Now in the Dungeon Masters Guide on page 28 it reads " It is assumed that an appropriate type of head armoring will be added to the suit of armor to allow uniform protection of the wearer. Wearing of a "great helm" adds the appropriate weight and restricts vision to the front 60', but it gives the head AC 1. If a helmet is not worn, 1 blow in 6 will strike at the AC 10 head, unless the opponent is intelligent, in which case 1 blow in 2 will be aimed at the AC 10 head ( d6 1-3= head blow)"
This is a little used rule. Every thief I have played or GM'd, the thief wore leather armor but not a helment. Now, lets say the thief was wearing a +1 suit of Leather Armor, would this give his or her expossed head a AC 9? What if a thief was wearing a +1 suit of Leather Armor and had a dex. modafier of +2. The theif would have a AC of 5 but a head AC of 7? When I was GM'ing, if I would have looked at this overlooked rule, all of my guards would have been aiming for the head.
Just want to know what your stance is on Helmets!!!
On the assumption that all helmets are made of metal in my campaigns, here's my house rule:
ReplyDeleteHelmets: helmet AC is only taken into account if something specifically hits or falls on the head, in which case it is AC 3, otherwise unarmoured heads are AC 9.
But if my players were to ask for leather helmets I'd adjust the AC to match the helm type.
My group just moved from Riddle of Steel to 2nd ed. and I'm wary of adding too much hit-location stuff. Part of the appeal of AD&D is that it's pretty rules-light. I would only take helmets into consideration if the danger is coming from above, like a monster jumping from the ceiling or any number of traps. It should be noted that all my (non-MU) players wear helmets after one of them was one-shotted by an (actually rather poorly shot) arrow in Riddle of Steel.
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