Zornhau Forums

Hi,
I finally found the time to go over the combat systems.
I like much of what I see, but here are a few remarks / questions:

I know that armor has been discussed in previous threats but I haven't found answers to my questions there.
my problems with the armor system are

1) striking with an arming sword against maille is equally effective as using a mace. But, since a mace is much heavier, I think we can agree that as long as a sword does not get any cutting damage through the armor, a mace should be much more effective, no?

2) there exists no effective way to get "around" armor. As I understand it a good way to fight against a heavily armored foe (in reality) was to either try to use blunt damage by f.e. turning your sword around and using your pommel (which wouldn't make sense at the moment, since the pommel does less damage and the cutting damage of the swords is transferred 1:1 to blunt damage) or you could try to ram your weapon in between the armor-pieces or through less heavily armored parts (where it suddenly makes sense to wear mail "under" plate armor - or at least in between the gaps). There should be an advanced maneuver where you could use a puncture-attack to ram (and thus avoid) in between armor-gaps (and thus avoid armor at least partially).

3) I do understand the need to influence damage by size and/or strength... but from my point of view I have difficulties if having a strong physique is equal to wearing armor (which is the case ATM).
If I got that correctly Damage is:

MoS + DR + BT (attacker) - AV - BT (defender)

therefor having a Brawn of 7 (Brawn Tap 2) is equal to wearing boiled leather (AV 2) and having Brawn of 10 is even equal to wearing maill.

Hi, and welcome to the forums!

1) That is right, according to the rules in the current version. However, there has been a significant change to this in a 'in progress' version of the rules. A draft can be seen in this google doc and has been worked on and tweaked in the discord server. The relevant part is this: "Metal now has the following description: Metal armors provide additional protection against cutting and piercing attacks. When you would receive cutting or piercing damage, apply your Soak as normal. The resulting wound level is then halved before being converted to Blunt."
This also means your murderstrokes will be more effective as it will be the same DR but the wound level won't be halved like cutting.

2) There are several ways to bypass armor. The most notable being that many grappling maneuvers ignore armor and the use of the precision thrust or wrap maneuvers. I'm counting choosing the location to strike as going 'around' armor because specific locations (face, armpit, groin, hamstring, back) are specifically designed to be difficult or impossible to armor. A precision thrust to the armpit in many ways models digging between the plates on a breastplate. That said, those rules are getting an overhaul too. Several hit locations are being cut and a 'bypass armor' maneuver may be reintroduced. Those discussions have been going on behind the scenes and aren't in the fetch-club doc.

3) Yes, except that you have ignore armor properties. For example, someone with Brawn 10 may have the same AV as someone with Brawn 3 and Maille, but he does not have the metal property. The metal property will mean that the small person with maille will still be much more survivable than the Brawn 10 character. Cutting and piercing damage will all be converted to blunt and halved. That means hes never going to be dismembered and far less likely to suffer bleeding. Likewise, comparing someone with Brawn 7 to someone else with Brawn 3 and a Rigid boiled leather armor will have the same AV, but the man in armor will have his wounds capped at 3 by the rigid property. Comparing a combination of rigid and metal to bare skin is a night and day difference, even if they do have the same AV.