Giant spider silk socks, or, light cloth as an "armor" material

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

Oh yeah, Q&D has some bizarre balance issues. DFRPG doesn't have enchanting rules per se but it reprices many items from GURPS Dungeon Fantasy as if the enchanting rules are in play but Q&D enchantment is limited to staffs, wands, and one-use items like ammunition. It also makes it so that the prices for adding an enchantment to different pieces of a suit of armor sum to 100% (in Magic enchanting armor one piece at a time is more expensive than enchanting the entire suit, which I can see the rationale but also like what if the pieces get separated?).

I think Magic's percentages assume that 'groin' and 'neck' are part of 'torso' (which is consistent with Characters), and 'hands' and 'feet' are part of their respective limbs. The numbers add up then.

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by Rupert

I think Magic's percentages assume that 'groin' and 'neck' are part of 'torso' (which is consistent with Characters), and 'hands' and 'feet' are part of their respective limbs. The numbers add up then.

You might be right about the underlying assumptions being made, but 50% for the torso + 15% for the arms + 30% for the legs + 10% for the head is still 105%.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

You might be right about the underlying assumptions being made, but 50% for the torso + 15% for the arms + 30% for the legs + 10% for the head is still 105%.

Meanwhile, the finer-grained system in Low Tech has full armor at 305% of Torso Armor (the default everything is based off there). If you want to use multiples of 5%, the human body's proportions really don't cooperate in getting to a nice neat number. If you want a proper value, use the table from the armor design Pyramid articles, where everything is given in square feet of surface area; full coverage is 21.35 sf, so divide the actual square footage covered by your armor by that to get the percentage. It's not going to be a nice neat number (Torso armor is 7 sf, or around 32.8%, for example), but applying it to cost and rounding will work.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

You might be right about the underlying assumptions being made, but 50% for the torso + 15% for the arms + 30% for the legs + 10% for the head is still 105%.

Well, I'm doing well. I think I've managed to screw up basic maths in a reply, or completely mis-read someone's post and thus say something really dumb in a reply them them three or four times today.

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Meanwhile, the finer-grained system in Low Tech has full armor at 305% of Torso Armor (the default everything is based off there). If you want to use multiples of 5%, the human body's proportions really don't cooperate in getting to a nice neat number. If you want a proper value, use the table from the armor design Pyramid articles, where everything is given in square feet of surface area; full coverage is 21.35 sf, so divide the actual square footage covered by your armor by that to get the percentage. It's not going to be a nice neat number (Torso armor is 7 sf, or around 32.8%, for example), but applying it to cost and rounding will work.

These are sort of different issues. The "305%" in Low-Tech is 305% of torso armor cost. The 105% (or more?) in Magic is 105% of a full suit. Which is actually fine? There's nothing logically inconsistent about supposing that enchanting a full suit is more efficient than enchanting a single piece of armor. Actually, that was part of the motivation for this thread—taking Magic at face-value, once you're committed to the "full suit" approach to enchantment you have an incentive to make sure that there's something covering every bit of your body except your eyes, so you can claim the +1 to DR for that everywhere.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

These are sort of different issues. The "305%" in Low-Tech is 305% of torso armor cost. The 105% (or more?) in Magic is 105% of a full suit. Which is actually fine? There's nothing logically inconsistent about supposing that enchanting a full suit is more efficient than enchanting a single piece of armor. Actually, that was part of the motivation for this thread—taking Magic at face-value, once you're committed to the "full suit" approach to enchantment you have an incentive to make sure that there's something covering every bit of your body except your eyes, so you can claim the +1 to DR for that everywhere.

Could you enchant something like lace or gauze, to get the DR over the eyes as well?

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by RyanW

Could you enchant something like lace or gauze, to get the DR over the eyes as well?

DR 0 cloth can be Enchanted. It will have only the DR added by Enchantment.

On the other hand making something (lie asteel plate) Permanently transparent as glass only costs 400 energy. For 500 energy it can be actually Invisible.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

On the other hand making something (lie asteel plate) Permanently transparent as glass only costs 400 energy. For 500 energy it can be actually Invisible.

Making it transparent is generally better, since (a) you're less likely to lose it, and (b) you won't be blinded if someone casts see invisible on you.

[dcarson]

Originally Posted by RyanW

Could you enchant something like lace or gauze, to get the DR over the eyes as well?

This also means that noble women dresses can be both revealing and armor.

[Fred Brackin]

Back to the what's perhaps the intent of the first post. Protecting your feet is certainly important bt your first line of pedal defense are a set of DR2
Boots (which will also add +1 damage to your Kick attacks).

Even just average quality Boots are $80. Even at 1.5x the cost of the MCPDR the base boots are still more expensive than the Enchantment. If you were really worried about hiking across the untmed wilderness you paid 4x for Fine Boots (I believe this is discussed in HT or LT or probably both and in UT the boots give you an outright bonus to Hiking Skill).

So if you have invested $320 in boots that won't give you blisters you want to protect them as well as your feet.

There might be an exception in Japanese-like cultures where you frequently take off your shoe equivalents but Classical Japan doesn't so much have boots.They have those awful wooden clog-sandals instead.

While investigating cost efficient Enchantments for footwear look at Snow Shoes. If you ever need that one you'll probably need it badly.