armor
Ichthyic
Member Posts: 89
Just gonna put this out there... for basically any DnD 2nd edition game ever made, you're better off using the NON magical version of most armors, and supplementing the AC with a ring/cloak/necklace of protection instead.
unless it's a unique armor with special abilities, your basic armor is going to outperform enchanted armor because it lets you add magical items that boost both armor class and saves and/or other things.
example from this game:
regular, nonmagical full plate mail with a ring of protection +2 is superior to full plate mail +2.
why?
magical armor by default does not add to your save values in 2nd edition, only AC.
so with regular full plate mail and an item of protection, you end up at the same AC, but now with 2 better saving throws across the board. Or, I could add a ring of greater resistance for the same AC, but now with 25% crushing resistance and +3 spell saves, etc.
the saving throws will become more and more important as the game progresses (doesn't even matter WHICH game were talking about; it's the same with IWD, or BG for example).
the only negative is that often (but not always) enchanted armor weighs less (like, is your fighter going to notice?).
another bonus is that you don't have to spend tens of thousands to get yourself a +2 set of magical armor.
spend a tenth of the cost on a regular suit instead.
unless it's a unique armor with special abilities, your basic armor is going to outperform enchanted armor because it lets you add magical items that boost both armor class and saves and/or other things.
example from this game:
regular, nonmagical full plate mail with a ring of protection +2 is superior to full plate mail +2.
why?
magical armor by default does not add to your save values in 2nd edition, only AC.
so with regular full plate mail and an item of protection, you end up at the same AC, but now with 2 better saving throws across the board. Or, I could add a ring of greater resistance for the same AC, but now with 25% crushing resistance and +3 spell saves, etc.
the saving throws will become more and more important as the game progresses (doesn't even matter WHICH game were talking about; it's the same with IWD, or BG for example).
the only negative is that often (but not always) enchanted armor weighs less (like, is your fighter going to notice?).
another bonus is that you don't have to spend tens of thousands to get yourself a +2 set of magical armor.
spend a tenth of the cost on a regular suit instead.
3
Comments
I never really understood why those were exclusive to begin with.
But I think the biggest thing is just that in most PNP games I've played it's not that you CAN'T wear a magic ring with your magic armor, it's that only the best bonus applies. That can make a pretty big difference. I'm not sure if the IE implementation is a programming limitation or a different interpretation, but it's definitely not how I've usually played.
As it stands now, I definitely use non-magic armor later into the game than I would expect to. But that's fine. The DM made a ruling (Bioware) and now we players get to figure out its impact...
OTOH, you can customize your character to be wearing dark armor at any time, with nearly any armor, which is a cool feature of this game.
No offense intended for IWD, though. Its magical items , being randomized and limited as they are, are already interesting.
what I'm saying is that given the rules about how AC bonus items will not stack, it makes more sense to get your bonus AC from sources other than armor, which typically doesn't provide extra bonuses, while rings, necklaces and cloaks typically do.
it's got nothing to do with rarity, as things like rings or cloaks of protection are supposed to be fairly common, and indeed they are in this game; enough available for a party of six to each have an item that gives armor class bonus and resists or save bonuses.
that said, the only time to ignore this is when you have unique armor that DOES add something other that just a bonus to AC, and those are already very very rare in Icewind Dale; there only being a handful worth considering.
Chain mail + 2 weighs 10 pounds while the regular stuff weighs 40.
Plate + 1 20 pounds vs 80 for the regular stuff.
Essential for weaker characters and hauling loot before bags of holding.
"What? You want that ring? Screw you, I found it, I keep it."
25% DR from the class
50% DR from fullplate
50% DR from defensive stance
15% DR from the great shield...
A dwarven defender could quite easily have a 90% DR before dropping defensive stance. Does it really matter if his dexterity goes down the tank under that setup? You could quite easily walk him in front of any enemy in the game, put him on auto attack, and come back after enjoying a sandwitch.
But more and more I just don't care. Everyone has different interpretations. As long as they're all applied equally it's all good.
I've always liked playing by similar rules myself. IIRC, I modded BG2 to use those exact rules you put (or close enough; i tended to change the specific resistances based on the type of armor to vary between how much piercing/slashing/crushing damage they resisted)!
they make a lot of sense to me. someone wearing leather should be more nimble; slightly quicker, but take more damage on a hit, than someone wearing full plate armor.
I even recall trying to mod fatigue values such that wearing full plate made you get tired quicker, but that was more hassle than it was worth.
this time, I wanted to see how the enhanced edition changed up anything, so played it straight up.
...but yeah, I still prefer the idea of armor resisting damage (and I do note that they introduce a lot of damage resistance items in IWD).
yeah, not only that, but I also recall modding it so that critical hits would penetrate damage resistance.
hence, critical hits.