Armor and Shields

[Solomoriah]

It would be imprudent to copy materials from netbooks... copyright, you know. Also off topic to this thread... perhaps we need one in the general discussion forum.

I'll go start something.

[SmootRK]

Perhaps the Magic Item tables for Armor/Shields (p.116 of core rules) should be re-written and added to this supplement for those who utilize the additions from this document.

I am working on a few lists of 'special abilities for magical weapons/armor' to produce a short supplement for BFRPG. Perhaps some 'armor/shield related special abilities might make their way into this supplement as well.

[Zargul]

Good stuff! I like the different shields and the new armor adds nice flavor to the game. Field plate may be a good incentive for the players to collect some coin. Full plate is well balanced with the -1 penalty to attack rolls. Nice work!

Personally I would not use the piecemail armor rules since they seem too "new school" for me. They also might be abused by tricky players who combine splint mail with 6 pieces of piecemail armor to get an AC of 19 (16 +3) without suffering from the penalty of -1 to attack rolls that normaly comes along with such a high AC (when using full plate mail)

[artikid]

Hello, I'm submitting the edited file for release 4.
I changed the name of the new option from "shields-shall-be-splintered" to "Shield splintering".

A question, do you think that:

Magical shields should add to damage reduction?

OR

They reduce damage as a non-magical shield, lose a +1 bonus and splinter only once the bonus is reduced to 0?

EDIT: new file in later post

[Joe the Rat]

I vote B: Magic Shields Shall Be Rust-Monstered (lose one +1 per block, splinters at 0).

A third option is letting the magic shield be unbroken, but also possibly unusable. The shield takes the blow, and survives, but is torn away from the wielder (shaken from the hand, straps burst, and so on). roll grenade miss to see which way it flies. GM discretion as to whether or not repairs are needed to make it usable.

Something you could pair with either of these is that a magic weapon can splinter magic shield with a lower enchantment. (A longsword, +2 can splinter a shield, +1)

[LibraryLass]

I vote B: Magic Shields Shall Be Rust-Monstered (lose one +1 per block, splinters at 0).

This is the option Microlite74 uses. It works alright there.

A third option is letting the magic shield be unbroken, but also possibly unusable. The shield takes the blow, and survives, but is torn away from the wielder (shaken from the hand, straps burst, and so on). roll grenade miss to see which way it flies. GM discretion as to whether or not repairs are needed to make it usable.

I like something like that, but I think that there could be a chance for the shield to be destroyed. Maybe a save vs. death?

Something you could pair with either of these is that a magic weapon can splinter magic shield with a lower enchantment. (A longsword, +2 can splinter a shield, +1)

Or that.

[LibraryLass]

Magical shields should add to damage reduction?

I am opposed to this option for the reason that it necessitates the metal/wooden shield split which I think we need to get rid of.

[Solomoriah]

I'm in favor of losing a plus-value each time the shield absorbs a hit; however, I have to ask, should we allow such a shield to be repaired, and if so, how?

[artikid]

@Solomoriah, re-enchantment using Magic research rules?

[LibraryLass]

There's one other variant I've observed.
If a magical shield is used to absorb a blow, roll a d6. If the result is equal to or less than the magical bonus of the shield, then the shield survives.

So a +1 shield survives on 1 in 6, a +3 shield survives on 3 in 6, so on.