Topic: CCR (HB 11) and DB Adjustments Question

[Matthias]

I have settled on using the Condensed Combat Rules from HARPer's Bazaar 11 for my upcoming campaign. Just had a quick question regarding the DB Adjustments in Step 2 of the Conversion Notes.

Do these rules take into account the Armor By The Piece rules from the main HARP Rulebook? In essence the system calls for the DB bonus of full sets of armor to be halved - does it then follow that the DB bonus from piecemail armor is simply halved (which does create some .5 DB values for some pieces, but when added will not make a huge difference in the end). This way forming a full suit of armor using Option A or Option B per the rulebook still results in same DB value (half of the original value of a full suit).

A question was raised concerning a mixed armor situation where say a player is only wearing a chain shirt, helm and gauntlets which would result in a normal HARP DB of 24, CCR Adjusted to a DB of 4 (chain shirt, chain column, -20 DB adjustment) or should the player have a DB of 12 from the 3 pieces (half value)?

[Rasyr-Mjolnir]

Basically what you are doing is removing the DB from shirt and helm from the total DB of a full suit and using the majority of the material of those 2 items to determine which column to use.

[Matthias]

So would this be correct?

Examples (assuming no Qu Bonus or anything - just raw armor DB):

A Dwarf wearing a set of full Chain has a DB of 20 and attack rolls against him are on the Chain column.

Same Dwarf wearing Chain Gorget (DB 4), Bracers (DB 4), Gauntlets (DB 4), Greaves (DB 4) and Boots (DB 4) also has a DB of 20 (from individual pieces) but attack rolls against him are on the None column.

If he adds a Chain shirt (DB 16) to the above mix (still missing a helm) he would have a DB of 16 but attacks would then shift to the Chain column.

And to just take it the extreme, let's say he was just wearing a Chain Shirt (DB 16), nothing else. Would his DB be -4 with attack rolls on the Chain column?

[Rasyr-Mjolnir]

Hmm.. If you wanted, you could just give half of the normal DB mods for each item of armor (which works out the same as what was determined for the full suits -- wasn't really considering the AbtP stuff when writing the conversion notes), and then just use what is worn on the chest (i.e. be it shirt or vest) to determine which column to use.

That way, your last (extreme) example will still work and give some positive DB (I dislike the idea of negative DB (i.e that Adds to the attack)).

But other than that, yeah your examples are pretty much what it would turn out to be...

The more I think about it, the more just halving all DB mods makes more sense in the long run.

[Matthias]

Thanks for the quick responses.

That is what I am feeling for the most part also. There is some slight variation overall in the total DB, but it is always within a point or two from what I can tell and works just fine for the simplicity of halving DB mods across the board. It becomes the most apparent in the extreme example above. Just a Chain shirt would be -4 DB under the rules as written or it would have a DB of 8 if you halved it. That is where the biggest swing would come into play. I suppose you could also say shirts/vest simply give no DB at all and their DB is provided for by shifting your attack column, where other pieces of armor would still give their full DB.

I really like the mix and match armor option and want to use it in the campaign - just want to make sure I am not overstepping the combat tables before I make an overall adjustments like that.

One more quick question regarding critical tables: When a character attacks a Large or Huge creature using a weapon that deals a secondary critical (say Battle Axe (SL, CR(B)) - the first Critical is rolled on the Large Creature Physical Criticals table...does the secondary crit resolve on the LCPC table also, on it's normal critical table (in this case Crush) or is it ignored all together?

[Rasyr-Mjolnir]

no DB from shirt/vest would work, but you would have to at least give DB to the shirts to be equal to what the pauldrons give. (this is basically how AbtP is handled in the Combat Companion shirts had the same DB as a set of Pauldrons, so that a vest and pauldrons is in all ways equal to a shirt)

Regarding crits -- If a crit is indicated, you ignore the regular crit(s) done by the weapon and roll on the appropriate Large crit table (adjusting for crit severity from the attack tables and the other mods as well). It doesn't matter if the weapon normally does a secondary critical or not, the normal crits are ignored.

That make sense?

[Matthias]

Perfect sense.

Thanks again.