Armor & Weapons¶

Worn armor provides direct combat protection, and your weapon determines your attack skill, your recovery, and your effectiveness against different armors.

Wearing gear¶

WEAR <item>     (DON)    put on armor, clothing, or a pack
REMOVE <item>   (DOFF)   take it off into a free hand

Removing an item needs a free hand. Worn armor's protection comes from each piece on its body slot; coverage stacks across pieces.

Body slots¶

Slot	Typical items
Head	helm, cap, hood
Neck	gorget, amulet
Chest	breastplate, coat, shirt
Back	cloak, worn pack
Arms	vambraces, sleeves
Hands	gauntlets, gloves
Waist	belt, girdle
Legs	greaves, trousers
Feet	boots, sandals
Fingers (×2)	rings
Ears (×2)	earrings

Hold an earring, then use WEAR EARRING. Earrings can be worn alongside a helm. Climbing spikes and crampons strap over worn boots: put on your boots, hold the spikes, then WEAR SPIKES. Wear one set at a time and remove it before your boots.

Armor groups¶

Armor falls into five groups, trading protection against weight and hindrance. Heavier armor contributes more Guard and lowers the grade of criticals landed on you (the "crit padding" applied in combat):

Group	Guard / damage reduction	Crit padding	Hindrance
Cloth	minimal	0	none
Leather	low	0	very light
Scale	moderate	−1	moderate
Chain	good	−1	noticeable
Plate	high	−2	heavy

Crit padding subtracts directly from the critical grade of any hit you take (see Combat → Margin, grazes, and wounds) — plate turns many would-be severe wounds into lesser ones. Armor can add attack recovery, hinder spells, and reduce the dodge contribution to Guard. Armor Training reduces the first two costs; the dodge reduction remains.

How much Armor Training?¶

ARMOR shows your current armor group, training, remaining attack recovery penalty, spell failure chance, and evasion cost. ARMOR PLATE (or another group) previews its costs with your current training. Your chest armor sets the group; without a chest piece, the heaviest worn armor sets it.

At normal realm tuning:

Group	Ranks to remove armor attack recovery	Ranks to reach minimum spell hindrance	Minimum spell failure	Dodge contribution lost
Cloth	0	0	0%	0%
Leather	0	3	0%	3%
Scale	2	4	5%	5%
Chain	6	6	10%	6%
Plate	11	11	25%	17%

These are total ranks. Plate needs 11 ranks on the current skill curve, not 10. Removing the armor recovery penalty does not remove a weapon's base recovery or the cost of a heavy load. Scale, chain, and plate retain a spell failure floor. The live ARMOR readout accounts for realm tuning; scroll and wand activations are exempt from armor spell hindrance.

Examine stock before buying¶

Ask the merchant ABOUT <item> for its description, or ask for a specific detail: ASK <merchant> ABOUT <boots> GRIP, ABOUT <coat> WEIGHT, or ABOUT <weapon> DAMAGE. Grip answers use the item's actual footing bonus and explicitly say when it has none. Only the best worn grip piece counts, and it cannot guarantee that you will never slip.

Cold, heat, rain, and snow can appear in your condition. Weather also affects combat defense and icy footing, but temperature currently causes no exposure damage and clothing provides no insulation mechanic. You do not need to replace armor with warm clothes to avoid freezing.

Weapons¶

A weapon has two relevant properties: the skill that trains it (driving Attack and recovery) and the class that sets its Matchup against armor.

Weapon skills¶

Skill	Key	Base RECOVERY	Notes
Blades	`skill.edged`	5 s	the common one-handed melee skill
Crushing Weapons	`skill.blunt`	5 s	clubs, maces, hammers
Great Weapons	`skill.twohanded`	5 s+	greatswords and other heavy two-handed arms
Unarmed Combat	`skill.brawling`	3 s	unarmed; fastest, lowest damage
Dual Wielding	`skill.multiweapon`	—	each rank removes 1 point of the off-hand Attack penalty

An under-trained weapon lengthens recovery (+5% per rank below max(5, level × 2), capped +50%). See Combat → Recovery.

Weapon class (Matchup)¶

A weapon's class chooses its column in the Matchup table — the flat modifier added to the tally based on the defender's armor group:

Class ↓ / Armor →	cloth	leather	scale	chain	plate
unarmed	0	−4	−8	−13	−18
brawling (knuckles, cestus)	8	4	0	−4	−7
sword	19	11	2	−4	−9
dagger	15	7	−1	−6	−12
mace	11	7	3	1	5
axe	16	7	2	−3	−8
two-handed	24	15	7	2	−3
polearm	17	10	5	1	−3
spear	17	9	1	−5	−10
bow	21	12	3	−3	−10
crossbow	19	14	8	4	0
thrown	17	9	2	−4	−10

Maces are the one class whose Matchup improves from chain to plate, while crossbows hold their ground against the heaviest armor. Swords and bows are strongest into light protection. Match the weapon to the foe.

The right-hand rule¶

Your weapon must be in your right hand — the primary weapon hand. The left hand can hold a shield (for the Shield Training bonus) or a second weapon; fighting effectively with an off-hand weapon is what Dual Wielding trains.

Damage and condition¶

On a hit, the weapon contributes a random roll between its minimum and maximum damage, plus margin and Might bonuses, minus armor reduction (see Combat → Margin, grazes, and wounds). The weapon's maximum damage also scales critical bonus damage. Weapons (and lockpicks) can wear or break with use; the smith repairs weapons.

GM spawning (testing)¶

/spawnitem broadsword         drop a weapon, then GET it
/spawnarmor chest leather     spawn leather chest armor, then GET + WEAR
/spawnarmor pack              spawn a worn backpack (back slot)

See the GM Guide.