Dungeons & Delvers 2nd Edition: Will This Be The Last Armor Tweak?

In the 1st Edition of Dungeons & Delvers, when it came to armor we mostly stuck to "classic" conventions by having it mostly function as attack negation, with a pittance of DR on the side for whenever it failed to fulfill it's primary function, no matter how absurd (such as, for example, a peasant being able to punch a guy in plate armor and somehow inflict any amount of damage at all).

We've since seen the error of our ways and have been extensively playtesting armor-as-DR only. It was rocky at first but we got it to a point where it works well enough but, given that our primary impetus for game design isn't some combination of money and validation, well enough isn't necessarily good enough. At least, not until we've wasted numerous hours failing to improve it.

Fortunately, I think after the initial round of numerous hours we have found a way to improve upon it, and hopefully for the last time.

For full context, every creature has a Defense value, which is determined by levels in a class, Dexterity, size, which shield you're using (if any), and other factors such as cover and probably magic. Fighters start the game with a hefty +2 bonus to Defense, so would have a base Defense value of 12: if an attacker gets a 12 or higher, the fighter gets hit, which is where armor usually steps in.

Armor in Dungeons & Delvers is neatly divided into six categories. This is because we tried defining specific types of armor, such as a gambeson, mail, plate, etc, but then quickly ran into the issue of what would happen if you layered mail over a gambeson (something that happened all the time and should have mechanical impact)? What if you wore metal vambraces and/or greaves? What would a helmet do?

This might be sufficient in your typical vapidware d20 trash hack (which likely includes various virgin-tier gimmicks such as item slot inventory), but here at Awful Good Games we hold ourselves to a higher standard. With armor categories, you could wear whatever, and based on materials and coverage just assign your loadout to the most appropriate category.  For example, a gambeson would be light, but if you strap on some vambraces that could bump you up to light reinforced, and a mail shirt could catapult you all the way to medium.

While armor still has an Armor Class modifier, unless you've read other blog posts where we discuss armor in 2nd Edition it doesn't work the way you'd think: the AC modifier is added to a creature's Defense, giving it separate Defense and AC values.

For example, medium armor grants DR 5 and has an AC modifier of +5. So if the aforementioned fighter were to don it he'd have a Defense of 12 and an AC of 17. What this means is that when attacked, if the total attack roll is 12-16, he gets hit but the damage is reduced by the armor's DR. However, if the attack roll is 17+ then he gets hit and the attack manages to avoid the armor entirely.

We did this because otherwise, once characters get their mitts on heavy armor they would be largely invulnerable to Medium and smaller creatures (and even Large and larger creatures would be hurting to hurt them). The AC values used to be higher, I think initially +7 because we were basing that on coverage, but most monsters were having a hard time beating that, especially if the character had a shield (with or without the Defender Talent).

In the end we ended up giving medium and heavy armors two DR and AC values: meeting the first AC value reduced the DR a bit, and getting the second one negated it entirely. This allowed us to get away with pegging DR values to a more realistic-but-still-not-realistic level. Here's a much older table to show you what we mean (a more recent one gives even medium and medium reinforced armor two values):

So, if the fighter with a Defense of 12 wears heavy armor, this is what his statline would look like:

Defense 12 DR 9 AC 20 (3); 25 (0)

Now when he's attacked, if the total attack roll is 12-19 his armor absorbs 9 damage. If the attack roll is 20-24, it absorbs 3 damage, and if it is 25 or higher it absorbs nothing. Goblins get a +3 or +4 to hit, and so would need to roll a 17 to have any chance of hurting the character. Stronger opponents could feasibly harm the fighter even in the 12-19 range, though in most cases I'd only expect a few points to get through.

Sounds like a good deal, and it is, but keep in mind that clerics aren't an adventuring class, mending potions operate much more slowly (and restore fewer HP), and HP are lower all around. Again, I think this works "well enough" but while adding in mechanics that can result in improved results when a check beats a DC by 5 or more points, I came up with an idea of having armor work similarly.

We already have a mechanic where, when you attack a creature, for every 5 points you beat the Defense you deal +1 damage (ie, +2 at 10+ points, +3 at 15+ points, etc). This proposed armor adjustment adds to that so in addition to bonus damage the armor's effective DR against that specific attack is reduced by 2 each time, to a minimum of 0. We were going to do it by 3, but that plus the damage bonus and Armor Penetration could rapidly make even heavier armors worthless.

Here's what the current table looks like:

We expect most creatures to get one degree of success about half the time. Two wouldn't be too common, and three almost unheard of. But, two degrees will reduce even heavy reinforced armor to only 6 points. Still a lot to soak up, but the attacker will be inflicting +2 damage as well. Additionally, the grappling system is actually useful, and some weapons like daggers have increased efficacy when used in very close combat, so I expect enemies to just pile on top of someone in plate to take him down.

I also like this setup because it makes damaging armor easier to track (currently the DR or AC is reduced, here it would just be DR), as well as masterwork armor, which would just boost the armor's DR. Finally, critical hits will inflict maximum damage plus add a degree of success on top of everything else, which means +1 damage and knocking armor DR by 2 points, essentially a 3 point gain (not counting any other degrees).