Does anyone play with house rules that let players attempt to "hastily" remove their armor if it they get hit with a chill or heat metal spell? I've always thought of those spells as sort of "ditch your metal or pay the price" type of spells - which is fine.
But the rules say it takes a minute to remove even a chain shirt, making it impossible to avoid the chill/heat metal damage by removing your gear.
I feel like the way it plays out sort of short circuits the flavor of the spell.
It's weird that your armor is killing you over several rounds and there's no way to take it off extra fast (with the understanding, of course, that it would provoke like a mother&*$&% while doing it) simply because the remove armor time just happens to be a few rounds longer than the spell. I think there should be a possible course of action that reduces the damage but also leaves you gear-less.
Do any GMs out there allow ways to "throw" it off in 2-3 rounds vs. 10?
Well under the rules, it does say that if someone helps you remove the armor, you can cut the time in half. So from 1 minute (10 rounds), to five rounds. Which is still a lot, but a bit more manageable.
Advantages of the armored coat.
I don't expect it to be anywhere near a move action, as with the armored coat.
Anything more than 2 full rounds still seems excessive to me for armors that are just on your torso, if you're tearing it off as fast as you can. Not for the heavier armors, those I get. I feel like when they wrote the spell, they forgot that it takes 10 rounds (down to 5 with help) to get the crap off.
It just seems like an odd combination of rules to me.
It the case of armors like a breastplate versus full scalemail, it's a case of common sense versus a general rule.
If you could take off an armour within one round, someone could sneak up on you and strip your protection away before you could even act.
If it takes two rounds, they still might.