[LT/LTC2] Please Check My Armor Loadout
 

Greetings!

I haven't used Low-Tech or its two companions that I own all that much and I am horrible at anything related to math including basic addition and subtraction (i.e., I'm an idiot). So, my low mental capacity makes it a challenge for me.

Below is what I've cobbled together for a skeleton warrior. It's not actually Dungeon Fantasy, but I'm considering using DF's style as a guideline for my monster layouts.

The skeleton is meant to be a low-level threat for a solo ~100/-50 point, non-cinematic TL3 warrior in a small dungeon -- able to provide a fun, quick combat without a high level of risk. I'm considering adding a short-sleeved mail shirt with padding that falls over the upper legs and heavy leather gloves and boots. Either that, or ditch the coif.

I hope someone will take the time and effort to check the math and figures for my little skeleton warrior's helmet, armor and shield. It would be very much appreciated!

I couldn't believe how long it took me to create a cotton-picking coif! XD

Thanks in advance!

As a side note, com'on, this forum could really use the basic, fundamental TT (or PRE) tag in its BB code to maintain columns and spaces and such. The CODE tag just isn't adequate for multiple reasons. I think I'll start another thread about the matter.

Skeleton Warrior

A walking corpse rotted to animated bones. Carries a rusted, chipped and pitted moon-shaped sword in its right hand, a dented and cracked metal shield in its left. It wears only a broken and charred helmet with a chain coif beneath it.

ST: 10 HP: 10 Speed: 7.5
DX: 14 Will: Move: 7
IQ: 8 Per: 10
HT: 12 FP: N/A SM: 0
Dodge: 11 Parry: 11 DR: 2+Armor
Block: 11 BL: 20
Damage: 1d/1d-2

Weapons (14): Large falchion (1d+2 cut or 1d-3 imp) and shield (1d+1 cr).
Punch (14): 1d-1 cr.

Advantages: Dark Vision; Doesn't Breathe; Doesn't Eat or Drink; Doesn't Sleep; DR 2; High Pain Threshold; Immunity to Metabolic Hazards; Immunity (All mind control); Indomitable; Injury Tolerance (No Blood, No Brain, No Eyes, No Vitals, Unliving); Single-Minded; Temperature Tolerance 10; Unaging; Unfazeable; Vacuum Support.

Disadvantages: Appearance (Monstrous; Universal); Automaton; Cannot Learn; Dependency (Mana; common, constantly); Fragile (Brittle); Fragile (Unnatural); Mute; No Sense of Smell/Taste; Reprogrammable; Skinny; Unhealing (Total); Vulnerability (Crushing Attacks; x2).

Quirks: Cannot Float; Sexless.

Features: Affected by Control Zombie, Pentagram, and Turn Zombie; No mental skills; Skull has only 2 total DR.

Skills: Brawling-14; Broadsword-14; Shield-14.

Equipment: Cheap large falchion ($375; 4.5 lbs.); shield (metallic light small shield with spike; DB 1; $200; 5.25 lbs.; DR 2/HP 12); helmet (cheap-quality horned bascinet with nasal guard and padding; DR 4 to areas 3-4, plus area 5 from the back; 2/6 chance of protecting area 5 from the front; $216, 5.65 lbs.); and coif (cheap-quality heavy mail; DR 4, -2 vs. crushing, to areas 3-4 and 17-18 plus area 5 from the back and 1/6 chance of protecting area 8,12; DR 2, 0 vs. crushing, to area 9; $540; 8.1 lbs.).

Class: Undead.

Notes: Shield DB 1 factored into all defense scores listed above.

