My Skyrim players, using the basic Modos 2 rules, decided they weren’t quite happy with a -3 physical penalty while wearing heavy armor, and the question came up if we could use a perk to reduce the PP. My first thought was “yes, it’s our game. We can do whatever we want!” But since that wasn’t very helpful, I wondered what a PP-reducing perk would look like.
Someone wearing heavy armor (two base types of armor in Skyrim – light and heavy) would want her PP reduced by at least one point, and at most removed completely. I decided that complete removal of the penalty would remove choosing light armor as an option, and I like to keep options open.
Then I compared “Well Fitted” (a name which seemed fitting, given the Skyrim perk of the same name) to the other major armor perk: Armor Training. Does Well Fitted negate Armor Training as an option, if the former removes 2 points of PP? As it happens, yes it does, because wearing heavy armor with d8 protection and removing 2 points of PP leaves the PP at -1. But using armor training on d4 light armor, with a -1 PP by default, gives a character d6 protection with a -1 PP, which isn’t as good as the heavy armor’s d8.
Granted, there are other considerations like armor cost, upkeep, appearance, resistance vs. weapon type (all of which are options that a Guide can add to the game for verisimilitude), but on the level of “which perk should I take next level?” Armor Training is just as tempting as Well Fitted if the latter reduces physical penalty by one point.
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