First question will be about shields, semi-shields and armor assets, even though I didn’t find a description for an armor asset in the core book, I will let my players use them, and due to that, I’d like to know how to use them gameplay wise, do they have any affect on move and battle skills? Due to weigh and perhaps a HP bonus/damage reduction? And just to be sure, shields give the player a bonus in HP, right? If so, what is this value? Is it just 2 or 2 + quality, something similar to a weapon’s damage? The value is the same for semi-shields?
Now onto the second point, can I use the still suit as something like an armor asset? I don’t know if they actually provide any protection, but at least in my mind they seem to be something akin to a light armor in most RPGs.
I haven’t gotten around to thoroughly reading/understanding combat, so I’d like to know as well.
However, stillsuits were never described as armour and almost certainly dont provide any protect from weapons… just protection from water loss… when worn correctly
The bonuses are around difficulty to hit rather than HP or damage reduction.
Dueling has its own nuances but for Skirmish (pg 174) the following is a summary.
Full Shields negate any ranged attack (except Lasguns, but that is a separate issue), half shields increase the difficulty of ranged attacks by +2 and melee attacks by +1.
Armor is a flat +1 as standard. The rules do say that heavier armors can be worn that increase the difficulty, but also increase the complication range.
It isn’t specified as a defensive asset, so I would say not.
But you could always say that it works as such for a fight but then loses it’s stillsuit qualities until it is repaired?
In the fight beteween Paul & Jamis they were careful to remove their stillsuits first.
I remember that they took their stillsuits off, but this could also be interpreted as part of their tradition, since I saw their fight/duel as something more ritualistic than a fight, like the one that happens against the Sadaukar and Harkonen troops. And the idea of their stillsuits being damaged was already part of my plans
Maybe you could say that Fremen made stillsuits have the Defensive trait and so count as armor, but that the pan and graben ones worn by the city dwellers aren’t as resilient.
It would also tie into the martial nature of the Fremen.
