[New Armour Type] Chain Shirts

[Glim]

Hello

My whole post would depend upon if they are in the game or not, so i'd first like to ask, are chain shirts an actual type of armor in the game? I asked a dwarf and he said he could not make them so I assumed they were not.

Chain shirts, I think, are an important type of armor that we are missing, there are a few reasons why I think they are important:
* They are light armor
* They are the most protective of the light armor
* They are one of the only light armors made of metal

Here is a comparison to chain shirts with it's next lowest and next highest armour type and chainmail:
Studded Leather: Light Armor, AC Bonus 3, Max Dex 5, Armor Check Pen -1, Arcane Failure 15%
Chain Shirt: Light Armor, AC Bonus 4, Max Dex 4, Armor Check Pen -2, Arcane Failure 20%
Hide: Medium Armor, AC Bonus 3, Max Dex 4, Armor Check Pen -3, Arcane Failure 20%

Chain shirts are an important item for rogues, rangers and other light armor wearing characters because they can protect themselves better than leather armour or studded leather and still get a nice dex bonus as well. Also, because they are made of metal, they can be made with different materials (anyone remember the mithril chain shirt from LoTR?), and thus get the advantages that this entails.

While chain shirts D20 wise only protect the body and shoulders, I think that all areas should be able to be made with chain shirt. This is because AC on FK and D20 work different when it comes to locations.

Feedback is always welcome. Thanks,

[Kregor]

It would be kind of hard, IMO, to have chain shirt as an armor type, simply because of the localized damage variant that FK uses. D&D armor assumes an average of protection over the entire body, FK does it per location. I personally have no qualms with either. Chain shirts are light armor, and only give +3 protection, because they only cover a certain part of the body, and nothing else. Sort of like Breastplates alone, you wouldn't code in a Breastplate armor type, because that wouldn't be fitting for other locations, and would mess up the localized protection.

For reference, I have seen (and worked with) a piecemeal armor variant on the D20 ruleset, that allows you to mix and match your armor types on each location (head, arms, wrists, hands, etc... VERY similar to FK and other MUD's wear locations, actually. In this variant, you take away armor types like Chain Shirt, or Breastplate, or PlateMail, because you achieve those types of armor by only armoring certain parts of the body, or mixing, for example, chainmail sleeves and legs with plate gloves/boots/armor/etc.

On FK, your armor category (light, medium, heavy), and in this published variant, is based on an average of armor worn (why back in the day when armor was layer-able, you could layer yourself with so much leather on different layers you might as well have been wearing platemail, and your armor check failures showed it). So if you only wear a chainmail tunic and sleeves, it should only average out to light armor, I think.

Realize though, that the localized damage variant means that wearing piecemeal armor is more dangerous than in D&D. You can get the weight and armor check benefit of wearing just a chain tunic and sleeves, but you have only about a 40% chance that your armor will count against the hit at all, depending solely on what location randomness puts the attack aiming at.

[Glim]

I always saw chain shirt as being completely different than chainmail. While chainmail is quite thick links of chain, a chain shirt is thin enough to be worn underneath a normal shirt (not really possible on FK without moving your equipment up a layer and forfeiting a robe, cloak, or pack).

And as you said, yes, it's very dangerous to mix and match pieces as you can be hit anywhere. I would like to be able to tell somehow if your armor averages out to medium or light or heavy. That way you might be able to simulate a chain shirt with chain and leather, or chain and cloth, and still be able to tell if this will hurt you or not.

I still think a variant of light armor made of metal is something that is needed on the mud. Classes that wear light armor, such as rogues, are sorely missing out on an armoursmith's expertise as well as the ability to get different metals and the bonuses they entail.

[Kregor]

I believe you're thinking of a mithril shirt, rather than simply a chain shirt. PHB defines a chain shirt as piecemeal chainmail that covers simply the body and arms, much like a breastplate alone is another armor option that is just that, a breastplate with greaves and a helm, greco-roman style, and nothing else. A mithril shirt would indeed be light enough to wear under clothing, and is made finer and lighter than normal chain. Elven chain is also this way. Though, the new armor system kind of makes the ability to wear any armor under clothing moot, because it has to be worn on the armor level to count. So there's no more concealing your armor.

As far as making lighter metal, wether it's concealable or not, I think the elven chain/mithril chain route should fill this gap. How easily this gap can be filled with crafting, is another story.