), and a 2% penalty on limber skills (dance/dodge/swim/acrobatics/etc).

The min penalty from Armor is 1/2 the current for normal motion skills, or the current for limber skills.

If you want "balanced" armor, set Armor penalties to 0.5%/1% min, 3% Skill per location per AP.

So:
1 AP: 21% Skill, 4%/7% min penalty (wants a 18% Armor Skill for min)
2 AP: 42% Skill, 7%/14% min penalty (wants a 35% Armor Skill for min)
3 AP: 63% Skill, 11%/21% min penalty (wants a 53% Armor Skill for min)
4 AP: 84% Skill, 14%/28% min penalty (wants a 70% Armor Skill for min)
5 AP: 105% Skill, 18%/35% min penalty (wants a 87% Armor Skill for min)
6 AP: 126% Skill, 21%/42% min penalty (wants a 105% Armor Skill for min)

Mastercrafted: -2% per location
Custom Fit: -2% per location
Wrong Size: +1% for 1 off per location. Doubles every additional SIZ off.
Salvaged: +2% per location

Having greater than 100% armor skill allows your player to wear custom-crafted greater-than-6 AP armor with less penalties.

Do away with the -40% to ignore armor. Nobody aims at armor intentionally, it just gets in the way.

For crits, you can have the crit ignore up to the crit roll's worth of AP. So a 03 crit ignores 3 points of AP.

 

[weasel_fierce]

I like the armour penalties, as they give a bit more reason to think about your choices of armour, btu they are a tad high. I'll propably cut them in half

 

[Adept]

Toss in an "Armor skill"? (starts at, say Con*2+Strength. Avg human untrained human starts at 33%, enough to wear Leather effectively.)

Ugh... I guess that's ok if you just want a gamist gimmick (like a D&D armour profisciency).

There is nothing like that in real life though. You get used to armour pretty quick, but that doesn't mean it stops effecting your movement and quickness.

 

[RosenMcStern]

For crits, you can have the crit ignore up to the crit roll's worth of AP. So a 03 crit ignores 3 points of AP.

This one I really like. It is very simple, it involves no math, and it helps differentiate between lucky rolls of 01 and crits caused by high proficiency in a skill: a 200% skill PC, named, say, Turin Turambar, has a slight chance of bypassing a Dragon's scales, while Joe the Average has none.

 

[Licheking]

Why add a skill to compensate for armour, when all you really need to do is improve your weapon skill to compensate. 1 Skill which improves, instead of 2 skills which now require at least 2 improvement rolls. Or buy better weapons and armour which negates the penalties for wearing armour.

I will personally be sticking with the rules as they stand because i have no problem with them.

 

[Deleted_Account]

Because gaining skill in a 50 point skill is easier than gaining skill in a 90 point skill?

Because gaining "armor skill" boosts all of your armor-penalized skills?

Because each point of "armor skill" reduces your penalty on dodge/acrobatics/etc by 2%?

Currently, two characters, both with 100 skill in both shield and weapon. Both have +1d2 damage bonus, and a 1d8 weapon, and a shield.

One has full plate. The other one is naked.

Who wins?

Naked guy. At skill levels 20, 40, 50, 80, 100.

Then, by 140 and higher skill, the armored guy pulls ahead.

Why in the hell would sub-legendary skilled people wear plate?