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Helaman,

I like very much the way you established the HP for armors, simple and elegant.

Slaunyeh,

As I mentioned above, we heavily rely on house rules, so the armor as DR system we adopt fits well in our campaign. I agree with you: implementing the Star Wars system directly into the Pathfinder core rules may unbalance the whole set of rules. That's why the system I developed is different from the Star Wars, taking into account one of the greatest rules of Pathfinder: Combat Maneuvers.

Mok, thanks for the advice! I'm going to have a look at it.

Helaman, the Star Wars rules determines that armor never gives you any AC, only DR. Every class starts with a bonus AC, that gradually rises according to the character level.

The house rules I implemented takes into account that, due to wear and tear, occasionally every armor will need maintenance. The Star Wars rules doesn’t take this into account.

I’m always fiddling with the core mechanics, as my players and I enjoy a certain level complex rules. It doesn’t mean turning rules into a hassle, only making it more suitable to our tastes.

Here is a link to the Armor as DR rules as they were written in the Unearthed Arcana rulebook.

Armor as DR

Also the book Ultimate Combat set to release July of this year is supposed to have rules for Armor as DR as well.

Thanks for the link, Sgmendez.

I was aware of those rules, but I never liked them very much. That's the reason I adapted the rules from the Star Wars Rulebook.

As for the Ultimate Combat, I can hardly wait to see the new rules about armor as DR!

Hello folks.

Since the Second Edition I had tons of house rules, specially about armor DR, based on the Fighter's Handbook.

After years away from RPG books, the flame of homebrewing rekindled in my heart and I started adapting all those house rules to the Pathfinder RPG (I skipped all the 3.5 craze due to law school and work).
So, I submit to you, my peers in roleplaying, these rules about armor DR, in hope of obtaining feedback on how to improve (or even start from scratch) this system.

For starters, these rules were adapted from de Star Wars Roleplaying Game Revised Core Rulebook (2002).

Armor does not provide any bonus to AC, only DR ranging from 1 to 7. The higher the DR, lower the maximum dexterity bonus, these ranging from +7 to +1. Regardless of the type of armor, the sum between DR and max. dex. bonus must always equals to 8.

Every time the character is hit, the armor absorbs damage, deducted from its Damage Points, so all armor has a new parameter that indicates the amount of punishment it can withstand before it crumbles (DP).

Likewise, shields and helmets afford DR and have the according DP.

Many of you may say: “This is outrageous! A character wearing a full plate armor is impervious to most short sword swings, and even a greatsword would do little damage against this DR!”. Enter a new combat maneuver: breach.

I based breach on the Halbschwert, a real technique employed during the 14th-16th century European historical fencing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halbschwert). With this combat maneuver, a character can totally trespass (ignore) the opponent’s armor DR. The attacker’s regular CMB is checked against the CMD of the opponent + the DR bonus the armor offers. Note that for breach purpose, the dex bonus in the CMD must be calculated based on the max dex. bonus the armor allows. Breach is a standard action and causes attacks of opportunity.

To encourage the use of breach, I created the feats Improved breach (+2 breach bonus, no attacks of opportunity) and great breach (another +2 breach bonus, and if successful, for the rest of the round, the breached opponent suffers -4 penalty CMD for any other breach attempt). The pre-requisites are combat expertise, for improved breach, and improved breach + BA+6 , regarding great breach.

Crushing weapons, for obvious reasons, can’t be employed on a breach attempt. To overcome this hindrance, when crushing weapons are used to sunder armors, there is a specific bonus that I prefer not to discuss now.

As for the touch attacks problems and low AC that these rules apparently causes, they are solved in the same manner Bill Slavicsek, Andy Collins and JD Wiker did at the de Star Wars Roleplaying Game Revised Core Rulebook (page 150).

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading.

Yamagata