Baron Corm
2009-10-04, 04:43 PM
I've always been unsatisfied with the majority of armors and exotic weapons. The following is meant to boost weak armor types and exotic weapons, and delete ones that just don't need to be there. There should be a good reason to take any of the armor types, and all of the exotic armors and weapons should be worth a feat. Medium armors especially get the short end of the stick right now.
Shields also got an all-around boost, to make using a shield a more attractive idea. +2 to AC doesn't really compare to the increased damage from 2HF or 2WF, but +4 AC is starting to look attractive.
Light Armor
{table=head]Armor|Cost|Armor Bonus|Max Dex Bonus|ACP|ASF|Speed Penalty|Weight
Padded|5 gp|+1|+8|-|5%|-|10 lb
Leather|10 gp|+2|+7|-1|10%|-|15 lb
Chain Shirt|100 gp|+4|+5|-2|20%|-|25 lb[/table]
Medium Armor
{table=head]Armor|Cost|Armor Bonus|Max Dex Bonus|ACP|ASF|Speed Penalty|Weight
Chainmail|150 gp|+5|+4|-4|25%|-5 ft|30 lb
Breast Plate|250 gp|+6|+3|-5|25%|-5 ft|40 lb[/table]
Heavy Armor
{table=head]Armor|Cost|Armor Bonus|Max Dex Bonus|ACP|ASF|Speed Penalty|Weight
Splint Mail|500 gp|+7|+2|-6|30%|-10 ft|40 lb
Full Plate|1,500 gp|+8|+1|-8|40%|-10 ft|50 lb[/table]
Shields
{table=head]Shield|Cost|Shield Bonus|ACP|ASF|Speed Penalty*|Weight
Buckler|15 gp|+1|-|5%|-|5 lb
Light Wooden|3 gp|+1|-|5%|-|5 lb
Light Steel|9 gp|+2|-1|5%|-|6 lb
Heavy Wooden|7 gp|+3|-2|10%|-5 ft|10 lb
Heavy Steel|20 gp|+4|-3|15%|-5 ft|15 lb
Tower Wooden|15 gp|+5|-8|40%|-10 ft|30 lb
Tower Steel|30 gp|+6|-10|50%|-10 ft|45 lb[/table]
*If you combine a speed-lowering shield with a speed-lowering armor, you use the lower of the two modifications, rather than combining them.
Exotic Armor
{table=head]Armor (Type)|Cost|Armor Bonus|Max Dex Bonus|ACP|ASF|Speed Penalty|Weight
Twist Cloth (Light)|15 gp|+1|-|-|-|-|5 lb
Leafweave Mail (Light)|250 gp|+4|+6|-1|10%|-0 ft|5 lb
Chitin (Medium)|200 gp|+5|+5|-2|20%|-|15 lb
Reinforced Leafweave Mail (Medium)|300 gp|+6|+4|-2|20%|-5 ft|15 lb
Dragonscale Armor (Heavy)|5,000 gp|+8|+2|-4|40%|-5 ft|45 lb
Stone Armor (Heavy)|2,500 gp|+10|+0|-10|50%|-10 ft|60 lb[/table]
Twist Cloth: You are treated as not wearing armor if you are proficient. Additionally, armor bonus (including enhancement bonuses) also applies to touch attacks, if you are proficient.
Leafweave Mail: Grants you the ranger's Camouflage ability. Changes color to match the surrounding flora. Does not function without plants in the surroundings.
Chitin: Grants you fast healing 1, if you are proficient and psionically focused.
Reinforced Leafweave Mail: Has the same properties as leafweave mail, but is reinforced with a wooden breastplate on the interior.
Dragonscale Armor: Grants energy resistance 20 to a certain type of energy, depending on the type of dragon scales used to make it.
Stone Armor: Grants you light fortification, if you are proficient.
Special Materials
You can skip this section if you just agree that any material can be made with any special material. Some justification follows.
Steeleaf - Can be applied to leafweave, having the same effects as mithral. Can be applied to leafweave differently, having the same effects as adamantine.
Great Wyrm Dragonscale - When scales are obtained from chromatic great wyrms, they function as adamantine. When obtained from metallic great wyrms, they function as mithral.
Mammoth Leather/Black Ironwood/Obsidian - Can be applied to leather/wood/stone, having the same effects as adamantine.
Light Leather/Yew/Sandstone - Can be applied to leather/wood/stone, having the same effects as mithral.
Exotic Weapons
Most of these already existed. I upgraded a few of them to be worth a feat. The last column is the type of proficiency you must already have in order to take the proficiency feat for that weapon. You must have proficiency in all weapons of that type.