Re: [LT/LTC2] Please Check My Armor Loadout
 

Well, nobody else has taken the bait, so I don't see why I can't do it now that I'm home and have my books. Let's break it down:

** Cheap Large Falchion

** Looks like you made an error that I myself am constantly in danger of making: Cheap-quality weapons are -0.6 CF, not 0.6 CF. This weapon should be $250 instead of $375. Not that I imagine the skeleton much cares. ;)

** Metallic Light Small Shield, Spiked Boss

** Looks like you left the "+" off the metallic CF for this one, but I'm not sure where the weight came from. Here's what I get: Light Small Shield ($30, Weight 3, DR/HP 2/12); Metallic, +4 CF ($150, Weight 2.25, DR 2/12); Spiked Boss (+$50/+3 lbs). Final stats are $200, 5.25 lbs, DR 2/12.

** Cheap Horn Bascinet, Padded, with Nasal

** Horn is DR 3, -1 DR for Cheap, +1 DR for padding, so the final DR should be 3. Of course, this is assuming you mean that it is, in fact, a Horn helmet. I wasn't sure if "horned" was just a descriptor or the actual material, and since there wasn't any other listed material, that's what I went with. Coverage all looks good.
** I'm completely lost on your cost and weight, though. Horn is pretty cheap (made cheaper by, well, Cheap quality), but your helmet costs more than horn torso armor. It also seems awfully light to me. I got $38.75, 8.0625 pounds. That's $25.00 for the helmet ($250 x 0.4 [Cheap] x 0.25 [Bascinet] = $25.00), $1.25 for the Nasal ($25 x 0.05), and $12.50 for the padding (not affected by Cheap). The weight is 6.25 lbs for the helmet (25 x 0.25 [Bascinet] = 6.25), 0.3125 lbs for the nasal (6.25 x 0.05), and 1.5 lbs for the padding. If you want to say "Well if you're getting DR 3 on the nose, the padding should extend to the nose and be affected by the nasal weight), then you'd just take (6.25+1.5) x 0.05 to get a 0.3875 lb nasal and a final helmet weight of 8.1375 pounds.

** Cheap Heavy Mail Coif

** Protected locations for the coif itself look good. I see that you're making the call that LT's claim that the coif extension protects "the upper chest and shoulders" to actually include the Shoulders, even though the only hit location actually noted is #9. I have no problem with this interpretation.
** Again, I'm not sure where the cost is coming from. I ended up with $216.00 ($1200 x 0.4 [Cheap] x 0.45 [Extended Coif]). The weight looks good to me, though.

Rather Late Edit: Just to make a comment that has nothing to do with the equipment, I think this skeleton is going to be more than a low-level threat for a solo adventurer. Retreating Dodge 14? Yikes.

Re: [LT/LTC2] Please Check My Armor Loadout
 

I'm pretty sure that he means an iron helmet with decorative horns.

Re: [LT/LTC2] Please Check My Armor Loadout
 

That would definitely make a lot more sense, but it's not clear what the base for the helmet would be even then. Assuming the base is DR 4 Plate, though, I still get that that would come to around $170 and 4.5-4.7 pounds (depending on treatment of the padding with respect to the nasal). If the decorative horns are treated as a plume/crest (LT.113), then we'd end up around $190, 5.5-5.7 pounds (So that, at least, covers his weight result, if not his cost result).

If he did the same CF mix-up with this helmet as he did with the large falchion, though, the cost ends up being a hair shy of $250 ($249.375), though. So perhaps that's what happened after all and explains both the cost and weight.

Edit: For specificity, here are my results for a Cheap "Less Light" Plate Bascinet (Base DR 4, Cheap DR 3), Padded (+1 DR), with Horns:

Cost (Padding is Affected by Nasal): $190.625
Cost (Padding is Unaffected by Nasal): $190.00

Weight (Padding is Affected by Nasal): 5.725 lbs
Weight (Padding is Unaffected by Nasal): 5.65 lbs.

From this, is looks like Stripe is going with the Unaffected interpretation, so $190, 5.65.

Re: [LT/LTC2] Please Check My Armor Loadout
 

For which I'd add that rules can be found in Fantasy Tech 1. Both realistic and fantasy-tech rules, in fact.

