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Semi-Historical Arms and Armor the Following Are Some Notes About The

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Semi-Historical Arms and Armor the Following Are Some Notes About The Semi-Historical Arms and Armor The following are some notes about the weapons and armor tables in D&D 5th edition, as they pertain to their relationship to modern understandings of historical arms and armor. In general, 5th edition is far more accurate to ancient and medieval sources regarding these topics than prior editions, but for the sake of balance and ease of play without the onerous restrictions of reality, there are still some expected incongruences. This article attempts to explain some particular facets about the use of arms and armor throughout our long, shared history, and to offer some suggestions (imbalanced as they may be) on how such items would have been used in particular times and places. A note on generalities: One of the best things 5th edition offers in these tables is the generalization of particular weapons and armor compared to prior editions. Is there a significant, functional difference between a half-sword, arming sword, backsword, wakizashi, tulwar, or any other various forms of predominately one-handed pokey and slashy things with 13 inch, sometimes 14 or 20 or even 30 inch blades? Well, actually yes, but that level of discrimination is often not noticeable in the granularity of the combat mechanics of most systems, and, more importantly, how modern readers often distinguish them is often anachronistic. For instance, almost all straight sword-like weapons, be it arming swords, half-swords, back swords, longswords or even great swords like claymores (but not Messers!) are referred to in ancient and medieval texts (MS I.33, Liberi, etc) as… swords. Just swords. Often when there are references to sword types by specific names (such as a bastard sword, which is often identified as a hand-and-half sword in modern reviews), it is not always clear what that name refers to and popular culture attempts to fill in the blanks. In modern archeology, arms and armor have been variously categorized by age, function, physical shape, or any number of other salient attributes. Most of it is fairly dry and boring to the uninitiated, so we’ll try to strike a balance. Armor: General overview: Now and again the modern reader may ask to himself, “why would someone wear lamellar armor when laminar is listed in this table right below and is mostly better in every single aspect?” Conversely, game designers sometimes try to ‘balance’ armor and give a disadvantaged one some aspect that is superior in some fashion. Both viewpoints skirt around the historical rationale: there are considerations when acquiring armor (is it legal to wear? Is it comfortable to wear for long hours, much less day-to-day? Will it last me a long while? Is the form acceptable by my professed religion? Does it make me look ridiculous in front of my peers?) completely aside from the armor’s protective function. You will also note that with the change in descriptions of the armor, the armor in each class may seem a bit ‘heavier’ than in the PHB, with examples of plate armor derivatives in medium armor, for example. This, however, should not be interpreted as to mean that soldiers historically wore quite substantial armor across all time periods; to the contrary, the vast majority of soldiers for much of history (especially prior to the Hundred Years War and in any location that is relatively warm) wore quite a ‘light’ assortment of armor. Armor Changes: for more detailed fluff descriptions, see the Armor Description section below. Rename Studded Leather to Brigandine. Studded leather is an erroneous modern reference to the way the inside of Brigandine looked; steel or iron platelets were studded to the inside of the leather jacket. It is those platelets, and not the studs, that offer the defensive capabilities of that armor. Rename Chain Shirt to Mail, or Byrnie/Hauberk. Rename Scale Mail to Scale Armor. In general, “scale” armors, with the scale plates attached to a leather or linen back and not (usually) punched together, predate or are concurrent with early mail, and, especially in its earlier usages during the Bronze Age, did not include mail. Mail with scale-shaped iron or steel plates either sandwiched between or attached on top are a much later invention and are lamellar or laminar. Rename and replace Breastplate with Lamellar Armor. They’re different things entirely, but mechanically Lamellar would fall somewhere here. Breastplate as separate armor is more a late-Renaissance affair and as armor would not be more protective than Brigandine. Rename Half-Plate to Partial Plate or ¾ Plate. Half Plate is a modern amalgamation of early transitional plate armors and Landsknechts wearing plate armor, just without