General question - Armour damage.

[GurgleSnuff]

The book states that if the wearer of the armor is inflicted 20 hp of damage the armour itself is inflicted 1d4 DR loss damage.
Now this might sound silly and probably is. But should the character keep track of how much damage he/armour has taken, and when he has accumulated 20 HP damage he then rolls 1D4 DR loss damage. Or is it only in a single scene? And everytime after u start the count over again?

Clear this up for me plz

 

[steventirey1985]

Anytime the character takes 20 or more points of damage from a single attack (after the DR of the armor is taken into effect), the DR is reduced by 1d4.

Or at least thats what my book says.

 

[argo]

Thats 20 points of damage or more in a single hit, after the DR itself is considered.

Basically - any time the character has to make a Massive Damage save his armor also has its DR reduced by 1d4.

The armor damage is persistent, it does not go away at the end of the scene. Damaged armor can be repaired with a Craft (armor) check. I don't recall the rules for repairing the armor off hand and don't have my book with me.

Later.

 

[pasuuli]

Sounds kind of fiddly, but if you're going to get smacked with a mighty wallop, I reckon your armor ought to feel it too.

 

[Sutek]

We dish out the armor damage in the "as rules" way (when a single blow deals 20+ points of damage) and also each time a CRIT is officially scored. Just made sense to us. Armor and riches for buying more of it is pretty plentiful in Hyborea, plus it makes combats a little more dramatic.

 

[Clovenhoof]

Typical example of "YMMV":

Armour damage on a crit can be reasoned, but keep in mind that this gives those fighters an extra advantage who specialize in criticals. I.e. Barbarians (Versatility) and anyone who takes Improved/Greater critical.

A combatant with I/G Crit and a suitable weapon (particulary scimitar or the like) will score threats almost half the time. Even if he has bad damage (due to low strength) he can utterly destroy even Full Plate armour within just a few rounds.

I'd be very careful with this. Also, it isn't coherent with the system since the idea is that heavy piercing weapons are best at penetrating armour, while curved blades are better against light or no armour.

Compare:
Scimitar, crit 18-20/x2, AP2
Warhammer, crit x3, AP7

So in short, if you want armour to be damaged more easily in combat, you should devise a mechanism that has to do with AP rating rather than crit rating.
Then again, the RAW does already indirectly incorporate the AP rating in armour damage, since high AP means that half the DR is ignored, so the target takes more damage, which makes the magical 20 easier to attain.
(You could of course say the same about criticals, of course.)

I have a feeling that the main intention of the current armour damage rule is to keep PCs from salvaging armour from foes killed by massive damage. After all, who'd want a Breastplate with DR3? Right.
With a house rule to faciliate damaging armour, you encourage a whole new combat tactics. Not that this has to be bad, but be aware that it may turn out as a rather drastic change in practice.

 

[Sutek]

Mybe, but using the randomness of CRITs is easier. Granted, threat ranges are pretty easily increased by tacking on feats like Improved Crit, but you have to take into account all the pre-requisites to do that. It's not much, but if you go that route, you deserve to split armor on a regular basis as far as I'm concerned.

I'm just one of those people who hates armor clad wusses. (lol) Sword & Board & a bear-skin loin cloth is much more CONAN to me....

8)