Invisible Helmets and Breathing

[Anders]

So I've been thinking about completely face-covered helmets and Invisibility. Wouldn't they cause problems with breathing?

[sjmdw45]

Originally Posted by Anders

So I've been thinking about completely face-covered helmets and Invisibility. Wouldn't they cause problems with breathing?

You could build in a dogleg or two to supply air.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Anders

So I've been thinking about completely face-covered helmets and Invisibility. Wouldn't they cause problems with breathing?

You do need holes, but you don't need a straight path through. Also, the holes required for breathing are a lot smaller than the holes required for vision.

[mburr0003]

Originally Posted by Anthony

You do need holes, but you don't need a straight path through. Also, the holes required for breathing are a lot smaller than the holes required for vision.

But it does help if they're larger than "tiny"...

But on a tangential question, if you can't see the "chinks in armor"... what would be the random chance to hit them? Or the penalty to target them if you know they're there 'somewhere'? Frex if someone pays for fully invisible armor or someone wants eye slits in case of "No Mana Zones"? Or ye olde "I raise his invisible visor with a flick of my sword and then on my second attack right into the eye"?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by mburr0003

But it does help if they're larger than "tiny"...

But on a tangential question, if you can't see the "chinks in armor"... what would be the random chance to hit them?

Ignore armor results on the critical hit table?

[sjmdw45]

Originally Posted by mburr0003

But it does help if they're larger than "tiny"...

But on a tangential question, if you can't see the "chinks in armor"... what would be the random chance to hit them? Or the penalty to target them if you know they're there 'somewhere'? Frex if someone pays for fully invisible armor or someone wants eye slits in case of "No Mana Zones"? Or ye olde "I raise his invisible visor with a flick of my sword and then on my second attack right into the eye"?

If someone were under an Illusionary Shell with Complex Illusion that made them e.g. look six inches taller, I would say that attempts to target the eyes automatically fail. Ditto attempts to target helmet armor chinks/eyeslits.

Making exceptions to the rules based on the whole situation is why GMs exist.

I would still allow random hit locations to result in an eye hit, but IIRC armor chinks aren't on the random hit location table so that would never randomly happen without a critical hit.

I'd call "raise the invisible visor with my sword" a -13, just extrapolating from the -9 for eyeball-sized targets and that it being invisible makes things harder. That assumes you guessed correctly. If it turns out there is no visor, or it lowers instead of raising, or is locked into place with a latch, your attempt to raise it autofails.

[DanHoward]

All of the myths about armour being hot and stifling are actually caused by enclosed helmets. Any helmet that covers the face (including face visors) should cause issues with fatigue, not just invisible helmets.

[Joe]

Originally Posted by Anthony

You do need holes, but you don't need a straight path through.

This seems like it might be true in principle, but for whatever my experience may be worth, I have found it false in practice. Decent breathing while fighting really requires good airflow. You need to be able to suck in and expel large quantities of air, and anything that gets in the way of that is really uncomfortable. That's why you definitely want a straight path for the air to travel through, not a bendy one!

Originally Posted by Anthony

You do need holes, but you don't need a straight path through. Also, the holes required for breathing are a lot smaller than the holes required for vision.

I certainly agree that breathing holes can be smaller than the vision slot - that is indeed how many full-face medieval helmets worked. But to make really small breathing holes work, it really helps to have a lot of them (and even then you really end up being desperate to take the damned helmet off, or at least raise the visor if possible, whenever you get the chance).

Originally Posted by DanHoward

Any helmet that covers the face (including face visors) should cause issues with fatigue, not just invisible helmets.

This matches my experience.