Dwarves in Plate. Impractical?

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bitflipr
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Dwarves in Plate. Impractical?

Post by bitflipr »

With a Dwarf having a base speed of 20' and plate mail subtracting 10' from that, a resulting movement speed of 10' for an armored dwarf seems more trouble than its worth. Has anyone seen dwarf characters wearing plate armor in any of their sessions?
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Re: Dwarves in Plate. Impractical?

Post by tovokas »

I just assume that burly dwarves can shrug off the penalty and move at their normal rate in heavy armor. I can understand them having a lower top speed, but they're built for heavy loads. Halflings would be slowed. :)
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Re: Dwarves in Plate. Impractical?

Post by beermotor »

Heavy armor was worn by mounted troops for the most part. So, put em on a steam powered war chariot.
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Re: Dwarves in Plate. Impractical?

Post by Ravenheart87 »

Dwarves in plate armour don't walk. They are hurled by catapults.
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Re: Dwarves in Plate. Impractical?

Post by Vanguard »

I would import the rule from 3.X/Pathfinder than Heavy Armor doesn't reduce their speed.
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Re: Dwarves in Plate. Impractical?

Post by IronWolf »

Vanguard wrote:I would import the rule from 3.X/Pathfinder than Heavy Armor doesn't reduce their speed.
Yeah, this would be what I would do. Dwarves just belong in plate armor!
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Re: Dwarves in Plate. Impractical?

Post by beermotor »

This could be remedied in future printings by more explicit adoption of the Chainmail rules re: armor and movement (which is what DCC was going for here I think), i.e. heavy armor = 20' movement (which dwarves already have), not -10' movement.

Although, personally, I kinda like the way the rules are written, as it gives a slight impediment to medium armors and then a little bit more to heavy armors. I forget if Chainmail was that granular, I think it was just "light foot" and "armored foot" movement, 12 and 6" respectively.
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Re: Dwarves in Plate. Impractical?

Post by Skyscraper »

Plate armor is a dwarf's skin, it's not equipment. No speed penalty there.
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Re: Dwarves in Plate. Impractical?

Post by bitflipr »

I think the suggestions and house rulings provided mesh with my thoughts. Dwarfs and plate armor seem like a natural fit. I'm a bit rusty on my Appendix N lore though - I can't recall what the dwarves in LotR wore.
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Re: Dwarves in Plate. Impractical?

Post by TheNobleDrake »

My house ruling on the issue: everyone starts with at least a 30' speed.

Note: I have drastically changed races (separating them from class, streamlining mechanics, and stripping them down to one or two 'essential' details of how they differ from human) in my home-games to accommodate not having random chance dictate that your character's name may as well be Bearfood since you can't possibly keep pace with the rest of your party.
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Re: Dwarves in Plate. Impractical?

Post by IronWolf »

TheNobleDrake wrote: Note: I have drastically changed races (separating them from class, streamlining mechanics, and stripping them down to one or two 'essential' details of how they differ from human) in my home-games to accommodate not having random chance dictate that your character's name may as well be Bearfood since you can't possibly keep pace with the rest of your party.
This strikes a note with me! I was running Bone Hoard of the Dancing Horror and had a pretty fun scene where the party thought they were going to run away. Well,that worked great for the part of the party, but not those dwarves who were caught by the chasers. It led to a fun combat as the party realized only *some* of them could run away!
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Re: Dwarves in Plate. Impractical?

Post by Raven_Crowking »

IronWolf wrote:
TheNobleDrake wrote: Note: I have drastically changed races (separating them from class, streamlining mechanics, and stripping them down to one or two 'essential' details of how they differ from human) in my home-games to accommodate not having random chance dictate that your character's name may as well be Bearfood since you can't possibly keep pace with the rest of your party.
This strikes a note with me! I was running Bone Hoard of the Dancing Horror and had a pretty fun scene where the party thought they were going to run away. Well,that worked great for the part of the party, but not those dwarves who were caught by the chasers. It led to a fun combat as the party realized only *some* of them could run away!
Heh heh heh!

Tell me, was that an early-on encounter, or a near-the-end encounter?

Glad you had fun!
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Re: Dwarves in Plate. Impractical?

Post by IronWolf »

Raven_Crowking wrote:
Heh heh heh!

Tell me, was that an early-on encounter, or a near-the-end encounter?

Glad you had fun!
That was a relatively early on encounter the one with a large number of combatants! There was another encounter they just flat out tried to avoid in their earnest as well! You don't get to see that too often in d20 games, but the party got one look at one of the encounters in that mod and did everything they could to not have to do battle.

We all had a great time with the mod. I will have a review up on the blog next week I think.
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Re: Dwarves in Plate. Impractical?

Post by Raven_Crowking »

IronWolf wrote:
Raven_Crowking wrote:
Heh heh heh!

Tell me, was that an early-on encounter, or a near-the-end encounter?

Glad you had fun!
That was a relatively early on encounter the one with a large number of combatants! There was another encounter they just flat out tried to avoid in their earnest as well! You don't get to see that too often in d20 games, but the party got one look at one of the encounters in that mod and did everything they could to not have to do battle.

We all had a great time with the mod. I will have a review up on the blog next week I think.
I am really gratified to hear you guys had fun with it. I feel fairly certain that I know exactly which encounters you are referring to! :twisted:
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Cathbad the Meek (herbalist Wizard 1): AC 9; 4 hp; S 7, A 7, St 10, P 17, I 13, L 8; Neutral; Club, herbs, 50' rope, 50 cp; -1 to melee attack rolls. Hideous scar.
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