Rules Update - Profs, Body, Armor, Damage, and Soak

The following are updates, as well as new rules, covering Armor, Body, Soak, and dealing weapon damage to an opponent.

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Proficiencies and Strength

Proficiencies will no longer be hand specific. Weapon Proficiencies and Ranged Weapon Proficiencies will still be weapon specific.

Additionally the cost of Weapon and Martial Arts/Brawling Proficiencies and Strength skills will increase after every third purchase. The cost of Ranged Proficiencies and Back-stab Proficiencies will increase after every sixth purchase. The cost will increase by the base amount that the first rank of the skill cost. It is important to note that since Weapon and Ranged Weapon Proficiencies are weapon specific that the cost increase only applies to purchases for the same weapon.

For example your first three purchases of strength are 15 build each, however your fourth purchase of strength will cost you 30 build. Similarly your first three purchases of Weapon Proficiency 1HE will cost 10 build each but the fourth purchase will cost 20 build.

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Body

All characters start with a base amount of Body based on their race, and may increase their Body Points by spending build to purchase more. Additional Body Points are calculated by the amount of build they have invested into their Body, multiplied by a ratio based on the amount of build they have invested into their various professions. Each character's Body Ratio is unique, and will be calculated and printed on their character card. A character with more build spent into a melee class will have a higher body ratio than someone who focuses on being a caster. As the amount of build you have invested in your skills changes, your Body Ratio (and thus, your Body Points) may slide up or down to reflect this (i.e. - as you purchase more melee skills, your Body will increase, but as you purchase more spells, it may decrease).

A character's Body Ratio is also influenced by their race, with hardier races having a bonus, and more fragile races having a lower ratio. Kormyrian Humans are the baseline all races are measured from. No character will ever have a Ratio lower than 1 and Psionicist characters will have their ratio permanently set at 1.

Race Modifier Table

Kormyrian	1.0
Barbarian	1.1
Bedouin	1.0
Celt	1.0
Coast Haven	1.0
Gypsy	1.0
Khitan	1.0
Londwyn	1.0
High Elf (Quinarian)	0.8
Sylvan Elf (Selendrian)	0.8
Dark Elf	0.8
Dwarf	1.1
Dark Dwarf	1.0
Halfling	0.9
Jaxuarian	1.1
Kiterian	1.0
Hobgoblin	1.0
Goblin	1.0
Ogre	1.2
Orc	1.1
Dryad	0.9
Nyad	0.9
Satyr	0.9
Sylph	0.8

Additionally, the amount of body you get for build spent will reduce as you spend more build into body, resulting in diminishing returns. This will make it easy to quickly build up your body early on in your character’s career, but effectively limits how much body a character can reasonably obtain based on their race and ratio. For the first 15 purchases of body you make (at 1 build per purchase), your character will earn Body Points equal to their Body Ratio +1. The next 15 purchases (at 1 Build per purchase) will earn Body Points equal to their Body Ratio. Each additional bracket of 15 increases the amount of build required for one purchase of your Body Ratio (i.e. 2 Build per purchase, and then 3 Build per purchase, 4 build per purchase, etc.), making it more expensive to purchase Body Points as you build them.

Purchase	Build Spent	Points Earned
1 to 15	1	Ratio +1
16 to 30	1	Ratio
31 to 45	2	Ratio
46 to 60	3	Ratio
every 15	+1 Build	Ratio

There is no limit to how much build may be spent on body at any point in a character’s life span, including at creation.

All fractional Body Scores are rounded up. Additionally all purchases within a tier are grouped together and rounded up.

A complete listing of skills that impact your Body Ratio (including racial modifiers) is available on the Online Card System at cards.knightrealms.com as a public list. As skills are added to the game or updated, the list will be updated and your Body Ratio automatically adjusted.

