This article assumes you looked at my dissertation on Green Armor, and skips some of that discussion.
http://forum.chaosforge.org/index.php?topic=714.0As stated before, Blue armor is like Medium Armor, and Red Armor is like Heavy Armor. We'll analyze blue armor first. Angelic Armor is a whole different discussion, and merits it's own section.
CREATING BLUE ARMOR:
First, let's take a look at the best 3.5 Med. Armor:
Breastplate +5 AC +3 Max Dex –4 AP 25% Spell Fail 20 ft. Move 30 lb. Weight
The closest d20 Modern Counterpart:
Light-duty vest +5 AC +3 Max Dex –4 AP 0% Spell Fail 25 ft. Move 8 lb. Weight
Now, the best d20 Mod Med. Armor:
Tactical vest +6 AC +2 Max Dex –5 AP 0% Spell Fail 25 ft. Move 10 lb. Weight
Finally, take a look at the HEAVY armor listed in 3.5. Our armor will be very similar to this, only in a MEDIUM variant. Keep these stats in mind for when we finish.
Banded mail +6 AC +1 Max Dex –6 AP 35% Spell Fail 20 ft. move 35 lb. weight
Finally, the d20 Future Medium Armor is essentially crappy medium Modern armor. I honestly don't know why the fuck they made it, as you get the exact same results with primitive kevlar as you do futuristic Sci-Fi carapace, apparently. (I DON'T recommend buying the d20 future book, if you didn't notice. Just use the SRD I gave you.)
Creation: First and foremost, just like in green armor, we'll just use the same stats they give in 3.5 and d20 Mod to make our own blue armor. +7 AC and +2 Max Dex. This is the same as a Tac Vest (above) with a small AC boost, just like before. IF there were a Medium 3.5 armor like this, this is the trend it would take. Armor Penalties are kinda iffy in d20 modern, as I stated before, but we'll do like we did in Green Armor, and take the AP given, -5, and improve it just a little: -4 AP. Again, 0% Spell Failure, but if you REALLY feel this is inaccurate, add the light armor spell failure, 15/20%. I maintain that it should be 0, as spells don't fail in the Doom Universe--they merely don't have enough magic power (The Artifact, the Soulcube). Finally, I feel that move speed is best represented in d20 Modern, as opposed to classic D&D, as illustrated in this chart:
Armor D&D d20 Mod
light 30 ft 30 ft
medium 20 ft 25 ft
heavy 20 ft 20 ft
As you can see, for some obscure reason, you move just as slowly in medium 3.5 armor as you do in heavy. You can debate this however you want, but, AS PERSONAL PREFERENCE, (and to keep with the theme that future=better) I will say that Blue armor gives a speed of 25 ft, not 20 ft. (Sidenote: d20 future armor moves 20 feet. This is retarded and the armor is, as previously stated, gimp armor.) Finally, if you look at the armor weights, you see that, in general, D&D 3.5 armors weigh ABOUT 4 times as much as modern armors, and future armors weigh a LITTLE less than modern. (Again, just following the assumed trend that future = better.) SO, if we take the weight of the banded mail and divide by about 4 (3.5, actually) we get 10. This is just like the base Tactical Vest from which we've been modifying all of our stats. Good! Finally, because it's the future, we'll lose 2 lbs. This 8 lb Blue armor weighs the same as the d20 Future Teh Suck armor, coincidentally.
FINAL STATS:
Blue Armor: +7 AC___+2 Max Dex___-4 AP___0% Spell Fail___25 ft. Move___8 lbs. Weight___
Damage Reduction +2/+0 (see Final Analysis; ignore DR for d20 Modern)Final Analysis, Blue Armor:
D&D: For every reason the green armor kicked ass, the blue armor kicks SOME ass. The increased AC and max Dex and really low AP make it essentially a +1 enchanced armor, and the 0 spell fail makes ungodly for spellcasters. You may or may not want to include this in your games. The increased move is quite nice, and just about anyone can wear it because of it's REALLY low weight. However, the reasons aren't NEARLY as nice as in Green Armor. I add Damage Reduction to this armor simply because without it, it's just a +1 Breastplate. 1000 years of technology for a +1 breastplate? Please.
