Armor

Armors never have a magical enhancement bonus. Instead, every character gains a parry bonus to AC, which depends on Character Level and the used armor. Armor Parry defines how well the character can actively use his armor to block hits. The armor bonus defines how the material itself resists damage, but an experienced person learns to take advantage of the thickest parts of the armor or turn to oblique angles instead of a direct hit. It is more difficult to block strikes with light armors, thus they receive penalties to Armor Parry. This is offset by their higher maximum Dexterity bonus.

Heavy and stiff equipment interferes with the somatic components in spellcasting, so using armors or shields without special training places a failure chance for spells. Additionally, heavy shields make casting more difficult because the shield hand must be gripping the shield at all times and cannot be used for holding the caster's weapon during casting. If a spellcasting character has armor or shield proficiency he gets a corresponding armored casting feat as a bonus. Hermetic casters are an exception: they must purchase the armored casting feat since the somatic components for Hermetic tradition are especially intricate.

• Armored Casting: Spell failure drops by 20%-units, prerequisites either light armor or shield proficiency. All other philosophies except Hermetic gain this as a bonus feat as soon as they meet the prerequisites. The feat enables the character to use the two lightest types of armor and/or any shield without spell failure.
• Improved Armored Casting: Spell failure drops by 40%-units, prerequisite armored casting feat. Christian and Islamic philosophies gain this as a bonus feat if the character has heavy armor proficiency. The feat enables the character to cast spells without failure in all light armors with shields, or heavy armors without shield.
• Greater Armored Casting: Spell failure drops by 60%-units, prerequisite improved armored casting feat and heavy armor proficiency. This feat must always be purchased, it enables the character to use any armors and shields without spell failure.

Leather / Padded

The cheapest and most common form of armor is a long padded surcoat (gambeson), used by knights under chain mail to prevent chafing and cushioning impacts. Common soldiers cannot usually afford even chain shirts, so they wear just padded coats reinforced with chain hoods (coif) or a light helmet. Knights usually doff their heavy and hot armors outside the battlefield and wear only the gambeson. An equivalent amount of protection is gained from a leather or fur outfit where the shoulders, arms, and legs are protected by thicker or hardened material.

Reinforced Leather

When the common surcoat is reinforced by extra material, the armor protects better but still remains fairly flexible. A common reinforcement is a leather vest with riveted small metal or hard leather plates (brigandine). Covering a leather outfit with metal studs or rings is about as protective.

Chain Shirt

The most common metal armor is a knee-length and half-sleeved chain shirt (hauberk), with a slitted hem for riding. The outfit comes with either an integral or detachable hood or open helmet with nasal bar. Chain mail protects well against piercing or slashing, but bruises and fractures are common - the user does not need to fear infected wounds, however. The shirt is cinched tight with a belt to distribute some of the weight off the shoulders. This sort of armor is used by practically all European knights, and it is also very common among the Saracens and Byzantines.

Scale Armor

A heavy armor type popular in the East, where overlapping steel plates are riveted or sewn on a leather base. The scales protect well against most hits, but the armor becomes stiff and heavy, so usually only a breastplate, bracers, and greaves are made out of scales. In other places, reinforced leather or chain mail is used. In Byzantium, a lamellar armor (klibanion) with rectangular plates is used instead of scales.

By reinforcing an ordinary chain shirt by a brigandine vest, greaves, and bracers, and equivalent amount of protection is gained. Also the old Roman banded armor lorica segmentata is about equally protective, although such have not been used for well over five hundred years.

Chain Mail

The full-body chain armor consists of a ling-sleeved and hooded coat with separate armor for the legs (chausses). A closed cylindrical helm is used on top of the hood and chain mittens protect the hands. The outfit is worn over a padded gambeson. The chain mail is not as stiff as scale, but since the armor is one piece it has less seams that an opponent can strike through.

Shields

Shields never have a magical enhancement bonus. Instead, every character gains a parry bonus to AC, which depends on Character Level and the used shield. Shield Parry defines how well the character can actively block strikes with his shield. Smaller shields have less to block with so they cause a penalty to Parry Bonus.

Practically all shields are made of wood, usually a few laminated stripes of linden, covered with leather. In the center there is often a conical metal boss that helps on blocking, especially with lighter shields. The rim of the shield is sometimes reinforced with hardened leather or even metal.

Every soldier who is able to uses a shield, which is the cheapest and simplest way to avoid injury. With the price of a padded surcoat, one can get 50% better protection by purchasing a kite shield. Only the heaviest armors protect so well that it is not necessary to use a shield. Archers are of course a different case, but even they usually have a small shield.

Buckler

Small round shield attached to the forearm, mostly used by crossbowmen because the arm with the shield can still be used when firing. A tiny shield like this is not much help against missile fire, but does give some help in parrying. Buckler is so small that it can be made out of metal without becoming too heavy.

Round Shield

A round, smallish shield, less than one meter in diameter. The shield is so light that the shield hand can be used to hold things: reins when riding or even a weapon if one needs the weapon hand for something else. Round shields are flat in cross-section, so they are easy and cheap to make. Such shields are popular with the light cavalry units of the East, because the light shield can be quickly placed aside for using a bow.

Kite Shield

A tear-shaped shield popular among the Normans. The tapering bottom part protects the legs, but can be turned aside when riding or running. Kite shields have two sets of grips, so the shield is equally usable for footmen and riders. The shield is so heavy that the shield hand cannot hold anything heavier than reins, and riders often hang their shields from leather straps over the shoulder when not in battle. The shield is strongly convex, so it is slower to make than simple models. In the East the largest shields are usually oval-shaped, which makes them more difficult to use when riding.

Because spellcasting requires a free hand, the weapon must be held by the shield hand while casting. This is impossible with a kite shield, so spellcasters usually stick to lighter shields.