Armor, PIECE BY PIECE
Protection isn't an all-or-nothing proposition
by Matt Bandy


 
Hit location Partial armor types Scavenging partial armor Suits of armor Combat procedure
Dungeons & Dragons Dragon magazine 1e AD&D Equipment (AD&D) The Dragon #112

The Oriental Adventures AD&D® game
book gives rules for partial armor, stating
that each piece lowers the original armor
class by a given amount. According to this
system, a shin guard lowers armor class
by one, offering as much protection as a
shield. But would not a shin guard actually
offer one?s shin an armor class independent
of that of the remainder of the body?
To realistically present a partial armor
system, a hit-location chart must be implemented,
and partial-armor types must be
described as to which areas of the body
they protect and to what extent.

Hit location
Normal AD&D game combat consists of
sparring with an opponent and striking
whenever possible. When partial armor
types are introduced to this scenario,
however, it becomes implausible. The shin
is not a tempting enough target (and
would not be hit often enough) for a shin
guard to contribute to the armor class of
the whole opponent. The following table
shows random hit location for a strike;
independent of which hand the attacker
uses.

Before rolling on this table, however, the
defending player rolls a 20-sided die. A roll
of 20 indicates that defender?s shield
catches the blow; if a large tower shield is
used, a roll of 19 or 20 indicates this happens.
For each magical ?plus? of the shield,
add a bonus to the roll. Thus, a shield +5
protects the user on a roll of 15 or better,
assuming a regular-sized shield is used.
 
Dice Location hit
01-10 Head
11-15 Neck
16-30 Chest
31-40 Abdomen
41-45 Thigh
46-48 Shin
49-50 Knee
51-60 Upper arm
61-70 Lower arm
71-75 Elbow
76-80 Foot
81-85 Hand
86-95 Shoulder
96-00 Groin

In melee, a right-handed combatant will
always strike the left side of his opponent?s
body, and vice versa. In missile fire, there
is a 50% chance of either the left or right
side of the body being struck.

Partial armor types
There exists a protective piece of equipment
for nearly every region of the body.
These guards are made of materials ranging
from steel to leather, and provide
protection in directly varying degrees. The
following table lists partial armor types as
to which areas of the body they protect
and to what extent.
 
Armor type Areas protected AC
Helmet, great Head 1
Helmet, small Head 3
Collar, leather Neck 7
Collar, steel Neck 3
Breastplate Chest 2
- Abdomen 3
Mail tunic, leather Chest 8
- Abdomen 8
- Groin 8
- Shoulders 8
Mail tunic, studded Chest 7
- Abdomen 7
- Groin 8
- Shoulders 7
- Upper arms 7
Mail tunic, ring Chest 7
- Abdomen 7
- Groin 7
- Shoulders 7
- Thighs 9
Mail tunic, scale Chest 6
- Abdomen 6
- Groin 7
- Shoulders 6
- Upper arms 8
Mail tunic, chain Chest 5
- Abdomen 5
- Groin 5
- Shoulders 5
- Upper arms 6
- Thighs 6
Mail tunic, splint Chest 4
- Abdomen 4
- Groin 5 
- Shoulders 5
- Upper arms 6
- Thighs 6
Mail tunic, banded Chest 4
- Abdomen 4
- Groin 4
- Shoulders 4
- Upper arms 6
- Thighs 6
Thigh guard, leather * Thigh 7
Thigh guard, steel * Thigh 3
Shin guard, leather * Shin 6
Shin guard, 
steel		 Shin 2
Knee guard, knee * Knee 3
Bracer, leather * Lower arm 6
Bracer, steel * Lower arm 4
Mail shoes * Feet 8
Boots, high hard * Thigh 8
- Knee 9
- Shin 8
- Foot 8
Boots, high soft * Thigh 9
- Knee 9
- Shin 9
- Foot 9
Boots, low hard * Shin 8
- Foot 8
Boots, hgh soft * Shin 8
- Foot 8
Boots, low soft * Shin 9
- Foot 9
Shoulder gd., leather * Shoulder 6
Shoulder gd, 
steel *		 Shoulder 3
Groin guard Groin 3
Gauntlet * Hand 3
Gloves, leather Hand 9

* These items are sold singly, and may
be bought for either the right or left side
of the body.
 

