Armour
TOC |
Nought can Deform the Human race Like to the Armours iron brace" -William Blake, "Auguries of Innocence", 99-100. 1803. |
Armour encompasses all clothing worn to protect against physical melee and ranged attacks (though some provide benefits against certain magic attacks as well). Armour does this by providing increased AC, GDR, SH (shields), resistances (certain body armours), and whatever benefits their egos provide. However, this comes at a cost to your EV and Spellcasting ability when using the heavier armours. Increasing your Armour skill improves the benefits and lowers the penalties of most armour, though shields are governed by the Shields skill.
Some species have restrictions on the kinds of armour they can wear.
Contents
Armour Locations
There are six armour locations in Crawl, also known as armour slots when referring to whether a player is wearing (or can wear) a given type of armour.
- Body armour is worn on a character's torso, and provides both AC and GDR. Its AC bonus is penalized by the Deformed mutation. Heavier ones provide larger EV penalties.
- Gloves are worn on the hands, and are unusable with rank 3 of the Claws mutation. Certain Transmutations, such as Blade Hands, will disable them.
- Boots are worn on the feet, and are unusable with rank 3 of either the Talons or Hooves mutations.
- Headgear is worn on the head. The Beak, Antennae, and Horns mutations all restrict the player's headgear options.
- Cloaks are worn around the shoulders.
- Shields are worn on a character's arm. They provide SH, but impede spellcasting, EV, and the use of certain weapons.
Encumbrance rating
Most body armour has an encumbrance rating proportional to its AC and GDR. Robes, animal skins, and leather armour, being lightweight, have no or a very small EV penalty; at the other end of the spectrum you can find plate armour and crystal plate armour, which are cumbersome but incredibly protective. All shields and bardings also have an EV penalty.
A higher encumbrance rating:
- Lowers your evasion chance
- Makes you less stealthy
- Reduces your accuracy
- Reduces your spellcasting success rate
- Slows unarmed combat attacks
Increasing your Armour skill decreases the effect of the encumbrance rating (though never completely: -2.2% per level, so at level 27 the reduction is -60%) and boosts the total AC granted by those pieces. High strength will also help. See the encumbrance rating page for more details..
AC Calculations
If you're interested in the formulas the game uses to determine the actual AC contributions from a piece of armour, see the AC calculations page. Otherwise, here's the short version:
- A piece of armour's base AC is always the minimum you'll receive (assuming it's not negatively enchanted and/or you aren't Deformed).
- Improving your Armour skill increases the base AC an armour provides by about 4% per level.
- Enchanting armour directly adds to your total AC. This AC bonus is not affected by the Armour skill.
- The maximum enchantment possible on a piece of armour is its base AC (for body armour and barding); 3 for all types of shields; and 2 for everything else.
Guaranteed damage reduction
Any piece of armour with a base AC greater than 2 provides you with guaranteed damage reduction. This is a percentage of damage received from all physical melee attacks that you are guaranteed to ignore. The higher the armour's base AC, the higher the percentage ignored (though it is limited by your total AC). See the article on GDR for more details.
Wear and remove times
It takes AC+1 turns to put on or remove any kind of body armour. (This uses the item's base AC; enchantments are ignored.) A robe, having a base AC of 2, takes 3 turns to put on or remove; crystal plate armour, at AC 14, takes 15 turns.
If you're already wearing body armour, add the amount of time it takes to remove the first armour before you can put on the second. Exchanging one crystal plate armour for another will take a total of 30 turns.
Bucklers/shields/large shields take 3/6/8 turns to wear or remove. All other armour types -- boots, headgear, gloves, and cloaks -- take 2 turns to wear or remove.
