Topic: Do you use armour by the piece?

[calmacil]

I like the idea, but does it work with regards to spellcasters?
it looks open to abuse.


I was working out what a mage could wear with hardly any CP's (casting penalty) ;

Helm = Chainmail...... CP=0
Gorget = Chainmail... CP=0
Pauldrons = Plate ... CP=1
Gauntlets = Plate/Chain ... CP=0
Bracers = Rigid Leather ... CP=0
Cuirass = Soft Leather ...CP=1
Greaves = Rigid Leather .. CP=0
Boots = Plate/chain ... CP=0


So that's a wizard with lots of armour at only 2 CP and +36 DB


Do people use individual pieces of armour? do you house rule it that mages can't wear any?

[Ecthelion]

Yes, we use the rules for armor by the piece. Indeed a magic user can boost his DB when using these rules. But this comes at a price: a) He has to learn to use armor (in the example to a skill of 43 to reach the minimum maneuver penalty) and b) he will have a penalty to all maneuvers (of 7.5 => 8 in the example).

[Pat]

We allowed armour by the piece as well and it worked pretty well. However, we didn't allow physical armour to stack with magic (i.e. mage armour) so it wasn't utilised a lot by mages but characters, such as warrior mages, often wore armour like this.

[Uriel]

We allowed armour by the piece as well and it worked pretty well. However, we didn't allow physical armour to stack with magic (i.e. mage armour) so it wasn't utilised a lot by mages but characters, such as warrior mages, often wore armour like this.

And...piecemeal armor looks cool!

I also had a flashback of the Sorcerer in Conan, when he got all kitted-out for the battle in the dunes. Funny looking, and an example of a Mage without ranks in wearing armor (Doesn't he fall backwards down a hill? ).

Uriel

[Zhaleskra]

A GM from one of my previous gaming groups stated that you kind of get ripped off (I think DB-wise) by doing armor by the piece, and encouraged full suits instead.

[GrumpyOldFart]

I like the idea of armor by the piece, because that's the way real people do armor. For one, it takes a wealthy person to get a full suit custom made and fitted all at once (I know an SCA fighter who spent over $1000 on a suit of full plate), for two, just because you want inflexible steel at knees, elbows and head doesn't mean you want inflexible steel at waist and neck. You may, you may not, your fighting style dictates whether protection or mobility is the higher priority for a given area. I fought 2-handed sword, it was vital to me to be able to go backwards faster than a guy with a sword and shield could go forwards (a 2-handed sword has a minimum range), so I cut the encumbrance and inflexibility to the bare minimum.

That said, I dislike armor by the piece because it abandons the distinction ICE made from day one between DB, which is the ability to avoid getting hit in the first place, and AT, which is the ability of a particular type of surface to soak up and dissipate the energy of a blow.

Trust me, if I could think of a mechanic that would reconcile the two, I'd have already shared it.

 

[calmacil]

That said, I dislike armor by the piece because it abandons the distinction ICE made from day one between DB, which is the ability to avoid getting hit in the first place, and AT, which is the ability of a particular type of surface to soak up and dissipate the energy of a blow.

You use a system similar to the one in Martial Law, but you have to change all the hits because otherwise PC's in plate are immune to everything.
ML system is hit by location, then your armour adjusts the strike (eg. if it's 30 hits, 1 bleed, 1 stun on your head.... the victim is wearing a plate helmet.... it would reduce it to 15 hits and zero stun and bleed) I've changed all the damage to each chart, and the amount armour reduces or absorbs.


I like the idea of piecemeal armour as well, but mages being proficient in the armour skill doesn't work for me. In the example i gave in post 1 you could easily have a mage in that chainmail, plate and rigid leather hybrid by lvl2 or 3, it'll only cost him 2 points per rank. Think i might put caps on it.

[choc]

Oh i like AbtP. I once played a ranger in a mixture (2 CP, mainly soft & rigid leather mix), i liked the style. I couldn't really  afford an upgrade for a lot of lvls, our DM's npc armorer offered full suits only but my ranger wasn't rich enough to afford one of these. So i started to upgrade this armor by piece: bring a rag of trollskin here, a rag of gorgon there to a superior crafter and bargain for some gold coins and half of the rag to craft me some bracers or some pauldrons. my DB increased slowly but steady.
finally this ended up in complains from our paladin (full plate) and mage ('epic' ranks in enhance armor + 10DB minimal light leather) because my ranger outnumbered both DB (special rare material + superior craftmanship).
since then we never played with armor by the piece again. bummer!

[Zhaleskra]

mages being proficient in the armour skill doesn't work for me.

I, on the other hand, have grown disgusted with arbitrary equipment restrictions as I gained more experience as a role playing gamer. Granted, in HARP, I don't think a pure mage would wear anything more than studded leather, otherwise he's taking a large hit to his or her casting ability. After all, every extra Power Point used, regardless of why, causes a -5 modifier to the casting roll.

My Mage pregen for my convention game is wearing a suit of Soft Leather armor, and his melee weapon is a bastard sword that he normally uses two-handed. So he's casting spells in their base forms at -10.