Tuesday, July 30, 2019

The Sword of Lurm and more armor options.

While running my occasional GLOG game, the party traveled back to town to resupply and sell loot.  Needing some medieval city, I simply grabbed the City of Elderstone by Skerples.  This city has an enchanter, Lurm.

Lurm the Enchanter is an Orthodox wizard, although a bit on the roguish side (has been known to associate with summoners, or worse).  It is know that he will put a "work a day" enchantment on a sword...  but what is that exactly?  I suppose it could be a +1 bonus, but that's not very interesting.  So here I give you, the Sword of Lurm:

The swords of Lurm have thin angular runes that are designed to attract and trap a very minor fire elemental.  When the user of the sword hits an enemy (a successful attack), they can shout the sword's command word (LURM!!) to release the sword's power in a burst of flame, inflicting an additional 1d6 points of fire damage.  This exhausts the fire elemental, and the sword's energies must be recharged by putting the blade in a fire - a campfire would suffice - for one hour.  While the sword is charged, the runes glow with a very faint orange - when there are no other sources of light, they are visible and shed an amount of light equivalent to a small candle, enough to light a single 5 foot square.  The enchantment process makes the sword immune to fire damage (although the blade will turn black with time), but the wielder has no such protection.  
If asked if the command word is a form of publicity for his shop, Lurm will coyly imply that it is, but the reality is more cynical - Lurm does not want his creations ever used against him, due to some vague prophecy about his death.  Should someone dare so, he can pre-emptively activate (and de-charge) the magical items he created (and prevent his foes from using them) by simply shouting "LURM"!


Second, for my Five Dagger edition project, I present my armor rules - more armor types, and who can use them.  This is probably the easiest and least interesting of the rule changes I intend to make.  

Leather armor and arming doublet can be slept in without a penalty.  Gambeson and chain impose 1 point of fatigue, and heavier armor can't be slept in.

Armor proficiency:  Everyone can wear armor up to gambeson.  Classes with some fighting background (ranger, thief, barbarian etc) can wear chain, but only fully trained classes (fighter, knight, paladin, tactician) can wear all armor types.  

The new armors are as follows:

- Improvised armor:  Doesn't last long and encumbering, but might just save your life.  Pots and lids, sticks tied to limbs with twine, wearing 5 shirts.  

- Arming doublet:  The thick shirt you wear under your metal armor to prevent chaffing and absorb some of the blows.  The average warrior's is sweat and rust strained (it comes included with chain and heavier armor free), but the upper nobility can wear extremely elaborate doublets.  

- Gambeson:  not merely an "armor undershirt" but a fully protective garment in its own right, made of over a dozen layers of linen quilted together.  They were hot, stiff, but very effective.

- Brigandine.  Also known at the coat of plate, a series of smallish metal plate sandwiched between 2 layers of leather, with rivets holding everything together.  Worn over chain to protect the torso mostly.  A more primitive form of armor than plate mail, it stayed in production due to its lower cost/ease of production and slightly better flexibility.  

-  Wicker shields:  A cheap, flimsy shield who's sole advantage is costing less.  Reduces 1d6 dmg if sacrificed to absorb damage (instead of 1d12), and is automatically broken (no damaged reduced) if the foe rolls a critical.  




defence
slot
penalty
cost (GP, city/village) + notes
Improvised
1
1
2
?  (pot on your head, wooden slats and twine etc)
Arming doublet
1
0
0
1+   (can be *very* elaborate, ie cost can be very high)
leather
2
0
0
2.5/5
Gambeson
3
1
1
6/8
chain
4
1
2
10/-
Brigandine
5
3
3
40/-
Plate
6
3
4
100/-
Shield
1
1
0
0.5/0.5
Shield, wicker
1
1
0
0.15/0.15

(the other armors are by Skerples)

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