Readied items

A standard trope is the thief with daggers hidden all over his body “just in case” but trying to play something like that brings up a weakness in the encumbrance system… where you put things doesnt really matter.

In the interest of bringing some definition to this, here are “readied items” (adapted and repurposed from Silent Legions):

Readied Items

A player can designate a limited number of items as “ready”. These are items the character uses on a regular basis that should be “at hand” at a moment’s notice. Any “at hand” items can be switched to instantly. Any item not “at hand” is stowed away, and can only be switched to by spending a round readying it.

The maximum number of items a character can have ready is given by:

N = 5 - (Armor Encumbrance - APA) + PA

APA is armor proficiency adjustment. It is 1 for characters allowed light armor, 2 for characters allowed medium armor, and 3 for characters allowed heavy armor) APA reduces the effective encumbrance of armor.

PA is Physical Ability: Maximum of Str and Dex bonuses minus Minimum of Str and Dex penalties. (As with strategic ability).

Regular items count as 1 readied item, large items count as two readied items. Characters with two handed weapon fighting style treat two handed weapons as one readied item. Characters with weapon and shield fighting style treat shields as one readied item. Characters with missile weapon fighting style treat bows or crossbows as a single item

Example 1: A fighter with 10 Str and 10 Dex is wearing plate armor. He may have 5 - (6 - 3) + 0 = 2 items. He can have a 2 handed sword ready, or a shield, but not a sword and shield. Due to the bulkiness of his gear, he would have trouble drawing his sword. He might train in sword and shield, or downgrade to banded mail to make that work.

Example 2: A thief with Dex 16, Str 13 wears leather armor. He may have 5 - (2-1) + 2 = 6 reasier items. He readies a sword, a bow, a quiver of arrows, a dagger and a flask of oil, so he is ready for anything. These are distributed in various spots (boots, belt, etc) which are, from a system standpoint, color.