Weapons & Armour: Armour

   Armour absorbs some of the damage caused by weapons. The rating of the armour multiplied by ten (x10) indicates the percentage of damage the armour can absorb.

Example:

Armour with a DR of 4 absorbs =40% of damage
Damage inflicted = 20, damage taken = 12; 40% of 20 is 8, 20 – 8 = 12

Shields and bracers do not have a rating, but rather are used with skills of defense and act in the same way as a weapon inflicting damage. The items have a maximum potential defense instead of maximum potential damage. The resulting defense as calculated by the skill check determines how much damage is deflected and then subtracted from the inflicted damage.

Some powerful types of armour have a dual rating. The second number indicates the minimum amount of damage required per hit to inflict any noticeable damage. The first is the percentage of damage resisted once the minimum is subtracted.

Example:

DR 5(10) = 20 points of damage inflicted, 5 points taken; 20 – 10 = 10, 50% of 10 is 5, 10 – 5 = 5

Metal weapons and armour such as mail and plate are typically made from steel, but could be made from other metals. This affects the weight and effectiveness, as well as the cost. Powerful metals such as dwarven black-metal, titanium and the very rare adamantium make formidable armour. However, their cost is also formidable.

The armour worn over the chest and back has a double rating: one for blunt, and one for sharp. This is because it covers such a large area, and the material will react differently to each type of attack. Smaller pieces of armour, such as gloves and boots do not have this rating.

Armour is typically worn in layers. Lighter and flexible types of armour can sometimes be worn under larger more bulky types of armour. Each layer’s damage resistance is added to the previous. Some types of armour are better against specific types of attack. Combining these improves the chance of taking less damage.

Cloth and padding types is typically the first layer. Next comes soft leather or mail. To this can be added any of the larger armour types, such as heavy mail or plate. When purchasing armour it is a good idea to find out what can be worn over or under it, should the character ever have the opportunity or need to add to their defense.

Layered Armour is not calculated as cumulative, but is successive from the outer inward.

So that wearing plate armour (DR 5/5) over light chain (2/4) over padded cloth (1/0) does not give DR 8/9 but rather DR 7/7.

This is how it works:
Let’s take 100 points of sharp damage: The plate itself has a DR of 5, which reduces the damage taken to 50. The next layer is mail (DR 4) which reduces the remaining damage to 30. Which is effectively a DR of 7.

With 100 points of blunt damage:

100 -> DR 5 = 50
50 -> DR 2 = 40
40 -> DR 1 = 36

The actual DR is 7.4, but since 0.5 or less is rounded down, that makes it an effective DR of 7 for game play.

A layered DR of 1 adds 1 to the effective DR only when under armour that has a DR of 5 or less. When above armour (such as a cloak) the same rule applies.

To calculate effective DR, number the DR values starting from the outer later:

DR#1+((DR#2*10)-(DR#1*DR#2))/10)

Example:

Plate (DR5) over mail (DR4)
5+(((4*10)-(5*4))/10))=7
5+((40-20)/10)=7
5+(20/10)=7
5+2=7

Effectively, the difference between the DR value as a percentage less the top layer multiplied by the bottom layer, is the added DR value.

Another way to look at it:
DR values are percentages. So DR5 is 50% and DR4 is 40%. 50% of 40 is 20. 40 less 20 is 20. So the total DR is 20 percentage points more than the original 50. Making it 70% or DR7.

The effective DR only needs to be calculated when changing the layered armour.

Top of Page