Tome Armor (3.5e Variant Rule)

Races of War rules for armor.| ]]

Tome Armor
Authors note: These rules are meant to replace and update the rules originally created in Races of War. This section has been formatted to simply drop in as a replacement, and makes use of some of that content. A number of these armors and abilities were taken from the original Tomes, as well as Josh's Tome armor revision, so kudos and thanks to Josh, Frank and anyone else who contributed to these for making their work open source. - Red Rob

Fantastic Armors
"I know it's stupid looking, but I get the best possible protection from having this duck sit on my head, so I'm going to let it do that."

People in Fantasy settings wear all kinds of crazy crap and call it protective gear. That's fine; we even encourage that sort of thing. What we don't encourage is people mixing and matching their metaphors. And yet, by having people keep track of separate materials and armor types – that's exactly what happens. We've all seen Lord of the Rings, we know what Mithril Armor is supposed to be like, and what it is not supposed to be like. And making your plate mail out of Mithril isn't what things are supposed to look like – you're supposed to get Mithril Chain. When was the last time anyone used Mithril Chain?

The fact is that materials naturally lend themselves to certain kinds of armor. Just as braided twigs are always going to make Wicker Armor and cured cow skin is always going to make Leather Armor, there's just a certain way that armoring yourself with Dragon Scales or Cloyster Shells is going to work. For the vast majority of materials, there is a known "right way" to wear it for protection and the only real choice is wearing more of it or less.

Armor Check Penalty
Every armor, shield, or clothing has an Armor Check Penalty, though that penalty is sometimes -0. Your Armor Check Penalty is applied to any Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Jump, Sleight of Hand, or Tumble checks you make. Your Swim Checks are penalized by double your Armor Check Penalty. If you cast arcane spells in armor which has an armor check penalty, your spells with somatic components have a 5% chance of failing for every point of armor check penalty.

If you are using an outfit with a total armor check penalty that is greater than your Base Attack Bonus, you can only move at 1/2 speed. If your outfit has an armor check penalty that is more than 4 more than your BAB, you can't run. If your outfit provides a total armor check penalty that is 10 or more than your BAB, you can only take a single move action each around while you stagger about.

Masterwork Armor
A Masterwork version has the magnitude of its Armor Check Penalty reduced by 1 (to a minimum of zero). Some fantastic armors are automatically masterwork.

Great Shields
The ACP of Great Shields is counted as double for the purpose of using skills. In addition, any attacks made whilst using a Great Shield have a -2 penalty to hit.

Armor and Non-Proficiency
Non-proficiency does not prevent you from benefiting from armor defensively. It is more cumbersome, however. If you are wearing armor or using a shield which you are not proficient in, the armor check penalty of that armor or shield is counted as 4 higher.

Similarly, just because you're proficient in heavy armor doesn't mean that you're familiar with every piece of heavy armor you encounter. Mechanus armor is very protective, but chances are slim that a character has actually encountered this equipment before. In general, when a character runs into some new armor (as they will from time to time), they will continue to be treated as non-proficient with it for about a day as they "break it in". So to make full use of your new chitin carapace, you'll need two things: medium armor proficiency, and a day to practice with your new bug exoskeleton.

Not Armors
Anything you wear is a form of armor, but anything sufficiently light as to not count even as Light Armor requires no proficiency to utilize. It can be worn by characters who lack armor proficiency without suffering penalties.

Magic Armors
Tome Armor is meant to tie in with the rules in Tome Magic Items. A number of the armors listed here are explicitly lesser, moderate, or greater magic items. Tome Magic Items also lists a number of possible enhancements for otherwise non-magical armors.

Great Shields
The ACP of Great Shields is counted as double for the purpose of using skills. In addition, any attacks made whilst using a Great Shield have a -2 penalty to hit.