greaves for greater on-foot mobility. Rename and replace Ring Mail with Laminar Armor. Ring Mail is ahistorical (see below for a description). Laminar armor is representative of “heavy” armor prior to the rediscovery of trip hammer technology allowing large steel plates to be readily formed. Later examples of Laminar armor may mechanically count as plated mail. Rename and replace Chain Mail with Plated Mail or Splinted Plate (but not splint mail, which is ahistorical). Head-to-toe mail was generally only used in conjunction with plate as a single set of armor; this type of mail is much finer and lighter than mail armor used as the primary form of armor. Transitional plate armors show a wide variety of experimentation with plate placement. Replace Splint with Early Plate. Almost all the armors presented in the PHB are too heavy and are on the high end of spectrum of weights of surviving pieces of armor. Historical armors would typically be in a range from 50% PHB weights up to PHB weights for basically every armor type. Shields: Tower Shield/Pavise: a tower shield provides +3 AC, but imposes -10 ft/round to speed and Disadvantage (stealth checks). Tower Shields count as heavy armor with regards to effects that mitigate movement reduction. Helmets, Gauntlets and Vambraces: The PHB does not include helms with any armor other than plate. That’s a bit silly, but whatever. Helmets may not be very heroic but were absolutely essential pieces of armor. Similarly arm protection was a high priority (when you whack at someone their natural reaction is to raise their arms to protect their face/body). Even if one were to carry a shield gauntlets and vambraces (leather, mail, or plate) are generally widespread. Armor Summary Cost (gp) AC Str Weight (lbs.) Properties Light Armor Padded 5 +1+dex mod - 4-7 DA (stealth) Leather 10 +1+dex mod - 6-8 Brigandine 45 +2+dex mod - 13-15 Medium Armor Hide 10 +2+dex mod (max 2) - 12 Mail 50 +3+dex mod (max 2) - 20-30 Scale Armor 50 +4+dex mod (max 2) - 22-44 DA (stealth) Lamellar Armor 400 +4+dex mod (max2) - 20-30 Partial Plate 750 +5+dex mod (max 2) - 20-45 DA (stealth) Heavy Armor Laminar Armor 30 14 15-30 DA (stealth) Plated Mail 75 16 13 20-40 DA (stealth) Early Plate 200 17 14 35-55 DA (stealth) Plate Armor 1500 18 15 40-60 DA (stealth) Shield Buckler 5 +1 - 2 Light, deals 1d4 bludgeoning Shield/Targe 10 +2 - 4-6 1d6 bludgeoning Tower 35 +3 14 22-50 DA (stealth), -10 ft speed Shield/Pavise Helmets Mail Coif 15 +0 - 1-4 Counts as light armor Steel Cap 15 +0 - 2-5 Counts as medium armor Great Helm 250 +0 12 2-5 Counts as heavy armor, DA (perception) (with visor down) Arms: As is the case with most competitions, there was/is a historical arms race between arms and armor. As armor improved, particular weapons became popular as a counter; large axes were prevalent in Western Europe circa AD 1000 because such weapons could cause structural failure of mail whereas swords generally cannot penetrate mail. Fast forward a few hundred years and the proliferation of larger and larger plates on armor forced a proliferation of specialty anti-armor weapons, such as war-hammers. Simple vs. Martial: As with many aspects of life, social and legal convention often dictated what an individual may wear just as much as cost or weight concerns. In particular, in many city-states across the world in pre-industrial times, it was often illegal for the common man to wear a sword, just as some modern nation-states may ban the open carrying of certain firearms. The sword, apart from any other common weapon (spear/bow/axe), had no other purpose than to kill a man, and was thus viewed as a high-status instrument (even when they became increasingly cheap and prevalent during the late middle-ages). In addition, “martial” weapons with the exception of some swords, were typically too large or cumbersome to be carried around while one went about their daily duties, and thus not openly carried except on the battlefield or by guards. At the end of this article are some more historical anecdotes as well as some tables to help ‘spice’ up legal tenants regarding the carrying of weaponry and armor in your fantasy world. Soon™. Fighting Style: Many historical martial styles focused on the use of a single-handed weapon in one hand and an open hand in the other without a shield. As depicted in numerous medieval treatises, an open hand would be quite useful, particularly in grappling or deflecting an opposing polearm. Also, as a meta-note, many cultures utilized and refined fighting techniques that would be less effective in different circumstances. For instance, light bladed weaponry is exceptionally useful against unarmored targets and as metal armor (plate in particular) is exhausting to use for extended periods in hot desert temperatures, this sort of weaponry proliferated in that setting.
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