Armor Is Useless: Difference between revisions
→Tabletop Games
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** Firearms, if allowed, render armour useless at close range since they are treated as touch attacks.
* [[Star Wars]] d20 had armor that really was useless, unless you were already almost dead. It provided damage reduction only when you were out of vitality points or against a critical hit, when damage went to wound points. So for most of a battle, all most armor did was provide a situation bonus to one ability and an armor check penalty to certain skills. ...yay? It also denied you your class-based AC and limited your max Dex Bonus. This could be designed to reflect the stormtrooper armor's uselessness.
** In ''[[Star Wars]]: Saga Edition'', characters gain bonuses to their Reflex Defense (the defense that keeps blaster bolts hitting you) from armor or a [[Statistically Speaking|level-based bonus]], and they don't stack. At higher levels, it's better to go into a fight naked, rather than wearing the heaviest protection you can find, and at early levels it's unlikely you can afford armor better than your bonus. However, it isn't played completely straight as the bonuses to Fortitude Defense from armor do stack and with the right talents, you can get them to stack with the Reflex Defense as well.
* One of the most notable examples in the ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' background is the standard issue flak armour of the Imperial Guard - a bulletproof, heat and shrapnel resistant uniform with potentially extra armoured-areas by our standards... and is generally useless against most of the weaponry of the other species within ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]''. The [[Power Armor]] worn by the [[Space Marine]] Mascots, on the other hand, is generally an aversion. Most weapons have a better than even chance of bouncing off harmlessly, and the even more powerful Terminator Armor is protection against anything short of Heavy Anti-tank weaponry or plasma weapons, and for dealing with such weapons, [[Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me|Storm Shields]] and [[Energy Shields|The built in energy shield]] of terminator armor still provide reasonable protection.
** Admitedly, the weaponry used by other species includes, but is not limited to, [[BFG|armor-piercing rocket-propelled grenades]], [[Absurdly Sharp Blade|mono-edged high-speed shurikens]], [[Abnormal Ammo|armored flesh-eating acidic worms]] or [[Energy Weapon|droplets of superheated plasma]]. And thats just what the line infantry uses. Especialists and other elites can, and often do, pack much deadlier weaponry. On the other hand, flak armor provides quite decent protection against lasbolts, bullets (even high-caliber ones) and most conventional melee weapons and its one of the best armors available to starting characters in the [[Dark Heresy|RPG]].
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** Armor rules were later printed in the ''[[Fanon Discontinuity|Cathay]]'' supplement, which was written after all of the setting's creators had [[Just for Pun|jumped ship]].
* In ''MERP'',<ref>and by extension ''[[Role Master]]</ref> unarmoured was usually better than soft and hard leather armour against most weapons. Each weapon had a strike table against each armour type (AT) and it was far easier to hit higher armors on average, but you dealt mere damage. The real killer in rolemaster/MERP was the critical strike table roll, which was easier to gain against most armors in the game than it was against not wearing armor at all. Soft and Rigid leather was not only easier to hit and deal damage to, it was far more deadly to wear as critical strike table rolls occured more often! Medium armors like chain also suffered from this to an extent against many weapons. Not only did critical strike table rolls deal things such as stuns, even the weakest table (A) had a chance to maim, incapacitate or outright kill your character on a percentage roll! And this is something you not only had to invest dev points in for manouvrability, it also carried a quickness penalty to make you even easier to hit while wearing it!
== [[Video Games]] ==
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