When two pieces of partial armor overlap,
the armor class for that area of the
body equals that of the more protective
piece of armor.

Weight and cost for each piece of partial
armor are shown on the following table;
each figure is given in gold pieces.
Item Cost Weight
Collar, leather 1 10
Collar, steel 10 20
Breastplate 100 100
Mail tunic, leather 5 120
Mail tunic, studded 13 170
Mail tunic, ring 25 200
Mail tunic, scale 38 280
Mail tunic, chain 65 220
Mail tunic, splint 70 300
Mail tunic, banded 80 280
Thigh guard, leather 4 15
Thigh guard, steel 6 30
Shin guard, leather 3 15
Shin guard, steel 5 30
Knee guard 10 10
Bracer, leather 2 10
Bracer, steel 4 20
Shoulder gd., leather 5 15
Shoulder gd., steel 8 40
Groin guard 2 10

ARMOR CLASS BY ARMOR TYPE AND BODY PART COVERED
Body part Leather Padded Studded Ring Scale Chain Splint Banded Plate Mail Bronze Field Plate Full Plate
Head 10 10 10 10 10 6 6 6 3 4 2 2
Neck 10 7 3 7 7 5 5 5 5 5 3 2
Chest 8 8 6 7 6 5 4 4 3 4 1 0
Abdomen 8 8 7 7 6 5 4 4 3 4 2 1
Thigh 8 8 7 9 3 3 3 3 5 5 2 1
Shin 6 8 6 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 2 1
Knee 8 9 8 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2
Upper arm 8 8 7 8 7 5 5 5 5 5 2 1
Lower arm 8 8 7 10 8 8 5 3 3 4 3 2
Elbow 8 8 8 8 8 8 5 4 4 4 3 2
Foot 10 10 10 10 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 2
Hand 10 8 10 8 10 9 5 4 4 4 3 2
Shoulder 8 8 7 7 6 5 5 3 3 4 2 1
Groin 8 8 7 7 7 5 5 5 5 5 3 2

Scavenging partial armor
In any melee, there is a 1% chance per
man-sized human, demi-human, or humanoid
slain that a character, given time,
will be able to salvage one piece of partial
armor that will fit him or her. Given one
hundred corpses, there is a 100% chance
of finding one piece, and a 1% chance per
corpse over one hundred of finding another;
it takes one round to search one
body. For each item found, one roll is
made on the following table. Note that the
composition of a piece of armor (leather or
steel) depends entirely upon the armor
used by the warriors. All other potentially
important factors that could influence the
sort of armor found must be considered.
 
Dice Item found
01-05 Helmet
06-10 Breastplate
11-34 Thigh guard
35-60 Shin guard
61-66 Knee guard
67-84 Bracer
85-00 Shoulder guard

For all items except helmets and breastplates,
an even roll denotes that the item
was made for the right side of the body,
and an odd roll, the left. Thieves may only
use partial armor types made of leather.

Suits of armor
Suits of armor may be fitted neatly into
the partial armor system by determining
to what extent they protect certain areas
of the body. The table at the top of this
page gives these figures.

Combat procedure
Combat utilizing the partial armor system
is conducted in this manner:

1. Initiative and surprise are determined.

2. The combatant with the first strike
attacks, following this format: First, a roil
is made on the hit location tables (making
shield-hit rolls beforehand). Second, the
combatant rolls to hit against the armor
class of the body part indicated by the
previous roil.

3. The combatant with the second strike
attacks, following the same procedure.

JULY 1986


LETTERS

Armor addenda
Dear Dragon,
I would like to commend you on the excellent
job you did on the article, “Armor, piece by
piece” (issue #112); but I have one question.
Wouldn’t it be coherent to have separate hit
points for each part of the body? For example,
shouldn’t the chest be able to take more damage
than a foot? Also, a person cannot be killed by
being hit in the elbow, as the current hit point
system would suggest. I think a separate hit
point system would be realistic if you use the hit
location chart.

