On Armour

[woodenbandman]

What about armor granting damage reduction equal to a function of your BAB times your armor's AC bonus, as well as a slight penalty on attack rolls to make a dex based character viable. So for instance a +4 fullplate has an AC bonus of 12, and if you multiply that by your BAB, which is arbitrarily 16, so you get 192. Then you divide that by, say, 20, and you have DR 9/-. Or maybe more than that. DR 18 seems like too much, but by the time you are at a level where your base attack bonus is 16, 18 DR wouldn't be that much, seeing as how, with power attack, you can probably get up to at least 50 or so damage/hit.  And make armor that grant different DR, such as plate mail granting DR/piercing.

[Kuroimaken]

What about armor granting damage reduction equal to a function of your BAB times your armor's AC bonus, as well as a slight penalty on attack rolls to make a dex based character viable. So for instance a +4 fullplate has an AC bonus of 12, and if you multiply that by your BAB, which is arbitrarily 16, so you get 192. Then you divide that by, say, 20, and you have DR 9/-. Or maybe more than that. DR 18 seems like too much, but by the time you are at a level where your base attack bonus is 16, 18 DR wouldn't be that much, seeing as how, with power attack, you can probably get up to at least 50 or so damage/hit.  And make armor that grant different DR, such as plate mail granting DR/piercing.

Divide it by 15, you should be good.

[Optimator]

I was honestly under the impression that the armors in the PHB accounted for all the stuff normally worn under it.  Which is (to me) the absurdity of allowing multiple armors being worn (you already are wearing them, so why allow the use of them again?).

Same here.

[veekie]

I was honestly under the impression that the armors in the PHB accounted for all the stuff normally worn under it.  Which is (to me) the absurdity of allowing multiple armors being worn (you already are wearing them, so why allow the use of them again?).

Same here.

The point wasn't overlapping the PHB armors though. The point was that since they're also composed of these lighter armors, why not be able to take off the heavier layers independently for travel and sleep? Also, since the padding and chain layers are often completely independent of the plate, what's to stop someone from doing Mix & Match with magical armor layers, and how can we make that fun? As a consequence of that, which layers are enchanted in each armor?
Only the plate layer needs to be customised to the wearer, the rest fit on anyone, pretty much.

One way I see it, is that the underarmor layers are typically unenchanted, but you can replace it with enchanted underarmor. AC enchancements overlap, but theres the various extra enchantments you might want to spread out across several layers.

[Soda]

I think it's a pretty cool idea. It only helps if enhancement bonuses add to every part of the armor.

If you have +5 fullplate, you can break it down to +5 half plate, or break it down again to +5 chain shirt for sleep.

[Rymosrac]

As a random idea popping into my head that hasn't had a second of critical thought applied to it, what if everyone had a dodge bonus to AC equal to their BaB?

I dunno. Just a thought. AC needs to scale better - that much we know.

There's also still the problem with no one caring about HP damage since it's so easy to repair / circumvent. Maybe that's the real issue. In my personal experience, most monsters die from HP damage, and most PC's die from failed saves. Shrug.

[SiggyDevil]

As a random idea popping into my head that hasn't had a second of critical thought applied to it, what if everyone had a dodge bonus to AC equal to their BaB?

Or remove BAB altogether, and keep AC bonuses low, resulting in a very predictable chance of hit.
More emphasis could then be placed on soak.


Tetsubo: Two types, then? Deflect (AC bonus) and Absorb (damage resistance).
You can stack the two types together but not with their own.
For instance, character sports Padding (DR 2 or so) and wears some random Steel Plate covers (AC +3).
They find Chain shirt with sleeves, which grants DR 5. If they wear Chain it overrides Padding but the Steel Plate DR still works normally.

Likewise, other found or purchased Deflect parts could be bone, wood, ceramic, held shield, etc.
Absorb includes body fur, scales, cloth, chain, bulky muscle, and so on.

[woodenbandman]

Whoa whoa whoa. We need BAB, it's, like, an integral part of the d20 system. This has kinda gotten out of the realm of rebalancing and into the realm of a new system.

[veekie]

Or remove BAB altogether, and keep AC bonuses low, resulting in a very predictable chance of hit.
More emphasis could then be placed on soak.

Not the fault of BAB alone, but of uneven scalings on multiple levels. The sheer number of AC bonus types, as well as the widening gap in BAB values on different progressions are the tricky bits. Especially on multiclassing where the gap turns from significant to intimidating.

[Kuroimaken]

Or remove BAB altogether, and keep AC bonuses low, resulting in a very predictable chance of hit.
More emphasis could then be placed on soak.

Not the fault of BAB alone, but of uneven scalings on multiple levels. The sheer number of AC bonus types, as well as the widening gap in BAB values on different progressions are the tricky bits. Especially on multiclassing where the gap turns from significant to intimidating.

Yeah, specially when BAB counts for zilch when you can pump your STR so high your heart wouldn't be able to give your muscles any blood. 

[veekie]

Or remove BAB altogether, and keep AC bonuses low, resulting in a very predictable chance of hit.
More emphasis could then be placed on soak.

Not the fault of BAB alone, but of uneven scalings on multiple levels. The sheer number of AC bonus types, as well as the widening gap in BAB values on different progressions are the tricky bits. Especially on multiclassing where the gap turns from significant to intimidating.

Yeah, specially when BAB counts for zilch when you can pump your STR so high your heart wouldn't be able to give your muscles any blood. 

To be precise, your heart will be pumping so hard, you could probably prick an artery and deal damage with the spray.

[SiggyDevil]

Whoa whoa whoa. We need BAB, it's, like, an integral part of the d20 system. This has kinda gotten out of the realm of rebalancing and into the realm of a new system.

Are.. are you kidding me?
You could grant extra attacks as by feats or other setup, while accuracy is accuracy whether it's derived from a 1/1 ratio to class levels, stat boost, item, feat, spell, etc.

As for a new system, you're a tad late. The first step you take towards 'houseruling' an RPG places you firmly in the territory of a new system, since you're not playing the same game as someone playing Rules As Written, straight out of the book.

[woodenbandman]

^ I suppose you could do that, but you'd probably put level caps on it so that it ended up being almost exactly like BAB, right? I suppose it'd be a bit different, but it's essentially the same concept. One way or another you're using something similar to BAB.

Personally I like Frank Trollman's handling of BAB. Makes it worth something.

[SiggyDevil]

Personally I like Frank Trollman's handling of BAB. Makes it worth something.

Well, yeah, I do too, but there are many ways to go about maintaining RNG.
I tend to subscribe to Keith's rants more often though.