House Rules for Shields and Helmets

[Rezdave]

Some discussion of Shields already took place In This Thread.

Here are my thoughts on both Shields and Helmets (feedback appreciated):

SHIELDS

Buckler - 5gp, +1 AC, -1 Check

Small Shield - +2 AC, -2 Check

Large Shield - +4 AC, -4 Check

Tower Shield - +6 AC, -6 Check, Special

SHIELD NOTES

Buckler - Approximately 12" diameter, worn either strapped to the arm or gripped in the hand, depending upon the design. Gripped bucklers may be dropped as a Free Action.

Small Shield - Made of wood or metal, often round with approximate 20-30" diameter. Light Cavalry, Vikings and others often used Small Shields.

Large Shield - Made of wood or metal, either round or "badge-shaped" with 36" or greater diameter. It is possible to two-handed shield bash with a Large Shield, so long as the "weapon hand" holds only a Light Weapon. A Large Shield provides a +2 bonus to Bull-Rush and Overrun actions so long as it is supported with two hands. Greek Phalanxes and Medieval Knights used Large Shields.

Tower Shield - Made of wood or metal, tower shields may be rectangular or elongated ovals of about 24-36" width and 48-60" height. It can be converted to use as Cover by expending a Move Action (a forthcoming Shield Chain feat should allow its use as cover with an Immediate Action, with appropriate Reflex Save bonuses). A Tower Shield provides a +2 bonus to Bull-Rush and Overrun actions, or +4 if it is supported with two hands. Roman Legionnaires and some modern Riot Police use Tower Shields.

HELMETS

There are too many variations of helmets to list them all here. A table of types will be forthcoming, but availability will be limited by culture/region.

Here is a review of the basic new rules for helmets:

Skull Cap - +1 AC

Kettle Hat - +1 AC, addl. +1 AC vs. elevated opponents and indirect attacks, -1 Check

Bascinet, Open-face - +2 AC, -1 Check, varying penalties to Spot and Listen Checks

Bascinet, Visor - +2 or +4 AC, -3 Check, varying penalties to Spot and Listen Checks

Kabuto - +2 AC, addl. +2 AC vs. elevated opponents and indirect attacks, -3 Check, -2 Listen

Full Helm - +3 AC, -2 Check, -6 Listen, -6 Spot, +4 Listen DC

Sallet - +3 AC, addl. +1 AC vs. elevated opponents and indirect attacks, -3 Check, -6 Listen, -10 Spot, +4 Listen DC

Great Helm - +4 AC, -4 Check, -10 Listen, -10 Spot, +6 Listen DC, +4 bonus to Flankers

HELMET NOTES

Enchanting Helmets - Helmets may be enchanted similarly to Shields and Body Armor as deemed appropriate by the DM.

Skull Cap - Made of various materials (bone, leather, metal, etc.) the Skull Cap protects the top of the head, but does not obstruct the eyes or ears and so has no negative impacts on any Skill Checks.

Kettle Hat - This is a wide-brimmed skull-cap that provides an additional +1 AC vs. any attack from above due to the opponent's height, size, elevation or use of indirect-fire weapons (e.g. arrow volleys). Although the brim does not obstruct vision or hearing, its width causes wearers to suffer a -1 Armor Check penalty. Examples of Kettle helmets include medieval Kettle Hats and WWI-era infantry helmets such as the Adrian and Brodie, the Spanish Morion conquistador helmet and the feudal Japanese Jingasa.

Bascinet, Open-face - The Bascinet is similar to a Skull Cap, except that it continues down to cover the sizes and back of the head while leaving the face open. There are numerous variations of the Bascinet design, from antiquity to the present. Generally having a raised peak or crest and with their longer sides they are minimally obtrusive and thus carry a -1 Skill Check penalty. Their open face barely impairs peripheral vision (-2 Spot) but depending upon the design may slightly or significantly cover the ears and reduce hearing (-2 to -6 Listen). Examples of the Bascinet include the Greek Illyrian, Roman Galea and Attic, Germanic Spangenhelm, as well as most modern military helmets.

