Types of Armor & Encumbrance
Types of Armor & Encumbrance
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The encumbrance factor for
armor does not consider weight alone;
it also takes into account
the distribution of the weight of the armor and the relative mobility of
the individual wearing the protective material.
Therefore, weights for armor
shown below are adjusted weights, and base movement speed is likewise shown.
| Armor Type | Bulk | Weight* | Base Movement | Cost |
Banded
( ) <banded?> |
bulky | 35# + | 9" | 90 g.p. |
| Bronze Plate Mail | bulky | 45# + | 6" | 100 g.p. |
Chain
Mail (Mail hauberk or byrnie - OSRIC) ( ) |
fairly | 30# + | 9" | 75 g.p. |
Elfin
Chain Mail ( ) |
non- | 15# | 12" | ** |
| Helmets | - | - | - | - |
| Field Plate | fairly | 55# | 6" | 2000 g.p. |
Full
Plate ( ) |
fairly | 65# | 6" | 4000 g.p. |
Leather
( ) |
non- | 15# | 12" | 5 g.p. |
| Padded (Padded gambeson - OSRIC) | fairly | 10# | 9" | 4 g.p. |
Plate
Mail ( ) |
bulky | 45# | 6" | 400 g.p. |
| Ring Mail | fairly | 25# | 9" | 30 g.p. |
Scale
Mail (or Lamellar - OSRIC) ( ) |
fairly | 40# | 6" | 45 g.p. |
Shield, Buckler
( ) |
non- | 3# | - | 5 g.p. |
Shield, Large ( ) |
bulky | 10# | - | 15 g.p. |
| Shield, Medium | fairly | 8# | - | 12 g.p. |
Shield, Small ( ) |
non- | 5# | - | 10 g.p. |
| Shield, Small, Wooden | non- | 3# | - | 1 g.p. |
| Splint Mail | bulky | 40# | 6" | 80 g.p. |
Studded Leather ( ) |
fairly | 20# | 9" | 15 g.p. |
* Assumes
human-size
** Elfin
chain mail is never available on the open market.
<should gorget be added to the above?: cf. DMG.72-73>
<
dwarf: 150 + 120 = 270 (x
0.89)
elf: 100 + 80 = 180 (x 0.59)
gnome: 80 + 75 = 155 (x
0.51)
half-elf: 130 + 100 = 230
(x 0.75)
halfling: 60 + 50 = 110
(0.36)
half-orc: 150 + 120 = 270
(x 0.89)
human: 175 + 130 = 305
>
Armor Types:
Chain,
Elfin, is a finely wrought suit of chain which is of thinner links
but stronger metal.
It is obtainable only from
elvenkind who do not sell it.
Padded Armor:
Shield
USE:
A shield is basically a
barrier between its wielder and his or her opponent.
It is used to catch blows
or missiles.
It can also be used offensively
to strike or push an opponent. <Shield Bash, Shield Rush>
The shield can be used fully
only to the left or front of the right handed individual.
Attacks from the right flank
or rear negate the benefits of a shield.
Magic Shields:
Magic shields are no less
weighty than their non-magical counterparts, but they are non-bulky with
respect to encumbrance.
Magic Armor:
When magic armor is worn,
assume
that its properties allow movement at the next higher base rate and that
weight is cut by 50%.
There is no magical elfin
chain mail.
Q: The DMG, on page
164, says that
magical armor is weightless?but
it
also says, on page 28, that
magical
armor only weighs half as
much as
normal armor of the same
sort. So
how much does magical armor
really weigh?
A: It must be said
that the term ?weightless
? is a ?misnomer. If armor
were actually
weightless, it would float
away.
You can resolve this contradiction
in one
of three ways. First, you
can just use the
rule on page 28: Magical
armor weighs
half as much as normal armor,
has half the
normal encumbrance, and
allows movement
at the next higher rate.
(This does
not mean, as one reader
suggested, that a
human in magical leather
moves at 15?.
Magical armor negates movement
reductions
but does not increase the
base movement
speed.) Second, you can
just use the
rule on page 164: Armor
weighs virtually
nothing. Third, you can
split the difference
and rule that magical armor
has
normal weight but is totally
unencumbering
(or only half as encumbering)
because of its magical nature.
This last
option has the additional
benefit of preventing
characters from simply weighing
a
set of unknown armor against
a normal
set of armor in order to
determine if the
unknown armor is magical
or not. Normal
armor weights are on page
27 of the DMG.
(146.12)
Q: Are magical shields,
weapons, and
other items weightless,
as are magical
armors?
A: There is some
discussion over how
much magical armor really
weighs in the
previous question. All other
magical items
weigh just as much and have
the same
encumbrances as normal items
of the
same sort. See the Players
Handbook, page
37, and Unearthed Arcana,
page 26, for
weapon weights. Normal shield
weights
are on page 27 of the DMG.
Magical item
weights might be guessed
by examining
Appendix
O (on page 225) of the DMG.
(146.12)
This bonus is in +addition+
to that given by any other forms of protection.
The type of armor worn by
the character with a dexterity AC
bonus does not adversely
affect this bonus, for it is assumed that his or
her physical conditioning
and training compensate otherwise. (This is
particularly applicable
with regard to magic armor which is assumed to
possess an enchantment which
makes i t both light and flexible.) The
penalty for wearing armor
is already subsumed in the defensive bonuses
given for it, and if it
were further to penalize the character by denying
dexterity armor class adjustments,
i t would be totally invalid.
Modifiers To Dexterity Armor
Class Adjustment: Neither penalty nor
bonus due to dexterity (the
Defensive Adjustment) is considered when
the character is subjected
to the following attack forms:
Attacks from the rear flank,
rear, or strikes from behind (where the
character is virtually unable
to see the attack coming).
Large missiles such as those
hurled by a giant or some form of engine
(where the trajectory and
speed and size of the missile negate dexterity considerations).
Magical attacks by spell,
device, breath weapon, gaze, etc. (note that
Defensive Adjustments do
apply to saving throws for these attack
forms).
*template***template*
Quote:
Originally Posted by A'koss
If you go back to my earlier
post, the point was that all versions of D&D are very much magic gear
oriented. This works great... for D&D. However, loads of magic gear
(and even just significant armor) is not indicative in many (though obviously
not all) of the mythological and fantasy fiction we grew up with. How does
a bare-chested barbarian with no magical healing an AC 6 survive to high
levels? Robin Hood & his Merry Men? The Three Musketeers? Lightly armored
rangers in LotR? A Hyborian Age jungle fighter? Like I was saying, the
game isn't really geared to handle a lot of the settings it drew inspiration
from. At some point you could add enough house rules to make it work, but
at what point would you be better off with another system?
Cheers!
A'koss.
As a matter of fact...
Protection has always been a major factor in combat.
Lightly armored troops in historical battles suffer a lot of casualties.
An FRPG features heroic personas that are not meant to become casualties of confrontations, so of course they are given armor, magical protections too in order to remain as active characters in a campaign, fight and slay their enemies, armored or not.
In a system designed to manage another genre, say fantasy science such as that of ERB's Barsoom it is possible to create systems that facilitate unarmored protagonists fighting and surviving hordes of opponents. That was done neatly by Brian Blume's 3d6 combat mechanics om the Warriors of Mars RPG.
To fault the original A/D&D
combat
is to entirely miss the whole reason for the game.
Fortunately millions of
happy players did not make such a mistake <stick out tongue> <
>
Cheers,
Gary
