3.4.0 Armor

While some martial adepts or tradition-bound sorcerers shun armor, most adventurers find it necessary to put something solid between them and their enemies.

Armor must be worn as a Readied item, counting against the hero’s encumbrance limit. Each type of armor grants a different base Armor Class to the wearer, making it more difficult for enemies to land a telling blow. This Armor Class is modified by the wearer’s Dexterity modifier and by any shield they might carry, as described below. Multiple suits of armor do not stack; only one can usefully benefit a wearer.

A hero wearing no armor at all has a base Armor Class of 10, modified by their Dexterity modifier. If they pick up a shield they can improve this to either AC 13 or AC 14, depending on the size of the shield.

3.4.1 Light, Medium, and Heavy Armor

Light armor may be decidedly heavy, but it is loose and flexible enough to offer minimal hindrance to the wearer’s actions. Some varieties are also discreet enough to be worn politely in common society. Medium armor is significantly noisier and more overt; it cannot be worn discreetly and applies its encumbrance as a penalty to any physical Sneak rolls made by the wearer. Heavy armor is the thickest, toughest panoply available on the market, and its bulk and noise make its encumbrance apply as a penalty to Sneak or Exert checks made by the wearer.

3.4.2 Shields

Shields come in two general varieties. Small ones, often made of costlier metal, can be strapped to the wearer’s arm and allow them to hold and manipulate objects with that hand, albeit not wield a weapon with it. Larger shields are of cheaper wood and require a good grip.

A small shield user has a base AC of 13, while a large shield user has a base AC of 14. Unlike other armor, however, if the user is already wearing equal or better armor the shield grants a +1 bonus to their AC. Shields allow the bearer to ignore the first instance of Shock they might otherwise suffer in a round.

3.4.3 Types of Armor

War shirts are nothing more than blessed shirts, lucky cloaks, auspicious warpaint, or whatever tokens of martial victory are favored by the poor and humble of a given culture. While they may look like nothing but normal clothing, their war-luck is still sufficient to interfere with a spellcaster’s abilities.

Buff coats are long coats of thick, supple hide, sometimes worn to cushion the bite of heavier armor and sometimes sported as ornamented street clothing for the gentry who can afford such luxuries. Linothorax armor is a stiffer armor of glued, layered cloth.

A war robe is a catchall term for various outfits involving layers of reinforced cloth or leather. Bits of metal, layers of thick hide, or weaves of tough cordage might all go into the various layers of the suit, making it a very heavy, if effective, piece of equipment.

Pieced armor is assembled of a thicker or more durable chest piece and piecework limb armor. While less effective than a proper cuirass and greaves, it’s often the best that poor adventurers can get.

Mail shirts are usually of iron or steel wire, though bronze and other more exotic materials are not unknown. Such shirts cover only the vitals of the wearer, but are less burdensome than a full hauberk.

Cuirass and greave armor reflects those different designs that rely on solid metal plating over the wearer’s vitals along with lighter limb armor. Scaled armor includes both armor of metal scales on a flexible backing, brigandine, jacks of plate, and other armor made up of small, connected plates that cover most of the wearer’s body. Most are noisy, heavy suits.

A mail hauberk in the listed style covers not only the wearer’s chest, but also their arms, with a long skirt extended to the knee. Plate armor is an extremely expensive suit of tailored metal pieces that cover both the vitals and the limbs of the wearer. Great armor is less finely tailored, relying instead on stacking layer upon layer of mail, plates, hide, cloth, and other protective materials.

Grand plate is so finely-jointed that a weapon must either be very large or very armor-piercing to harm the wearer; they’re immune to non-magical melee or thrown weapons unless the weapon is two-handed, has a Shock rating of AC 16 or more, or the wearer is currently grappled by someone. This tight protection comes at the cost of the thick plating found in great armor or conventional plate.

Armor

Light Armors	AC	Cost	Enc
No Armor	10	None	N/A
War Shirt	11	5 sp	0
Buff Coat	12	50 sp	0
Linothorax	13	20 sp	1
War Robe	14	50 sp	3
Pieced Armor	14	100 sp	2

Medium Armors	AC	Cost	Enc
Mail Shirt	14	250 sp	1
Cuirass and Greaves	15	250 sp	2
Scaled Armor	16	500 sp	3

Heavy Armors	AC	Cost	Enc
Mail Hauberk	16	750 sp	2
Plate Armor	17	1,000 sp	2
Great Armor	19	2,000 sp	3
Grand Plate	16	2,000 sp	3

Shield	AC	Cost	Enc
Small Shield	13	20 sp	1
Large Shield	14	10 sp	1