Bascinet, Visor - This type of helmet has a visor on the front that can be raised or lowered as a Move Action (lowered as an Immediate Action for masterwork helmets if the wearer has a hand available holding no more than a Light Weapon). When open it functions as a Bascinet and when lowered as a Great Helm with regard to AC protection and Listen/Spot check penalties. It is much more unwieldy than a Bascinet whether the visor is up or down and so imposes a -3 Armor Check penalty regardless of position. The medieval Hounskull and Armet are examples of the visored Bascinet.

Kabuto - The Japanese Kabuto-style helm is a combination of a large Bascinet and wide Kettle Hat. It offers +2 AC with an additional +2 vs. larger or elevated opponents and indirect fire. Because the face of the helmet is broadly open (as opposed to the more form-fitting bascinet designs) it imbues no Spot penalty and only a -2 circumstance penalty to Listen Checks. However, its size makes it unwieldy and so it causes a -3 Armor Check penalty.

Full Helm - Shaped much like the Bascinet, this helmet covers the majority of the face as well as the sides of the head. It features smallish eye-holes or slits and occasionally small ear-holes as well, thus seriously impacting the wearer's vision and hearing, resulting in -6 penalties to Spot and Listen checks. Furthermore, because the wearer's mouth is largely covered, it applies a +4 DC penalty to the Listen Checks of those trying to hear and understand the speech of the wearer. The Greek Corinthian and medieval Barbute are examples.

Sallet - An intermediate stage between a Full Helm and a Great Helm, the Sallet also features the flaring design of a kettle hat or kabuto. It affords good protection and a bonus against elevated opponents and indirect attacks. Because the bottom of the helmet is open it has lower Listen penalties than a Great Helm but its narrow eye-slit affords the same -10 Spot penalty.

Great Helm - The large yet relatively inexpensive Great Helm offers excellent protection at the cost of most of the wearer's sight and vision. It deals harsh -10 penalties to Listen and Spot checks, impedes the wearer's attempts to communicate with a +6 DC penalty for the listener, and affords enemy Flankers a double bonus of +4 due to the complete lack of peripheral vision.

Thanks,

Rez

[Sir Hexen Ineptus]

First. I think your shield rules are more correct and help to being them more into use, as well as even the AC values of a non armored type.

Helmets: I think you got a great idea but you over killed on the AC granted. At most I think a +3 to ac from the item alone sounds good.

You did however forget a few things.

Armor check penalty
Arcane Spell Chance Failure
and what catigory of armor do they follow under, Light medium or heavy.

Personally i would think anything over 1 AC should be medium or heavy.

I would also make it a statment that they DO count as armor. For a balancing factor though I think a few things should be implemented
1. all are medium armor or higher
2. specifically does not work with monk's bonus to AC
3. takes up the face slot for magic items.

I know that last one is weird but I was looking through the MIC and there are no decent face items for a melee type, while there are plenty of them for the head type. I like this because after doing the math, with characters of the same stats, a very rich 1 monk/cleric can wipe the flour in AC to any armored character.

[Rezdave]

Sir Hexen Ineptus wrote:

Helmets: I think you got a great idea but you over killed on the AC granted. At most I think a +3 to ac from the item alone sounds good.

Thanks. Only the Great Helm or Visor-down Bascinet goes to +4 AC, and some fantasy worlds might not have them. LotR only went to Full Helm for elves and Sallet for orcs.

Also, When I was thinking about degree of protection for codifying the groups, this really seemed the natural progression. Cutting that fourth point of AC (and I was tempted) seemed to artificially compress the styles.

The balancing factors are cost for the Visored Bascinet and Skill Penalties for the Great Helm. Historically, Great Helms became so large that knights would often wear open-face bascinets under them for melee (ground or horseback) one all of the crashing-together-with-lances business was over, simply ditching the relatively cheap great helm.

