[LT] Relative DR of Plate Components

[GodlessRose]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Where? When? For whom? It would be very unusual for Plains Indians c. 1790, not so much for some European Calvary c. 1600. For the Skull Legions of the Dread Citadel c. The Year of The Death Snail? Who is to say?

Considering that the question is about full suits of plate, I think we can safely limit ourselves to times and places where they were used.

I started thinking about this while writing up sample armors for a Banestorm game, so I don’t have a specific historical setting in mind. To reiterate, I’m looking for general rules of thumb about DR ratios between components of historical field plate harnesses.

If there was a tremendous range in fashions, with (for instance) suits of almost uniform DR and suits with both DR x gauntlets and DR 3x breastplates both being common, then, well, the rule of thumb would be that anything in that range is fine. Trying to pin it down further would be pointless for gaming purposes.

But if a certain ratio was most common - like DR 7 chests to DR 4 hands - and different schemes were the norm in only a few eras/countries, then that would be good to know. And I have a suspicion that the range of cost-effective strategies for constructing full suits of plate is limited. I just don’t know where the limits are.