{table=head]Weapon|Hands|Cost|Dmg (M)|Critical|Range Increment|Weight|Dmg Type|Proficiency
Meteor Hammer|2H|25 gp|2d4|x2|-|10 lb|B/P|Martial
Shotput|2H/Thrown|60 gp|2d4|x3|20 ft|20 lb|B|Simple
Thinblade|1H|120 gp|1d6|18-20/x4|-|3 lb|S/P|Martial
Courtblade|2H|240 gp|2d6|19-20/x3|-|5 lb|S/P|Martial
Greathammer|2H|55 gp|2d10|x4|-|30 lb|B|Martial
Execution Axe|2H|105 gp|2d12|x3|-|25 lb|S|Martial
Double Flail|1H|60 gp|2d4|x2|-|10 lb|B/P|Simple
Heavy Double Flail|2H|90 gp|2d6|x2|-|20 lb|B/P|Martial
Waraxe|1H|30 gp|2d8|x3|-|8 lb|S|Martial
Sai|Light/Thrown|15 gp|1d6|x2|10 ft|2 lb|B/P|Simple
Shuriken|Light/Thrown|1 gp|1d2|18-20/x3|10 ft|1/2 lb|P|Simple
Bladebow|Ranged|250 gp|2d8|19-20/x4|90 ft|5 lb|P|Martial
Chakram|1H/Thrown|35 gp|1d8|x3|10 ft|3 lb|S|Martial
Whip|Light|1 gp|1d4|x2|-|2 lb|S|Simple
Dagger Whip|Light|16 gp|1d6|19-20/x2|-|3 lb|S|Simple[/table]
Meteor Hammer: Reach, but has no minimum range. Can be used to trip. +4 bonus to disarm. Treated as Light or 2H, whichever is more beneficial, if you are proficient. Non-spiked versions only deal bludgeoning damage.
Shotput: 1.5x Str to damage when thrown, 2x damage from Power Throw.
Thinblade: Treated as Light or 1H, whichever is more beneficial, if you are proficient.
Courtblade: Treated as Light, 1H, or 2H, whichever is most beneficial, if you are proficient.
Execution Axe: Critical hit multiplier is x4 if one damage die is the maximum roll, and x5 of both are.
Double Flail and Heavy Double Flail: Ignores 4 of the opponent's shield AC, if you are proficient. +2 bonus to disarm. Can be used to trip. Non-spiked versions only deal bludgeoning damage.
Waraxe: Deals 2d6 damage and can be wielded two-handed, if not proficient, as long as you are proficient with greataxes.
Sai: +8 bonus to disarm and sunder, doubled monk AC bonus (from class, not Wis).
Shuriken: In melee, critical is 19-20, x2.
Bladebow: Cannot be made into a composite bow.
Chakram: Treated as having the Returning property if you are proficient. Bounces to 1 creature within 10 feet of the original target before returning, at the same attack roll, if you are proficient.
Whip and Dagger Whip: Has a 15 foot reach, and no minimum range, but does not threaten an area and cannot be used to make attacks of opportunity. Can be used to trip. +6 bonus to disarm, and weapon size modifiers are not applied. Can be used to grab onto objects, if you are proficient. Putting a dagger on the end of the whip increases the damage and critical threat range, but removes the ability to grab onto objects.
Additional Homebrew and Houserules
Spoilered to save space and maintain focus on the new weapons and armor, these other options are also related to weapons and help create balance and realism.
Enchanted Weapon Quiver/Sheath/Holster/Pouch
A new item to help those with thrown weapons or arrows. It constantly produces a chosen type of thrown weapon or ammunition, with chosen enhancements. The weapon loses the enhancements the round after it leaves the quiver. The quiver costs twice as much as the enhancements it bestows, plus 2000 gp.
Redefining Masterwork
There is little reason to put more than a +1 enhancement bonus on an item, when you can get at least 1d6 damage for the same cost, and probably something better. That is why all enhancement bonuses are now considered to be nonmagical. You can apply them without being a spellcaster, though bestowing greater than the normal masterwork bonus requires the Craft Masterwork Arms and Armor feat, which has a prerequisite of Craft +6, and no caster level prerequisite. Your Craft skill must also be at least 3 times as large as the enhancement bonus you are applying.
To go along with this, a weapon can now have up to +10 worth of attack and damage enhancement.
This means, if you have a +10 sword and a +10 armor, and they get disjunctioned, you still have a +10 sword and a +10 armor. Most of the time, they will be less useful than magic ones, but you do get the attack bonus, and this allows for non-wizard-or-artificer crafting, which I quite like. Masterwork weapons function as mundane weapons against incorporeal creatures, and do not bypass damage reduction x/magic.
