I think it might be good for me to be mobile so I can get out of the way quickly if I need to, but still be protected from stray arrows and such while I am praying. I hope to not have to be in the thick of melee ever, but use my attacks mainly for defensive purposes.
How does this look? There’s a lot of flexibility, so I can change it up (especially of beefing up the ones near the bottom… there will, of course, be a diminishing return with the more stuff I add) if needed:
Heavy:
Plate Halfhelm
Plate Vambrace
Ring Gauntlets
Leather Cowls
Leather Knee Boots
Scale Vest
Leather Tunic
Leather surcoat
Med Hevy:
Plate Halfhelm
Kurbul Vambrace
Ring Gauntlets
Leather Cowls
Leather Knee Boots
Ring Vest
Leather Tunic
Med Lite:
Ring Halfhelm
Kurbul Vambrace
Ring Gauntlets
Leather Cowls
Leather Knee Boots
Leather Vest
Light:
Ring Halfhelm
Kurbul Vambrace
Ring Gauntlets
Leather Cowls
Leather Knee Boots
Leather Vest
You can always choose which aspect to use, unless there is some compelling reason not to. (Using a battle sword in a tight hallway comes to mind.) Otherwise, I usually assume that you’re going to use a weapon’s best aspect.
If a weapon has a dot for an aspect, it simply doesn’t have that aspect. A mace doesn’t have an edge or a point. If it has a 0 for an aspect, it can still do damage, just not additional damage. The bulk of damage is calculated by a xd6 roll, and the aspect is added on to that.
A fist is a 0 . . weapon.
I think it’s quite easy and realistic. But then I’m coming from a RoleMaster background, which I got because I was fed up with DnD. And that decision was precipitated by a character who negotiated a 400’ cliff by jumping off of it. Hardly made a dent in his hit points.
HarnMaster is a little funky around the extreme numbers, though. It’s proof that no system is 100% realistic.
Those look good, but I did notice that you used vests far more often than byrnies and hauberks. You don’t get as much coverage that way.
I think there’s enough for us to have two of each, maybe three…
Heavy (44.6):
Plate Halfhelm
Plate Vambrace
Ring Gauntlets
Leather Cowls
Leather Knee Boots
Scale Vest
Leather Tunic
Leather surcoat
PROTECTION = 26 47 29 20
Med Hevy (31.5):
Plate Halfhelm
Kurbul Vambrace
Ring Gauntlets
Leather Cowls
Leather Knee Boots
Ring Vest
Leather Tunic
PROTECTION = 22 38 26 18
Med Lite (20.5):
Ring Halfhelm
Kurbul Vambrace
Ring Gauntlets
Leather Cowls
Leather Knee Boots
Leather Vest
PROTECTION = 17 30 21 15
Light (14.9):
Ring Halfhelm
Kurbul Vambrace
Ring Gauntlets
Leather Cowls
Leather Knee Boots
Leather Vest
Protection = 16 28 20 16
You didn’t answer my question about if it was like Diablo where you can have no helmet but still have an awesome defense if everything else is plate. 
Byrnies and Hauberks have a ratio of less than 1; they’re quite a bit of weight for the protection they offer, especially if it’s like the Diablo system.
I don’t know Diablo, but body part coverage is important. If you get hit in the head, you’ll want to have head protection. Since arm and leg strikes seem to come up a lot, it’s prudent to cover those areas as well. Head and chest strikes are the worst, but it’s not hard to have a limb amputated in combat.
A vest only covers thorax, abs, and shoulders. A byrnie covers that plus hips, groin, and upper arms. A hauberk covers elbows, forearms, and thighs as well.
So a hauberk covers everything a byrnie covers?
Either way, we can just add those to the wardrobe.
Say, a scale hauberk to the heavy, a scale byrnie to the med hevy, and a ring hauberk to the med lite.
OK, so I just double checked and my END is only 9…so I think I would like to go with the Med Light setup that Rugger posted. Keeping me as mobile as possible while still decently protected as long as I stay out of melee.
Thanks for doing that!
I’ll do some calculations, but with my high END, I’ll be going for heavier.
OK, that helps. So unless battle conditions are tight, we can hope to use the best number.
A Shield gives +20 defence, right?
It’s not that easy (as you can see in this thread!).
Your D+D pain seems to have been caused by the DM, not the system.
Jumping off a 400’ cliff without e.g. Feather Fall causes 40*d6 damage in D+D. :eek:
Yes, plus elbows, forearms, and thighs.
And add my thanks to you for doing this work.
Yes to both questions.
Same in HM, but HM doesn’t have hit points. This player had rules-lawyered his character into having an insane number of hit points. It was all legal, but I was astonished to find that a number that big was even possible. With HM, the 40d6 minus armor protection gets translated directly into injury levels, and no matter how powerful your character, that’s going to hurt.
I’m trying to run my numbers, but am getting confused. I’ll keep working at it.
