Armor has four main attributes: Type, Armor Value(AV), Penalty, and Bypass.
Armor comes in three basic types - Leather, Chain, and Plate.
Leather is usually the cheapest to produce, and the lightest. It is characteristically good against impact or abrasion, somewhat weak against piercing, and decent against cutting damage. Unfortunately, most leather armors are very lightweight, providing only a small amount of protection.
Chain is common among more experienced warriors. Though more expensive and much heavier than leather, chain usually has even better protection against impact damage, due to the give in the armor and the heavy padding normally worn beneath. It is good versus cutting, as well, but not particularly effective against very fine-tipped piercing weapons.
| Armor | Type | AV | Penalty | Cost( ) |
Points | Bypass | Notes |
| [gray]0.7Soft Leather | Leather | 1 | 0/0 | 2 | 0 | -4 | |
| Padded Clothes | Leather | 1 | 0/-1 | 1 | 0 | -5 | |
| [gray]0.7Stiff Leather | Leather | 2 | 0/-1 | 5 | 1 | -4 | |
| Studded Leather | Leather | 3 | 0/-1 | 7 | 1 | -4(-3, 1) | |
| [gray]0.7Lined Leather | Leather | 4 | 0/-1 | 12 | 2 | -5(-3, 2) | Appears to be Stiff Leather |
| Chain Vest | Chain | 6 | 0/-1 | 9 | 1 | -3 | |
| [gray]0.7Chain & Leather | Chain | 7 | 0/-1 | 12 | 2 | -5(-3, 1/L) | |
| Chain & Greaves | Chain | 9 | -1/-3 | 17 | 3 | -5 | |
| [gray]0.7Chain & Scale | Chain | 9 | -1/-2 | 20 | 3 | -5(-3, 5/L) | |
| Scale & Leather | Leather | 4 | -1/-2 | 16 | 2 | -5(-3, 2/L) | |
| [gray]0.7Scale & Greaves | Leather | 5 | -1/-3 | 22 | 3 | -5 | |
| Half Plate | Plate | 14 | -2/-4 | 26 | 5 | -5(-3, 4/C) | |
| [gray]0.7Plate Mail | Plate | 18 | -2/-5 | 35 | 6 | -5 | |
| Hardened Plate | Plate | 22 | -3/-6 | 45 | 8 | -6 | |
| [gray]0.7Full Plate | Plate | 25 | -3/-7 | 55 | 10 | -6(-4, 16/P) |
Plate is almost solid metal, very expensive and heavy. It is usually combined with chain for greater mobility and to reduce costs. Plate is excellent against most forms of attack, though it tends to slow the wearer down and get very hot. Also, although it provides good protection against normal battering and bruising impacts, very concentrated, forceful impact attacts tend to crumple the armor, rendering it useless against these attacks. A very concentrated piercing weapon can also penetrate relatively easily.
The Armor Value is basically the amount of Damage the armor absorbs. This can be effectively reduced by Armor Piercing, although some magical and high-quality armors have a certain amount of AV that cannot be penetrated.
Wearing armor restricts the movement of the body somewhat, and also weighs down the user. Because of this, some actions the user takes are less likely to succeed, as the wearer is slowed down and less responsive.
Penalties are represented by two numbers, seperated by a slash(like -1/-2). The first number is the Combat Penalty, and affects TN to be Hit, Active Defense rolls, and Attack rolls. The second number is the Manipulation Penalty, representing the difficulty of moving quickly or gracefully in armor. This Penalty applies to Actobatics(for jumping an springing, etc.), Stealth(when remaining silent), Athletics, and any other situation the Game Master rules valid. It is also the Penalty applied when casting spells requiring a gesture(see page ![[*]](crossref.png)
).
The Bypass Penalty is applied whenever an attacker attempts to hit an unarmored area, or otherwise slip around the protection of the armor. See page in Chapter 8 for more details on Bypassing Armor.
Some varieties of armor have a second Bypass Penalty listed, lower than the first. This is listed with a number/letter code to represent what the new AV and Type of the armor would be if the lower number is used. In effect, the Bypass only hits a less armored portion of the body, rather than an unarmored.
Example: Half Plate has a Bypass value of -5(-3, 4/C). This means that an attacker can take a -5 Penalty to hit, and ignore the full AV, or take a -3 Penalty to hit, and treat the AV as 4, and the Type as Chain.