Defensive Imbuements

[Gef]

I've been playing around with the armor rules from Low Tech and Instant Armor, and a pattern has emerged (http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=86154):

At TL3, with STRUGGLING wealth, you can get DR 2/1 with No encumbrance, or
AVERAGE => DR 3/2, Light enc
COMFY => DR 4/3, Medium enc...upgrade to 5/4 with Heavy enc and DX -1
WEALTHY => DR 5/4, Heavy enc...upgrade to 7/5 and DX -1

Alternately, with an extra wealth level, you can reduce the weight of your armor instead of increasing its protection, and the Very Wealthy and Filthy Rich have additional options, but basically DR7/5 is the top 1% of armor at TL3, before magic if it exists in the campaign. The few people who can afford better armor can afford to be somewhere else besides the front of the line of battle. In a realistic game, DR 7 is excellent protection, with more than a 50% chance to soak all damage from a broadsword swung with ST 13.

It seems to me that assorted powers (spells, cinematic skills, imbuements) tend to improve attacks more than they improve defense; powered characters can dish it out, but they can't take it. A character who is trained by a master, for instance, gets more attacks, with techniques that inflict more damage, in conjunction with skills that raise strength and penetrate DR. While a GM may rule that he is eligible to buy DR, there is no intrinsic component of the cinematic suite that enables him to stand up to a cinematic onslaught. A weapon master with ST 13 and a sword inflict +4 damage, more than the best armor a character of average wealth can afford, and twice what a leather layer adds to mail. In other words, the extra weight is more of a hindrance than the protection is a benefit against such a deadly technology: Weapon wasters are like guns in terms of their implication for armor.

Might there be a power that can counter the deadly attack of the Weapon Master, the wizard with the enchanted Penetrating Blade, or corrosive vampiric attacks of the imbued champion? Imbuements for those holy warrirors who defend the flock instead of those who carry the fight to the infidel? And would it be too much to ask that this defensive power oppose other powered attacks WITHOUT keeping the goblin hordes at bay as easily as a net blocks mosqitoes?

Harden should definitely go on the Defensive Imbuement list, but what else? Except for an armor divisor, which is especially nasty, most powers augment base damage, and so the idea of imbuements add enhancements to armor DR doesn't work so well as enhancing weapon damage. However, I could imagine an imbuement that withstands certain damage types well, perhaps generalized to decrementing damage modifiers: x2 => x1.5 => x1 => x.5. Treating all damage as small piercing would be really helpful without making base DR harder to penetrate for an unpowered foe.

Forcefield would be useful as it would remove "chinks" in armor especially the vulnerable eyeslits and protect against wide-area attacks like explosions and splashes which otherwise find the path of least resistance.

Rather than augmenting DR, howsabout an imbuement that reduces damage per die, available in half-points? Thus, four levels of effect would wipe out the damage bonus of a weapon master, and 6 would wipe out the damage bonus of a weapon master with an Extra Effort mighty blow, again without raising the base DR of armor.

I could imagine an Imbuement that would counter blood and contact agents and maledictions, not necessarily preventing them but requiring them to overcome DR as if they were normal (unmodified) attacks or afflictions.

Normal Imbuements are instantaneous, but the attacker has the advantage of knowing when and where he will attack. How long should a defensive imbuement last?

Does anyone have playtested houserules for an idea like this?

Thanks,

GEF

[Kuroshima]

Are you aware that there are defensive imbuements in Pyramid #3/4: Magic on the Battlefield, on the Perfect Defense article right?

If not, you should get that issue (the article is worth the price of the issue). You will get one new imbuement type, the defensive imbuement, and two new imbuement specialities, shield and armor

[Gef]

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

Are you aware...

I was not. Thanks for the recommendation.

GEF

[Kuroshima]

Originally Posted by Gef

I was not. Thanks for the recommendation.

GEF

Also, if you want an imbuement focused DF template, and 3 new Imbuement skills (though one is in the Odds and Ends section) check Pyramid #3/13: Thaumatology and The Mystic Knight

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Gef

Normal Imbuements are instantaneous, but the attacker has the advantage of knowing when and where he will attack. How long should a defensive imbuement last?

Does anyone have playtested houserules for an idea like this?

Thanks,

GEF

As has been mentioned, check out Pyramid #3/4 for rules about Armor and Shield Imbuements. According to that article, defensive imbuements last a single second. They can be activated either by a free action on your turn, or an Active Defense when attacked.

Honestly, I think (at least some) defensive imbuements should last longer than one second. For example, Expand Armor, Lighten Armor, and Subtle Defense seem pretty poor if you have to activate them every second. On the other hand, certain effects would be quite broken if they persisted for many seconds - ones like Vengeful Defense or Thunderous Defense (which basically give a form of counter-attack when struck) or Energizing Defense (the penultimate defensive imbuement, granting Absorption!)

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

Energizing Defense (the penultimate defensive imbuement, granting Absorption!)

obPendant: if that's the penultimate imbuement, what's the ultimate? :)

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Bruno

obPendant: if that's the penultimate imbuement, what's the ultimate? :)

Fnord of course!