Swashbucklers, Wizards, and Monks - Ability Scores, Armor, and Class

I've been thinking lately about armor, ability scores, class, and how they should all interact. The deft martial arts artist ("monk") or nimble rogue ("swashbuckler") are strong enough archetypes, I think.

All of my DEX-based archetypes should be in light or no armor. Also, I am not sure if I want light or no armor to be a viable choice for STR or CHA types. I am leaning towards "yes," because otherwise you create a Choice to Suck. Say someone envisions their Barbarian (a STR & CON type) as wearing just leather hides rather than plate mail. Or, a Priest (CHA & WIS) doesn't have sufficient STR to carry Chain Mail. Should they be strictly worse than a counterpart in superior armor?

In previous editions of D&D, heavier armor tends to be strictly better. The only limitation of plate mail in OD&D or S&W is pretty much cost (negligible for PCs) and slower movement speed. I think most players trade higher AC for slower move every time. Even in AD&D, where leather can give better chances to surprise foes, its rarely chosen over Chain or Plate, except for a set of pajamas to sleep in. Even in 3.5, the goal is to achieve the highest AC; that's usually reserved for high-dex types in mithral breastplates, but for low-dex types, you're looking at full plate.

It may be realistic for chain to provide vastly superior protection to leather but I don't think that makes for good game choices. A continuous static benefit that comes up nearly every round of combat (i.e., an AC bonus) is going to be worth a lot to most players, so making light armor worthwhile is tough.

I see two potential implementations.

The 4E route is to give all classes pretty much the same ACs. 4E lets you either use (A) heavy armor + masterwork or (B) light armor + DEX + masterwork. Heavy Armor masterwork scales up by 3 per tier. Light armor DEX + masterwork scales up by 3 per tier. So, basically, the only factor is are you in shitty heavy armor (Chainmail) or good heavy armor (plate)? There's about a 10-20% spread in defenses, which keeps things pretty comparable.

TIERS OF ARMOR?

Another route is to differentiate the different armors so that they are all pretty much equal. You could do this with "Basic," "Simple," and "Advanced" armors set up in a tree; Advanced Armors are strictly better than Basic ones, and but within each class, they're all mechanically equal.

This set up might look like this:

BASIC ARMORS
Light - Cloth Gambeson
Medium - Brigandine
Heavy - Scale

SIMPLE ARMORS
Light - Leather
Medium - Ring Mail
Heavy - Half Plate

ADVANCED ARMOR
Light - Studded Leather
Medium - Chain
Heavy - Plate

One problem with this system is that I think its hard to come up with another three Advanced Armors, which is the entire point of having the tree in the first place. Don't present a choice to the player if its not interesting.

Another problem is Treasure. With this system, someone who is proficient in Advanced Armor is a fool to wear Ring Mail instead of Chain Mail. So, if the DM includes Ring Mail as a special treasure, that player will not be interested. That makes it hard to hand out random treasure and keep it interesting; characters will tend to be so specialized that they can only viably use a handful of different types of equipment. In contrast, if the DM can include "Medium Armor" as a treasure (whether that be chain or ring or brigadine), several players may be interested, which keeps things interesting.

So, I think its best to just go back to one tier of armor split into three types; what those types are exactly might be are based on the time period of the campaign. A DM can include inferior, obsolete armor (with a 5% penalty in effectiveness) as loot if he wants it to be ignored or used for hirelings, or a rare piece of superior advanced armor (that gives perhaps a 5% bonus).

NONE - Cloaks/Robes
LIGHT - Gambeson, Leather
MEDIUM - Brigandine, Ring, Chain
HEAVY - Scale, Plate

So, if the DM's campaign is set in the late medieval milleu, then most heavy armor will be plate mail. Scale Mail, being obsolete and strictly inferior, really shouldn't be a viable choice; if a player specifically asks about it, he could be allowed to obtain some at a good price but it will be inferior to the standard of the day, Plate.

A campaign set in Roman times, however, might have Lorica Plumata. Late medieval armors were probably superior to Roman armor. But, in game terms, they're equal. What matters is how effective the armor is relative to the milleu.

Access to Armor

STR-based types should have a predisposition towards using heavy armor, like plate mail. That fits the archetypes for Fighters, Paladins, and even maybe Swordmages. My ENC rules handle this quite nicely; you'll need to have at least above average STR to even consider wearing plate mail without penalty. Likely only folks with 16+ STR will be in plate mail without penalty.

CON based folks wear more armor than INT or WIS types as well; I see a Swashbuckler in light (maybe even medium) armor, whereas a Wizard and Monk will be in No Armor. A Skald is likely to be in medium armor, whereas a beguiler is probably in Light armor. Alternatively, you could say that INT based folks wear less armor, as do DEX based folks. INT & DEX based folks (i.e. Wizards) really don't like armor!

So, you could give a unique bonus to high-dex and int types if they stay in light armors. I don't think I want to go with a straight AC bonus from DEX, though, like 3.5 does; that means folks with 18 DEX are strictly better in a very significant way than those with 13 DEX.

For example, I could see Monks benefiting from mystic tattoos only so long as they are in no armor; Swashbucklers might lose mobility advantages in plate mail; wizards might have less potent spells in armor. Slapping a penalty on ("you lose X if you choose Y option") makes it very obvious that you shouldn't do something, as opposed to the absence of a bonus. And I like making choices easy for players.

