Five Kingdoms OOC

Armour rules

Because the world of the Five Kingdoms is low magic I have been experimenting with ways to increase PC’s overall AC. As levels increase so does attack bonuses but not player’s AC so I am hoping that the following rectifies that while not making armour irrelevant.

Defense Bonus

This rule is taken from Unearthed Arcana. Basically everybody has a defense bonus which is added to their AC and which goes up as they gain levels. This bonus does not stack with armour so it is either one or the other. However, it does stack with all other AC bonuses including shields and natural armour. It does not improve your AC against touch attacks.

The bonus is decided by your primary class and your overall level. So if you are 5th level and a multi-class rogue 3/ fighter 2 you would use the 5th level rogue bonus. If your multi-class levels are equal you use the higher of the two bonuses.

The bonuses go up +1 at 3rd level and every three levels after that, i.e. 3rd, 6th, 9th, etc.

The defense bonuses by class are as follows:

• Monk, Sorcerer, Wizard: +2; +3 at 3rd level; +4 at 6th level
• Bard, Ranger, Rogue, Scout: +3; +4 at 3rd level; +5 at 6th level
• Barbarian, Druid: +4; +5 at 3rd level; +6 at 6th level
• Cleric, Fighter, Paladin: +6; +7 at 3rd level; +8 at 6th level

Armour Damage Reduction

This rule is modified from Unearthed Arcana. Armour now gives damage reduction, but only armour. Anything else that increases a player’s AC bonus does not provide damage reduction, such as shields. The bonus from magic armour also applies to the damage reduction of the armour. There is no DR from natural armour. The DR from special abilities, such as from a 7th level Barbarian, stacks with the DR from armour.

To calculate the DR of a set of armour divide its AC bonus in half and round down. Hence a chain shirt would be DR 2/- .