Tags
Armor, Basic, Dungeons & Dragons, Fantasy, House Rule, RPG, TSR
Just came across this post over at RetroRoleplaying and am definitely considering it for a sword and sorcery style B/X game. While the basic background of the article is to allow for wizards and thieves to wear armor, the end result is that a fighter can get away with wearing magic chainmail instead of platemail because the AC difference is a lot lower.
The key points of the article article are reproduced below (mostly as a reminder to myself and in case the source page ever disappears) – refer to the source (linked above) for the full rules.
Base Armor Class: Each class has a base armor class:
Fighting Man — Base AC of 5
Paladin/Ranger/Monk — Base AC of 6
Cleric/Druid/Bard — Base AC of 7
Thief/Assassin — Base AC of 8
Magic-User/Illusionist — Base AC of 9Armor:
Leather Armor: +1 to AC. Magic-Users and Illusionists cannot cast their highest level of spells known while wearing Leather Armor.
Chainmail Armor: +2 to AC. Magic-Users and Illusionists cannot cast their two highest levels of spells known while wearing Chainmail. Thief abilities are halved while wearing Chainmail.
Plate Armor: +3 to AC. Magic-Users and Illusionists cannot cast their three highest levels of spells known while wearing Plate Armor. Thief abilities are unusable while wearing Plate Armor.
Shield: +1 to AC, only when character is concious and mobile. Magic-Users and Illusionists cannot cast their highest level of spells known using a shield — if they are using a shield and armor tthe shield adds 1 to the levels of spells they cannot use.
I really like that idea of not being able to cast your X highest level spell while wearing armor of type Y! Very nice! 🙂
This actually makes a lot of sense; it should be all about choices anyway. So if a wizard REALLY wants to use that chainmail, he can – at a cost.
I really like this base AC idea. Thanks for reposting this!
Base AC by class is a great Idea!
Thanks!
I have adapted the 3.5e variant rule for defensive bonus for our Castles & Crusades game, which works essentially the same as the base AC. However, I really like the second half here, where anyone can use armor with the penalties you state.
Thanks for the post.
Very good idea here, makes a little more sense.
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I am using these very good (and very elegant) rules in my current Labyrinth Lord game. I can say that they work.
awesome!