Essential equipment for a starting mage

[Bismark]

In campaigns like mine, where PCs are allowed to start with magic items provided that they have paid the points for them, might I suggest the following set of kit:

Helm, gauntlets and archer's belt ('giblet protector'); all bought without the Real Armour Limitation so as not to interfere with Perception , nor vocalisation (hence Incantations), nor fine manipulation (hence Gestures).

Result: Armour protection for locations 3 and 13 (the REALLY important and/or difficult to armour ones) with no real downside for the mage apart from the fact that some of his/her precious starting points have been used up on kit instead of spells/skills.

[BTW, by 'archer's belt' I mean the bronze/iron plates/scales over leather ones worn by the ancient Scythians - there are nice illustrations of this in the Osprey Men-at-Arms book 'The Scythians 700-300 BC' - particularly Plate B Figure 1, although many other figures have a pretty substantial belt, this guy has 2 - a leather one of normal size on top of the armoured one which is much broader]

Of course, if you have the points , by all means buy a haubergeon or even full armour - but it will cost you a lot more than careful selection of vital areas to armour [you could always buy Combat Luck for the rest…]

[Outsider]

How much of a limitation do you assign for covering only locations 3 and 13? Its only 22/216ths of the hit locations, making it about 40% the coverage of even an 8- activation equivalent (56/216)

Instead, go for 3-5 & 12-13 being covered, which (as it turns out) is 56 of 216, a nice tidy -2 lim.

Loc : Chances in 216 of being hit
_3 : _1
_4 : _3
_5 : _6
_6 : 10
_7 : 15
_8 : 21
_9 : 25
10 : 27
11 : 27
12 : 25
13 : 21
14 : 15
15 : 10
16 : _6
17 : _3
18 : _1

[LordGhee]

You need a luger,

make sure mom shows you how to use it,

when your brother is not around.



Lord Ghee

[CourtFool]

I would just go with Combat Luck and/or a custom Talent like Tough as Nails - Damage Resistance: 2 rPD 2 rED. Hell, a mage should have some kind of shield or protection spell.

[MorpheousXO]

Yeah, should definitely get 3-5, I mean, 3 alone is the least likely to get hit out of the three, so if you only get one, get 5!

[Bismark]

Yeah, should definitely get 3-5, I mean, 3 alone is the least likely to get hit out of the three, so if you only get one, get 5!

Ah, but 4-5 can be covered by a a 'real' helmet that has minimal effect on vision or hearing, whereas location 3 includes the 'T' zone (formed by the eyes and nose) beloved of firearms enthusiasts, which would severely impact PER rolls and (probably Incantations as well) if conventionally armoured (I can see the fun of trying to see out of, hear out of, or even breathe while wearing a full heaume - the first two would be bad enough if just wearing a Corinthian Helm).

Of course, you could always buy Combat Luck or use the 'Not the Face!' Talent from Valdorian Age.

[I also thought of the more munchkinised option - buying Combat Luck for just the locations you want protecting - perfect for 'point grubbing' ]

This thread was of course only semi-serious - it arose from some off-the-cuff comments from one of my players who went through 4 combats in my VA campaign and was hit once in the face (Hit Loc3) and three times () in Hit Loc13. Needless to say, that was 4 fights that ended (for him!) right there and then.

[MorpheousXO]

This thread was of course only semi-serious - it arose from some off-the-cuff comments from one of my players who went through 4 combats in my VA campaign and was hit once in the face (Hit Loc3) and three times () in Hit Loc13. Needless to say, that was 4 fights that ended (for him!) right there and then.

Hmm... reminds me of why I think Hit Loc13 needs modification, either less body/stun, or to be moved further from average 3d6.

In any case, is there somewhere in a book that says which specific spots the head locs are supposed to be? Cause as far as I knew they were just "head", and not specific parts of the head, thus is wouldn't matter which spots you bought, just the SFX you stated. Unless the GM states the SFX for the loc for you

[sbarron]

How much of a limitation do you assign for covering only locations 3 and 13? Its only 22/216ths of the hit locations...

C'mon! I don't care what your fancy statistics say, I know my character gets hit in the face or the vitals way more often than that!

[Supreme Serpent]

My answer would have just been: two warrior-types.