Related to this ruling is the idea that you can cast greater magic weapon on a +1 weapon with +9 abilities and get a +5 weapon with +9 abilities. I would put a stop to this practice by saying that anything greater than a +10 weapon is an epic weapon, which non-epic magic cannot create, no matter the method. A magic weapon spell will grant the most enhancement it can, up to a total +10 bonus for the weapon.
Fortification
Borrowing from Seerow's idea (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=202722), fortification is now an AC bonus against attack rolls made for critical confirmation or precision damage. Light fortification is a +5 AC bonus, medium fortification is a +10 AC bonus, and heavy fortification is a +20 AC bonus.
Fortification from different sources may stack, up to a +20 maximum AC bonus. If your normal AC is hit, you are still dealt normal damage. A fortification bonus to AC functions in all other ways as an armor bonus to AC. It applies to flatfooted AC, but not touch AC, unless it is applied by something which applies to touch AC (such as having the Deflective Armor feat, with fortification on your armor).
Critical Hits
Redundant with the revised races in my signature, any creature can be critically hit except Oozes and Elementals (please check there for more).
However, a critical hit is only on a roll of 20, ignoring the threat range of your weapon/feats/etc, unless you succeed on a Knowledge check of the appropriate type for that creature to determine its special abilities. This includes creatures which previously had no restriction, such as humans.
Die Size Increases
To make them more intuitive, damage die size increases are modified. Whenever you increase your damage for any reason (including size increase) by either by one "size" or by one "step", go one step up on the following list. If a die size is not on this list, find the die size with the closest maximum damage to it, and go from there.
{table]1|2d8|8d12
1d2|2d10|16d8
1d3|2d12|16d10
1d4|4d8|16d12
1d6|4d10|32d8
1d8|4d12|32d10
1d10|8d8|32d12
1d12|8d10|64d8[/table]
For die sizes above 64d8, follow the general rule of increasing the second number by 2, then going back to 8 and multiplying the first number by 2, when the second number reaches 12.
Animated Shields
Animated shields are extremely cheap for what they give, and contribute to sword-and-board fighters being highly underused. Therefore, the animated property is a +5 equivalent in this system, instead of a +2. If you want to use a shield as even an archer, it's only going to be half as good as a dedicated shieldbearer's.
Attack of Opportunity
Any creature is treated as flatfooted when an Attack of Opportunity is made against them. Because sense, and another avenue to perform sneak attacks.
Shields also got an all-around boost, to make using a shield a more attractive idea. +2 to AC doesn't really compare to the increased damage from 2HF or 2WF, but +4 AC is starting to look attractive.
Light Armor
{table=head]Armor|Cost|Armor Bonus|Max Dex Bonus|ACP|ASF|Speed Penalty|Weight
Padded|5 gp|+1|+8|-|5%|-|10 lb
Leather|10 gp|+2|+7|-1|10%|-|15 lb
Chain Shirt|100 gp|+4|+5|-2|20%|-|25 lb[/table]
Medium Armor
{table=head]Armor|Cost|Armor Bonus|Max Dex Bonus|ACP|ASF|Speed Penalty|Weight
Chainmail|150 gp|+5|+4|-4|25%|-5 ft|30 lb
Breast Plate|250 gp|+6|+3|-5|25%|-5 ft|40 lb[/table]
Heavy Armor
{table=head]Armor|Cost|Armor Bonus|Max Dex Bonus|ACP|ASF|Speed Penalty|Weight
Splint Mail|500 gp|+7|+2|-6|30%|-10 ft|40 lb
Full Plate|1,500 gp|+8|+1|-8|40%|-10 ft|50 lb[/table]
Shields
{table=head]Shield|Cost|Shield Bonus|ACP|ASF|Speed Penalty*|Weight
Buckler|15 gp|+1|-|5%|-|5 lb
Light Wooden|3 gp|+1|-|5%|-|5 lb
Light Steel|9 gp|+2|-1|5%|-|6 lb
Heavy Wooden|7 gp|+3|-2|10%|-5 ft|10 lb
Heavy Steel|20 gp|+4|-3|15%|-5 ft|15 lb
Tower Wooden|15 gp|+5|-8|40%|-10 ft|30 lb
Tower Steel|30 gp|+6|-10|50%|-10 ft|45 lb[/table]
*If you combine a speed-lowering shield with a speed-lowering armor, you use the lower of the two modifications, rather than combining them.
