Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25159376-20140315221615/@comment-4868902-20140316011911

I've actually given this a lot of thought, so I'll break it down into sections. The combat triangle, as it applies to rp, can be a combination of both armour and combat mechanics.

 Metal Armour 

While I don't think metal armour means that you can't cast at all, Varren, you can also note that there isn't a lot of metal there at all in the battlemage set; just little pieces of plate in key areas. That's a major difference between a suit of armour and the battle-mage set. A bit of plate here and there won't hurt you, but a tin can will. Notably, I think it's fair to say that the black knights and white knights there wouldn't have been the best casters. Metal reduces the power of your spells being cast, and conducts magic like it's electricity- which can be very harmful if you're hit.That doesn't mean you can't cast, just that it won't be as easy. It will protect against ranged attacks superbly, somewhat against melee, and will fuck you up against a mage.

 Leather Armour 

Leather armour used to have no effect on your spellcasting, but it also didn't help either- but it does seem to negate the effects of spells on people. I usually say that, depending on the quality of the spell, it'll sort of reduce the power of the spell by a "level" or two. Like, leather armour turns a blast into a wave, dragonhide armour turns that blast into a puny strike. It will protect against magic very well, but not at all against most other ranged attacks or melee attacks.

Cloth/Magical Armour

Cloth/magical armour has no protection against melee, no protection against rangers, and somewhat protection against spells- think defensive enchantments and wards, though nothing major (this is in lore!)- but what it does is increase the power of a mage's spellbook and empowers their spells, and really, most of what makes a mage in battle is how they use their spells- their armour doesn't matter as much.

Picking your character's armour and weapons should involve a careful understanding of the pros and cons.

Anyways, now that I'm done that rant...

Combat Mechanics

The armour doesn't fully balance the combat triangle, but common sense of how combat goes does. Think of it this way...

A mage has a massive advantage against a melee user, because the melee user will likely be wearing plate/metal armour, and the mage will be attacking the melee user from far away. The melee user, if the mage has distance, will not be able to attack the mage, because they will not be able to reach them before they are fried into a crisp. Their defense, in essence, is the inability to have a melee user use an offense against them at all.

A mage has a massive disadvantage against a ranged user. The ranged user has armour that will negate a chunk of a mage's spell, and the defense a mage may have against a warrior- being distance- is not an issue for the ranger, because they will just shoot the mage, who will be wearing robes, which don't do much against crossbow bolts.

A warrior has an advantage over a ranged user because their armour should help against most kinds of bolts, and the ranged user's armour doesn't protect from melee weapons.

So it's like, mage > warrior > ranged > mage, repeat.

But yeah, either way, this is just the general headcanon I have about it, and even then, I'm fine with deviation from it. Like, creativity comes first, right? People also often hybrid classes, and this makes things much more interesting.