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Faraer
Great Reader
3308 Posts |
 Posted - 01 Sep 2013 : 00:03:50
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A brief note on armour in the Realms, occasioned by the D&D Next playtest rules:
Gary Gygax drew on a range of historical times and places when he established the standard D&D armour and weapon types, with ancient scale armour opposite late medieval plate armour and a few types that may not have historically existed. In the Realms, as seen especially in Ed Greenwood's fiction, the usual armour technologies of central and northern Faerûn are leather, mail and plate armour (coat-of-plate). The other D&D types -- studded leather, scale mail, ring mail, banded mail, and splint mail -- are rarely mentioned and seem to be unusual among humans, elves and dwarves. More often we see piecemeal armour such as leather and plate half-armour, mail-and-plate, and separately worn mail shirts, breastplates, helms and gorgets.
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Kentinal
Great Reader
4685 Posts |
Posted - 01 Sep 2013 : 00:37:54
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| *Blink* I would hope all that know 1st and prior knew that already. The range of history of over 1,000 years set into any game system clearly was a concern. |
"Small beings can have small wisdom," the dragon said. "And small wise beings are better than small fools. Listen: Wisdom is caring for afterwards."
"Caring for afterwards ...? Ker repeated this without understanding.
"After action, afterwards," the dragon said. "Choose the afterwards first, then the action. Fools choose action first."
"Judgement" copyright 2003 by Elizabeth Moon |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36779 Posts |
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
7970 Posts |
Posted - 01 Sep 2013 : 06:54:39
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D&D has always been quite awful about the variety of arms and armours it includes, and even worse about applying rather arbitrary game stats to them. It‘s a generic, incorrect, anachronistic fantasy mish-mashup pile of shiny toys collected for playing a game, not an accurate simulation of history, metallurgy, or warfare.
Gygax‘s crowd started as wargamers, reenacting and exploring attempted simulations of famous historical battles and military units. The introduction of special hero units, magic, and monsters made an entertaining diversion and attracted young players (like Gygax‘s son, Ernie). The ability to develop these special hero units introduced a new dimension to wargaming, and from there the invention of D&D and the RPG genre was an obvious step. Fascinatingly comprehensive, overdetailed lists of swords and armours are a legacy to pre-D&D wargaming.
Incidentally, laminated armours from Kara-Tur are usually of the “banded mail“ type. Mail, usually called chainmail by gamers, was the most common metal armour by an overwhelming margin; it‘s cheap and simple to make, cheap and simple to resize, cheap and simple to repair, easily maintained, and (in real life) offers tremendous stopping power vs slashing bladed weapons. Plate armours (of any kind) involved expensive specialized armoursmiths who guarded their craft and tools jealously. Leather-base armours were great until phased out by the abundance of metalcraft on the battlefield; it was sometimes even more costly to boil a leather cuirass than link up a chain hauberk. |
[/Ayrik] |
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TBeholder
Great Reader
2388 Posts |
Posted - 01 Sep 2013 : 11:22:37
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| PO:C&T at least involved an effort to make some sense of all this pile (and started picking on 1d4 crossbows right in introduction). Which is exactly why for weapons it had 4+ pages of main stats table, then almost a page of footnotes on "standard" traits, and then 15+ pages of case-by-case clarification text anyway. And rules on piece-by-piece armor, naturally. |
People never wonder How the world goes round -Helloween
And even I make no pretense Of having more than common sense -R.W.Wood
It's not good, Eric. It's a gazebo. -Ed Whitchurch |
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Bladewind
Master of Realmslore
Netherlands
1280 Posts |
Posted - 01 Sep 2013 : 17:40:47
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Always thought piecemal armour options should exist in D&D, considering the scavenging lifestyle of adventurers. Just slayed an armoured knight by piercing his breastplate? Pick up the finely made steel gauntlets and steel boots and walk away a bit more protected than with the chain mittens and leather boots you were rocking beforehand.
I think most adventurers have a knack for personalising armour anyway. For making room to stick all that gear and loot lots of storage spaces can be made on strong supporting parts of their piecemal armor, giving a typical adventurer a look of a wandering pendler, which they usually are anyway (and usually quite rich ones at that!). |
My campaign sketches
Druidic Groves
Creature Feature: Giant Spiders |
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BEAST
Master of Realmslore
USA
1714 Posts |
Posted - 01 Sep 2013 : 18:00:20
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The range of arms/armor is very much akin to the range of monsters which players might face. Designers looked at all of history and mythology as a veritable smorgasbord buffet of options, and then threw them all into the pot together. DMs and PCs and authors may pick through that pot as they see fit, but that doesn't change the fact that all of that various stuff was crammed in there.
As a Prego jarred spaghetti sauce commercial used to say back in the day, <"It's In There">!
FWIW, Drizzt still uses a mixture of leather (outer) and mail (inner) armor. He even picked up a spidersilk shirt from a slain enemy for a brief time back in 3.5E. |
"'You don't know my history,' he said dryly."
--Drizzt Do'Urden (The Pirate King, Part 1: Chapter 2)
<"Comprehensive Chronology of R.A. Salvatore Forgotten Realms Works"> |
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BEAST
Master of Realmslore
USA
1714 Posts |
Posted - 01 Sep 2013 : 18:01:49
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quote:
Originally posted by Faraer
In the Realms, as seen especially in Ed Greenwood's fiction, the usual armour technologies of central and northern Faerûn are leather, mail and plate armour (coat-of-plate). The other D&D types -- studded leather, scale mail, ring mail, banded mail, and splint mail -- are rarely mentioned and seem to be unusual among humans, elves and dwarves. More often we see piecemeal armour such as leather and plate half-armour, mail-and-plate, and separately worn mail shirts, breastplates, helms and gorgets.
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
Where does boobplate enter into it? 
I'd say right after the LEATHER!  |
"'You don't know my history,' he said dryly."
--Drizzt Do'Urden (The Pirate King, Part 1: Chapter 2)
<"Comprehensive Chronology of R.A. Salvatore Forgotten Realms Works"> |
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Faraer
Great Reader
3308 Posts |
Posted - 01 Sep 2013 : 18:38:38
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Rather than micromanaging armour combinations, I'd have basic categories of light (AC 12), medium (14), heavy (16) and heavy/rare/expensive (18) armour. So most partial metal armours could just be assigned as medium (say, equivalent to scale mail).
For the Realms, I'm inclined to boost leather armour to AC 12 + Dex modifier, no speed or stealth penalty, to reflect the fact that it's often the armour of choice for mid-level rangers and the like (and dragon leather, which currently has those stats in Next, has no Realmslore niche to protect). |
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Barastir
Master of Realmslore
Brazil
1600 Posts |
Posted - 02 Sep 2013 : 12:21:59
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Piecemeal armor is a nice concept, but I think an enchanted armor will only activate its powers if all pieces are assembled. I'm using this as a limiting factor in my campaign, in a way. The knight has an enchanted field plate armor, and they just found magical gauntlets. He hasn't tried it yet, but if he dons the gauntlets - not wearing the enchanted armor's gloves - he will be able to use the new gauntlet's powers, but not the armor's special benefits.  |
"Goodness is not a natural state, but must be
fought for to be attained and maintained.
Lead by example.
Let your deeds speak your intentions.
Goodness radiated from the heart."
The Paladin's Virtues, excerpt from the "Quentin's Monograph"
(by Ed Greenwood) |
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
7970 Posts |
Posted - 02 Sep 2013 : 18:49:38
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| Another alternative for enchanted piecemeal would be to limit the total bonus, just as with multiple magical rings of protection. |
[/Ayrik] |
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Armour
