Troll Lord Games

How much does magic armor weigh, compared to regular armor? I can't seem to find anything in PHB or M&T. The 1st ed. AD&D DMG isn't a lot of help: on page 28, it says half, but 164 says that it's virtually weightless (i.e., weighs as much as normal clothing).

I'm leaning toward half the normal weight, but I'm curious what y'all do.

I've always used 1/2 weight, unless it's something special like Elfin Chain Mail that's noteworthy for being light and unencumbered.

kreider204 wrote:How much does magic armor weigh, compared to regular armor? I can't seem to find anything in PHB or M&T. The 1st ed. AD&D DMG isn't a lot of help: on page 28, it says half, but 164 says that it's virtually weightless (i.e., weighs as much as normal clothing).

I'm leaning toward half the normal weight, but I'm curious what y'all do.

I do:

1) +1 normal weight
2) +2 1/2 weight
3) +3 or > - clothing weight.

expounding on this, especially for you Arduin since you change the weight based on the level of magical enhancement
1.) do you allow any and all magic armor to change size to fit the wearer or do you require them to be altered?
2.) If the magic armor will alter size to what degree, like with in the typical demi-human races or would a troll's magic armor conform and alter itself to fit a gnome or dwarf?

The standard, human-made magical armour, I typically make half the weight of normal armour. Elven armour is even lighter, and elven chainmail in my campaign is little heavier than ordinary clothing. Dwarven armour is not really reduced in weight, but gives a damage reduction value equal to its enchantment bonus.

Dracyian wrote:expounding on this, especially for you Arduin since you change the weight based on the level of magical enhancement
1.) do you allow any and all magic armor to change size to fit the wearer or do you require them to be altered?

Unless it is tailored Full Plate (see my pic for example) it'll change to fit any PC race or similar sized humanoid race. Orc to Gnome works. Troll (giant type) to human, nope. If Tailored Full plate, the person must be of the same race.

Arduin wrote:

Dracyian wrote:expounding on this, especially for you Arduin since you change the weight based on the level of magical enhancement
1.) do you allow any and all magic armor to change size to fit the wearer or do you require them to be altered?

Unless it is tailored Full Plate (see my pic for example) it'll change to fit any PC race or similar sized humanoid race. Orc to Gnome works. Troll (giant type) to human, nope. If Tailored Full plate, the person must be of the same race.

Say you were taking the tailor plate off of a 6' 320lb man as a 5'8" 180 lb female would it still adjust or need ot be tailored?

Yeah, there is nothing in C&C on this, unless it got covered in the CKG. So I like to go by 1E rules for this. Which is no encumbrance. Its not that they weigh nothing, its that they are not an "encumbrance" in any way. As for changing size, I allow it to change enough to fit anyone within the same size range. IE all medium sized armor will fit anyone within the same "category".

According to a discussion the Trolls and I had on this on these boards, it was a design choice of theirs to not pin down the weight or encumbrance of magic armor. In that discussion, if I recall correctly, they cut the weight of the armor in half. I personally prefer the armor to have no weight .*

*Technically, the armor weighs less than a pound. If it weighed nothing it would float away in air after taking it off.

Dracyian wrote:
Say you were taking the tailor plate off of a 6' 320lb man as a 5'8" 180 lb female would it still adjust or need ot be tailored?

I allow it to adjust since race is the same.

Traveller wrote:According to a discussion the Trolls and I had on this on these boards, it was a design choice of theirs to not pin down the weight or encumbrance of magic armor. In that discussion, if I recall correctly, they cut the weight of the armor in half. I personally prefer the armor to have no weight .*

*Technically, the armor weighs less than a pound. If it weighed nothing it would float away in air after taking it off.

Not to rain on your parade but if it was weightless that could mean its weight would be the same weight of air and thus would just hover until acted upon by another force. But if it weighed zero than yeah I suppose it would float away.

OK, let's get really obnoxiously pedantic. If it was weightless, it would weigh less than air, which has mass and thus it would float away like a helium filled balloon.

Come to think of it, if the armor was weightless that would seem to imply that is has no mass and then you start to wonder how a thing with no mass is meant to keep an orc's axe from emptying your guts onto the dungeon floor.

The mind boggles.

NJPDX wrote:OK, let's get really obnoxiously pedantic. If it was weightless, it would weigh less than air, which has mass and thus it would float away like a helium filled balloon.

Come to think of it, if the armor was weightless that would seem to imply that is has no mass and then you start to wonder how a thing with no mass is meant to keep an orc's axe from emptying your guts onto the dungeon floor.

The mind boggles.

Not true, weightless does not equal massless, as weight is only a measurement of applicable gravity on a object, but I suppose it depends on how you want to measure it, because helium actually has a weight, it just weighs less than everything else around it and is pushed up. The float itself isn't the helium going up but everything else around it going lower than it being that oxygen, nitrogen and other atmosphere gases present, Technically everything has weight/mass including light