Weapon and Armor Templates

[Sorren]

Similar to Monte's Dire weapon template, I instead wanted to give the PCs an option to use in a non-AU game that didn't require a feat. This is what I came up with.

Savage Weapon Template

Melee weapons with added spikes, spines, jagged blades, and hooks, savage weapons are difficult to use—but deadly in the right hands. Light and one-handed Savage weapons suffer a -1 penalty to attack while two-handed savage weapons suffer a -2 penalty. However, the weapon’s damage dice increases one step. So d4 becomes d6, d6 becomes d8, d8 becomes d10, d10 becomes d12, d12 becomes 2d4, 2d4 becomes 2d6, 2d6 becomes 2d8, etc.
This template adds +300 gp to the weapon’s price and increases its weight by +25 percent.

What do you guys think? Balanced?

 

[Aaron2]

d12 becomes 2d4

2d4 is way worse than d12. d12 should become 2d8. Anyway, I'm not a big fan of weapons with penalties to hit. I'd prefer an exotic feat requirement but, I guess, the -1 is balanced considering the weapon now does, one average, +1 points of damage.


Aaron

 

[Sorren]

2d4 is way worse than d12. d12 should become 2d8. Anyway, I'm not a big fan of weapons with penalties to hit. I'd prefer an exotic feat requirement but, I guess, the -1 is balanced considering the weapon now does, one average, +1 points of damage.


Aaron

Yeah, good catch. It should be 2d8. Thanks.

what do you think about this?

Articulated

Some armor can be designed with additional protection in the form of overlapping, jointed, and hinged plates so that the wearer can divert more protection to a needed area just by adjusting their posture slightly (like using a shield, this does not require an action).

This additional protection increases the armor’s bonus by +2 and its armor check penalty by +1. If the wearer is unaware of an incoming attack, this offers protection as normal armor of its type. Also, because of the shifting protective sections, articulated armor imposes an additional -2 penalty to Move Silently (which stacks with the additional penalty to the armor’s check penalty).

Scalemail, breastplate, splint mail, banded mail, half-plate and full plate are the only types of armor than can be built with this additional protection. Heavy steel shields can also be reinforced in this manor. They receive a +1 armor bonus and impose an additional -1 penalty to Move Silently (which stacks with the additional penalty to the shield’s check penalty and the penalty if the character wears articulated armor). Like articulated armor, this armor bonus is lost if the user is unaware of the incoming attack.

One can also build an articulated tower shield. The shield’s articulating plates are arranged along its bottom. Should the user desire, he made retract the plates and secure them with latches, thus transforming the tower shield into a heavy steel shield. Changing an articulated tower shield from one form to the other takes a standard action and provokes and attack of opportunity. Other than the ability to change forms and the additional weight, articulated tower shields are otherwise identical a standard tower shield or heavy steel shield depending on its current form.

Articulated armor and shields cost three times the standard cost of the armor or shield and weigh an additional 25%.

 

[Aaron2]

what do you think about this?

Articulated

I think Articulated armor is the silliest idea I've heard of in any d20 product; it even beats out the Mecurial swords. If you can predict your opponent's attack enough "adjust your position" to move "articulated plates" around, why don't you just parry the attack?

In any event, just for simplicity, I'd probably just increase the check penalty rather than give an additional penalty to Move Silently. Move Silently is the biggest penalty for armor anyway.


Aaron

 

[Nail]

I think Articulated armor is the silliest idea I've heard of in any d20 product...

You know it's already published in Monte's Arcana Unearthed, right? Just checking.

FWIW, I think all armors currently listed are a tad too low. At a minimum, I've thought about boosting all medium armors by +1 armor bonus, and all heavy armors by +2 armor bonus.

Surely there are feats out there that increase the armor bonus of your armor? If not, then there should be.

 

[Aaron2]

You know it's already published in Monte's Arcana Unearthed, right? Just checking.

Yep. Its weird because that book is fairly low on the silly-ometer. Forex: including mail hauberk and the more reasonable illustrations.


Aaron

 

[Hawken]

That template sounds interesting. I haven't thought about templates for items before--and haven't read the Arcana Unearthed. Aside from the mistake on the damage progression--D12 to 2D4?--the Savage template seems very workable.

The only thing that doesn't make sense to me is the 300gp price increase. I don't see where hammering sharp bones, nails, spikes, etc., into a weapon (such as a club or whatever) jacks up the price like that. A violent, primitive culture would likely have 'savage' weapons, but wouldn't be wealthy enough to afford their own primitive weapons. Instead of hiking the price of what could be essentially a free modification (sundered dagger blades, etc., attached to the weapon), maybe change the hardness or hit points of the weapon. A club with all those spikes hammered through it might have half the normal hardness or maybe -1 to hardness, -2 hp for one handed weapons, -2 hardness, -4 hp for two handed weapons.

The weight increase is a good idea.

Also, Articulated armor is in the Quintessential Dwarf book or Arms & Equipment or Arms & Armor. And it is different from what has been mentioned previously.