Pages

Thursday, June 18, 2020

DFRPG Armor - Cost & Weight Per DR

I had a few minutes the other day and I wondered, what's the cost-to-DR and weight-to-DR for the various types of armor?

Per 1 DR:

Cloth/Leather, 18 lbs, $150
Heavy Cloth/Leather, 18 lbs, $225
Light Mail, 12/36 lbs, $500/1500 (Avg $1000)
Light Scale, 16/24 lbs, $320/480 (Avg $400)
Light Segmented Plate, 16 lbs, $600
Mail, 11.25/22.5 lbs, $675/1350 (Avg $1012.50)
Scale, 21/28 lbs, $412.50/550 (Avg $481.25)
Segmented Plate, 18 lbs, $675
Heavy Mail, 10.8/18 lbs, $720/1200 (Avg $960)
Heavy Scale, 24 lbs, $660
Heavy Segmented Plate, 19.2 lbs, $720
Brigandine, 12 lbs, $1080
Plate, 10 lbs, $1250
Heavy Plate, 10.29 lbs, $1285.72
Extra Heavy Plate, 10.5 lbs, $1312.50
Epic Plate, 10.67 lbs, $1333.34

Split numbers are for split DRs.

Some notes:

- Plate has the best weight-to-DR ratio. Dwarven pushes it down to 8.57 pounds per DR but spikes the cost up to $6000 per DR.

- Light mail looks really good, but it is pretty heavy and costly for what it gives you. It's not a bad choice, but it's not as good as it sometimes appears at first glance.

- Scale types have the worst weight-to-DR ratios.

- Epic plate isn't that much more hefty or expensive than plate; it just adds up to a lot because it has 50% more DR.

- Brigandine is really good, but it's so close in cost - and identical in weight - to plate that it's only a good choice if you need to avoid plate for some reason or lack that last little extra bit of cash.

9 comments:

  1. Plate, particularly enchanted plate, is really the armor you want. It just isn't always the armor you can afford.

    Fortify 1 is fairly cheap and can make weaker armor more desirable for people to broke or to weak for plate

    Once you can afford plate, and especially when you can afford epic plate, you can probably stretch a bit to put some enchant on it. I've never actually seen someone buy purely Muggle plate

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fortify +1 in standard DF is defacto required; it's $50 for a suit. It's rarely better to get higher DR armor instead of Fortify +1, cost-and-weight wise. +2 or +3 makes sense with piecemeal enchantment costs, especially for helmets. With the DFRPG rules (and my house rules from before), it's $20/point flat, so it's useful choice but not actually required.

      With my current house rules - requiring a cost-positive prefix - it means your armor is at least double cost (Ornate +1, the cheapest option) and then you add $1000 on top.

      Someone in my game just ordered plain plate. It can't be enchanted per my house rules, but it's still a good value for the money.

      Just as an aside, I really hate the term "Muggle." It's such a British classist insult.

      Delete
    2. Indeed, the cost-positive prefix means that one has to save up a lot of money to enchant a full suit of plate, etc., which is why buying a full suit of plate (un-enchanted) makes sense. Of course, in that particular case, there's the ability to enchant an existing piece of armor that makes it worthwhile. That delver (Aldwyn) inherited a suit of Thieves' Mail (+3 CF) and wears that over heavy cloth (with Armor Mastery, DR 7/5). Enchanting the mail with Fortify +2 and Lighten 25% allows him to continue to delve with Plate Armor over Heavy Cloth (total DR 9). When the mail is done, it will actually be a few pounds lighter to delve with Plate Armor over the enchanted Thieves' Mail, and that will give DR 12 (6 for Plate, 3 for Mail underneath, 1 for Armor Mastery, and 2 for Fortify +2, for a total of 12). In that way, delvers who can layer armor are somewhat better off magically enhancing the less expensive armor unless they have the cash to purchase the other armor. Of course, that really only applies to the Fortify piece...the Lighten 25% would obviously be better on the heavier armor. For delvers who can't layer armor, they really need to save up!

      Related: Although I originally thought it to be really weird that it was cheap to get mundane weapons (+4 CF for balanced for an axe for example) but expensive for magic ($5,000 for Accuracy +1, which does the same thing) and *really* expensive for armor, it does make a lot of sense seeing as how the amount of material for armor dwarfs what is needed for a weapon.

      But in the end, yes, plate is a great value for the money. Ulf (who now has the Robe of Protection) purchased regular plate gauntlets and boots for himself, since the Robe doesn't cover those. He's (unintentionally) going for the "Vigilant of Stendarr" look from Skyrim depicted here.

      Delete
    3. I probably should clarify the point about magic weapons v. magic armor. Fortify +1 for $1,000 is awesome. Fortify +2 for $4,000 (if I recall correctly) is also great, when compared to Accuracy +1 or Puissance +1 on a weapon (both $5,000). In those respects, they seem like a real bargain. On the other hand, getting a super-awesome mundane weapon (especially for things like axes, maces, flails) is CHEAP. Super-awesome mundane armor? It's almost prohibitively expensive. It was easier with the GURPS: Dungeon Fantasy pricing, for sure, but a lot heavier: Ornate +1 Steel Corselet body armor, DR 6, 35 lb.: $2,600 vs. DFRPG Ornate +1 Plate body armor, DR 6: $5,250 (but 21 lb.!). I think the DFRPG way is better, actually, even if it's harder to get those mundane items.

      Of course, this all goes back to your posts about increasing the cost of magic items x10, and increasing loot x10...

      Delete
    4. Last bit first: Yes, yes it does.

      The thing about upgrades of weapons vs. armor - it's hard to compare, as they don't do the same things. There is no fully overlapping prefix aside from meteoric.

      With magic, it's not really important to me that you can get +1 to hit much cheaper with balanced than with Accuracy. You can get both. You can get weapons that don't qualify for balanced, and give them Accuracy. So the cost mismatch doesn't concern me.

      The only cost that concerns me, really, is fine armor. It's very expensive; prohibitively so in most cases. It needs to do something significantly more, I think, to make it worth getting. Or like you said, 10x loot and 10x magic item costs and suddenly $75,000 fine plate isn't as quite of a big deal when Lighten 25% costs $20,000 and 50% costs $100,000.

      Another option, really, for that loot thing? 10x loot, no permanent magic item sales in town at all. Mundane armor is only lighter by being fine, and you've got a lot more cash to make it happen.

      Delete
  2. My house rule is that only plate armor has targetable chinks. It might not be realistic, but it makes scale and brigandine a lot more appealing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Do the PCs face a lot of foes able to take the -8 to hit chinks in armor, and attacks that can target them?

      Delete
    2. Yeah, I tend to do a lot more humanoid vs humanoid, and honestly fewer high-skill opponents are easier to run than a horde of mooks.

      Delete