Armour protection values

Hermes's picture

Hi,

Is mail always counted with leather base? Perhaps a thin leather base? I have understood that mail has bad protection against blunt
But is it unreasonable to put mail APV = 3 on blunt instead including 'thin' leather base? Then one could add real leather if one wants. Or is this just not reasonable? Would be grateful for comments on this.

/Hermes

Jack's picture

Mail is a standalone armor. It has no base because the rings all interlock (typically each with four other rings). Mail is commonly worn over quilt, though wearing it over leather is certainly an option. However, the protective values of mail are for the interlocking metal rings ONLY. You could wear a mail hauberk by itself if you wanted to, though it might pinch a wee bit.

You may be thinking of ring armor. The rings of ring armor are not interlocked; they are sewn on a base (typically leather). If you wanted to, you could subtract the leather values from the ring values to determine the true value of adding the rings to the leather. You could then use that true value to add rings to, for example, quilt. (I wouldn't bother, though. Ring armor was pretty much made with leather.)

Your typical knight wore a cloth (probably linen with negligible protective value) surcoat over a mail hauberk over a quilt gambeson over a linen shift. In game terms, he would have summed up the protective values for mail and quilt for each type of damage to get his total protective values. He could have substituted leather for quilt if desired, which would have improved his edge and point defenses at the expense of his blunt defense. I guess it was all a matter of what he expected to get hit with . . . but mail over quilt was most common.

Does that help or did I entirely miss the point? ;-)