Armor Comaprison


Advice


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XL Sheet

When compared with a character with starting Dex 16 increasing Dex every chance and using Dex as a SECONDARY characteristic for augmentation the best available heavy armor generally gives +1AC over the best available light armor at any level. For a character with Dex primary heavy armor and light armor provide EXACTLY THE SAME AC. This gets a bit wonk at level 17, but most games are not going to get to level 17 (I suspect the reason is to allow 17 level players to top out into 20th level armor).

It is very important to upgrade your armor at every level. With armor you are trying to keep hostiles from being able to hit you on a 13 or less, the point at which full attack becomes useful. When armor level = character level, a Full BAB with best stats will tend to need around a 10 to hit and everyone else a 12.

At about level 7 there are two armor paths you can take.

One is buying armor above your character level.

The other is to try to use energy resists and DR to soak incoming damage. The best laser sniper rifle does 3.25 per 5% chance to hit. Resists are far better at mitigating damage than AC (though with one grain of salt, I don't think you want a vorpal or wounding weapon full attacking you).

It looks like the designer intended DR their to be a tension between laser weapons for which resists go up to 15 and personal shields which can block everything but laser hits. Since shields take a standard action to turn on, I just don't see it happening.

The increased KAC means that using a projectile weapon is equivalent to taking about a -1.5 on your to hit roll. I've ran some numbers using 20th level weapons and the damage may be worth it, for high level weapons that are rolling a bunch of dice.


I wish to apologize. I screwed up the analysis of armor mods royally. Damage Reductions / Energy Resistance comes off the alpha damage that each hit causes, not DPR.

Every 5 points of damage resistance will drop DPR by 0.238 when the chance for crit is taken into account. Five points of DR/ER is going to be the same as about +2AC against a 9th level laser rifle. This is almost exactly the benefit you would get by buying higher level armor that gives you +2 AC.

I also was badly wrong about forcefields. While I still do not like that you need to burn a standard to activate, the fast healing is filling a pool. That means that fast healing should be subtracted from DPR - making Forcefields substantially more powerful than I first thought.

Shadow Lodge

But freebooter armor makes you look like a Mad Max reject, so consider carefully before buying it.

Shadow Lodge

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On a more serious note, buying new armor every level isn't economically feasible. You're only getting 10% back on the old armor, so replacing it adds up to quite the cost.

And some levels there's just nothing that works for you slots, look, weight, etc.


I think that is something people must internalize, that equipment doesn't and shouldn't get upgraded constantly.


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Armor and weapons don't need to be (and shouldn't be) replaced every level. Every 2-3 levels should probably be the earliest you should consider replacing them with higher level versions; 1st-3rd levels will probably be an exception, but those upgrades should mostly be from looting enemy bodies (to be crude about it).

Instead of replacing armor and weapons every level or so, you should be adding armor upgrades and adding/transferring weapon fusions.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I just pick the armor that is most mechanically appropriate, then reflavor it to suit.

If I'm a pilot, for example, I might take Vesk Overplate, then write "prototype armored flight suit (as Vesk Overplate)" on my character sheet.

I've not yet met a GM who would disallow this, and even if I did, said GM couldn't change how I view my own character.


Ravingdork wrote:

I just pick the armor that is most mechanically appropriate, then reflavor it to suit.

If I'm a pilot, for example, I might take Vesk Overplate, then write "prototype armored flight suit (as Vesk Overplate)" on my character sheet.

I've not yet met a GM who would disallow this, and even if I did, said GM couldn't change how I view my own character.

So very much i agree with this. so long as the resources stay balanced among the party why not let the mechanic have a custom built weapon that just happens to take the same stats and the same resource cost as an equivalent weapon from the charts and then keep fiddling with it and upgrading parts over time?


Um, just to point out that while weapons can fall behind, Starfinder Armor is already almost paper. If you let it fall behind, a major opponent can really go to town on a full attack.


How do the armors from the Alien Archive stack up? I'll admit im quite smitten with the aesthetics of the Aeon Guard armor and would love to see if it is viable to keep wearing it at higher levels.

I kind of wish there was some way to pull the ole pathfinder method of enchanting a single suit of armor so that you could keep it relevant to the upgrades (for instance with the Aeon Guard armor that only has 2 tiers)


Hazrond wrote:
I kind of wish there was some way to pull the ole pathfinder method of enchanting a single suit of armor so that you could keep it relevant to the upgrades (for instance with the Aeon Guard armor that only has 2 tiers)

You can use the technique Ravingdork mentioned earlier - instead of buying a new armor you spend the same amount of credits investing in tougher armor plates, new actuators etc to "upgrade" your original armor. Use your new armor's stats, describe it as the old one but more tricked out. As long as the expense is the same, I'd be perfectly fine with a player in my games doing this.


Thanks for the sheet. Quite informative!


Kudaku wrote:
Hazrond wrote:
I kind of wish there was some way to pull the ole pathfinder method of enchanting a single suit of armor so that you could keep it relevant to the upgrades (for instance with the Aeon Guard armor that only has 2 tiers)
You can use the technique Ravingdork mentioned earlier - instead of buying a new armor you spend the same amount of credits investing in tougher armor plates, new actuators etc to "upgrade" your original armor. Use your new armor's stats, describe it as the old one but more tricked out. As long as the expense is the same, I'd be perfectly fine with a player in my games doing this.

Well, it also has the cool Aeon Stone slots built in, which i don't think any other armor has.

Grand Lodge

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I hear Armor Comaprisons are the worst kind of prisons.


Jurassic Pratt wrote:
I hear Armor Comaprisons are the worst kind of prisons.

I hear that 9:00 on the west coast might be way to late in other parts of the country.


Nicola The Necromancer wrote:

XL Sheet

Thanks for the work on this sheet Nicola, I appreciate it.

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