Armor and Equipment

Item Quality

Items described here have standard or average quality. You can also purchase items of inferior and superior quality if available.

Inferior Items impose 1 bane on rolls made to use them unless their description says otherwise, and they retain usefulness for about one quest before they break. Inferior items sell for half the normal price.
Superior Items sell for ten times their normal price or 1 gold piece, whichever is higher. Unless the rules say otherwise, superior items grant 1 boon on rolls made to use them.

Carrying Limits

You can carry or wear a number of items equal to your Strength score. You hold such items in your hands or by strapping them to your body. You can exceed this limit, up to twice your Strength score, but for every 2 items beyond your limit, your Agility score is reduced by 1 until you are no longer overloaded.
A few exceptions to this rule follow:

Containers: A container and everything it holds counts as 1 item. You could, for example, stuff your backpack with torches, a coil of rope, a tinderbox, and provisions, and the backpack would still count as a single item. However, some heavy containers might count as 2 or more items, especially when filled.
Clothing and Accessories: Wearable items such as clothing, necklaces, eye patches, rings, and similar items collectively count as 1 item. Heavy, bulky, or awkward apparel counts as 2 items.
Coins and Gems: Every 30 loose coins or gems you carry count as 1 item.
Sold in Multiples: Any item that’s sold in multiples—candles and incense—counts as 1 item.

Armor

RESTING IN ARMOR: Although you can wear armor for long stretches without much discomfort, you gain no benefit from resting while you wear any kind of armor.
STRENGTH REQUIREMENT: If you do not meet the listed requirement for wearing the armor, you make Strength and Agility rolls with 1 bane and you grant 1 boon on rolls against your Strength and Agility while you wear it.
ARMORED DEFENSE: Wearing armor replaces your natural Defense score with an armored one. Some forms of armor grant you a choice of a fixed Defense score or adding a number to your natural Defense score.
For example, leather armor grants Defense 12 or +1. If you have a natural Defense score of 10, wearing the armor would increase your Defense to 12. If, though, you have a natural Defense of 13, wearing leather armor would increase your Defense to 14.

Light Armor: Takes about 1 minute to put on or off.
Medium Armor: Takes about 5 minutes to put on or off. Imposes 1 bane on rolls made to sneak while wearing it. Counts as 2 items.
Heavy Armor: Takes about 10 minutes to put on or take off a suit of heavy armor. Imposes 1 banes on rolls made to sneak while wearing it. Prevents you from taking the initiative while you wear it. Counts as 3 items.

Inferior Armor

A suit of inferior armor holds up until the end of a quest and then offers no protection at all. The Defense granted by inferior armor of any kind drops by 1 (mini- mum 10 or +0). While wearing a suit of inferior medium or heavy armor, you make Agility rolls with 1 bane and you grant 1 boon on rolls made against your Agility. Inferior shields increase Defense by 1 only

Superior Armor

A superior suit of light armor increases the bonus to Defense by 1, though if you replace your Defense with the armor’s score, there is no change. Superior medium armor has no Strength requirement for wearing it. Superior heavy armor has no Strength requirement and increases the Defense score by 1. Superior shields increase Defense by 3 instead of 2.

Shields

A shield allows its wielder to deflect attacks. A wielder either grips a handle on the inside of a shield or straps it to the arm, though large shields might have to be carried and placed in position. Shields come in many different sizes and shapes, including tower shields, heater shields, and round shields.
You equip and drop shields as if they were weapons. While you have a shield equipped (held or strapped to your arm), you increase your natural or armored Defense by the amount shown on the Shields table. A shield takes the place of the weapon you can normally wield in your off-hand.
If you wield two shields, you benefit from just one of them at a time.

Shield: You can also use a shield as an off-hand improvised weapon. When you attack with the shield, you lose its increase to your Defense until the start of your next turn.
Body Shield: Rather than strap it to your arm, you carry the body shield into position and then use an action to place it on the ground to provide partial or total cover to creatures behind it. A body shield does not, however, increase Defense. A body shield counts as 4 items.