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11 months ago ::
Jul 30, 2012 - 5:38PM
#1
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In real life(tm) taking a hit while wearing armor still hurts but does far less damage than it would have otherwise. Consider a shot to the chest being stopped by a flack jacket leaving a bruise but not a hole in the chest. The notion of armor class is kind of antiquated in that sense. Why not replace armor class with some kind of damage reduction from armor and high toughness. Hit rolls could be made against someone's reflex defense.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 30, 2012 - 5:44PM
#2
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Date Joined:
Oct 24, 2004
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I agree. What about Mage Armor? A shield and Dex should be AC. Full Plate means no Dex to AC, just all DR/-
Unfortunately this is a sacred cow that won't die in next I think.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 30, 2012 - 5:44PM
#3
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This is ground that has been covered a million times. Ultimately it's just easier to have all of your defenses bundled into a single value.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 30, 2012 - 6:04PM
#4
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Date Joined:
May 18, 2002
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Unfortunately this is a sacred cow that won't die in next I think.
This is the correct answer. Gyagax & Arneson didn't do it in 1974, 5E isn't going to do it in 2013.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 30, 2012 - 6:09PM
#5
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In real life(tm) taking a hit while wearing armor still hurts but does far less damage than it would have otherwise. Consider a shot to the chest being stopped by a flack jacket leaving a bruise but not a hole in the chest. The notion of armor class is kind of antiquated in that sense. Why not replace armor class with some kind of damage reduction from armor and high toughness. Hit rolls could be made against someone's reflex defense.
'Dodging' in heavy armor is much more ridiculous than the current value of armor. A shot to the chest still hurts, yes...but that's not a 'hit', either. That's a miss (or if you prefer the full abstraction of hp thing, it's a hit that doesn't do vital damage). If you wanted to use the 'armor as DR', you'd have to -really- pump up the damage of attacks (otherwise you'd simply nickel and dime someone to death), introduce weapon-armor-damage-types (clunky, but the only way to get effects like lance-through-plate), or simply make the DR low and, effectively, write off martials entirely. There is no effective balance between the three choices without fundamentally altering combat and, while you're at it, throwing a ton of unneeded complexity in it.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 30, 2012 - 6:09PM
#6
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Date Joined:
May 24, 2012
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Once we figure out what a hit point is, then something like this might work.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 30, 2012 - 6:11PM
#7
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Date Joined:
May 18, 2002
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Once we figure out what a hit point is, then something like this might work.
HP is a get-dead-o-meter.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 30, 2012 - 6:22PM
#8
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Date Joined:
May 27, 2012
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If you accept that a hit is a hit and HP represent health, then it would make perfect sense for heavy armor to act as DR.
If you don't accept that premise, then it makes everything much more complicated, to the point where the only sane alternative is to just toss any logic out the window and handwave it as game mechanics.
The metagame is not the game.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 30, 2012 - 6:33PM
#9
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Date Joined:
Aug 22, 2007
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Once we figure out what a hit point is, then something like this might work.
HP is a get-dead-o-meter.
HP actaully more a Not-deadometer
"20 HP left, Not dead. Must have bounced of my armor or something"
AC is a measure of how difficult it is to "hit" the target's weakspot.
Orzel, Halfelven son of Zel, Mystic Ranger, Bane to Dragons, Death to Undeath, Killer of Abyssals, King of the Wilds.
Constitution Based Class for Next!
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11 months ago ::
Jul 30, 2012 - 6:33PM
#10
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Date Joined:
May 24, 2012
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Once we figure out what a hit point is, then something like this might work.
HP is a get-dead-o-meter.
Then armor should just give your character more hit points. But how crazy is that?
Maybe armor should reduce hit points lost by damage dice. Not a set number, just reduce number of dice rolled. So a heavy weapon rolls 4 dice of hit point loss but heavy armor removes 3 dice, or whatever
EDIT: It would have to be base dice for a weapon. Otherwise a dagger would not hurt a platemail warrior.
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