Tables of Armours
Body Armour
Armour | Base AC | Encumbrance rating | GDR | Wearable | Mass |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Robe | 2 | 0 | 0% | All | 6.0 aum |
Leather armour | 3 | -4 | 14% | Small and medium | 15.0 aum |
Ring mail | 5 | -7 | 24% | Small and medium | 25.0 aum |
Scale mail | 6 | -11 | 28% | Small and medium | 35.0 aum |
Chain mail | 8 | -15 | 34% | Small and medium | 40.0 aum |
Plate armour | 10 | -18 | 39% | Small and medium | 65.0 aum |
Crystal plate armour | 14 | -24 | 48% | Small and medium | 120.0 aum |
Animal skin | 2 | 0 | 0% | All | 10.0 aum |
Troll hide | 2 | -4 | 0% | All | 22.0 aum |
Troll leather armour | 4 | -4 | 19% | All | 22.0 aum |
Steam dragon hide | 2 | 0 | 0% | All | 12.0 aum |
Steam dragon armour | 5 | 0 | 24% | All | 12.0 aum |
Mottled dragon hide | 3 | -5 | 14% | All | 15.0 aum |
Mottled dragon armour | 6 | -5 | 28% | All | 15.0 aum |
Swamp dragon hide | 3 | -7 | 14% | All | 20.0 aum |
Swamp dragon armour | 7 | -7 | 31% | All | 20.0 aum |
Fire dragon hide | 3 | -11 | 14% | All | 35.0 aum |
Fire dragon armour | 8 | -11 | 34% | All | 35.0 aum |
Ice dragon hide | 4 | -11 | 19% | All | 35.0 aum |
Ice dragon armour | 9 | -11 | 37% | All | 35.0 aum |
Pearl dragon hide | 3 | -11 | 14% | All | 40.0 aum |
Pearl dragon armour | 10 | -11 | 39% | All | 40.0 aum |
Storm dragon hide | 4 | -11 | 19% | All | 60.0 aum |
Storm dragon armour | 10 | -17 | 39% | All | 60.0 aum |
Gold dragon hide | 4 | -17 | 19% | All | 110.0 aum |
Gold dragon armour | 12 | -25 | 44% | All | 110.0 aum |
Shields
Shield | SH | EVP | Wearable | Mass |
---|---|---|---|---|
Buckler | 3 | -1 | Tiny to medium | 9.0 aum |
Shield | 8 | -3 | Small to giant | 15.0 aum |
Large shield | 13 | -5 | Medium to giant | 23.0 aum |
Headgear
Headgear | AC | Encumbrance rating | Wearable | Mass |
---|---|---|---|---|
Helmet | 1 | 0 | Small and medium | 8.0 aum |
Hat | 0 | 0 | All | 4.0 aum |
Miscellaneous
Armour | AC | Encumbrance rating | Wearable | Mass |
---|---|---|---|---|
Boots | 1 | 0 | Small and medium | 3.0 aum |
Cloak | 1 | 0 | All | 4.0 aum |
Gloves | 1 | 0 | Small and medium | 2.0 aum |
Centaur barding | 4 | -6 | Centaur | 10.0 aum |
Naga barding | 4 | -6 | Naga | 10.0 aum |
Armour Ego
Enchanted armour may have an ego, which gives it additional properties.
Restrictions and Mutations
- Beaks, horns, and antennae are incompatible with helmets. Hats are allowed.
- Horns 3 and Antennae 3 disallow all headgear, however.
- Hooves 3 and talons 3 are incompatible with boots.
- Claws and Blade Hands are incompatible with gloves.
- Blade Hands is in addition incompatible with all types of shields and weapons.
- Porcupine Form and Wisp Form are incompatible with all armour and jewellery.
- Bat Form and Pig Form are incompatible with all armour (you can only wear amulets).
- Spider Form, Ice Form, and Dragon Form are incompatible with all armour (you can only wear jewellery).
- Fungus Form is incompatible with all armour except headgear.
- Tree Form is incompatible with all armour except headgear and shields.
- Statue Form is incompatible with all armour except headgear, shields, and cloaks.
History
In 0.14, all racial armour types were removed.
In 0.13, the evasion penalty system was changed, and the base evasion penalty was renamed as the encumbrance rating and rescaled for all armours [1]. Splint mails were removed and chain mails were increased to 8AC.
Prior to 0.11, you could only train Armour while wearing equipment with an EV penalty of at least -1.
Prior to 0.6, body armour was divided into Light Armour and Heavy Armour. The former would allow you to train dodging, while the latter trained Armour.
Skills | |
---|---|
Weapons | Short Blades • Long Blades • Ranged Weapons
Axes • Maces & Flails • Polearms • Staves • Unarmed Combat • Throwing |
Physical | Fighting • Armour • Dodging • Stealth • Shields |
Magical | Spellcasting • Invocations • Evocations • Shapeshifting |
Spell Schools | Air • Alchemy • Conjurations • Earth • Fire • Hexes • Ice • Necromancy • Summoning • Translocations |