Armor Systems

In my last post about Armor Class, I spoke about the pros and cons of Armor Class (which are really more like the things I find irritating about it as a mechanic). Let us talk about armor systems as a whole and how they function.

Evasion (Armor Class)

This is Armor Class. It's evasion, making a character harder to hit. Aside from D&D, it's not an uncommon system. In (new) World of Darkness, armor applies a penalty to attack rolls (and, as attack rolls influence damage rolls, this consequently reduces damage dealt).

Read the linked article above if you want my longer thoughts on these systems.

Damage Reduction (DR)

The simplest, easiest, and worst alternative to Armor Class in D&D is making an armor value that directly reduces any damage taken. It functions and is present in a number of RPGs, including some ancient ones like Runequest, Traveller, and WFRP, which ought to suffice as evidence for the historical grievances levied against Armor Class.

Why, pray tell, is this the worst alternative to Armor Class if it's so simple? First and foremost, it is a precarious balancing act. The option to wear armor must be attractive and meaningful, but it must not be so overwhelmingly beneficial that the majority of blows are rendered insignificant. If the DR is too low, armor is either pointless or it becomes a minor annoyance, where heavily-armored individuals gain little more longevity than the peasant wearing a sackcloth. Conversely, if the DR is too high, battle becomes a slog, where most hits scored are reduced to a mosquito's bite and the combatants are all hoping for a "jackpot" roll.

A minor suggestion on how to make this less painful is that all attacks inflict minimum damage, even if they would otherwise be reduced to no damage whatsoever.

Armor Saves

Prevalent in Games Workshop games, armor saves (now largely truncated to "saves") are a chance for a character (or unit / model) to entirely negate damage suffered. After an attacker strikes a defender and wounds him, the defending character may make a saving throw to negate the damage. His armor "saves" him from the blow.

This mechanic not only establishes armor as impactful, it allows defenders a small sense of control over the fate of their character, which elevates it psychologically and makes the game feel "fairer"--as I've discussed elsewhere.

The downside of this mechanic is that it is somewhat clumsy in play: the dice go from one side of the GM's screen (or player) to the other player for resolution.

Toughness / Difficulty to Wound

In this model, after rolling a successful attack, the attacker must test his weapon's damage against the defender's armor to injure him. Armor potentially absorbs the entire blow.

Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game

MESBG uses a system where weapon Strength is tested against Defense. Defense here is a combination of hardiness and armor, which is why Frodo's paltry 3 Defense is boosted to a stalwart 6 Defense when wearing his mithril coat.

Savage Worlds

In Savage Worlds, player characters have 3 wounds (HP), and they have a Toughness score that is influenced by worn armor. When an attacker hits a defender, he rolls for damage and compares it to the defender's Toughness: if it is less than the Toughness, the defender is unharmed, and if it exceeds the defender's Toughness by at least 4, the defender suffers 1 wound for each multiple of 4 (e.g., if Toughness is 4 and damage is 12, the defender takes 2 wounds).

Where it gets interesting is if the attacker equals or exceeds the defender's Toughness by 3 or less: the defender becomes shaken. While shaken, the defender must test to act (otherwise he can only scurry about), and if an attacker strikes him with an blow that leaves him shaken again, the defender suffers 1 wound.

Notably, this system works to ameliorate one problem in systems where armor can negate a successful attack entirely. While you might still fail to wound an enemy, you might leave him vulnerable to a follow-up attack. This is a reasonable consolation prize that keeps combat progressing instead of back-and-forth null results.

Armor Points / Extra HP

Armor adds hit points or wounds to a character. Very simple and easily added to any D&D-alike, but it's not particularly engaging. It is just another tick-down mechanic that has no real distinction over traditional HP. It could be made more interesting by adding some bells and whistles (perhaps only X damage goes to armor and the rest goes to HP?) but otherwise serves as a rather bland life bar.

Daggerheart Armor

Daggerheart uses a synthesis of several different armor models. Armor has a number of "armor slots," and each time a character is attacked, a character can fill in one slot to reduce the damage taken by one, essentially fusing the "damage reduction" and "extra HP" mechanics together. In addition, Daggerheart has damage thresholds that determine how many HP a character loses when hit by an attack (from 1-4), and armor raises these damage thresholds.

The strength of this design is its diversity of mechanics, though the design also feels a bit confused, as if the designers had a disagreement about how armor should function and came to this as a compromise.

Damage Thresholds

In this system, armor sets a "floor" or "ceiling" for damage.

