Armor
From D20advanced
With so many weapons and powerful attacks around, characters may need armor to protect them. Some characters are innately tough enough to stand up to a lot of punishment, while others rely on their high Defense. Others choose to wear armor, ranging from ancient metal armors to modern composites or ultra-modern battlesuits.
All armor is based on the Enhanced (Toughness) FX, providing a bonus to Toughness saves. Like other equipment, armor bonuses do not stack with other bonuses or each other, only the highest bonus applies. It does, however, stack with bonuses from your ability scores and feats (like the Tough feat).
Archaic Armor
Depending on your setting, ancient or archaic armor might be common for characters. If you want realistic archaic armor, halve the armor’s Toughness bonus against modern weapons (especially firearms) and ignore it altogether for futuristic weapons like lasers or blaster bolts.
- Leather: Heavy leather plates covering the torso and other vital areas.
- Chain-mail: A shirt of heavy metal chain, often with a hauberk (hood) to cover the wearer’s head.
- Plate-mail: This is chain-mail augmented with a metal breastplate, greaves (leg-guards) and arm-guards.
- Full plate: A full (and heavy!) suit of articulated metal plates, like that worn by medieval knights.
Modern Armor
Modern body armor is common among superheroes and villains, but even more so among people like police officers, soldiers, criminal agents, and so forth.
- Leather jacket: A heavy leather jacket (like that worn by motorcyclists) provides a measure of protection.
- Undercover shirt: A thin shirt of ballistic armor that can be worn under street clothes.
- Undercover vest: A somewhat heavier vest worn by undercover police officers and others in need of discrete protection.
- Tactical vest: A heavy bulletproof vest worn by police officers and soldiers.
- Armored jumpsuit: A full-body suit of ballistic cloth and padded armor.
Shields
Shields provide a dodge bonus to Defense, much like the bonus provided by cover, since shields are basically mobile forms of cover. Additionally, shields provide some measure of the Deflect FX, allowing the wielder to block ranged attacks. The dodge bonus is based on the size of the shield, while the Deflect FX is based on the shield’s size and material composition (what sort of attacks it can resist, and therefore deflect).
| TABLE 6.6: ARMOR AND SHIELDS | |||
| Armor | Toughness Bonus | Other Traits | Equipment Cost |
| Archaic Armor | |||
| Leather | +1 | — | 1 |
| Chain-mail | +3 | — | 3 |
| Plate-mail | +5 | — | 5 |
| Full plate | +6 | — | 6 |
| Modern Armor | |||
| Leather jacket | +1 | — | 1 |
| Undercover shirt | +2 | Subtle | 3 |
| Undercover vest | +3 | Subtle | 4 |
| Tactical vest | +4 | — | 4 |
| Armored jumpsuit | +3 | — | 3 |
| Shield | Dodge Bonus | Deflect | Equipment Cost |
| Small | +1 | +1 on block rolls | 2 |
| Medium | +2 | +2 on block rolls | 4 |
| Large | +3 | +4 on block rolls | 7 |
| Wooden or metal | — | slow projectiles | — |
| Composite | — | fast projectiles | +1/2/4 |
