My Armor as DR idea

[yukongil]

I'm about to start a six-shooter and sorcery game for my group and I've decided to try a variant of the Armor as DR rules. Before I post them up, I want to note, I like a smidge of realism with my playability, and I've used rules similar to these in past games with moderate success (they were a little too complicated so they slowed up combat somewhat) so I've tried to streamline them to make them fun and fast with just a hint of vermissilitude.

The DR value of armor is largely unchanged. DR = Armor/Natural Armor bonus + 1/5 HD + enhancement bonus

Defense Bonus is likewise similar. 10 + Dex bonus + deflection, dodge, shield.
(my group has always used Trailblazer alongside PF, so we use the Combat Reaction rules with Dodge and Block, I might alter Dodge so it uses the character's Reflex save, I dunno yet though, still pondering)

I like the suggestion of armor converting damage to non-lethal, so I'll be using a variant of that as well.

Now the major change is that damage vs. DR will go like this

all armor DR's will have an Protection Value instead of DR/-, or DR/Magic. This Protection value is equal to the Hardness of the suits material + it's Armor Bonus. Natural Armor bonuses will be 5 + NA bonus + size bonus (+2 large, +4 Huge, +8 Gargantuan, +16 Colossal)

all damage totals will have an accompanying Armor Penetration #, that is figured out by taking the hardness of the weapon's material (generally 10 for steel/iron) + the max of the weapon's damage dice (so 4 for a dagger, 8 for a longsword, etc...) + a size bonus (probably just the same as CMB bonuses due to size, still fiddlin'). Natural Attacks (claws/tooth/slams) will have a AP bonus of twice their max damage dice (so 2d6 claws have an AP of 24)

when damage is tallied, you compare the weapons AP vs the armor's PV, if the attack exceeds the protective value of the armor, you convert the armor's DR to non-lethal damage and the rest is lethal as normal. If the armor's PV is higher than the attacks penetration rating however, you treat the DR as normal.

So for instance a steel dagger vs a steel breast plate would go something like.

1d4 damage with AP 14, vs the armor's PV of 16, so any damage up to 6 would be negated. Pretty normal for the rules as is

now instead it is a mithral dagger (AP 19), or a +2 dagger (AP 18, steel (10) + dagger (4) + magic enhanced hardness (4) vs the same breastplate, up to 6 of the damage would instead be converted to non-lethal damage.

so while there is a minute or two of extra work in the beginning to find the AP value of a weapon or the PV of armor, after that it is a simple and speedy thing to just call out that number and compare.

any suggestions or critiques?

[Bruno Mares]

Still so complex. Not pratical.

[yukongil]

any insight why? You look up at most 3 numbers (material hardness, armor bonus or weapon damage and size modifier) Now you have a set number, that number is static and easily compared IMO. No different than comparing whether a weapon is magical, adamantine, large or larger as the system is now.

it is another step or two (number comparison and then possibly subtraction), but I don't see how it is anymore so than a system with DR as is.

but if still too complicated, what would you suggest for further streamlining?

[Helaman]

yukongil wrote:

any insight why? You look up at most 3 numbers (material hardness, armor bonus or weapon damage and size modifier) Now you have a set number, that number is static and easily compared IMO. No different than comparing whether a weapon is magical, adamantine, large or larger as the system is now.

it is another step or two (number comparison and then possibly subtraction), but I don't see how it is anymore so than a system with DR as is.

but if still too complicated, what would you suggest for further streamlining?

If DR is something you feel needs to be included with Armour?

1 for light armour, 2 for medium and 3 for heavy.

Tracking armour HPs optional... between each hit = -1 HP all the way upto each BATTLE = =1 HP if you want to track it.

[yukongil]

can you clear that up a bit, I'm sorry but I'm not following.

[Helaman]

yukongil wrote:

can you clear that up a bit, I'm sorry but I'm not following.

AC doesnt change.

If you wear leather armour, chain shirt etc. you get DR/1
If you wear Breastplate/Scalemail etc? DR/2
For Banded/Plate etc then its DR/3

Crit ignores DR. Didnt mention that before. Stacks with Barbarian and adamantine etc.

You can also have amour damage if you want to waste time tracking it as a balance for the DR.

This can range from 1 hp every time the armour provides DR (Leather armour has 10hps for instance) to 1 hp for every battle depending on how much effort you want to put into tracking it.

Remember at half HPs armour is badly damaged and can be a real pain in the ass (reduced AC, increased penalties) with the broken condition.

The upshot of this is that people pay regularly for new armour or armour repairs (the balance for the "free" DR)