Ruling on Armor, RAW

[Glorelendil]

Do you guys maybe think you over analyse things a bit sometimes?

The best armour is the one that doesn't get you killed.

Which one is that?

The one you picked - or didn't pick as the case may be.

Ah...yes, that would be an illuminating test.

However, all things considered I'd rather not use "Am I pushing up daisies?" as my armor selection criterion. Knowing its effectiveness before that happens would be...handy.

[Stilts]

For me, it depends on whether my character can heal more quickly, or is harder to hit, than others. If I've got a character with only 3 or 4 Parry, he's much more likely to get hit from a 9 or 10 Edge and would require better armour. A Hobbit who has Tough in the Fibre or a Woodman with Hunter's Resolve (or Staunching Song) wouldn't care as much about a wound and would thus be more inclined to wear something lighter.

[Rocmistro]

Stilts:

That planning works until you start facing monster with favored 3d attacks or 4d attacks (even favored 2d attacks if their attribute level is high enough). You will get hit, regardless of parry and stance that you are in.

If your body score is high enough, you might be able to make-do with 2d armor and a hope point in the pocket that you always plan on using for your protection tests.

I've found that planning out well in advance what my armor choice is ultimately going to be, and then selecting for cunning-make rewards to shave off encumbrance is a good way to go.

For example going with a Mail Shirt (12 enc) and 1 or 2 cunning make upgrades is probably the best overall armor choice for most heroes. This is not to say that all or even most heroes should actually go this route. It's just an attempt to answer the question "What's the best armor?" answer: Mail shirt with 1 or 2 cunning make qualities.

For Beornings, I recommend the no armor approach with a Great Helm, especially if you go with the Great Strength virtue (and there's little reason why you shouldn't!) A feat die (6.5 avg) +4 (helm) +6-7 (body) is generally going to be enough to get you through most protection tests. Your cultural attribute kind of helps when you're wounded anyway, so suffering one isn't bad....but obviously not more than that.

For Hobbits, Leather Corslet is probably about the most you want to go.

Dwarfs, mail shirt, possibly upgrading to mail coat if your favored heart is high enough to capitalize on redoubtable (and it probably should be) and/or if you plan on putting cunning make qualities onto it.

Woodmen and Elves probably leather corslets to start with, upgrading to mail shirts later on if they take any Resilience Masteries and/or Cunning Make qualities on armor.

Bardings and Men of the Lake can go with Mail Shirts early on, and should definitely have them by late game.

[Glorelendil]

For me, it depends on whether my character can heal more quickly, or is harder to hit, than others. If I've got a character with only 3 or 4 Parry, he's much more likely to get hit from a 9 or 10 Edge and would require better armour. A Hobbit who has Tough in the Fibre or a Woodman with Hunter's Resolve (or Staunching Song) wouldn't care as much about a wound and would thus be more inclined to wear something lighter.

Similarly, as soon as my Woodman gets his Hound that will change the calculus on wounds. But these are relative differences. A Woodman with a Hound is less likely to suffer a Wound than one without...but how much less? Starting from what?

I'm not saying armor has to be chosen by mathematical optimization; I myself choose armor and weapons based on character concept, not math. But to the extent that it's fun to talk about the theorycraft anyway*, it doesn't make sense to me to talk about the optimal encumbrance/protection trade-off without doing the math. The math just can't be intuited, nor can it be derived from experience: you simply cannot gather enough data playing this game with dice to make an accurate assessment. A slightly lucky or slightly unlucky streak will dramatically distort the perceived results.

*My interest in this topic is more about game design than it is about optimizing my characters. I'm interested in how to avoid there being an optimal choice so that you can make roleplaying choices without worrying about your preference being "bad".

[Hermes Serpent]

If you look at the weapons used by adversaries then the majority have an Injury rating of 12 with the Orc axe at 16 and this is the value you need to be looking at, not the Edge of a weapon. To deal with an Injury rating of 12 (ignoring outliers for the moment) then for no armour (0D) through mail (6D) the chances of rolling the Injury score is 8% 29% 58% 83% 95% 99% 100%. With 2d armour and a cap of iron you have roughly a 2/3rds chance and with 4D armour you are virtually invulnerable.

Natural weapons run to an Injury rating of 14 to 16 and for an Injury rating of 16 the relevant chances of succeeding when rolling are 8% 10% 27% 54% 78% 93% 98% for 0D through 6D armour. So these nastier creatures can usually not Wound a hero in 3D armour with a cap or helm.

I haven't calculated the odds of an adversary first hitting it's target then scoring an Edge and the target testing Protection against the Injury rating but that's a lot of die rolls that need to fall in line to cause a Wound.

[Glorelendil]

For Beornings, I recommend the no armor approach with a Great Helm, especially if you go with the Great Strength virtue (and there's little reason why you shouldn't!) A feat die (6.5 avg) +4 (helm) +6-7 (body) is generally going to be enough to get you through most protection tests. Your cultural attribute kind of helps when you're wounded anyway, so suffering one isn't bad....but obviously not more than that.

I'll take that to mean you have a Great Helm in my magical item index.

Is there any way for characters to be able to use their Favoured Body score when using a Hope point for Protection? Or did we have this conversation a few weeks ago and determine that it would have be houseruled?

[Rocmistro]

Maybe, Rabbit, maybe.

We had the conversation and it was demonstrated to me that it would be a houserule, and an unwise one at that.

There's a cultural reward somewhere, I can't remember which one, that basically allows this very thing.

[Glorelendil]

Dwarf-wrought Hauberk.

[Stilts]

Stilts:

That planning works until you start facing monster with favored 3d attacks or 4d attacks (even favored 2d attacks if their attribute level is high enough). You will get hit, regardless of parry and stance that you are in.

If your body score is high enough, you might be able to make-do with 2d armor and a hope point in the pocket that you always plan on using for your protection tests.

Right, there are a lot more factors that factor into the decision. If I'm predicting that there will be more powerful enemies during the next adventure, I would want to trade in my leather for some solid mail, and possibly grab a shield/bigger shield. I think it's important to bring gear appropriate to what's about to happen, as far as the company's knowledge and goals define it.

[Glorelendil]

I think it's important to bring gear appropriate to what's about to happen, as far as the company's knowledge and goals define it.

I certainly don't want to tell you how to enjoy the game, but one thing I like about TOR, in contrast to other games, is that you don't have to spend time "shopping" for gear. Partly for the overhead, but also it just doesn't feel very Tolkien-like to me. I like the view of weapons as very personal and something that heroes keep, maybe even in their families, for years and generations. Not something you pop down to the corner weapon merchant for.

I love the Artificier of Eregion virtue for Rivendell Elves: if you know you're going to be fighting a lot of undead it could be worth sinking a lot of time and effort (and xp and shadow...) into enchanting your weapons. Much more flavorful, and a tougher decision, than everybody picking up a Silver or Cold Iron mace and adding it to their backpack.

However, I do wish there was something in the Encumbrance/Fatigue rules so that putting on heavy armor for a full scale battle was different (and less penalizing) than wearing it for weeks on end in case you run into trouble.