I did cross-reference closely with the PH Armor tables. A +4 helm is like a Chain Shirt in terms of degree of protection, and I think that's fine. The head, skull, eyes, etc. are pretty valuable and should be protected. I honestly see most PCs wanting only an Open Bascinet or a Full Helm to keep down their penalties.

Actually, the Spot penalties should also apply to Search and there should probably be penalties to Charisma-based skills equal to the Listen DC increases.

Sir Hexen Ineptus wrote:

You did however forget a few things.

Didn't forget ... just didn't have time to work out all the details.

I didn't add prices, though I plan to use 2nd Edition PH as a guide. Obviously skull caps are cheap and visored helms are expensive. Everything else has tradeoffs.

I also didn't detail all of the Listen/Spot penalties for various styles of Bascinet-type helmets, since there's some big differences there in styles. Ran out of time there as well.

Sir Hexen Ineptus wrote:

Armor check penalty

Arcane Spell Chance Failure

Armor Check Penalties are in there. Look again. They vary from 0 for Skull Cap to -4 for Great Helm, and the NOTES section details why some of them are what they are.

I didn't do Arcane Spell Failure initially, but later in the day added this as a first pass:

Skull Cap or Kettle Hat - 0%
Bascinet, Open-face - 10%
Visor Bascinet, Open - 15%
Visor Bascinet, Closed - 30%
Kabuto - 5%
Full Helm or Sallet - 20%
Great Helm - 30%

For the big helms, these values mirror the d20 percentages of the Listen DC penalty for listeners, based on the idea that the coverage of the mouth muffles and distorts verbal components. The lower-end helms assume that cheek-plates, chin-straps, etc. might slightly interfere with pronunciation or of correctly hearing your own vocalizations (it's harder to talk when you can't hear).

In retrospect, Kabuto should be higher, since it has a pretty hefty chin-strap to keep that back-heavy thing in place.

Sir Hexen Ineptus wrote:

and what catigory of armor do they follow under, Light medium or heavy.

Personally i would think anything over 1 AC should be medium or heavy.

I disagree here. Skull Caps and maybe even Kettle Hats need to be Light Armor.

+1 AC = Light
+2 AC = Medium
+3 to +4 AC = Heavy

If you really must. Personally, I'm not sure that:

+1 to +2 AC = Light
+3 to +4 AC = Medium

... isn't better. After all, a Breastplate is still Medium, and I think a Ranger should be able to wear a Bascinet without losing their TWF abilities.

Note that on either table, the Visored Helm counts as +4 whether open or closed.

Sir Hexen Ineptus wrote:

3. takes up the face slot for magic items.

I think they all need to take up the Head-slot, with anything +3 to +4 taking up the Face-slot as well.

Of course, you could enchant your Bascinet and Visor separately as Head and Face items respectively.

Also, not on the table is the Japanese Menpo. This item should add +1 to AC and turn the Kabuto into a Full Helm with respect to its Check and communication penalties. A Kabuto and Menpo combination should be more expensive than a Full Helm alone but less than a Visored Bascinet (of similar quality) but like the Visored-Bascinet have the advantage of being enchanted separately as Head and Face items.

Thanks again for all the comments.

FWIW,

Rez

[Sir Hexen Ineptus]

Unfortunately you neglect to see the can of worms you open up with adding these rules. I think these helmets are good only if fighter types, such as fighters, rangers, paladins, and barbarians can use them.

If you start allowing people who dip into monk for AC and getting the sacred fist PrC then this just worsens a problem that already exists where people dipping into monk with enough money can get higher ACs than those with actual armor proficiencies. As one rule I would highly suggest, make these completely incompatible with bonus dodge AC from monks, Tome of Battle classes, and other souces where they get a 2nd stat bonus to AC. This is my highest suggestion.

