Armor

Armor can be light, medium, or heavy and also includes shields. Like other items, armor might be inferior or superior. The effect of wearing inferior or superior armor are covered in their type descriptions.

Although you can wear armor for long stretches without much discomfort, you gain no benefit from resting while you wear any kind of armor.

If you do not meet the listed requirement for wearing the armor, you make Strength and Agility rolls with 1 bane and you grant 1 boon on rolls against your Strength and Agility while you wear it.

Wearing armor replaces your natural Defense score with an armored one. Some forms of armor grant you a choice of a fixed Defense score or adding a number to your natural Defense score.

For example, leather armor grants Defense 12 or +1. If you have a natural Defense score of 10, wearing the armor would increase your Defense to 12. If, though, you have a natural Defense of 13, wearing leather armor would increase your Defense to 14.

Armor components scavenged from the dead on battlefields, old breastplates spotted with rust, and torn and tattered shirts of mail can all serve when there’s nothing better, but such armor is never suitable for long-term use. Inferior armor is worthless and rarely sells in markets except to the most gullible and foolish.

A suit of inferior armor holds up until the end of a quest and then offers no protection at all. The Defense granted by inferior armor of any kind drops by 1 (minimum 10 or +0). While wearing a suit of inferior medium or heavy armor, you make Agility rolls with 1 bane and you grant 1 boon on rolls made against your Agility. Inferior shields increase Defense by 1 only

Armor produced by master artisans might be available for sale in some large or wealthy communities but is more likely discovered in treasure chambers or on display as prized heirlooms. Suits of superior medium and heavy armor are often made from rare materials, such as star metal or fey silver.

A superior suit of light armor increases the bonus to Defense by 1, though if you replace your Defense with the armor’s score, there is no change. Superior medium armor has no Strength requirement for wearing it and negates the bane imposed on rolls to sneak. Superior heavy armor has no Strength requirement and increases the Defense score by 1. Superior shields increase Defense by 3 instead of 2

A shield allows its wielder to deflect attacks. A wielder either grips a handle on the inside of a shield or straps it to the arm, though large shields might have to be carried and placed in position. Shields come in many different sizes and shapes, including tower shields, heater shields, and round shields.

You equip and drop shields as if they were weapons. While you have a shield equipped (held or strapped to your arm), you increase your natural or armored Defense by the amount shown on the Shields table. A shield takes the place of the weapon you can normally wield in your off-hand. If you wield two shields, you benefit from just one of them at a time.

Shield: A shield is a flat or convex object held in one’s off-hand or worn strapped to the arm. The shield might be round, square, or have some other shape.

You can also use a shield as an off-hand improvised weapon. When you attack with the shield, you lose its increase to your Defense until the start of your next turn.

Body Shield: A body shield, sometimes called a tower shield, offers total body protection. Rather than strap it to your arm, you carry the body shield into position and then use an action to place it on the ground to provide partial or total cover to creatures behind it. A body shield does not, however, increase Defense. A body shield counts as 4 items.