keith davies

Dodge feat, but that's pretty weak.


As I said, I've riffed on armor in the past. I've also considered
having it grant energy resistance -- as tussock says, if you wanted to
design something to protect against fire, cold, and electricity, it'd
look almost exactly like full plate armor.


Last night I considered also an Armor Focus ability that lets you apply
your martial training as a bonus to the damage conversion of your armor.
This could mean that a 'Ftr20' (classes don't exist per se in this
system, though you can simulate them reasonably well, or at least fill
the same niches acceptably) could have his full plate convert to
nonlethal damage 18 points for each time he's hit. Your typical
low-level opponent could leave a nasty bruise that'll go away soon
enough.

Actually, later consideration suggested I might want to allow the
martial training bonus apply to the AC from armor. It doesn't make a
difference at the high end (Ftr20 has +20 defense bonus already, full
plate with martial training bonus is +18), but it increases the layer of
overlap in the middle.

Level Martial Defense Armor
1-4 +2 +4 +10
5-8 +4 +8 +12
9-12 +6 +12 +14
13-16 +8 +16 +16
17-20 +10 +20 +18

With this, it looks like a fullmartial character who cares to take Armor
Focus at the appropriate level will continue to gain improving AC
benefits for using armor until the top of the Champion tier (16th
level).

Level Martial Defense Armor
13 +8 +14 +16
14 +8 +15 +16
15 +8 +15 +16
16 +8 +16 +16
17 +10 +18 +18
18 +10 +19 +18
19 +10 +19 +18
20 +10 +20 +18

So, if you have a character who chooses to focus on armor use, he can
continue to get direct benefit from armor (better AC than he'd get from
just defense bonus).

To compare (closest match to RAW, such as it might match... full martial
is at +1/1 BAB, half martial is at +3/4 BAB, both spend the ability
slots to get Armor Focus -- either one without this ability would have
+8 Armor bonus).

Full BAB/ Half BAB/ Non- BAB/
Level Martial Def Armor Martial Def Armor Martial Def Armor
1 +1 +1 +9 +0 +0 +8 +0 +0 +8
2 +1 +2 +9 +0 +1 +8 +0 +1 +8
3 +2 +3 +10 +1 +2 +9 +0 +1 +8
4 +2 +4 +10 +1 +3 +9 +0 +2 +8
5 +3 +5 +11 +1 +3 +9 +0 +2 +8
6 +3 +6 +11 +1 +4 +9 +0 +3 +8
7 +4 +7 +12 +2 +5 +10 +0 +3 +8
8 +4 +8 +12 +2 +6 +10 +0 +4 +8
9 +5 +9 +13 +2 +6 +10 +0 +4 +8
10 +5 +10 +13 +2 +7 +10 +0 +5 +8
11 +6 +11 +14 +3 +8 +11 +0 +5 +8
12 +6 +12 +14 +3 +9 +11 +0 +6 +8
13 +7 +13 +15 +3 +9 +11 +0 +6 +8
14 +7 +14 +15 +3 +10 +11 +0 +7 +8
15 +8 +15 +16 +4 +11 +12 +0 +7 +8
16 +8 +16 +16 +4 +12 +12 +0 +8 +8
17 +9 +17 +17 +4 +12 +12 +0 +8 +8
18 +9 +18 +17 +4 +13 +12 +0 +9 +8
19 +10 +19 +18 +5 +14 +13 +0 +9 +8
20 +10 +20 +18 +5 +15 +13 +0 +10 +8

In the fullmartial and halfmartial cases the bonuses can be somewhat
accelerated (halfmartial by taking Martial Training at levels 4n+1
instead of at 4n+3, fullmartial by taking Improved Martial training at
levels 4n+2 insted of 4n+3). The fullmartial character can also speed
up the BAB/Def by taking Martial Training and Improved Martial Training
at levels 4n+1 (but then can't have the matching Armor Focus until level
4n+2... though he can still have the previous level, so the armor bonus
would only be two points lower).

A fullmartial character can choose to exceed the benefits gained from
armor by ninth level (don't take Armor Focus). At this point he's
better at avoiding being hit than someone wearing full plate, though he
doesn't get the Damage Conversion -- there is even still a benefit to
wearing armor.

On the other hand, a halfmartial or fullmartial character who takes
Armor Focus will continue to gain improved benefits (besides Damage
Conversion) from wearing full plate, until 18th level. He has better
Defense Bonus by ninth level, but does better while wearing comparable
armor right from first level.

DR's a simpler approach, but I'd like to see better than +1..+3.

I agree with both of these approaches. Someone smart simply doesn't get
into the middle of things where he can get hurt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JraZLtmXWIE <-- Arrogant Worms describe
this fairly well, I think.


Keith
--
Keith Davies "Do you know what is in beer? The strength
keith.davies@kjdavies.org to bear the things you can't change, and
keith.davies@gmail.com wisdom to ignore them and fsck off for
http://www.kjdavies.org/ another beer." -- Owen, discussing work