I am building a setting in which people have only been on this world for about 100 or so years, bringing with them only what they were holding at the time they were randomly whisked away from their homeworlds. This means few tools, few books, few people with the right training.
The consequence of all this is that wood, stone and bone will be the primary construction materials for a while. These people remember their homeworlds had more advanced methods and materials, and even if they don't know those methods themselves, it will prompt a more rapid rediscovery.
So, with that in mind, players are going to start out with primitive gear. I want primitive gear to be the 'baseline' for adventuring with until gaining proper stuff somewhat later (from looting or whatever, since there were some metal weapons and armour on the first arrivals; actual magic items would be so rare as to be considered artifacts).
How does this look? The Defense Bonus is to make up for the lack of high AC metal armours.
Primitive Weapons and Armour
Primitive weapons and armour must be non-masterwork, cost 1/2 their normal price and are constructed from some combination of wood, stone, bone or hides. Metal armour cannot be primitive.
When an attack with a primitive weapon hits a creature wearing non-primitive armour, that armour gains DR/adamantine equal to half the armour's AC bonus (round down) against that attack.
Improved unarmed strike and natural attacks are considered non-primitive.
Defense Bonus
A character gains an additional Dex bonus to AC equal to half his or her Base Attack Bonus, rounded down.
|
I'm planning a game that sounds similar to yours. My plan is to have a DR/armor mechanic, with weapons made of certain materials able to bypass an amount of DR/armor. Wood has a value of 0, stone is 1, bronze is 2, iron is 3, steel is 4, and adamantine is 5. Other materials have the same value as the listed material most similar. That value is used both for the DR/armor value and the DR bypass value. I'm thinking of adding DR/armor to monsters based on their natural armor, but haven't found a method yet. I'm using E6, and natural attacks and improved unarmed use half BAB for their bypass value. This game is "generational", meaning players will play multiple characters as decades and centuries pass, so technology (and by extension metallurgy and crafting) is expected to advance, though they will have the memories of those technologies to help advance them more quickly.