I cannot help but notice this, the heavier of the armors cause clumsy weight, with the worst ones causing -1D in Speed.
Speed affects Reflexes.
So lets say Count Eugen has gotten himself 5 in all three things that make up his Reflexes, thus granting him 5 actions in each exchange. He likes that, being able to whack people when they cant defend themselves.
But when he dons heavy armor, that -1D is going to bring him down to 4 actions per exchange, because of the speed?
If so, I like it. Makes armor a trade off. If not, I like that too. I like a lot of things.
I believe it does–the section on armor penalties describes the exceptions (like combat skills, which Reflexes is not). It is kind of a cool trade-off–and if he happened to have 16 pts between Speed, Agility, and Perception, he wouldn’t suffer anyway. Another minor point in BW’s favor: there’s a subtle advantage to having more points than are necessary there. (Of course, Quickened Reflexes does the same, but it really just shifts the break point down two stat points.)
Assuming there wasn’t a change in the switch to Gold, you also have the option of half leggings or half sleeves for half the armor value but no weight penalties. So is having that weak spot for enemies to exploit worth the extra action? Trade-offs are fun.
