Quote from: Tetsubo;521909To me this sounds like armour should have a varying level of protection. Against the untrained folks, it is better. But against trained warriors it is less effective. This this is reflected in the 3.P BAB in my opinion.

Only if melee classes would also get bonus AC based on level , and perhaps bonus AB if the target wears armour.

You know, I'd like something in mail with a spear.

But I wrote that game.

Quote from: Silverlion;521912You know, I'd like something in mail with a spear.

But I wrote that game.

You wrote Warhammer? Congrats.

Yeah, I'm partial to the look of early medieval warriors too.

Sounds like a lot of you guys should check out the new HackMaster. Shields and heavy armor are very important in HM combat. Shields give you a pretty high bonus for your defense and armor stops damage due to its Damage Reduction(DR) stat. At the same time heavy armor slows you down and gives you a penalty to your Defense rating, meaning that you are easier to hit but because of the higher DR, you are harder to damage. So basically your choice of armor boils down to if you want to be lightly armored and be harder to hit or if you want to be able to resist higher amounts of damage. When it comes to fighting monsters(or NPCs) who have the potential to do a lot of damage then Heavy Armor starts to look like a very attractive choice. Especially with HM's "Threshold of Pain" mechanic. Each character has a "Threshold of Pain" that starts out at roughly 30% of your Hit Points and slowly increases with your level(Fighters have a better ToP than other classes). When you get hit with damage from a single blow that exceeds your ToP then you have to roll under Half of your Con on a 1d20 or you are now laying on the ground writhing in pain and unable to do anything. That lasts for 5 seconds times the amount you missed your 1/2Con roll by. Also, Battle Axes and Warhammers are two of the best weapons in the game.

Treshold of Pain?

Damn you Hackmaster for stealing my ideas!

I understand Warhammers, but why Battle Axes? (unless they have the blunt side, which serves as a crude Warhammer if you fight against a plated opponent)

HackMaster 4th Edition had Threshold of Pain in 2001, so of course the new HM is going to have it...

Quote from: Rincewind1;521924I understand Warhammers, but why Battle Axes? (unless they have the blunt side, which serves as a crude Warhammer if you fight against a plated opponent)

Well, I'm sure that eventually they are going to have Weapon vs Armor type modifiers but Battle Axes are so good because they have a good chance to bust Shields. In HM Shields actually break with a hard blow. Shields have a Breakage rating so that if they take a certain amount of damage you roll a competing d20 with your opponent, there are actually three ratings with the chance of breaking going up with a stronger blow. In HM, if you miss but only miss by 10 much then you've hit the enemy's shield. HM combat is competing d20's;

Attacker: 1d20 +attack bonuses
Defender(no Shield): 1d20-4 +defense bonuses
Defender(s/Small Shield): 1d20+6+defense bonuses
Defender(w/medium or large shield):1d20+6+bonuses

So effectively a small shield gives you a +10.

If the attacker misses by 10, then that means he's hit the defenders shield. There is a reduced amount of damage you roll, a shield absorbs a certain amount of damage based on its size and then the rest goes to the character(armor DR subtracts from it) so you can still "Miss" and do some damage, but you have to get through the defender's Shield AND Armor DR but the Shield could possibly break. Battle Axes are the best one handed weapon against a shield. No big surprise since an Axe is built to chop into wood...

Ah yes, I had forgotten about that one.

Two of the things that you want to attempt in HM, break your enemy's shield and/or force a ToP check. Do that and you can end the combat quickly...

This is what I always wanted:

Quote from: Settembrini;521938This is what I always wanted:

Yes! I loved that game, still have some of them. If you like Lost Worlds, then check out HackMaster...

I have like a dozen of those old books, musta played dude in chainmail vs skeleton a hundred times. The others never really captured the semi-balance.

IMO, the first series, like the first 10 or so, are really good. After that, not so much...

At one time I reversed engineered them to figure out the system mechanics to use it for RPG combat. It works pretty good.

The great irony is that the warrior in plate armour was actually more mobile then warrior in full chain armour >.>.