Armor as DR
Ettes Eternal uses “Armor-as-Damage-Reduction (DR)” which is different from many other D&D-like systems.. Every piece of armor, shield, and material has a Damage Reduction (DR) value that reduces your damage from each hit by that much, even down to taking 0 damage! This means that Armor no longer represents an abstract chance to not take damage (like AC or THAC0), but simply a direct reduction of any damage you take. This meshes better with the way combat works, rolling against your own stats rather than against enemies.
Armor Categories & Properties
The following is a table of the amount of DR you gain from Armor at each Class Tier, ignoring bonuses from materials and enchantments, as well as the penalties to Skills the armor applies. Listed penalties are applied Agility, Thievery, Spellcasting, and Athletics
| Light Armor | Medium Armor | Heavy Armor | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Penalties | 0 | -10 | -20 |
| Apprentice | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Journeyman | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Expert | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Master | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Legendary | 6 | 7 | 8 |
Shields
| Category | DR Bonus | Block Roll | Penalty* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Shield | +1 | -10 | 0 |
| Large Shield | +2 | +0 | -5 |
| Tower Shield | +3 | +10 | -10 |
*Applied to Athletics, Agility, and Thievery while carrying OR wielding the shield.{Level÷2}
Armor Materials
Most armor will be created out of basic materials; Cloth, Leather, and Metal. Ettes Eternal provides you some example “special materials” that you can craft any type of armor out of that lets you customize your armor in unique ways, as well as increasing the DR value of the Armor!
All armor materials can be used for any armor type (Light/Medium/Heavy); you can have Metal Light Armor just as easily as Cloth Heavy Armor (kind of weird, but it’s high fantasy…)
Bring Your Own Materials
You are both welcome and encouraged to tinker with this materials system! We would not suggest going above +2 on DR, but bring your own ideas for materials for armor, and give them a special property. Scaling-wise, try to match power levels to the DR bonus, and anything that does damage should do {Level÷2} or {Level} damage for scaling and balance purposes.
Metal Materials
| Material | DR | Special Property |
|---|---|---|
| Wrought Iron | +0 | Heavy Impact - your melee attacks knock enemies back 1 hex on critical hits |
| Steel | +0 | Spark Strike - melee attackers take {Level÷2} fire damage when they hit you |
| Mithril | +1 | Phase Touch - once per day, become incorporeal for 1 round |
| Adamantine | +2 | Shockwave - when you get crit, attacker must choose: be knocked prone, drop weapon, or suffer {Level} damage |
Leather Materials
| Material | DR | Special Property |
|---|---|---|
| Blood Leather | +0 | Blood Absorb - heals {Level÷2} HP whenever you kill an enemy in melee |
| Studded Leather | +0 | Ricochet - ranged attacks that miss you have 50% chance to hit random nearby enemy |
| Hide Armor | +1 | Feral Scent - animals must make Willpower checks to attack you |
| Dragonhide | +2 | Breath Echo - once per day, exhale damaging breath attack in 3-hex cone |
Other Materials
| Material | DR | Special Property |
|---|---|---|
| Bone Armor | +0 | Bone Spikes - grow temporary bone weapons from your armor |
| Scale Mail | +0 | Mirror Scales - redirect one targeted spell per day back at the caster |
| Chitin | +1 | Carapace Burst - once per day, violently shed outer layer, all adjacent enemies take {Level÷2} damage |
| Ironbark Wood | +2 | Living Fortress - once per day, sprout protective barriers that grant all allies within 3 hexes +2 DR for one round |