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New Armor Pieces
An assortment of new protective gear for characters in d20 World of Warcraft. These are just house rules, which have been slightly revised after playtesting. Use them in your campaign at your own risk!

Helmets
Standard suits of armor (as purchased from the core rules equipment list) typically include helmets, but such helmets offer maximum visibility with minimal protection - and in game terms, have a negligible effect on actual character protection. The following represents more extensive head coverage - for increased protection against critical hits.

Helmets offer a helmet bonus to AC that only applies when determining whether a critical threat is in fact a critical hit against the wearer. Helmets may also offer a helmet bonus to concentration checks. (Please note that this assumes that a critical hit is against the head; in regular game play, a critical hit may involve damage to another part of the body, but since d20 doesn't handle "hit locations", this doesn't matter: a helmet just makes it less likely that you'll suffer a critical hit.)

These helmets require straps to secure properly in place; they aren't just "caps". As such, it takes a full round to properly put on or take off a helmet. (Putting it on hastily - as a move or standard action - results in loss of the helmet's Concentration bonus, if any, and the Spot Penalty is worsened by -4 due to risk of the helmet shifting while moving.)

Helmets typically don't apply an Armor Check Penalty; instead, they sometimes apply a helmet penalty to Spot checks. Masterwork helmets reduce this penalty by 1, at a cost of 100 gp plus the base cost.

The appropriate armor proficiency is required to wear various types of helms effectively in combat. (The required proficiency is indicated in the table below.)

Armor Armor Type Cost Helmet Bonus vs. Critical Concentration Bonus Spot Penalty Weight
Leather Headdress Light
(Leather)
10 gp +1 +1 -1 2 lb
Mail Coif Light
(Chain)
10 gp +1 +0 +0 3 lb
Helm Medium
(Plate)
20 gp +2 +2 -1 4 lb
Full Helm Heavy
(Plate)
150 gp +3 +2 -4 5 lb

Shoulders
Most suits of armor include shoulder protection, but specially-designed shoulder guards can be helpful in defending against critical attacks – particularly to the head – at the expense of extra weight and reduced mobility. The prerequisite armor proficiency is required to wear shoulder guards – with the exception of Cloth Shoulders, which may be worn even without armor proficiency.

Shoulder guards offer a shoulder bonus to AC that only applies when determining whether a critical threat is in fact a critical against the wearer. That is, if a warrior’s AC is 14, and he is hit by a natural 20, the attacker rolls again to see if it’s a critical. If the warrior is wearing leather shoulder guards (AC +2 vs. critical), then his AC is treated as 16 when making the roll to check for critical.

As with other masterwork armor, masterwork shoulder guards have their Armor Check Penalty reduced by 1, and they cost 150 gp more than the base cost for the listed shoulder guard type.

Shoulders require a minute to put on properly or remove, regardless of type. They can be donned hastily, taking just 5 rounds, but the shoulder bonus and armor check penalty are each 1 point worse than normal.

Armor Armor Type Cost Shoulder Bonus vs. Critical Armor Check Penalty Arcane Spell Failure Chance Weight
Cloth Mantle Robes*
(Cloth)
1 gp +0 0 +0% 1 lb
Leather Spaulders Light
(Leather)
10 gp +1 0 +5% 2 lb
Heavy Bone Shoulders Medium
(Bone)
15 gp +2 -2 +15% 2 lb
Mail Shoulders Medium
(Mail)
20 gp +2 -1 +10% 3 lb
Plate Pauldrons Heavy
(Plate)
150 gp +3 -2 +15% 5 lb

* Note: Cloth Shoulders are listed as "Robes" rather than having an armor type; they do not require any armor proficiency to wear, and may be worn by any character capable of wearing robes. They are, in essence, nothing more than ornamentation, unless some sort of enchantment were put upon them.







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