Armour Tweaks and personal protective fields

[Askil the Undecided]

I was thinking on the problem of armour being useless the other day when the simple idea of improving all armour saves by +1 while the costs remain the same.

This will most notably counter the notorious case of flak armour being negated by the cheaper lasgun.

While I was pondering this I was reading the rogue trader omnibus and happened upon the old rhino power field rules and liked the idea of a force field's extra protection coming at a price.

Power field 60+3d6 creds?

A relic of earlier times, this bulky pistol-sized object projects a bubble of softly glowing blue energy that violently turns aside rapidly incoming objects passing through the barrier. While this field is excellent protection from gunfire the size of the energy bubble makes it useless in close combat

The spectacualr deaths of a few trigger happy users of power fields have ingained the risks of ricohets from fire from inside the field firmly into hiver's minds. No hiver would dare to fire a weapon inside the blue shimmer of an active personal power field.


A power field may be turned on or off once during the shooting phase in addtion to any shooting attacks made by it's wearer.

While the field is on the wearer gains an unmodifiable 4+ save against ranged attacks but cannot hide or make any shooting attacks himself.

Flicker Field ?creds

A Human equivilent of the Eldar holo field. This protective device provides no direct protection at all, but rather conceals it's user from prospective enemies by breaking up their image and projecting mirage-like images nearby this somewhat disorienting effect can be supplimented by the user moving rapidly.

A Fliker field provides a -1 modifier to hit, this improves to a -2 if the user moves 6" or more.

Thoughts? Criticisms?

I was going to try the Refractor field but I didn't have the photon flash rules on me.

I've posted this on Yakromunda as well so if you want to see it go here.

[Necanthrope]

from 2nd ed 40k memories.....
it's the conversion field that gives off light when shot at, the same effect as a photon flare with a range equal to the strength of the shooting attack. It gives a 4+ save. And the refractor stops you hiding with a 5+ save.

[Dark Aly]

I've just printed off the community ed and taken a red pen to most of the armour modifiers as well as certain other tweaks.

[aglondier]

If you wanted armour to protect you all the time, you'd be in a tank.

I'm playing a Sisters of Battle background gang that allows the purchase of flak and mesh armour. The net effect has been that my gang was a bit smaller than other starting gangs, which allowed them to overwhelm me a few times, but I have (very) occasionally been able to survive stray shots and grenades.

Allowing rolls for 7+, 8+ and 9+ saves (ie roll a 6 followed by a 4+, 5+ and 6), makes armour usable and occasionally very fun.

In my opinion, as someone who is using armour quite extensively, it doesn't need tweaking.

As for personal fields...
We have introduced several into the game, mostly as rare trades, or House-specific rare trades.
Archaeotech Refractor Field: unmodified 5+ save, detonates for a S5 hit on a roll of 1. 50+4d6 cr. (Outlaw Rare Trade table)
Escher Combat Gauntlet: unmodified 5+ save in close combat. 40+3d6 cr. (House Escher only)
Rosarius: unmodified 5+ save. 50+4d6 cr. (Ecclesiarchy aligned factions only)
Salvaged Spyrer Field: unmodified 6+ save, causes Hatred in Spyrers. 30+3d6 cr. (both rare trade tables)
Salvaged Spyrer Field: unmodified 5+ save, causes Hatred in Spyrers. 50+4d6 cr. (both rare trade tables)

Other ideas are in the works, and some things may need tweaking, but as always it's a work in progress.