Let me give you an example.
Stats: +2 bonus racial
18
16
12
10
10
8

monk 1/cleric x: (Listing key differing bonuses)
Stats: +2 bonus racial
Wis: 18
Dex: 16+2 racial: 18: +4 book, +6 item: 28 +9 mod
Con: 12
Str: 10
Int: 10
Cha: 8

Dex: +9 AC
Bracers of armor: 8 AC
Enhancment +5 (From adding it to bracors or the spell magic vestments)
Monk AC-
Assuming they have an 18 stat, but they will also get +6 item, +5 from leveling, and +5 book granting a wisdom of 34-46 with a +12 AC.
Monk's Robes: +1 AC
Defending Weapon +5 AC
Total: 40

Fighter 20 (Listing key differing bonuses)
Stats: +2 bonus racial
Str: 20
Dex: 16 +4 book, 20 Mod +5
Con: 12
Wis: 10
Int: 10
Cha: 8

Mithral +5 Full plate w/Nimblness: 13 AC
Mithral +5 Tower Shield Nimbleness: 11 AC
Max Dex: +5
Feat: Heavy Armor Optimization: +1
Feat: Greater Heavy Armor Optimization: +2
Feat: Shield Specialization: +1
Special Armor Masterworking (Dragon Magazine): +1
Total: 34

Note this is is just listing the different types of bonus between the two classes, all other bonuses not listed, to the best of my knowledge can be applied to both these examples and thus a moot point.
______________________

With the simple restriction of the helments not working with any monk type bonus to AC will help eliminate this +6 AC gap, but if you do not, then this just perpetuates the AC gap for the most part. A character with a single dip into the sacred fist class could use a medium mithral helmet and getting them another +5 enhancement bonus to AC. Maybe add a max dex bonus?

[Rezdave]

Sir Hexen Ineptus wrote:

If you start allowing people who dip into monk for AC and getting the sacred fist PrC then this just worsens a problem that already exists

These are House Rules I'm playing with, and my House Rules also eliminate Monks, all PrCs, Most Splatbooks and some other stuff. That's why I didn't address it.

A monk could maybe wear a skull cap, but I agree that anything else gets in the way, obscures vision and so forth. Should be an easy fix for anyone more familiar with the class. I run a pretty lean game.

I've thought a bit about Max. Dex., but I feel that a helmet doesn't really restrict movement for AC purposes enough, other than weight/encumbrance. OTOH, I gave the Flanking bonus to your opponents with a Great Helm because it is so restrictive to vision.

Rez

[Juton]

I like the changes to shields, those seem reasonable enough. Would helments add armor AC or a special helment AC, do their enchanments stack with armour enchantments?

Taken together any knightly character could get a 28 AC (10 base, +8 Platemail, +6 Tower Shield, +4 Helm) for around 2-3K. That's good AC for even level 10, let alone level 3. While fighters need a boost I think that's too much too early.

[Patrick Murphy]

I use helmets as part and parcel to the armors that should include them. I don't assign extra AC for having them, but there is a lesser penalty to aim for a shot to the head if there is not helmet protecting it ( or natural armor as the case may be).

The shield ratings I use as group ratings and assign period or specialist shields a bonus based on these. All shields take damage for me at some point, even if they were not directly affected by sundering attempts. usually, if I roll above the hardness of a shield, it will lose 1-4 hp, double if I roll a twenty.

[armnaxis]

I've seen rulings in that helmets do not contribute to normal AC, but factor in when confirming crits. Which makes a lot of sense, flavorwise. A simple system would thus be:
Light helmet (call them whatever): +1 AC when confirming crits; -1 ACP (thus none if masterwork); requires light armor proficiency; 5% ASF
Medium helmet: +2 AC when confirming crits; -2 ACP; requires medium; 10% ASF
Heavy helmet: +3 AC when confirming crits; -3 ACP; requires heavy; 20% ASF

If you don't have proficiency, you take a penalty on attacks equal to ACP.

A mithral heavy helmet would thus serve *any* character as it has no ACP. Now if helmets take the head slot, casters would still prefer their headbands.