Exotic Armor
{table=head]Armor (Type)|Cost|Armor Bonus|Max Dex Bonus|ACP|ASF|Speed Penalty|Weight
Twist Cloth (Light)|15 gp|+1|-|-|-|-|5 lb
Leafweave Mail (Light)|250 gp|+4|+6|-1|10%|-0 ft|5 lb
Chitin (Medium)|200 gp|+5|+5|-2|20%|-|15 lb
Reinforced Leafweave Mail (Medium)|300 gp|+6|+4|-2|20%|-5 ft|15 lb
Dragonscale Armor (Heavy)|5,000 gp|+8|+2|-4|40%|-5 ft|45 lb
Stone Armor (Heavy)|2,500 gp|+10|+0|-10|50%|-10 ft|60 lb[/table]
Twist Cloth: You are treated as not wearing armor if you are proficient. Additionally, armor bonus (including enhancement bonuses) also applies to touch attacks, if you are proficient.
Leafweave Mail: Grants you the ranger's Camouflage ability. Changes color to match the surrounding flora. Does not function without plants in the surroundings.
Chitin: Grants you fast healing 1, if you are proficient and psionically focused.
Reinforced Leafweave Mail: Has the same properties as leafweave mail, but is reinforced with a wooden breastplate on the interior.
Dragonscale Armor: Grants energy resistance 20 to a certain type of energy, depending on the type of dragon scales used to make it.
Stone Armor: Grants you light fortification, if you are proficient.
Special Materials
You can skip this section if you just agree that any material can be made with any special material. Some justification follows.
Steeleaf - Can be applied to leafweave, having the same effects as mithral. Can be applied to leafweave differently, having the same effects as adamantine.
Great Wyrm Dragonscale - When scales are obtained from chromatic great wyrms, they function as adamantine. When obtained from metallic great wyrms, they function as mithral.
Mammoth Leather/Black Ironwood/Obsidian - Can be applied to leather/wood/stone, having the same effects as adamantine.
Light Leather/Yew/Sandstone - Can be applied to leather/wood/stone, having the same effects as mithral.
Exotic Weapons
Most of these already existed. I upgraded a few of them to be worth a feat. The last column is the type of proficiency you must already have in order to take the proficiency feat for that weapon. You must have proficiency in all weapons of that type.
{table=head]Weapon|Hands|Cost|Dmg (M)|Critical|Range Increment|Weight|Dmg Type|Proficiency
Meteor Hammer|2H|25 gp|2d4|x2|-|10 lb|B/P|Martial
Shotput|2H/Thrown|60 gp|2d4|x3|20 ft|20 lb|B|Simple
Thinblade|1H|120 gp|1d6|18-20/x4|-|3 lb|S/P|Martial
Courtblade|2H|240 gp|2d6|19-20/x3|-|5 lb|S/P|Martial
Greathammer|2H|55 gp|2d10|x4|-|30 lb|B|Martial
Execution Axe|2H|105 gp|2d12|x3|-|25 lb|S|Martial
Double Flail|1H|60 gp|2d4|x2|-|10 lb|B/P|Simple
Heavy Double Flail|2H|90 gp|2d6|x2|-|20 lb|B/P|Martial
Waraxe|1H|30 gp|2d8|x3|-|8 lb|S|Martial
Sai|Light/Thrown|15 gp|1d6|x2|10 ft|2 lb|B/P|Simple
Shuriken|Light/Thrown|1 gp|1d2|18-20/x3|10 ft|1/2 lb|P|Simple
Bladebow|Ranged|250 gp|2d8|19-20/x4|90 ft|5 lb|P|Martial
Chakram|1H/Thrown|35 gp|1d8|x3|10 ft|3 lb|S|Martial
Whip|Light|1 gp|1d4|x2|-|2 lb|S|Simple
Dagger Whip|Light|16 gp|1d6|19-20/x2|-|3 lb|S|Simple[/table]
Meteor Hammer: Reach, but has no minimum range. Can be used to trip. +4 bonus to disarm. Treated as Light or 2H, whichever is more beneficial, if you are proficient. Non-spiked versions only deal bludgeoning damage.
Shotput: 1.5x Str to damage when thrown, 2x damage from Power Throw.
Thinblade: Treated as Light or 1H, whichever is more beneficial, if you are proficient.
Courtblade: Treated as Light, 1H, or 2H, whichever is most beneficial, if you are proficient.
Execution Axe: Critical hit multiplier is x4 if one damage die is the maximum roll, and x5 of both are.
Double Flail and Heavy Double Flail: Ignores 4 of the opponent's shield AC, if you are proficient. +2 bonus to disarm. Can be used to trip. Non-spiked versions only deal bludgeoning damage.