Effectiveness of Armor

Leather should only suck more than Chain if you want Swashbucklers to be less durable in combat than Fighters. Swashbucklers already likely have fewer HP, so if they get socked with worse AC too then it gets really ugly for them. So, I am inclined to keep the armors pretty close in effectiveness.

To Be Continued...

Armor Revisited

So, I was dozing peacefully. It has been a long day, I am tired, and I have a headache (and maybe some carpal tunnel). Then, some fine gentlemen who belong to another military service (Hint -- Its the one with the shortest name, and it does not rhyme with Gravy) took it upon themselves to start making a lot of noise about an hour ago. I basically live in a collection of 8 metal containers right now. One of them is mine. When someone walks around on the upper level or roof patio, the entire structure shakes, rattles, and rolls. Further more, we're in a combat zone, so when I hear clangs, rattles, or bangs at odd hours of the night, I often find myself out of bed, in my sneakers, helmet on, mag in my M9, and armor in hand halfway to the door so I can dive into the bunker.

Assholes. When you're visiting someone else's house, follow their rules, ok? One of the rules is: Don't make loud noises or wander around upstairs after 2130. I just evicted them from the public spaces that they are allowed to use (correction: were allowed to use. Not anymore, clowns!) so we can get some sleep.

The one positive thing about this incident is that some half-formed armor ideas came to my forefront (likely while I was reaching for my IBA for the THIRD FRICKING TIME).

I think the light armor issue is resolved pretty well for me. Its cheap, its widely available, it doesn't weigh much, and it gives a bonus to mobility by providing protection against OAs/Parting Shots/AoOs. After all, speed penalties usually don't limit mobility -- free attacks against your poor rear AC do.

Heavy armor is easy too. It provides superior protection (fewer hits or damage soak), but its expensive, heavy, and possibly slow. The problem here is that one is tempted to make heavy armor excessively punitive because medium armor is usually lackluster; folks will hop into plate mail as quickly as possible because 20% fewer hits is infinitely better than a little extra move most of the time. This leads the way of relatively obnoxious armor repair costs (Field Plate a la 1E UA anyone?), because a one-time price increase is easily overcome and so on.

So, here's my patch. Instead of making heavy armor suck so much, make medium armor better somehow. Chain Mail was very common anyways, so it should be good.

You can't make medium armor lighter (that's... well, light armor). You can't make it provide better protection (that's plate mail). But you can make it more versatile.

So, here's my idea. Allow medium armor to be more highly enchanted.

Perhaps armor is typically only allowed, say, 1-2 enchantments. And by enchantments, I don't mean vanilla "+1" quantatitive bonuses. I mean flavorful, cool bonuses like "Resists Fire" or "Makes Undead Burn when they Touch It." Medium armor should be allowed 3 or 4.

So, sure, you can opt for plate mail if you want the vanilla boring quantitative advantage. But Medium Armor -- chain mail -- will have a unique advantage of its own. So, here we get a table that looks something like this:

CLOTH (ROBES/VESTMENTS/GAMBESON ALONE)
ENC 0 STONE
COST 0 UNITS
AC +0%, +20% more vs. OAs
ENCHANTMENT SLOTS 2

LEATHER ARMOR
ENC 1 STONE / COST 1 COIN
COST 1 UNITS
AC +10% (+2 on D20, +1 on D6), +20% more vs. OAs
ENCHANTMENT SLOTS 1

CHAIN MAILLE
ENC 2 STONES / COST 2 COINS
AC +25% (+5 on D20, +2 on D6)
ENCHANTMENT SLOTS 3

PLATE MAIL ARMOR
ENC 4 STONES / COST 4 COINS
AC +40% (+8 on D20, +3 on D6)
ENCHANTMENT SLOTS 1
SLOW, VULNERABLE TO ARMOR PIERCING WEAPONS

Enchantments could be things like:
- Resistances to a Power Word (Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Necromancy, Quintessence, Natural)
- Mobility for a Power Word (Waterwalking, Flight, etc)
- Inspiring followers/improving morale

All useful, and the customization provided by medium armor will be highly appealing to many players.

After all, what's cooler:

Plate Mail forged by the Dwarves which can help its wearer resist Flames.
or
A hauberk made of glimmering Elvish chain links which resists the necromantic touch of the undead, inspires lesser fighting men to acts of valor, and allows its wearer to glow with ethereal light that burns lower creatures (demons, undead, etc) once per day?

Both would be quite useful, but I think the chain mail option might actually live up to the hype now.

OD&D HACK VARIANT

For an OD&D hack, the simplest means of implementation, I think, would be to allow armors to store low-level Cleric spells, as those magics are typically restorative and protective -- the ideals associated with armor, generally. So perhaps our suit of "exalted" elvish chain can store Protection from Evil, Light, and Bless.

As a rough rule of thumb, I'd say that leather and plate armor can store as many spell levels as its enhancement bonus x 1. Cloth robes can store x 2. Chain maille x 3.
OPTION: The number of plusses on the armor dictates the maximum level of the spell.
OPTION: At the GM's discretion, appropriate magic user spells can be added to armor.
OPTION: If the armor does not have an enhancement bonus at all (magic plusses), then it can't store anything, except for chain maille, which can store ONE spell level.

This rule, much like magic swords, boosts the versatility of fighter-types in the end game. It also is of minor help to clerical types.

All spells are designated at the time of enchantment and normally cannot be changed.

So, a +2 suit of Chain Mail can store up to 6 spell levels. A +2 suit of Leather can store 2 spell levels.