James Goldberg
Phoenixville, PA
(Dragon #116)
 

Though Mart Bandy did not include a system
for calculating the hit points of individual parts
of the body, he did have a system that took this
question into account. Because of space limitations,
the following material was dropped from
the original article; we present it now (as Matt
had intended) for use as a set of optional rules
for his partial-armor system. -- Roger Moore

Damage modifiers: Damage is modified as to
hit location as illustrated on the following table.
These modifications result from each area's
importance in maintaining life processes.
 
Body part Damage modification
Head +3
Neck +3
Chest +2
Abdomen +1
Hand -1
Foot -1

Called strikes: A combatant may attempt to
strike a specific area of his opponent?s body,
rather than stabbing at any opening that appears.
In this case, the hit-location roll is bypassed
and a -2 penalty to hit is incurred. If
the attack is successful, the desired location is
hit; if not, no hit is scored. Called strikes may be
used to knock a weapon from an opponent?s
hand, if damage equal to half an opponent?s hit
points is inflicted on an opponent?s weapons
arm.

Selective protection: A combatant may opt to
lend special attention to the protection of one
specific body part. If this option is utilized, the
armor class of the specially protected body part
is bettered by two, while the armor class of the
remainder of the body is degraded by one. Also,
all attacks made by the defender while protecting
selectively are done so at a -2 penalty.

Magical pieces of partial armor are feasible if
the DM so desires. Note that magical shields are
already accounted for with this system.
 

It has been said that if the AD&D® game dies,
it will be of terminal oversophistication. The
partial armor system adds considerable sophistication
to the game's combat system, but it is
sophistication of preparation, not of play. The
player is urged to write the armor class of each
body part of his character on his character
sheet, so that this information is readily available
in combat.

Monsters, however, are a different matter
entirely. DMs who enjoy hours of grueling
mental excercise may want to prepare a table
giving the armor class of every body part of
every monster involved in an adventure [See
Alex Curylo's article on this topic in issue #114,
page 50, for a much simpler system. -- Editor].
Others may simply prefer to guess at values,
using the rules put forth in this article as guidelines.
Either system is usable, so long as guesses
remain reasonable and the armor class tables
don't interfere with the continuity of game play
The system adds but a single die roll to combat,
and it brings a wealth of realism to the game.
-- Matt Bandy


THE FORUM

Upon reading Matt Bandy's article, "Armor,
Piece by Piece" in issue #112, I was moved
enough to express my violent disagreement with
what I thought was a concept horribly incongruous
to the AD&D® game system. I don?t
mean any disrespect to Mr. Bandy, but I feel he
is not comprehending one of the most basic
precepts of combat in the AD&D game (and
alas, the one most frequently misunderstood).

The introduction of a ?hit location? table to
the AD&D game defeats the entire concept of
the hit point system. A hit point is not equal to X
cubic inches of flesh; a hit point is a manifestation
of both physical and metaphysical powers
of skill, guts, luck, and divine help. A five point
axe hit to an 80 hp fighter would come nowhere
near touching his heroic hide; rather, it would
be simply a near miss or a few hairs off his
herculean arm, or even just a bit of his endurance
worn down.

To install a ?hit location? table assumes that
the character is actually struck by the blow,
which is very often not the case at all. Only
those last ten hit points or so equate to substantial
injuries sustained by the character. Even in
the case of those last few lethal blows, to roll
their location denies the DM creative interpretation,
such as ?you are skewered through the
shoulder,? or ?your long sword severs his head
cleanly,? and other such pleasantries. As a DM, I
delight in such gory creativity, as only the loose
AD&D system allows. That, I think, is the greatest
triumph of the AD&D combat rules: the fact
that the dice decide the outcome, but the
breathtaking cut and thrust is left to your own
imagination.

Joseph Maccarrone
Brooklyn, N.Y.
(Dragon #114)


GARY'S NOTES

Quote:
Originally Posted by gideon_thorne
Quite right.
Campaigns && battlefield conditions, one would 'pick up' bits and pieces.
Momentos of fallen comrads can fit in here as well.
Aragon with Boromir's bracers is a good example.
Better still...


Actual warriors would strip the captured and dead foemen of armor so as to improve their own.
The Vikings were well-armored thus.
Hovever, it is logical that the "upgrading" would be as cmplete as possible, discarding lesser protection for greater.
So mixed sorts of armor would be rather rare I should think, save for hill bandits and their ilk.

FWIW,
Gary