Damage Floors

In the case of a floor, any damage less than the floor is ignored, and any damage equal to or greater than the floor passes through in its entirely. This is different from damage reduction in that there is no reduction to the damage--it's a mere comparative value. As an example: if the fighter whacks a dragon for 29 damage and its damage threshold is 30, nothing happens. But if the fighter hits the dragon for 30 damage, the dragon loses 30 HP.

The upside to this system is that there's no pesky subtraction at the table, so it's quite a bit faster than subtracting. It likewise allows "larger than life" characters and threats to feel that way, punching through resistances that would stymie lessers. The downside is evident from the example above: the all-or-nothing approach means that 1 point of damage can determine success or failure, which feels a bit off. However, this is not necessarily a poor representation of reality: if, say, I were to chip at a stone with a butter knife, the knife is going to break before the stone does. On the other hand, if I pound it with a sledgehammer, the stone's days are numbered.

Damage Ceilings

Damage ceilings, on the other hand, limit the amount of damage that can pass through. For instance, if the damage ceiling is 5 and an attack does 10 damage, the defender takes only 5 damage. This protects a character from certain death, but "chip" damage still wears away at the character's reserves. As with damage floors, this is not altogether unrealistic; ballistics vests can defend against grievous injury from a gunshot, but the wearer still suffers bruising from the impact.

Synthesis

It would be interesting to see a system in which armor provides both a damage floor and a damage ceiling.

Killteam

While it's a Games Workshop game with saves, Killteam's mechanics are distinct enough from the wargame line that it deserves a special mention. Killteam lacks a "true" armor system, but it approximates it through several mechanics.

Firstly, Killteam uses saving throws. When a ranged attacker shoots at another unit, he rolls a number of attack dice, keeping any that score hits, at which point the defender rolls several dice against his save value. Each die that succeeds negates a hit. Any remaining hits inflict damage based upon the weapon. (Notably, armor has no impact on melee attacks.)

Killteam treats units with stronger armor as having a higher save value, potentially allowing them to negate more hits. For instance, ratlings and guardsmen have only a save of 5+, whereas Space Marines have a save of 3+.

Secondly, Killteam also has certain mechanics that likewise influence damage taken that I would describe as "armor adjacent." Feel No Pain, for instance, gives units a chance to ignore a wound entirely, and Disgustingly Resilient allows Plague Marines a chance to reduce damage taken by 1.

Hit Negation

In this model, armor can negate hits. This is different from "armor as HP" because armor blocks hits entirely. You will see this crop up in some OSR games with the "Shields Shall Be Splintered" house rule, where shieldbearers can let their shields be destroyed to block a hit. Jason Tocci's 24XX and various offshoots utilize this system, although it's broadened to items carried by a character. In any game with "heavier" mechanics, I think this would require more detailed rules, as what happens when a character with an armor-piercing plasma pistol takes a shot at a guy wearing flak armor? Oh, well then it counts as two hits instead of one, unless he's wearing a plasma-shield, in which case you've suddenly recreated armor as HP in a roundabout way.

Stuff I've Toyed With

As a system tinkerer, I've had a number of ideas for armor that I've played with on-and-off for years. (Why haven't I finished or published anything? Hey, shut up!)

Ward

Armor provides a "Ward" value. When characters are damaged in combat, physical damage first goes to the Ward value and then overflows to HP/wounds. After a recovery period, characters clear any damage to their Ward. Attacks can inflict lethal damage, which bypasses Ward, some weapons` deal additional or less damage to Ward.

The downside to this is that it's a second lifebar for players to track. Personally, this one was a no-go for me because it felt wrong--and as I've said, if something doesn't feel right at the table, it needs a redesign.

Fatigue

In addition to standard HP/wounds, characters have fatigue. Each time a character is hit by an attack, armor converts a portion of damage to fatigue. Once characters are maxed out on their fatigue, all remaining damage goes to wounds. Healing spells and items restore fatigue but not wounds.

This is a bit of a fiddlier system that involves a second lifebar for players to track. I think it's a neat idea that basically solves a number of problems with "armor as DR," but it's going to slow the game down.

Glancing Blows

Armor has the potential to deflect an attack, turning a strong hit into a glancing hit. Characters have a "defense" score that is tested against by an attacker, and armor adds to this. This is written as, say, 13 (Defense) / 16 (Armor). If an attack hits the defense but not the armor, the attack becomes a glancing blow, inflicting reduced damage.

In terms of use at the D&D table, this slots fairly easily into the existing system, which is one reason I've cottoned to it.