9 AUG 1995
_Games Workshop_, _Warhammer Quest_, _Advanced HeroQuest_, _Warhammer Fantasy Battle_, _Battle Magic_, the _Old World_, _Knights Panther_, and _Skaven_ are trademarks of Games Workshop, Ltd. Their use here does not constitute a legal challenge to that status.
NOTE: This is all just, once again, a bit of brain-storming on possible alterations to the _Warhammer Quest_ rules to make game play somehow "better". These changes would make a drastic alteration in game play, and at this writing have /not/ been tested (and I'm not sure I'll be trying them all too quickly, since I'm afraid that it could result in a great deal more Warrior fatality until the players get used to it).
In games of _Warhammer Quest_, I've run into a problem when armor is involved -- Namely, while armor is quite useful, and should be, it is capable of rendering a Warrior invincible against certain Monster types. This might not seem like such a problem at first, as there are plenty of analogies to support such an idea. For example, if you smack a tank with a rubber mallet, you simply aren't going to hammer your way through that thick metal hide no matter how many times you whack it in your lifetime.
However, this still presents problems "realistically" as well as in game terms. For one thing, any player of _Warhammer Fantasy Battle_ would be used to fielding armies of regular warriors that do battle with anything from puny Goblins to heavily-armored Reiksguard. Even though one combatant might be in full plate armor, there is still a /chance/ that an attack, even by a lowly Goblin, just /might/ be able to do some damage ... and this fact justifies how a horde of Goblins, in sufficient numbers, could have just as much combat potential as a smaller unit of armored knights.
For another, Warriors do not progress in Battle-Levels and power at an even rate. If they did, there would be no reason for keeping track of experience/gold separately. Therefore, a GM running these games has to pick obstacles and opponents which present a fair challenge to all involved. Sure, the stronger will have the best chance of succeeding, and the weaker ones will be in the most peril, but hopefully everyone will be able to contribute their share to the adventure. At some point, though, regular Monsters can't even /touch/ a sufficiently armored Dwarf. If he acquires the Armor of Taakan and a shield, for instance, while he would have to forego using his Great Axe, he's a walking tank, and can't even be touched by an entire ARMY of Goblins, even if every last one of them rolled natural 6's on all to-hit and damage rolls!
The only way to challenge the Dwarf is to introduce tougher Monsters that can do more damage in a single blow (or else use those few Monsters that simply /ignore/ armor). However, a Monster that does enough damage to worry a heavily-armored Dwarf could reduce a Wizard to /paste/ in a single blow. Generally, in situations like this, the Dwarf gets challenged, while the others have to roll up new characters and start off at Battle-Level 1 yet again, worsening the power gap still more!
I've tried other house rules, and I've tried slipping in Giant Spiders and the like at every opportunity, but another thought came to me: How about if I changed how armor was handled altogether?
On the plus side, I'm borrowing rules from WFB (_Warhammer Fantasy Battle_), strengthening the relationship between the two games in a way. On the negative side, though, I am drastically altering some /very/ fundamental rules in _Warhammer Quest_, which would most certainly carry severe repercussions in actual play.
So, with that in mind, here are my proposed experimental house rules to try out an alternate armor system. While I've tried to cover the bases for the existing system, future Games Workshop releases could well present new items (such as magical armor) that would create new problems for this system. As always, GM discretion (or player consensus) would be required.
In _Warhammer Quest_, armor is handled by simply adding to a Warrior's Toughness rating (though the total is kept separate from his "starting" Toughness, as some attacks ignore armor entirely). In _Warhammer Fantasy Battle_, however, armor is handled differently, providing an "armor save".
When in combat, you first roll to hit, as normal. Then, you roll for an "Armor Save". The defender has a chance that his armor will protect him from the blow completely, by rolling his Armor Save on 1D6. If he rolls the threshold value or better, the blow does no damage whatsoever. This roll is separate from any Dodge, Parry or other rolls that may apply. If, however, he fails his Armor Save, then the damage is applied to his Toughness as usual. This means that armored Warriors are harmed less often than unarmored ones, but when they /are/ hit, the effects are just as potentially lethal.
