My players like to look cool wearing helmets for their characters but wanted some mechanical function to them as well. Basically I was thinking about giving helmets a +1 AC to players. It will only cost 10-20 gp, so as to prevent every player from opting for cheap AC, I homebrewed drawbacks (balancing mechanics).
Helmet +1 AC Anyone who wears one gains a point of exhaustion for every "mission" of continued use without taking it off for a short or long rest after participating in an adventure.
This means that if you go straight to raiding a goblin nest after protecting a convoy (or whatever adventure is applicable to you) and you don't take off your helmet for/during a short or long rest in between, you gain the point of exhaustion.
When a player dons a helmet, apply 1 or 2 of these drawbacks appropriately to the type of helmet they wear (specified by dm or player at dm's discretion). If for some reason DM chooses to allow +2, all 3 drawbacks are gained REGARDLESS of helmet type:
Disadvantage on Perception rolls of any kind (can be overturned depending on type of helmet)
Gain susceptibility to flanking maneuvers. Enemies gain advantage on attacks against you if they are not in your immediate field of view. If the helmet doesn't obstruct frontal view or peripheral vision, this is not applicable.
Your face is too obstructed from view for people to trust you. You gain disadvantage on Persuasion and Deception rolls. This is my attempt to make helmets a viable option for armor. Without these mechanics I think it's just cheap AC or better off as purely aesthetic. Thoughts?
A helmet should never give just the third option. Any reasonable person is going to take their helmet off in social situations and the calls for Persuasion and Deception checks outside of those situations seems like it would be limited.
Although... I'd be inclined to have a helmeted player trying to negotiate with bandits who ambushed them get a benefit for removing their helmet. Making themselves easier to hurt to approach the situation diplomatically.
I think "Mission" is too vague of a concept to really work mechanically. I think a lot of players would understand it, but it's still so mechanically vague that it could mean anything.
I think it would make the most sense to give some mechanical disadvantages that mostly apply to wearing a helmet constantly. I think Disadvantage on Perception makes sense. I think I would also give the player disadvantage on their Initiative roll at the start of combat, since the character has to potentially take that extra time and energy to get ready and figure out what's going on. I think the peripheral view concept is difficult to implement... not every player tracks the direction their character is actively facing, since that's not really part of the game mechanics.
I would also say that, in combat, it's an action to don or doff a helmet. So in-combat there's little downside to wearing a helmet, but they're going to want to not wear their helmet at all times. So if they're caught by surprise and aren't able to pop on their helmet they have to make the choice between spending a turn to put it on for that AC boost, or just leaving it off to focus directly on combat.
Sorry for the trouble, I figured I'd make a new comment entirely since my first one was dull and I don't like having edited comments. I've been checking this every couple of days to see what happens, and I think DDS' suggestions could be implemented. If anything, I would probably get rid of the exhaustion point thing all together, replace it with something more consistently mechanically such as the taking an action to put it on/take it off like mentioned by DDS. Then instead of the peripheral vision thing, replace it with his disadvantage on initiative instead of flanking (the latter being my own suggestion.) Other than that, I'd say this could be pretty solid. :)
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My players like to look cool wearing helmets for their characters but wanted some mechanical function to them as well. Basically I was thinking about giving helmets a +1 AC to players. It will only cost 10-20 gp, so as to prevent every player from opting for cheap AC, I homebrewed drawbacks (balancing mechanics).
When a player dons a helmet, apply 1 or 2 of these drawbacks appropriately to the type of helmet they wear (specified by dm or player at dm's discretion). If for some reason DM chooses to allow +2, all 3 drawbacks are gained REGARDLESS of helmet type:
A helmet should never give just the third option. Any reasonable person is going to take their helmet off in social situations and the calls for Persuasion and Deception checks outside of those situations seems like it would be limited.
Although... I'd be inclined to have a helmeted player trying to negotiate with bandits who ambushed them get a benefit for removing their helmet. Making themselves easier to hurt to approach the situation diplomatically.
Definitely something to chew on.
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I think "Mission" is too vague of a concept to really work mechanically. I think a lot of players would understand it, but it's still so mechanically vague that it could mean anything.
I think it would make the most sense to give some mechanical disadvantages that mostly apply to wearing a helmet constantly. I think Disadvantage on Perception makes sense. I think I would also give the player disadvantage on their Initiative roll at the start of combat, since the character has to potentially take that extra time and energy to get ready and figure out what's going on. I think the peripheral view concept is difficult to implement... not every player tracks the direction their character is actively facing, since that's not really part of the game mechanics.
I would also say that, in combat, it's an action to don or doff a helmet. So in-combat there's little downside to wearing a helmet, but they're going to want to not wear their helmet at all times. So if they're caught by surprise and aren't able to pop on their helmet they have to make the choice between spending a turn to put it on for that AC boost, or just leaving it off to focus directly on combat.
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Sorry for the trouble, I figured I'd make a new comment entirely since my first one was dull and I don't like having edited comments. I've been checking this every couple of days to see what happens, and I think DDS' suggestions could be implemented. If anything, I would probably get rid of the exhaustion point thing all together, replace it with something more consistently mechanically such as the taking an action to put it on/take it off like mentioned by DDS. Then instead of the peripheral vision thing, replace it with his disadvantage on initiative instead of flanking (the latter being my own suggestion.) Other than that, I'd say this could be pretty solid. :)