Waraxe: Deals 2d6 damage and can be wielded two-handed, if not proficient, as long as you are proficient with greataxes.
Sai: +8 bonus to disarm and sunder, doubled monk AC bonus (from class, not Wis).
Shuriken: In melee, critical is 19-20, x2.
Bladebow: Cannot be made into a composite bow.
Chakram: Treated as having the Returning property if you are proficient. Bounces to 1 creature within 10 feet of the original target before returning, at the same attack roll, if you are proficient.
Whip and Dagger Whip: Has a 15 foot reach, and no minimum range, but does not threaten an area and cannot be used to make attacks of opportunity. Can be used to trip. +6 bonus to disarm, and weapon size modifiers are not applied. Can be used to grab onto objects, if you are proficient. Putting a dagger on the end of the whip increases the damage and critical threat range, but removes the ability to grab onto objects.
Additional Homebrew and Houserules
Spoilered to save space and maintain focus on the new weapons and armor, these other options are also related to weapons and help create balance and realism.
Enchanted Weapon Quiver/Sheath/Holster/Pouch
A new item to help those with thrown weapons or arrows. It constantly produces a chosen type of thrown weapon or ammunition, with chosen enhancements. The weapon loses the enhancements the round after it leaves the quiver. The quiver costs twice as much as the enhancements it bestows, plus 2000 gp.
Redefining Masterwork
There is little reason to put more than a +1 enhancement bonus on an item, when you can get at least 1d6 damage for the same cost, and probably something better. That is why all enhancement bonuses are now considered to be nonmagical. You can apply them without being a spellcaster, though bestowing greater than the normal masterwork bonus requires the Craft Masterwork Arms and Armor feat, which has a prerequisite of Craft +6, and no caster level prerequisite. Your Craft skill must also be at least 3 times as large as the enhancement bonus you are applying.
To go along with this, a weapon can now have up to +10 worth of attack and damage enhancement.
This means, if you have a +10 sword and a +10 armor, and they get disjunctioned, you still have a +10 sword and a +10 armor. Most of the time, they will be less useful than magic ones, but you do get the attack bonus, and this allows for non-wizard-or-artificer crafting, which I quite like. Masterwork weapons function as mundane weapons against incorporeal creatures, and do not bypass damage reduction x/magic.
Related to this ruling is the idea that you can cast greater magic weapon on a +1 weapon with +9 abilities and get a +5 weapon with +9 abilities. I would put a stop to this practice by saying that anything greater than a +10 weapon is an epic weapon, which non-epic magic cannot create, no matter the method. A magic weapon spell will grant the most enhancement it can, up to a total +10 bonus for the weapon.
Fortification
Borrowing from Seerow's idea (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=202722), fortification is now an AC bonus against attack rolls made for critical confirmation or precision damage. Light fortification is a +5 AC bonus, medium fortification is a +10 AC bonus, and heavy fortification is a +20 AC bonus.
Fortification from different sources may stack, up to a +20 maximum AC bonus. If your normal AC is hit, you are still dealt normal damage. A fortification bonus to AC functions in all other ways as an armor bonus to AC. It applies to flatfooted AC, but not touch AC, unless it is applied by something which applies to touch AC (such as having the Deflective Armor feat, with fortification on your armor).
Critical Hits
Redundant with the revised races in my signature, any creature can be critically hit except Oozes and Elementals (please check there for more).
However, a critical hit is only on a roll of 20, ignoring the threat range of your weapon/feats/etc, unless you succeed on a Knowledge check of the appropriate type for that creature to determine its special abilities. This includes creatures which previously had no restriction, such as humans.
Die Size Increases
To make them more intuitive, damage die size increases are modified. Whenever you increase your damage for any reason (including size increase) by either by one "size" or by one "step", go one step up on the following list. If a die size is not on this list, find the die size with the closest maximum damage to it, and go from there.
{table]1|2d8|8d12
1d2|2d10|16d8
1d3|2d12|16d10
1d4|4d8|16d12
1d6|4d10|32d8
1d8|4d12|32d10
1d10|8d8|32d12
1d12|8d10|64d8[/table]
For die sizes above 64d8, follow the general rule of increasing the second number by 2, then going back to 8 and multiplying the first number by 2, when the second number reaches 12.
Animated Shields
Animated shields are extremely cheap for what they give, and contribute to sword-and-board fighters being highly underused. Therefore, the animated property is a +5 equivalent in this system, instead of a +2. If you want to use a shield as even an archer, it's only going to be half as good as a dedicated shieldbearer's.
Attack of Opportunity
Any creature is treated as flatfooted when an Attack of Opportunity is made against them. Because sense, and another avenue to perform sneak attacks.