To determine your Warrior's "Armor Save", consider the following chart. As WFB is designed for tabletop warfare where cavalry may be involved, there is a separate column for characters riding a mount. This most likely won't apply to Warriors in dungeons, but if you ever decide to try an adventure "outside", or to actually play out fights that occur during journey Hazards, this might come into play.
| Armor | Warrior on Foot | Warrior on Mount |
| Unarmored | - | 6+ |
| Shield | 6+ | 5+ |
| Light Armor | 6+ | 5+ |
| Light Armor and Shield | 5+ | 4+ |
| Heavy Armor | 5+ | 4+ |
| Heavy Armor and Shield | 4+ | 3+ |
| Barding on Horse | - | (-1) |
Now, this system only divides armor into "Heavy" or "Light", with only one type of Shield at all, with no consideration for helmets. The regular "Shield" should be considered obsolete.
Chainmail Armor and Light Armor both count as "Light Armor", the difference being price and the movement penalty. Leather Armor is /also/ "Light Armor", but its main weakness is the fact that it can be destroyed relatively easily.
Heavy Armor and Plate Armor are both "Heavy Armor".
Now, what of Plate Armor or Great Shields, or perhaps future armor types that add additional points of protection? Plate Armor and a Great Shield simply offer their usual Armor Save value, except that they each would give an additional "buffer" point to absorb Damage Modifiers (described later).
For items not covered as "armor" or "shield", these simply add to the Toughness as before. This would include Furs, Helms, magical cloaks, protection spells, items that increase Toughness, and the like. A total should be kept for the altered Toughness score with armor, as any attack that ignores armor will bypass not only the Armor Save, but whatever bonus to Toughness that armor would afford.
Some attacks do so much damage that armor is of little use against it, being crushed in the process. To represent this, if any attack is made with more than 1D6 being rolled for damage, for each additional die, add one to the roll required to make an Armor Save. (If the resulting Armor Save is at 7 or more, then the armor save is automatically failed, as there is no way to roll such a number on 1D6, of course.)
(Keep in mind that in the new system, armor has a chance of making an attack do absolutely no damage at all -- even a smash by a Greater Daemon, if there were no penalty to the roll! This rule helps to reflect that even heavily armored opponents under the old system would be taking a thrashing, should they get hit by such an attack.)
In the case of a Great Shield, Plate Armor, or any type of armor that gives additional Toughness (beyond the norm) due to magic or whatnot, this additional bonus translates into an equivalent number of points that help to offset Damage Modifiers. A Warrior in Plate Armor with a Great Shield normally has an Armor Save of 4+ -- the same as a Warrior who was only wearing Heavy Armor and a regular Shield. However, his Plate Armor gives him one "buffer point", and the Great Shield gives him another. If he is attacked by a Monster who does (3D6 + Strength) damage, he would normally be penalized, only having an Armor Save of 6+, if he were wearing Heavy Armor and a Shield.
However, these buffer points offset the Modifier, so he /still/ has an Armor Save of 4+. If he were hit by a (4D6 + Strength) attack, he'd have to make a /5+/ roll, but he's still doing far better than the other Warrior who would have no save at all by this point!
Okay, so you can calculate the Armor Save for each of the Warriors, but what about the Monsters? The short answer is, don't worry about it. Just treat the Monsters as having altered Toughness, as with the old system. It's too much trouble to try writing up new Armor Save values for each and every Monster type, especially when new ones are going to be released in the future, without honoring these experimental house rules by any means. You /could/ look up the appropriate Army Books or Army List for WFB and use any Armor Save listed there, although the statistics are not really compatible.
The purpose of this system for the Warriors is basically just to make it so that armor is still quite useful, but doesn't have quite the potential to make Warriors simply /invincible/ against regular opponents.
Of course, any rules change this drastic is going to have major effects on game play. Obviously, it will have little impact on Warriors who have little or no armor already (such as most Battle-Level 1 Warriors, except for the Dwarf, or some of my home-made professions such as the Knight Panther). For armored Warriors, they will be vulnerable to Monsters that couldn't even touch them before, but their armor will still be quite useful -- After all, when they manage to make their armor rolls (anywhere from a 1 in 6 to a 1 in 2 chance for unmounted Warriors) they will escape damage entirely.