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The section "Hierarchy Of Damage" in the rules has been replaced with the following section:

Damage Types

Attacks at Knight Realms may have a damage type associated with them, such as Fire, Magic, Ice, Divine, etc. An attack without a damage type is considered "normal." Any attack needs to have its damage types declared with it (i.e. - "Five Fire" or "Ten Magic Ice"), unless they are normal, in which case it is just called as "Damage" (i.e. - "Twelve Damage"). With a handful of exceptions listed below, no damage type is better than any other, or has special rules associated with it.

Many creatures in Arawyn display an unusual resistance or weakness to specific materials or energies. The classic legend that silver kills a werewolf is one such example. Such creatures will have these listed on their statistic cards - they may take minimal damage from Ice if they are a cold-based creature, for example, and take double damage from Fire based attacks. No creature, except for extremely rare and powerful exceptions, take minimal damage from normal attacks.

Creatures that take minimal damage from a damage type only take one point of damage from any attack that lands, even if it does more than one point of damage. Periodic skills that do not do a numeric damage value (i.e. - Break Limb), and are of the type that the creature is resistant to, still have a normal effect.

Damage Types may be combined. Check the weapon or effect you are using to determine what kind of damage you do. For example, some spells may do just Fire damage, or Magic Fire. If a target is both vulnerable and resistant to an attack, the effects cancel each other out, and the target takes base damage.

You may stack effects to do more than one damage type (such as invoking both Artic Blade and Aid for "Divine Ice").

A list of damage types follows. No type in this list is more potent or different than another, or has special rules.

Silver, Gold, Copper, Mithril - These usually come from the material the weapon is made of.
Magic, Divine, Primal, Decay - These damage types are usually imbued by spells or powerful rituals.
Earth, Air, Fire, Ice - These damage types are from rare elemental ores, or powers that invoke the Elements themselves.

The following are special damage types.

Bane - Bane damage is always specialized to a specific type of creature (this is written as Bane vs. X type). Bane damage always affects corresponding creatures and bypasses all soaks and thresholds that the creature may possess.
Poison - Damage dealt by Poison cannot be healed until the effects of the poison are removed.
Body - Body damage bypasses all Armor Points, dealing damage directly to the targets Body total.

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Limitations on bonuses and enhancements

Dealing Damage
Within the rules of Knight Realms, there are three primary ways to increase the amount of damage a weapon can deal. Each one has its own advantages and disadvantages, and each one may be limited to how effective it can become.

Proficiency skills such as Strength, Weapon Proficiency, Ranged Proficiency, Backstab Proficiency, Martial Arts Proficiency, and Brawling Proficiency grant a continuous bonus to your damage, often under certain circumstances. There is no limit to the bonus to damage you can receive from Proficiency skills.

Augment abilities such as certain spells, prayers, potions, or skills such as Battle Cry provide a temporary increase to your damage. A character can only receive a maximum of +5 damage from Augment abilities at any given time. If any combination of Augment abilities would give a character more than +5 damage, they ignore bonuses in excess of 5.

Items can often provide a continuous bonus to damage. This can come from Runes, materials such as crystal, exalted weapons, or artifacts. A character can only receive a maximum of +5 damage from items at any given time. If a character would receive more than +5 damage from items, they ignore all bonuses in excess of 5.


Soaks and Thresholds
A Soak is defined as an ability to ignore an amount of damage. The value of the Soak is subtracted from each attack, to a minimum of 1 Damage. A threshold is defined as an ability to ignore attacks of a certain amount of damage or less. An attack must exceed the value of the Threshold to hurt the character, but the character takes the full damage of the attack if the Threshold is beaten.

Thresholds cannot be stacked on themselves. If multiple thresholds are affecting the same character, only the highest applies.
If a character is protected by both a soak and a Threshold, the damage of an attack should first be checked against the Threshold. If the attack beats the Threshold, then the Soak is deducted from the attack, and the character takes the remainder of the damage.
Limitations on Soak
A character can achieve a maximum of 15 soak, up to 5 points from each of the following areas:
Up to +5 Soak from Armor.
Up to +5 Soak from Runes.
Up to +5 Soak from any other source, including (but not limited to) spells, Racial abilities, skills, Artifacts, or other effects.

