Armor

Due to our defenses, armor requires a massive rework; this dovetails with changes that were originally planned to fix the issues with armor in Trinity where everyone wears pretty much the same armor.

In addition, these rules also dramatically change how shields work.

Mechanics

This section explains how the mechanics for armor and shields work.

Armor

Armor comes in four types: cloth, leather, mail, and plate.

Each armor has a subtype: light, medium, and heavy.

The type of armor determines its primary defense, while the subtype determines its secondary.

All armors give you a +6 armor bonus to the armor's primary defense, and a +3 armor bonus to the armor's secondary defense. If your armor is a Force item, and you are attuned, it provides its attunement bonus to its primary defense.

Unlike standard d20, armor does not reduce your movement speed, does not give a penalty to some skill checks, and does not negatively affect casting.

If you wear armor with which you are not proficient, it does not provide its armor bonus to its secondary defense, and halves the bonus it provides for its primary.

Shields

Instead of providing a static bonus to your defenses, shields are instead an active defensive mechanism.

When you are attacked (be it with a weapon, Force effect, or otherwise), if you are wielding a shield, you can spend a reaction to make a block with your shield. The formula for a block is as follows:

d20 + base save bonus + shield bonus + ability modifier

The ability modifier you use is the same as the ability modifier you would have used for the normal defense against the attack.

Unlike with armor, there are two types of shields: light and heavy. A light shield provides a +4 shield bonus, while a heavy shield provides a +8 shield bonus. Shields are effective against all forms of attack, and provide their bonus regardless of the defense the attack targeted. If your shield is a Force item, and you are attuned, it provides its attunement bonus to the block roll.

Light shields allow you to make use of that hand (and thus you can still benefit from two-handed weapons, make skill checks that require both hands, and so forth); a heavy shield is large and bulky enough that you cannot use that hand for anything other than the shield.

If you attempt to use a shield and are not proficient with them, you must spend two reactions to make use of it, and it provides only half the bonus it would normally provide.

Basic Armor

The following is the list of armor and shields in Trinity. These are basic armors and shields; that is, they are not Force aligned.

ARMOR AND SHIELDS
Name	Subtype	Primary Defense	Secondary Defense	Cost
CLOTH
Clothes	Light	Will	Reflex	2 kp
Outfit	Medium	Will	Determination	4 kp
Gear	Heavy	Will	Fortitude	6 kp
LEATHER
Jack	Light	Reflex	Will	5 kp
Leathers	Medium	Reflex	Determination	10 kp
Coat	Heavy	Reflex	Fortitude	15 kp
MAIL
Harness	Light	Determination	Will	8 kp
Mail	Medium	Determination	Reflex	12 kp
Hauberk	Heavy	Determination	Fortitude	16 kp
PLATE
Cuirass	Light	Fortitude	Will	10 kp
Battlegear	Medium	Fortitude	Reflex	15 kp
Fullplate	Heavy	Fortitude	Determination	20 kp
SHIELDS
Shield, Light	Light	Any	---	4 kp
Shield, Heavy	Heavy	Any	---	12 kp