Designing armor with only PRD or MDR

[Eschaton]

Magic.

 

[Tai_MT]

Chainmail in real life actually resists pretty much all slashing and piercing attacks.  It is useful to the point that it can even stop bullets.  It's been tested and everything!  The problem with chainmail armor is that it's not good at stopping bashing attacks.  Hammers, maces, etcetera all transfer their damage potential through the armor and can cause internal bleeding and the like.  You'll feel the impact of arrows or even bullets, but those things won't pierce the tightly woven chains.

If you want to resist fire/heat, you can make your armors out of metals that resist such things.  Which ones they all are is beyond my rudimentary education, but I'm sure a quick google search would satisfy your curiosity.  I know for a fact that Tin Foil in real life resists flames and does indeed protect items within it from scorching, burning, or even melting (LEGO guys clad in my tinfoil armor were nigh on invulnerable to the flames of fireworks).

Metal is not really resistant to cold in anyway.  The only way I could see you doing that one is either magically or to say you've got some heavy duty insulation underneath the armor.

As for metals resistant to electricity...  Well, you can also look that list up online.  There are metals which will conduct it, metals which act as resisters to it (which is how your toaster works or how most heaters in the home work), and metals which don't conduct it at all.  There's some lightning resistance for you.

As for armor made from "stone", you could actually do that and do it effectively.  Ever hear of Ceramic Armor?  Basically cooked clay to act like stone.  It's very resistant to a lot of damage types.  It's downside has always been that it's heavy and limits mobility.  I'm not sure if they ever produced it during the Medieval Times, but it does exist by today's standards as kind of a "stand in" for Kevlar in some places.

Scale Mail...  Well, traditionally (and in real life) it is made from metal plates that look like scales.  In a Medieval Setting you could make these things from metals (which I am doing) or from the hides of scaly creatures.  It really depends on what your setting is meant to be.  If it's made from creatures, you could put the innate properties of the creature to work on your characters instead of having to worry about which metals would do which.

 

[Eschaton]

There is a reason why they were called the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.

Copper and Iron are metals that are very malleable, but strong.  They can be easily shaped into things like axe heads, blades, and cuirasses, and they will maintain that shape once tempered.  They are also common and easy to mine.  To this day, the vast majority of structures requiring strength are made of iron.  It wasn't and isn't practical to make things like that out of tin, or cobalt, or chromium, or whatever. They don't give you the bang for your buck that iron and bronze did.

As for ceramic armor, I hear you.  But medieval ceramics have nothing on modern ceramics, a product of our modern understanding of chemistry and thermodynamics.  Ceramic armor in antiquity amounts to wearing broken pottery.  And besides, we use ceramic armor not for its hardness, but for its ablative properties.  Ceramic armor is designed to stop bullets, and they don't do it by being hard, they do it by shattering and spreading the energy of the bullet into itself and not the Marine getting shot.  That's the only reason we use them.  If you took a Marine's SAPI plates and hit them with a medieval mace or axe, the plates would shatter.

 

[Tai_MT]

True that in Medieval times they didn't do that, it really depends on your setting for your game.  I often like to use the knowledge of now and apply it to settings of swords and sorcery.  Silver Maces would be quite powerful because of the density of the material.  Some kinds of wood would make better/worse kinds of arrows because of their density or even properties.  Some metals would become more sought out if ethereal fire, ice, and lightning existed and were a very real threat to a soldier.  A kingdom might very well put a coating of Tin over the Iron armor in order to keep the effects of ethereal fire from hurting the wearer.

We know how we created armors and weapons in the way we did things, but how would another culture do it if such things as Dragons and Magic actually did exist?  I think they would search for solutions to problems in the same way we have.  Peoples would experiment and try out all sorts of materials for that edge in combat.

 

[Eschaton]

In my world building, I determined that the advancement of magic stifled the development of firearms, but they still exist.

I can imagine magic advancing the fields of metallurgy and ceramics, but stifling technology.

But ceramic armor is impractical against anything but bullets. Even then, it can only be used once.

