Attire (PSR Supplement)

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Omissions from 5e

Proficiency. Attire never requires proficiency. Sleeping in Armor. There is no “penalty” for sleeping in any attire. Any routine attire change is part of downtime.

Attire is a term for what you’re wearing, from common clothes to plate mail. This world is perilous, and many adventurers always wear armor.

You Are Clothed. You are wearing a set of common clothes unless stated otherwise. Common clothes don't count as attire, don't count against your carry limit, and have no trade value.

Donning or Doffing. Changing any or all attire takes an entire phase. The exception is changing headgear, which takes only a single Use action.

Attire Slots

For any human-shaped creature there are four attire “slots”: Head, Torso, Arms, and Legs.

You can’t wear two items in the same slot, such as two Head items. Any item worn in one of these slots doesn’t count against your carry limit, but items worn otherwise—such as accessories, amulets, or belts—still do.

AC: Armor Class

Your Armor Class (AC) is a number that represents how difficult you are to hit with attacks. When a creature makes an attack targeting you, the creature makes an attack roll. The attack hits if the roll's result equals or exceeds your AC. Your AC equals:

8 + PB + Dexterity modifier + Total Armor Bonus, not to exceed 25.

Your shield or cover may increase your AC effectively above even above 25.

A NPC's AC is included in its stat block.

Armor

Any attire you wear that provides an increase to your AC is called armor. The increase to your AC is called an armor bonus. All armor bonuses you have stack with each other.

For example if you’re wearing four pieces of attire—let's say a tunic, helmet, gauntlets, and boots—which each add +1 AC, you add them all together for +4 AC. The sum of all your armor bonuses is sometimes called your total armor bonus.

If you aren't wearing any attire that provides an AC bonus, and you lack any effect that gives you natural armor, you are unarmored.

Shield

If you wield a shield or otherwise benefit from one, it provides a shield bonus, which is distinct from an armor bonus. You can only benefit from one shield bonus at a time. If you have multiple shield bonuses, only the highest of them is added to your AC.

• Typically wielding a shield gives you a shield bonus of +1.
• If you are proficient with shields, you instead gain a +2 bonus.
• If you are proficient with shields and your Strength score is at least 13, wielding a heavy shield gives you a +3 shield bonus. A "heavy shield" is any shield that has the heavy property.

While you're wielding a shield, if the wielding hand is used for anything else, you lose the shield bonus until the start of your next turn.

Donning or doffing a shield takes an entire Use action.

A special shield might grant an even greater bonus. Aside from literal shields, spells and other game effects can grant you greater shield bonuses, or shield bonuses which only apply against some attacks.

A shield costs 5 gold and weighs 5 pounds, while a heavy shield typically costs 10 gold and weighs 10 pounds.

Alternative AC

Some effects can give you an alternative AC to use instead of the normal AC above. For example creatures with natural armor often have an alternative AC, and spells like barkskin may grant an alternative AC.

If you have an alternative AC that is higher than your normal AC, you use the alternative AC instead.

Heavy Attire & Dexterity

5e Armor Levels

When using PSR with content designed with 5e, you may need to categorize a creature's armor level as follows: Unarmored means you are wearing no armor. Light armor means you're wearing armor, but no heavy pieces. Medium armor means you're wearing armor, and exactly 1 piece of the armor is heavy. Heavy armor means you're wearing 2 or more pieces of heavy armor.

Wearing heavy attire limits how much of your Dexterity modifier you can add to your AC, and can interfere with spellcasting.

One Piece. Normally you can add your full Dexterity modifier to your AC. However, while you’re attired with at least one heavy item, you can’t add a Dexterity modifier of more than +2 to your AC. For example while wearing heavy chain mail, if you have a Dexterity modifier of +3 or more you only add a +2 to your AC. Few humans have such high Dexterity, anyway.

Multiple Pieces. If you’re wearing more than one heavy item, you don’t add your Dexterity modifier to your AC at all, even if the modifier is negative.

Dexterity Alternatives. There are some effects which let you add another ability modifier to your AC instead of Dexterity. If you benefit from such an effect, this modifier is still limited by heavy attire in the same way.

Casting in Heavy Attire. If your campaign has spellcasting, whenever you cast a spell while wearing heavy attire you must roll a d4. If the result does not exceed the number of heavy items you're wearing, the action is wasted with no effect, but you don't lose spell slots or any other resource needed to cast the spell. Some effects may grant a benefit such as, "When casting in heavy attire, subtract 1 from the d4 result" or "When casting these spells, you don't roll a d4 for casting in heavy attire."

Attire Properties

In addition to the heavy property, some attire have properties like these:

Loud. Your Hiding DC is lowered by 5, and you have disadvantage on ability checks made to be quiet.

Metal. Metal armor is harder to damage, and some game effects work differently if you're wearing metal.

Example Attire

The attire below is only a basic example of attire likely to be commonly available in any fantasy world. Your narrator’s campaign likely features more or different attire. This list is just an example.

Attire	AC	Properties	Cost
Head
Pointed Hat	—	Special	5 gold
Cap	+1	—	10 gold
Full Helm	+2	Metal, Special	100 gold
Torso
Furs	+1	Heavy	10 gold
Leather	+1	—	35 gold
Chain Shirt	+2	Heavy, Loud, Metal	100 gold
Scale Mail	+3	Heavy, Metal	400 gold
Knight's Plate	+3	Heavy, Metal, Special	1000 gold (uncommon)
Arms
Gloves	—	—	5 gold
Gauntlets	+1	Heavy, Metal	200 gold
Legs
Boots	—	—	5 gold
Sabaton with Greaves	+1	Loud, Heavy, Metal	200 gold

Special Properties

• Boots & Gloves. While these don't provide an AC bonus, wearing attire in these slots can still provide protection — such as against thorns.
• Full Helm. A full helm completely encloses the head for great protection, but muffles senses. While wearing one you have disadvantage on Wisdom saves and on any d20 roll made to decide turn order.
• Knight's Plate. Attuning to this special breastplate requires Strength 13 or higher. While attuned to it and wearing it alongside 3 other pieces of metal attire, its Armor Bonus increases to +4, and you can ignore the special property of a full helm.
• Pointed Hat. While not protective, this witch's hat shape can help focus magic power. While wearing it, if you make an attack roll with a cantrip and hit, add +1 bonus damage.

Attire for Unusual Creatures

The preceding rules are for Small and Medium-sized folk.

• Attire for a Tiny creature weighs ¹⁄₄ as much.
• Attire for a Large creature weighs 4 times as much, and costs double.

Creatures of inhuman shape can usually still wear attire and still have the same attire slots. Attire made for such a creature is called barding, and costs double. Barding for a Large horse for example costs 4 times as much (2 x 2). Necessary translations are made for these creatures. A horse doesn’t wear “gloves” for example, but it could wear armor on two legs that provide as much protection as gloves—horseshoes, perhaps.

• Your narrator arbitrates if a creature can wear barding. An ooze or a ghost might not be solid enough to support attire, for example.