Okay, armor has two main ratings...
First, the Armor Rating. This is how many points of damage it stops. This ranges from 1 point for tough clothing to 8 for metal armor, possibly up to 12 for enchanted super-armor.
Second is the Coverage Rating. This is how much of your body it covers. Your opponent can take a -X penalty to their attack if they want to bypass your armor, where X is equal to the Coverage Rating.
A breastplate gives a coverage of 2. Helmet +1. Arms +2. Legs +2.
Hm. What should be the bypass penalty for hitting someone in, say, full plate, and bypassing their armor? -10? -5 sounds a bit too easy. Let's go with -10 for right now. Then we can give full plate really crippling weaknesses (1 point of stun per hour worn, -5 to all Agility actions, -10 to swimming and climbing) and folks will still wear it if they have to.
Breastplate 4. Helm +2. Arms +2. Legs +2. Hm. Then a breastplate + helm would have a coverage of -6. That's probably too hard to bypass.
Hm. How about -5 for full-body coverage, -10 if it's particularly seamless.
So, 2 for breastplate, +1 for helm / arms / legs. If you have them all, it's 5. If it's got the "seamless" bonus, it's 10.
Posted by Kiz at February 17, 2005 09:43 AMCommentsPost a comment