[Raven Bloodmoon]

From a strictly armor point of view, I would treat segmentata as a breastplate version of banded mail. In other words, it appears that segmentata is to banded mail as a breastplate is to full plate. It's lighter and more flexible, but offers less protection. Matica actaully sounds like lamellar mail, which has stats detailed in Arms & Equipment, I believe. I'll pull them for you and quote them below. (Btw, lamellar armor is armor comprised of a series of small overlapping metal plates backed with hardened leather.)

Lamellar Armor
Type: Medium
Cost: 150 gp
AC: +5
Dex: +3
Pentalty: -4
Arcane Failure: 30%
Speed: 2/3 base speed
Weight: 35 lb

Here is my suggestion for segmentata, based on how the breastplate compares to full plate and further tweaked based on the pictures you included.

Lorica Segmentata
Type: Medium
Cost: 200 gp
AC: +4
Dex: +4
Penalty: -4
Arcane Failure: 25%
Speed: 2/3 base speed
Weight: 25 lb

These are only my suggestions. Feel free to tweak to your liking.

[Axel]

The problem that keeps coming up is that a manica isn't really a suit of armor in its own right, it's like greaves or gauntlets, something added to armor to protect the limbs. It was only gladiators (and only a certain group of them) who used it alone (it's important to note: in doing so they protected only their limbs the torso was left wide open). Legionaries were issued manica for some campaigns (notably the Dacian campaign) in order to suplement the Lorica and Scutum (shield). So the equipment must serve both as an armor alone and as an add-on to other armor.

[Dthclaw]

Well, use the dastana rules in the Arms and Equipment then. A stand-alone piece of armor that can be used in conjunction with both shield and an armor suit.

[Raven Bloodmoon]

Yeah, give it a +1 armor bonus that stacks with other sleaveless armors (breastplate and sementata). The stats I gave was assuming it was in conjunction with segmentata, since everywhere i looked it up online had it included with such armor. I certainly would not allow it with any form of plate, banded mail, or ringmail. Forgive me for forgetting the Latin names; I just remember that "mail" was derrived from the French "Maille" which someow came from something Latin.

And on a mutation bug....How the hell did Romans speak Latin? Shouldn't Romans speak Roman?

[RedSlayer]

I'm gonna agree with everyone here. I'll admit, i dont have much to add.

on the mutation bug, raven, what the hell are you talking about?

[Axel]

Rome is in the province Latium. Actually, according to myth, Romulus and Remus led a group of settlers who split off from the Latians in forming Rome. They spoke Latin, as did their decendants. It's the same reason Americans speak English and not American.

Getting back on topic, if we don't consider the Segmentata as a suit of banded mail, then there is no form of heavy armor for the Manica to be used in conjunction with, so no worry. The only heavy armors I was allowing were Banded (as the Segmentata) and Splint (a cheap ripoff of the Segmentata). Nothing else has arm-gaurds, to the best of my knowledge.

[Ssri-Tel-Quessir Hitokiri]

Well you could just have the manica add to the AC of a character. In the Oriental Adventures, I believe that there is a kind of armor that does the same thing. These things were classified under "Other Additions" I believe. It did not really matter much that the armor you were wearing it over had sleeves or not.

[Axel]

My other problem is somewhat simpler: Do I allow armor spikes? As I said, no historical examples of them in use come to mind, but is it unfair to disallow them just because of that? It is really even feasible to use armor spikes at all?

[Dthclaw]

Armor spikes as feasible weapons (?) I probably wouldn't allow if you're going with pure realism. On the other hand, I'd leave them open as "decorative" objects for your players. Maybe give them a bonus to Intimidate or something instead of weapon damage.

[Ssri-Tel-Quessir Hitokiri]

I always found the idea of armor spikes to be very strange. I, personally, would say no to the addition of armor spikes.

[Jimp]

Just something I found on www.Community3e.com . It's a pdf with historical background on all kinds of different weapons. I haven't read it all myself but it seems interesting. Maybe you could get some information from it:

http://www.community...n_and_armor.zip

[Axel]

Ok, preliminary list done. I was forced to play with the deffinition of "heavy" as opposed to "medium" armor, but I'm still not satisfied. Just have a look:

Attached File(s)

•  armor.doc (40K)
  Number of downloads: 16

[Raven Bloodmoon]

Well, I think the write up for manica is perfect. I am not sure that manica is as useful for blocking attacks as a heavy shield is, yet both have the same AC bonus. Personally, I woudl give manica only a +1 bonus that stacks with any shield bonuses.

As for your definitions of heavy and medium armor, I disagree more than a little. The reason for this is that what the romans wore was relatively light, which afforded them greater agility and mobility in battle. They were not the hulking, clunking tanks of the medieval period. I would keep breastplates and chainmail Medium armor and just leave banded mail (which you might want to call it segentata instead, for flavor reasons) and split mail (come up with an appropriate name here) as the only heavy armor. That's my two coppers.

[Axel]

I was half tempted to go the weapons route with armor: Simple, Light, and Heavy; ignoring the concept of Medium all together. The main problem is that the setting really just doesn't use heavy armor in the standard D&D sense, nothing seriously restricts movement of the limbs severely with the exception of the Manica. The current division is a purely interrim decision, any improvement would be appreciated.

[Raven Bloodmoon]

As I already said, if the settign doesn't use heavy armor, just don't have heavy armor. The penalties are balanced the way they are for a reason. And besides, if no one is in heavy armor, no one will be penalized unduely.