Magic and Armor...a question.

[Fallingtower]

Hello folks,

Just one question.

Are there any negatives/penalties for magick types wearing armor?

I scoured the book (just got it the other day) and haven't seen anything which would deter a spellchucker from armoring up.

Is this right?

I was planning on converting a few 1st ed. D&D dungeons to BRP for some beer and pretzels old school tomfoolery.

[Narl]

If you want to keep it simple, use the Skill Modifier in the armor table as a skill penalty if you are using Magic.

[Fallingtower]

Cthanx....that's the only rule I found remotely applicable to my aforementioned rules dilemma.

So if the party wizard wants to suit up in full plate, he's gonna have to deal with that pesky skill penalty.

I have reasonable players, so I kinda doubt I will have trouble keeping the wizard out of the plate mail.

[threedeesix]

If you want to keep it simple, use the Skill Modifier in the armor table as a skill penalty if you are using Magic.

For Classic Fantasy I had to keep my Magic Users out of armor as well or it wouldn't have had the feel that was needed. I originally used this same idea but ran into a problem as the playtest moved on to high "level" characters. With really high skills, those over 100%, the penelty could easily be ignored.

What I ended up doing was to take the Skill Modifier of the armor, and use it to increase the Fumble range when spell casting. This works really nice as a mage with a skill of 125% in Fire Ball would normally only fumble on a roll of 00. Now if wearing say chain armor, this results in a fumble whenever he rolls a 80-00%. Even with a high skill. And no mage will want to risk hitting himself with his own lightning bolt.

I should point out that in Classic Fantasy, this only applies to Magic-Users and Illusionists. Clerics can cast in any armor and Druids can cast in "natural" armors without penalty.

Rod

[wbcreighton]

If you are going for that DnD feel for your BRP game, Classic Fantasy is an awesome supplement, well worth getting. All of those DnD spells and character classes are already converted for you.

[Narl]

I'll second the Classic Fantasy recommendation. I should have mentioned it in my initial reply. If you really want the D&D feel it is absolutely the way to go.

[Byron Alexander]

Obviously, I'll third the Classic Fantasy recommendation, it does exactly what you're thinking of doing and all of these dilemmas are solved for you.

That said, if you are determined not to buy a monograph I'd probably flange it - just say that in your world too much metal near the body interferes with magical power. That'll make your wizard the guy in robes with a wooden staff easy enough.

[Conrad]

If you are determined to go for the old school style of rules for armour wearing mages why not just go for having all spell skill rolls being difficult (halved) while in armour. This has the advantage of being an incentive for not wearing armour even at high skill levels. You may even require mages to wear only magical robes to be able to cast any spells.

By the way, Classic Fantasy has a lot of neat D&D spells adapted for BRP. Now that is