Arcane alchemy could make chitin and resin-work viable a-la the Elder Scrolls.

The thing about magic? It can do anything the writer needs it to. It can also be abused to the detriment of the story and setting and their believability.

 

[Tai_MT]

In my world building, I determined that the advancement of magic stifled the development of firearms, but they still exist.

I can imagine magic advancing the fields of metallurgy and ceramics, but stifling technology.

But ceramic armor is impractical against anything but bullets. Even then, it can only be used once.

Arcane alchemy could make chitin and resin-work viable a-la the Elder Scrolls.

The thing about magic? It can do anything the writer needs it to. It can also be abused to the detriment of the story and setting and their believability.

Magic needs to be believable in the setting it is used in.  It can't just be "it can do anything and is the explanation for everything".  It needs to have rules and limitations.  It needs to have shaped the world it is in.  Without these things, it becomes a boring setting and the magic itself isn't that interesting.

Too many RPGs have Magic as merely a "feature" and not a "force of the world and narrative".

 

[CWells]

Magic needs to be believable in the setting it is used in.  It can't just be "it can do anything and is the explanation for everything".  It needs to have rules and limitations.  It needs to have shaped the world it is in.  Without these things, it becomes a boring setting and the magic itself isn't that interesting.

Too many RPGs have Magic as merely a "feature" and not a "force of the world and narrative".

Yeah, it's especially disappointing when it is so blatant that a certain magic is capable of anything. That takes danger away from characters. It washes away tension in high action scenes because, "oh this person can just magically make everything okay."

 

[Eschaton]

I agree.

Magic needs to be internally consistent with a narrative or a world. But, and especially in RPGs, magic and is applications, seem to exist outside the narrative. I think this is because of the "RPG = combat" mindset.

Also, equipment (to stay on topic).

 

[CWells]

I agree.

Magic needs to be internally consistent with a narrative or a world. But, and especially in RPGs, magic and is applications, seem to exist outside the narrative. I think this is because of the "RPG = combat" mindset.

Also, equipment (to stay on topic).

Yeah it does feel like this as well, especially in an RPG very heavily story based. After battles, there is no mention of how the players fought, just that it happened and it's over and things are now just moving on. This too is pretty common.

 

[Eschaton]

The Elder Scrolls (and the project I'm planning) does checks on your skills when you speak to NPCs.  This colors their view of you.  If you have high skill in Conjuration, you're hailed as a summoner.  If you have high skill in Swords, then you're hailed as an esteemed swordsman.

I love it when games go the extra mile like that.

 

[Tai_MT]

The Elder Scrolls (and the project I'm planning) does checks on your skills when you speak to NPCs.  This colors their view of you.  If you have high skill in Conjuration, you're hailed as a summoner.  If you have high skill in Swords, then you're hailed as an esteemed swordsman.

I love it when games go the extra mile like that.

My Question in TES on those such things was always "how does everyone KNOW my skills are that good?  I've never been caught pickpocketing, breaking into homes, or stealing things, so how do the guards know I'm good at it?  If they caught me, sure, they'd know...  Likewise, I spent 20 hours training up my Conjuration skill on a dead mudcrab away from everyone in existence and nobody has seen me use anything beyond the first skill of "Soul Trap", so how do they KNOW I'm at max level?  How do they know my skill with wearing armor is really high?

It boggles the mind.

 

[Eschaton]

Yeah.  It is only immersive if you don't metagame, but actually roleplay #FlashbackHumor #Trololol

By roleplay, I mean don't grind, and pretend your followers are spreading tales of your exploits.

 

[CWells]

That Skyrim Courier is a magician man! LOL!

 

[Eliwan]

Um this may be totally unrelated, but metallic armor actually protects you from electric shocks, as the metal conducts the electricity better than your body-- thus actually diverting the electricity away from you.

 

[Eschaton]

If:

*you are touching the ground

*metal is touching you

*metal is not touching the ground

*metal is conducting electricity

Then:

*death by electrocution

If your body can be used as a grounding pathway, then electricity will use it as a grounding pathway.  If the armor is touching the ground, this may save your life.  Might.