Limos
2009-08-01, 02:37 PM
I've noticed in running 4e games that there is very little difference between someone with high Dex or Int wearing cloth armor and a fighter wearing full plate armor when it comes to damage they receive. In fact it is not all that uncommon for a Rogue or Staff wizard to have higher AC than the armored melee fighters and yet when hit they take the same damage.
This irks me.
In order to rectify this I have the following suggestion. Each variety of armor has it's own Armor Resistance rating, any physical attack (swords, axes, claws, teeth, etc.) has it's damage reduced by this amount on a successful hit.
Cloth has 0 Armor Resistance.
Leather and Hide have 1 point of Armor resistance.
Chainmail and Scale armor have 2 points of Armor Resistance.
Plate armor has 3 points of Armor Resistance.
A Light Shield grants 0 points, while a Heavy Shield grants 1 point.
In addition, the enhancement bonus of armor is added to the armor resistance. So a +2 set of Plate Armor would have 5 points total of armor resistance. This only applies against physical attacks.
Lastly, each level of Masterwork adds a point of Armor Resistance. So if you had a set of +6 Godplate Armor, that would be 6 for the Enhancement, 3 for the Plate armor, and 2 for being the second tier of Masterwork. In total it would grant 11 points of Armor Resistance.
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This system also applies to monsters. If you notice, at the bottom of the monster stats there is a line for equipment. The Human Bandit is stated to be wearing leather armor. This would give him 1 point of Armor Resistance. The Angel of Protection is wearing Plate Armor, so he would have 3 Armor Resistance.
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In order to balance this slightly I am also adding two new keywords to the weapons. Blunt and Piercing.
Blunt- Ignores half of Armor Resistance, rounding down.
Piercing- Ignores 2/3 of Armor Resistance, rounding down.
All Weapons in the Mace, Flail, or Hammer category receive the Blunt descriptor.
All Weapons in the Light Blade, Polearm or Crossbow category receive the Piercing descriptor.
For Example, taking our +6 Godplate armor with the 11 AR points versus a rogue with a common dagger. The Dagger is a light blade, perfect for attacking the joint and seams between his armor and thus the AR is divided by 3 and rounded down. 11/3 = 3 + 2/3. Rounding down gives us a new AR of 3.
If that same rogue was instead using a club it would cut the AR in half. 11/2 = 5 + 1/2. Thus an AR of 5.
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All in all this means that if hit a Wizard wearing cloth armor will on average take slightly more damage than a fighter wearing plate armor. This does not however make either of them more or less likely to be hit.
This irks me.
In order to rectify this I have the following suggestion. Each variety of armor has it's own Armor Resistance rating, any physical attack (swords, axes, claws, teeth, etc.) has it's damage reduced by this amount on a successful hit.
Cloth has 0 Armor Resistance.
Leather and Hide have 1 point of Armor resistance.
Chainmail and Scale armor have 2 points of Armor Resistance.
Plate armor has 3 points of Armor Resistance.
A Light Shield grants 0 points, while a Heavy Shield grants 1 point.
In addition, the enhancement bonus of armor is added to the armor resistance. So a +2 set of Plate Armor would have 5 points total of armor resistance. This only applies against physical attacks.
Lastly, each level of Masterwork adds a point of Armor Resistance. So if you had a set of +6 Godplate Armor, that would be 6 for the Enhancement, 3 for the Plate armor, and 2 for being the second tier of Masterwork. In total it would grant 11 points of Armor Resistance.
------------------------------
This system also applies to monsters. If you notice, at the bottom of the monster stats there is a line for equipment. The Human Bandit is stated to be wearing leather armor. This would give him 1 point of Armor Resistance. The Angel of Protection is wearing Plate Armor, so he would have 3 Armor Resistance.
------------------------------
In order to balance this slightly I am also adding two new keywords to the weapons. Blunt and Piercing.
Blunt- Ignores half of Armor Resistance, rounding down.
Piercing- Ignores 2/3 of Armor Resistance, rounding down.
All Weapons in the Mace, Flail, or Hammer category receive the Blunt descriptor.
All Weapons in the Light Blade, Polearm or Crossbow category receive the Piercing descriptor.
For Example, taking our +6 Godplate armor with the 11 AR points versus a rogue with a common dagger. The Dagger is a light blade, perfect for attacking the joint and seams between his armor and thus the AR is divided by 3 and rounded down. 11/3 = 3 + 2/3. Rounding down gives us a new AR of 3.
If that same rogue was instead using a club it would cut the AR in half. 11/2 = 5 + 1/2. Thus an AR of 5.
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All in all this means that if hit a Wizard wearing cloth armor will on average take slightly more damage than a fighter wearing plate armor. This does not however make either of them more or less likely to be hit.