Re: [LT/LTC2] Please Check My Armor Loadout
 

It would be nearly impossible to make a bascinet out of a single horn anyway.

Re: [LT/LTC2] Please Check My Armor Loadout
 

Spangenhelms are the default, so that doesn't seem like a factor.

Re: [LT/LTC2] Please Check My Armor Loadout
 

I can't think of a real example of a horn helmet except the Mycenaean boars tusk helm.

Re: [LT/LTC2] Please Check My Armor Loadout
 

Man, let me thank you right now. It's hard to get a hand with something as tedious as re-working math.

No, but a player who loots it and tries to sell it will. Also, I'm sure he won't be so happy you re-figured it's cost. ;)

Thanks, man! I really appreciate it. Don't even try to figure out where any of my numbers come from; they're just always wrong. Always. I take so much time to do them, but it never helps

No -- "cheap horned bascinet."

I think I accidentally took the "final" cost and weight from the example helmet under Pot-Helm and then changed my mind and went with bascinet but forgot to change the numbers.

Either that, or I failed somewhere along the lines when adding the cheap quality (-1 DR. -0.6 CF), nasal, and horns. The rules for horns on page 113 say they add $20 and 1 lb.


I didn't know I was making a call there. XD

The book seems to switch between using the name of a location and the numerical designation arbitrarily throughout the armor section, so I took it as just another example of that. It literally says the coif protects the shoulders, so I would think it would.

I would rather the book give the name of the location with the numerical designation in parenthesis each and every time.

Thanks, man. You're a big help.

You're probably right, but it will be the only threat in the room. The high defense will mean the player can't simply attack, attack, attack. He's going to have to use deceptive attacks and feints or other tactics. But, the skeleton hasn't been through my pre-play test so he may very well be too powerful.

The canonical skeleton from Magic has a retreating dodge of only one point lower, but I upped my skeleton warrior's HT from 10 to 12which, in turn, raised his speed/move/dodge. The skeleton template in Magic doesn't have a modifier to HT.

Re: [LT/LTC2] Please Check My Armor Loadout
 

Definitely agree. I'm sure there are minor space considerations, but it would be a nice little convenience to have (especially when people start asking about the back of the face, which happened recently).

And I'm quite happy to help—I love putting together armor loadouts. I just hope I didn't go off the deep end with anything on you there.

Hopefully your player's defenses will be up to the task of handling the skeleton's attacks, or that his DR will be able to pick up the slack. Fortunately that falchion doesn't do too much damage, so if he's anything like a DF-swordsman should be (i.e. a whirling dervish of steel death), he'll probably come out of it okay. ;)

Re: [LT/LTC2] Please Check My Armor Loadout
 

A lot of the Low-Tech hit locations do not have an associated number; shoulders is one of them. Others include groin, upper arms, elbows, forearms, thighs, knees, and shins. They are a subset of a larger location and you'll need to roll a second time if you want to determine exactly where the attack hit.

A standard coif only protects the neck. You'll need to extend it like the rules state if you want additional protection. If the arm is hit then a second roll of 6 means that the shoulder is hit and that the coif's DR gets in the way.

I'd like to know an alternative name for the Face (area 5) if people have suggestions. Head and Skull are already used.

Re: [LT/LTC2] Please Check My Armor Loadout
 

You might want to consider the rules in Fantasy Tech instead.

Re: [LT/LTC2] Please Check My Armor Loadout
 

Depends on what the horns are made from. At least some Greek horned helmets were made from lead. I've seen one pair that was dug up from a grave shaft at Mycenae.

Re: [LT/LTC2] Please Check My Armor Loadout
 

Ah, yes. Thanks.

So, the ones in LT are made of lead?

Re: [LT/LTC2] Please Check My Armor Loadout
 

No they are an abstraction just like plumes and crests and all other helmet decorations. 1 lb is a decent averge weight for these things. What is the point of a whole list of different decorations that all cost and weigh different amounts yet have the exactly same game effect?