A soak in excess of +5 in any one category is simply ignored. An effect that reduces the soak of a character may be counted against this excess, allowing them to keep their current soak value, until it is lowered beneath 5 in all areas.

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Armor
Knight Realms classifies armor into two types – based upon the quality of the physrep. Armor is classified as either “Professional Grade” or “Costume Grade”. Armor that has not been used at Knight Realms before must be evaluated by a Rules or Logistics Marshal before it can be used in game. The Marshal assigns a classification to the armor upon this evaluation. The classification for a piece of armor cannot later be changed; Costume Grade armor will always be considered Costume Grade, regardless of improvements or modifications.

Professional Grade armor is a piece of armor that covers a minimum of the entire torso, front and back, and is real armor made of authentic materials. A piece of Professional Grade armor is assigned two values, a Soak and an Armor Point (AP) Rating. The Soak is a benefit that the armor constantly provides its wearer, regardless of whether the armor has any AP bestowed to it or not, and operates according to the standard rules for Soak. The AP Rating defines the maximum number of AP that can be bestowed to the armor. Professional Grade armor can be combined with Costume Grade armor that covers other parts of the body, but a separate card will have to be written for the Costume Grade armor, due to the special nature of Professional Grade armor.

Costume Grade armor is any armor that passes inspection for realism and safety, but does not meet the standards for Professional Grade armor. Costume Grade armor pieces are assigned an AP Rating, but not a Soak. One card can be written for all items of Costume Grade armor your character possesses, but the pieces must be itemized on the card, and you are only protected by the AP bestowed to each piece that you are wearing.
Armor Point Rating Table

The following table indicates the standard AP Ratings for different armor types, as assigned according to the areas of the body protected by them. The values assume that the piece covers 2/3rds or more of the area, front and back; if a piece covers less, the value should be taken in half, rounded up. A piece of armor that covers multiple areas is assigned an AP Rating that is the sum of the areas covered. Armor that covers left or right sides (Shoulders, Arms, Legs) is valued for each side separately, not for both sides at once.

All armor begins each event with its AP fully bestowed and should be marked on your character sheet. Whenever AP are bestowed to your armor by a smith, the amount must be recorded on your character card by the character who provides them.

Coverage Area	AP (Leather & Metal)	AP (Plate)
Upper Torso	6	8
Lower Torso	6	8
Head	2	3
Neck	2	3
Shoulder	2	3
Upper Arm	2	3
Lower Arm	2	3
Upper Leg	2	3
Lower Leg	2	3

Soak Rating Table
The following table indicates the soak assigned to different types of Professional Grade armor.

Type of Armor	Soak
Leather	2
Metal	2
Plate	3

Armor Ratio
A character’s Armor Ratio is calculated by the amount of build they have invested into their various professions. Each character's Armor Ratio is unique, and will be calculated and printed on their character card. A character with more build spent into a melee class will have a higher Armor Ratio than someone who focuses on being a caster. As the amount of build you have invested in your skills changes, your Armor Ratio (and thus, your Armor Points) may slide up or down to reflect this. Your Armor Ratio is not influenced by your race.

Your Armor Ratio will give a bonus to your armor’s AP value, based off the table below:

Character’s Body Ratio	AP Modifier
1.0 - 1.4	1x
1.5 - 2.4	2x
2.5 and up	3x

When you are writing Armor Points from armor on your card, take the base AP value of the armor, multiply it by your AP Modifier, and write that number on your card.
Should your armor be damaged and someone else were to use it, the amount of AP they benefit from is equal to the AP remaining as noted on your card, divided by your AP Modifier, with any partial APs dropped. The recipient would then put the armor on, and multiply it by their own AP modifier.