Steve, the questions you raise though only address part of the benefit. Natural AR does not impose a Bulk and therefore an Avoidance penalty as with worn armor. Only padded and leather (AR 1, Bulk 0) are bulk 0, and all worn armor has at least 1 encumbrance. No armor quality including Legendary will take bulk below 1. A Legendary Celerity rune will decrease the Bulk by 1, but nothing short of that. The Celerity spell doesn't affect armor. Only the talent Advanced Armor Training granted to Martial Archetypes and Squire (b) get it. Even that only decreases it by 1 and for heavier armor would require other means.

Natural armor cannot be removed or taken, does not require time to put on, is available when sleeping, etc. It is constant, always on protection regardless of circumstance.

These in fact to me are the larger benefits than whether certain spells, talents, tricks or maneuvers bypass it.

Kind regards,

Paul

I agree if you are trying for only AR 4-6 range then NAR will have lower Avoidance penalties than worn AR. However, Natural AR (assuming you are trying to maximize it) also has Bulk (1 Bulk from Ss'ressen Scale Armor and -1 Avoidance (the equivalent of 1 Bulk) from Dragon Hide talent).

Only heavy worn armor can't be slept in (Campaigner talent).

I don't remember any instance in the campaign (in the mods I've played anyway) where people did not have access to their worn armor.

If some of these other aspects of natural armor came up in the campaign from time to time then I'd agree that it is a substantial benefit but, since I haven't seen them be relevant, I don't think they matter at all (for the living campaign anyway - home games may be different).

Astra has had to fight at least twice in her underwear due to night encounters in a 'safe' environment. The minutes to put on heavy armour means the combat is over otherwise.

A couple of Nierite's got quite a good look before a swift kick broke their necks.

While it is possible to sleep in light and medium armor it takes a talent to do so. That's an additional cost.

with a sweep of his hat,

Paul

I went looking at this, since I always thought anyone could sleep in Light Armor without penalty and that Campaigner allowed the addition of Medium. However, I can't find rules for sleeping in armor at all outside of the mention in Campaigner. Any idea where these are?

John

The list of things that bypass worn and not natural armor neglects to include the extra damage from Fervidite weapons. That extra damage specifically only applies to worn armor. The matial technique, Between the Seams, also applies only to worn armor.

Peter