Armor and Weapons
Armor
There are three types of armor and five armor locations (the back piece is separate). The three types of armor are: physical, magical, and dexterity armor. Everyone starts with a maximum armor capacity of 15 and may purchase the armor skill to increase it by 15 to a maximum wear total of 30 physical armor. Temporary or magical means may exceed this in some cases.
Light armor is generally made of cloth but can be any covering without physical protection. While it doesn’t provide much protection from weapons it can be enchanted with +1 armor for each armor location and with effects on the torso and legs (+5 total armor).
Medium armor is more durable and commonly made from leather, providing +3 armor per location, and may also hold enchantment as light armor does (+15 armor or +20 with enchantments).
Heavy armor is much more rigid and is commonly called brigandine. This type provides +5 armor per location and may also hold enchantment as light or medium armor does (+25 armor or +30 with enchantments).
The armor locations are the head, torso, arms, legs, feet, and back.
The torso and leg locations may be enchanted with +1 armor and an effect.
The back location may carry an effect placed by the Dieweaver that made the cloak.
Armor Types
Physical armor is armor that you wear on the armor locations listed above.
Magical armor comes from enchantment through the skills of magi or professions. In the realm of armor, only physical armor can hold armor enchantments.
Dexterity or dex armor is a representation of your character’s dexterous capability to avoid damage. Dex armor is a skill that may be purchased by anyone but may best serve the Rogue class. Rogues of tier 1 or higher may wear physical armor in conjunction with dex armor and gain the benefit of both. A Rogues dex armor doesn’t count toward their total armor worn this is a class benefit.
Costuming/Garb
Alexander the Great was born just after the events in Helike. His armor is very similar to what was common for the time. The big metal breastplates seen on movies like the 300 didn’t happen until much later. We don’t plan to be sticklers about Period authenticity, this is a fantasy game after all. But if you want to learn more about what your costuming should look like we will provide some links.
Alexander’s armor was a mix of leather and metal, wood or bone plates and probably a loose short tunic underneath. He likely wore sandals and possibly greaves or shin plates of some sort. He is shown with a Medusa amulet on his chest. His upper legs might well have been bare. Greece was hot y’all! Heavy armor was not really a thing.
Because we are playing in modern, humid, Missouri- we are going to allow a wide latitude on costuming and garb. Helike was progressive after all, so it is entirely possible they dressed very differently than the rest of Greece. If you don’t want bug bites etc., by all means wear pants and closed shoes of some sort. Women in Greece typically wore long columnar tunics, essentially dresses. Women in Helike, for our purposes, can be expected to wear whatever is comfortable and seems appropriate to the character. We just ask that you try to go for a more rough spun look to the fabrics, avoiding neon colors. We can’t in good conscience recommend anyone running around in open toed sandals at a campsite. But if you can tone down the Nike swooshes we would appreciate it. We have envisioned Helike as Atlantis, so whatever you imagine the Atlanteans as wearing should be fine. (Plato mentioned Atlantis in his dialogues, he lived just down the road from Helike)
Legend of Helike uses a skill based system instead of preset classes. So you come up with a character concept and then purchase the skills to make that happen. Our Professions list has some basic and common character trajectories to help you map that out. You may want to click through a few to see what is available. In addition to the Professions we have a Craft list which is another set of recognizable character trajectories. You do not have to officially choose any of these. But it can be helpful in game when someone asks you what you “do” in the game. Some of these come with benefits like coin or items created by your character. If you have always wanted to play Conan, this is your chance. If you’ve always wanted to be an alchemist, we got you. If you’ve always wanted to be part of a traveling troupe of performers- we’ve got that too. We do have some specialty “classes” that other games don’t have, for example: Logicians. Unlike the Magi, Logicians rely upon their Will to reshape the Universe. This makes the Gods nervous as you might imagine.
Heritages
Your Heritage is your ancestry. In Helike it is not at all unusual to be able to say you had a demigod for a great great grandfather. We have several Heritages to choose from, and a Chimera heritage for those tricky ones that don’t seem to fall into any other category. This is your chance to be a Mermaid or a Myrmidon warrior. Each Heritage has some specific requirements so that we can all recognize each other without having to ask “hey, what are you?”