Combat - Armour
Wearing armour provides some ablative protection from damage done, however mundane armour is little more than a delay against the supernatural strength and unholy powers of the immortals of the night. In the Dark Ages era there are three levels of armour: Leather, Mail and Plate.
You only gain the benefit of the highest level, even though you may wear leather and mail below plate for instance, and to do so 50% of your body must be covered in that armour. Eg. a Mail shirt would give the protection of Mail while a single plate pauldron would not confer the benefit of plate.
Armour provides an ablative soak, this means that it soaks a total number of points of damage as noted in the table below for the fight and once it has done so the armour becomes useless for the rest of the fight. After the fight is over the armour can be adjusted by the character so that it will provide further protection in later combats, however the amount of protection will diminish providing one less Soak each combat as the armour is damaged further. Armour is considered damaged if you participate in a Combat, not based on whether you took damage, as it is assumed that in the midst of combat it will have taken some damage even if nobody attacked you directly.
| Armour Type | 1st combat | 2nd Combat | 3rd Combat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leather | 1 Soak | No Effect | No Effect |
| Mail or Partial Plate | 2 Soak | 1 Soak | No Effect |
| Shield | 1 soak | No Effect | No Effect |
Shields can be used in combination with Armour, so a warrior in Mail armour with a shield would have 3 points of Soak in the 1st Combat, 1 point of Soak in the 2nd Combat and No Soak after this.
Armour and Discipline Effects
Because armour protects the character from being physically harmed until the armour is fully ablated, this will help provide some protection against certain discipline effects. The primary example of this is that armour prevents bleeding effects from Protean and Vicissitude until the armour has been destroyed enough to allow the attacks to start drawing blood from their target.
An exhaustive list of discipline effects that are resisted, made more difficult or even made easier by armour will not be listed here. Instead, the ST team will make a decision at the time to decide what effect (if any) armour may have on a discipline effect.
Repairing Armour
Armour and shields are not extra health levels and so cannot be replenished using the Reflexive Healing or Heal Self combat actions.
It is possible for someone with the appropriate skill to repair armour. In session this can be done by spending a little time working with the armour and making a test to repair it. This requires time to be spent and either the location needs to be able to support you undertaking the repair or you need to have the relevant tools on you. Because this is being done quickly the test requires 2 successes to restore a single point of Soak with additional successes restoring additional points of Soak. Armour can only be repaired once per session.
In downtime it is assumed that armour will be repaired whenever required as long as there is the appropriate time and tradesmen nearby, or the character has the skills to repair it themselves. This may mean that armour provides a limited amount of protection on extended trips if these are not available.
Acquiring Armour
In addition to having a reasonable narrative reason why they have the armour that they have, it is also necessary to maintain that armour which requires some level of resources. Therefore in order to own and maintain armour you must have Resources at the following levels to have the respective level of armour:
Leather: Resources 1
Mail: Resources 2
Plate: Resources 3
Shield: Resources 1