D20 Modern: Again, very nice, but not QUITE as nice as in D&D. It's essentially +2 armor that weighs a little bit less, increasing the armor value by 35%. Not TOO great, but in d20 modern, armor enchancments are SUPER RARE past +3, (technically, they don't exist in the main game) and therefore an armor with the stats of a +2 armor is quite usefull. Not as good as green armor, but good. I'd say skip the damage reduction in this genre, and you still have good armor.
CREATING RED ARMOR:
Like I said, red armor=heavy armor. Lets look at the best heavy armors in the various genres:
3.5 D&D Heavy Armor:
Full plate +8 AC +1 Max Dex –6 AP 35% Spell Fail 20 ft. Move 50 lb. Weight
D20 Mod Heavy Armor (if you make puns about the name, I will smack you):
Forced entry unit +9 AC +0 Max Dex –8 AP 0% Spell Fail 20 ft. Move 20 lb. weight
Finally, the one non-stupid d20 Future Armor (Heavy):
Unisoldier armor +10 AC +1 Max Dex –6 AP 0% Spell Fail 20 ft. Move 30 lb. weight
Actually, when you look at the armor, the Unisoldier armor is pretty much what we'd come up with if we continue our basic patterns of analysis. Actually, we'd come up with this:
Theoretical Red Armor: +10 AC___+0 Max Dex___-5 AP___0% Spell Fail___20 ft. Move___20(ish) lb. Weight.
And honestly, I like the d20 Future armor better. I'd say THAT is the best example of red armor in the game, and it's official Wizards of the Coast material, too. We'll modify the weight just a WEE bit. I like the weight of the d20 mod heavy armor, and future armor weighs MORE than that for some reason (again, future = stupid, apparently) so we'll just pick a number.
END RESULT:
Red Armor: +10 AC +1 Max Dex –6 AP 0% Spell Fail 20 ft. Move
20 lb. Weight,
Damage Reduction +4/+0 (ignore DR in d20 Modern)
Final Analysis, Red Armor:
D&D: Red Armor WITHOUT DR +4/+0 is pretty good, but not as good as blue armor, which in turn is not as good as green armor. This is why I added the DR to the Red Armor, and still feel it isn't overpowered. The fact is, the added AC is canceled out by the fact that AP is the same, so it's not as good as blue armor. It's still just a +2 enchancment of basic full plate, if we disreguard spell failure. Not too hot for some super space tech armor. That's why I include the DR +4/+0; it keeps the DoomRL feel of the armor, and makes it quite a formidible armor for D&D.
D20 Modern: REALLY darn good for this genre--it is essentially
+4 armor in d20 modern terms! (+1 AC, +1 Max Dex, +2 AP) And like I said before, you don't modify armor much in d20 Modern, so the +4 is CRAZY good. No need for DR here. Mastercraft the armor (you can add +3 mastercraft in D20 Modern) and you have some GREAT protection.
Conclusion: I reiterate the fact that this data is MERELY extrapolated from the statistics given in D&D (Middle Ages), D20 Modern (Present), and D20 Future (Doom Era Time Period.) It's not very Doomish... actually, it's really not at ALL doomish. But it's what Wizards Of The Coast would make for a Future Setting, given the patterns of the previous settings. The only thing that makes it DoomRL-ish that DOESN'T follow the pattern given previously is the DR, which is discussed above.
EDIT:
I decided that the lack of Spell Resistances in d20 Modern is a typo--there are a SHIT LOAD of typos in the d20 Mod book (don't buy it, it's a waste of money, you'll have to spend 2 hours fixing all the screwed up rules, just use the SRD) Therefore, in my final wiki format, I will add a SR.
