Sometimes, you’ll find gear that’s brilliant... but not in great shape, or incomplete somehow. It might be worn or imortant family or social reasons, or just because you like the aesthetic, but something’s wrong with the armour, and it doesn’t work quite as well as it should. Or sometimes people want to mix and match different suits, combining a plate pauldron with studded leather, or other combinations. This also lets you give what would normally be expensive armour like full plate to a starting character, but they don’t end up overpowered for their level. Statistics: Allow the armour to function as normal for the highest-level (or whatever is closest in function- adding plate components to anything else likely results in maximum of Breastplate effectiveness armour), but with the wearer’s maximum Dexterity bonus to Armour Class at 1 point worse than normal, and their check penalty on movement-related skills 1 point worse than normal. The armour can be repaired to function the same as a regular suit, losing the Imperfect quality, for half the cost of a regular suit of the same style, or with Craft checks and another similar suit. Total value: should be about one-third the value of the highest-rated set, or if you want to give some Militia-Grade full plate to a starting character, make it like 150 gold (affordable but still most of their money). Ways you can use this in your game: • A starting character who wants full plate armour might have a battered old set which their church, family, or military has allowed them access to. This means they still have a drive to complete the set and make it better, but have the aesthetic to match the picture or miniature they’re fond of. • NPCs in Militia-Grade armour may be a way of indicating unprofessional or rag-tag opponents like bandits or mercenaries, meaning your players will pay more attention when the goons wearing fitted and polished full plate turn up. • Another option is to allow any armour taken from someone killed to gain the Militia-Grade quality, unless they’re particularly killed in a way that reduces physical damage to the suit (particular spells, surprise attacks, or at the GM’s discretion). This means your players are more likely to buy (or commission) a suit of armour they want, rather than collecting 35 sets of filthy studded leather from the goblins they battle, and lugging all of it back to town to sell. (Originally posted on Game Masters Stash on 5 January 2019) Categories All Comments are closed.
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AuthorI'm Luke. He/him pronouns. Archives
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