Talk:Type IIIA Bulletproof Armor (5e Equipment)

Modern Armor

This topic refers to a set of body armor. As of the time of posting (12:40, 30 December 2016 (MST)), it includes all modern armor except the Kevlar Vest.

So I recently made a set of modern body armor. The idea behind it was to base it off of real world standards, so that a) I didn't have a dozen types of armor that were all named kevlar vest, b) eliminate the need for new armor mechanics with every style of armor that exists, and c) have a separation between melee attacks and ranged attacks, so the armor doesn't perform exactly like the medieval equivalent. What I'm calling the "rough draft" is up, but there's two flaws to address:

1. The names. As it turns out, the classifications for modern body armor are complicated. For instance, bulletproof armor goes from, from least protection to most: Type IIA, Type II, Type IIIA, Type III, Type IV. And then there's Special Type, which is this side category that's 'doin its own thing. And then the melee-proof armor uses Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3, but that's further broken up into "spikes" and "edged bladed" categories. And armor can technically have both a melee-proof level and a bulletproof type, or have two different melee-proof levels...I ended up using broad strokes adapting this. No one is going to know what any of these names mean. I'm not even 100% sure.
2. The AC split. To separate bulletproof and melee-proof armor, I made their ACs only apply when attacked by ranged or melee weapons, accordingly. It's a brute force solution I don't like; if you're wearing modern armor, you'd have to keep track of an AC for melee and an AC for ranged. If this was a video game, it wouldn't be much of a problem, but every extra number on the character sheet is a potential rules confusion.

For the names, I was thinking of making generic sounding names for the types of armor, accompanied by their real world classification in the description. That way, you know what the article is going to be about from the title, but it also gives some details into what level of armor is for what task. I'm going through synonym dictionaries trying to find the right words, though I'm open to suggestions. I have no idea what to do about the AC split.

Anyone have any ideas? Oportet (talk) 12:40, 30 December 2016 (MST)