5 daggers 1.0
5 roundshields 6.0
5 knightshields 5.0
4 broadswords 3.0
2 estocs (stabbing swords) 3.0
1 bastard sword 5.0 (2-h)
5 maces 4.0
1 battleaxe 6.0 (2-h) 6.0
3 poleaxes (2-h) 8.0
Med Hevy (31.5):
Plate Halfhelm
Kurbul Vambrace
Ring Gauntlets
Leather Cowls
Leather Knee Boots
Ring Vest
Leather Tunic
Antinor
END=13
Unarmed/48, Shield/98, Sword/98, Dagger/71, Club/84, Polearm/56
Let’s say you use the medium heavy set that Santo came up with, as well as an estoc, mace, and knightshield. Let’s also assume you’re carrying a pound in coin.
Armor 31.5
Weapons 12.0
Coin 1.0
Total 44.5
Divided by your END of 13, that’s 3.42. Round down to 3, multiply by 5, that gives you an encumbrance penalty of -15.
I’m on my way out the door at work right now, so can somebody check these to see if they give better coverage and don’t overlap too much? I think Glee should take the “Heavy”, ANT and I should take the Med Hev, and NAF should take the Med Lite.
I’ll run the weights for us on Monday (I assume we won’t be attacked over the weekend!).
Also, it seems like the protection numbers I gave were kind of worthless, since it matters -where- we’re hit (hence the revamp of the system).
Heavy:
Plate Halfhelm
Plate Vambrace
Scale Hauberks
Ring Vest
Ring Gauntlets
Ring Leggins
Leather Cowls
Leather Tunic
Leather surcoat
Med Hevy:
Plate Halfhelm
Scale Byrnie
Ring Hauberk
Ring Gauntlets
Ring Leggings
Kurbul Vambrace
Leather Vest
Leather Cowls
Leather Tunic
Med Lite:
Scale Hauberk
Ring Halfhelm
Ring Gauntlets
Kurbul Vambrace
Leather Cowls
Leather Knee Boots
Leather Vest
Light:
Ring Halfhelm
Ring Gauntlets
Ring Hauberk
Leather Cowls
Leather Knee Boots
Leather Vest
One thing that strikes me is that a lot of these are not just doubled up in some body locations, they are as much as quadrupled up. The heavy outfit has a hauberk, tunic, vest, and surcoat. That’s like wearing a winter coat, sweater, down vest, and flannel shirt all at the same time. You won’t freeze, but you’ll look like the Sta-Puft marshmallow man.
Let me try out a model and tell me what you think of it.
Plate Halfhelm
Plate (or Kurbul) Vambraces
Scale (or Ring) Hauberk
Ring Gauntlets
Ring (or Leather) Leggings
Leather tunic
Leather Cowl
Leather kneeboots
Every body part (except face) is covered here, with at least leather. You’ve got double protection everywhere except your neck, feet, hands, and upper arms. Your chest, skull, and outer extremities are especially well protected. There’s not much else to do with the single-protected areas, except if you want to protect your upper arms, go with a leather byrnie instead of a tunic. I would consider that Med Hevy protection. For better, you’d need lots of mail (not available) or plate (practically not invented).
Sorry I haven’t posted for a while.
DM, I would like:
- something the party can afford (i.e. they get their own desired protection + weapons too)
- a broadsword + shield (and a missile weapon if I find out I’m good at one)
- heavy protection* (because I can carry it)
*Given I have 116 in shield, do I even need Armour?! In any case, I don’t want too mant layers. I won’t be much use if I’m just a waddling overheating chap.
You’ve got it. I don’t have easy access to your profile right now, but we’ll need to check your throwing skill for missile weapons (probably not stellar, though). I know that you don’t have bow or anything like that. You can learn to use a bow, but your skill will probably end up at around 40 or 45. Not strong. You are at your combat best with melee weapons.
I do strongly suggest the armour profile I detailed in the post previous to yours. You can handle it without any real chance of fatigue, it won’t hurt your skills in any meaningful way, and you’ll be very hard to injure.
Personally, if I were outfitting a knight character, I’d go with leather all over, reinforce key areas (torso mostly) with something really strong, then go for a few accessories. Figure out your strongest vest/byrnie/hauberk, and add from there. Quality footwear and a helmet are also recommended. If you wear a hauberk, vambraces are a bit superfluous. Gauntlets are nice but not crucial.
The body areas you really want to pay attention to are skull, neck, abdomen, and thighs. There’s not much you can do about your neck other than using a cowl, but a helmet and hauberk will take care of the rest. And take the kneeboots. It’s that or sandals, and foot injuries seem to come up a lot for some reason.
I would consider the scale hauberks to be the king daddies of the armory. They are the best things available to you, so they really should get used by someone. Mail and plate are the only better things to wear, but those are not options.
Is it worth it to wear heavy armor? Oh hell yeah. In some systems, the encumbrance/protection tradeoff makes being naked a viable option. Not so in HM. Give me heavy armor any time. I once built a character with standard issue quilt and mail. Considering overlapping layers, his groin was almost impossible to injure, even being smashed with the biggest medieval weapons. “Ooh, tickle me again with your big strong mace, m’lady.”
The other advantage to nice armor is that it acts like an ID card. You can get respect, honor, and access to important places with it. It makes you Important.
Consider, of course, that you may not want to be Important. Earlier, we discussed disguises. Big armor is not low-profile.
At any rate, let’s not get too bogged down with this. Your mission, as far as you know, is not to start wars or slay dragons. Right now you need to collect information and figure out why your memories have gone.