Padding

Padding Combat Effectiveness Rating Table Rating Name -16+ Substantially diminished -15 to -11 Noticeably diminished -10 to -6 Somewhat diminished -5 to -1 Slightly diminished No Padding (baseline) 1 - 2 Lightly 3 - 4 Fairly 5 - 6 Somewhat 7 - 8 Decently 9 - 10 Heavily 11 - 13 Very heavily 14 - 15 Exceptionally 16 - 20 Masterfully 21 - 25 Superbly 26 - 30 Expertly 31 - 35 Phenomenally 36 - 40 Fantastically 41 - 45 Incredibly 46 - 50 Wondrously

Padding is a rare defensive property, typically found on armor, that provides greater-than-normal protection from critical hits (known as "critical padding") or health point loss (known as "damage padding"). The level of padding is represented as a number (usually from 0 to 50), known as combat effective points (CEP), which collectively make up an item's combat effectiveness rating (CER). Skilled warriors can ASSESS an item to get the full details of its CER and number of merchant services applied. The relationship between combat effective points and assessed estimates is shown on the table to the right. For example, an item that assesses as "heavily padded against critical blows" has 9-10 points of critical padding. The worded description gives an in-character way to describe the padding.

Spells and abilities can also provide temporary padding while they are in effect.

This property is typically not found on off-the-shelf armors from town shops, but may be available in varying levels from special merchants, or box-found on armor from the treasure system. Merchants may also offer a special service to add padding to an existing piece of armor. Merchant services do not add padding points directly. Instead, they will add service points, which correspond to actual padding points on a diminishing returns curve.

As of the August 2017 update, padding has been changed to a Category C item property and can coexist with all other properties, including both critical and damage padding on the same item.

Critical Padding

Critical padding reduces the critical severity of a successful attack by subtracting a phantom amount (up to the number of padding points, subject to possible randomization if the padding is greater than 6 points) from the raw HP damage before resolving the critical rank. Critical padding cannot reduce a critical that would have been rank 1 or higher to a rank 0. Characters have natural critical padding derived from CON bonus, but the exact formula is not known.

For attack rolls (Attack Strength vs. Defensive Strength), to calculate the maximum critical rank generated by a given endroll it is necessary to know the Damage Factor of the weapon vs the armor (reduced by a factor if redux is active), the critical divisor of the armor, and the number of padding points the armor has. If the attacker's weapon has critical weighting, its weighting points are added to the phantom damage. The general formula for determining the maximum critical rank is:

Max Critical Rank = Truncate[((Endroll - 100) * Damage Factor - Randomize(Padding Points) + Weapon Weighting) / Critical Divisor]

where Randomize(Padding Points) = Padding Points exactly if Padding Points ≤ 6, otherwise it is a random number in the range [6, Padding Points] with an unknown distribution.

(Note: Critical weighting is not randomized and always adds a fixed amount of weighting points.)

After computing the max critical rank, the actual critical rank of the attack result may be reduced by critical randomization (separately from the randomization of padding level).

Critical damage taken from other sources than attack rolls (such as from flares or maneuvers) is also reduced in many cases, but the exact formulas and conditions where it is applicable are not known.

Sample Calculations

The following sample calculations use standard (unweighted) weapons with 200 endrolls and utilize 10 points of critical padding:

• Handaxe vs. Brigandine : ( (200 - 100) * 0.270 - 0 + 0 ) / 7 = 3.86 ≈ Rank 3 critical
• Handaxe vs. HCP Brigandine : ( (200 - 100) * 0.270 - 10 + 0 ) / 7 = 2.43 ≈ Rank 2 critical
• Handaxe vs. Hauberk : ( (200 - 100) * 0.240 - 0 + 0 ) / 9 = 2.67 ≈ Rank 2 critical

Critical Rank Table

The table below shows how the critical ranks from a handaxe and maul with various endrolls scale across the different armor groups. The calculations including padded armor assumed 10 points of padding. Where noted (*) the padding is sufficient to reduce the critical rank to 0 if it wasn't otherwise restricted to a minimum of rank 1.

(Note: These tables assume no active redux. If redux is active then the endroll margins required to achieve the same results should be multiplied by 1/(1 - redux_factor).)

Endroll	Handaxe
	Cloth		Leather		Scale		Chain		Plate
	Norm.	HCP	Norm.	HCP	Norm.	HCP	Norm.	HCP	Norm.	HCP
105	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
110	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
120	1	1*	1	1*	0	0	0	0	0	0
130	2	1*	1	1*	1	1*	0	0	0	0
140	3	1	2	1*	1	1*	1	1*	0	0
150	4	2	2	1*	1	1*	1	1*	0	0
160	5	3	3	1	2	1*	1	1*	1	1*
170	5	3	3	1	2	1	1	1*	1	1*
180	6	4	4	2	3	1	2	1	1	1*
190	7	5	4	2	3	2	2	1	1	1*
200	8	6	5	3	3	2	2	1	1	1
210	9	7	5	3	4	2	2	1	2	1
220	10	8	6	4	4	3	3	2	2	1
230	10	8	6	4	5	3	3	2	2	1
240	11	9	7	5	5	3	3	2	2	1
250	12	10	7	5	5	4	4	2	2	1
260	13	11	8	6	6	4	4	3	3	2
270	14	12	8	6	6	5	4	3	3	2
280	15	13	9	7	6	5	4	3	3	2
290	15	13	9	7	7	5	5	3	3	2

Maul
Cloth		Leather		Scale		Chain		Plate
Norm.	HCP	Norm.	HCP	Norm.	HCP	Norm.	HCP	Norm.	HCP
0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
1	1*	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	1*	1	1*	1	1*	0	0	0	0
3	1	2	1*	1	1*	1	1*	0	0
4	2	2	1	2	1	1	1*	1	1*
5	3	3	1	3	1	2	1	1	1*
6	4	4	2	3	2	2	1	1	1*
7	5	5	3	4	2	2	1	1	1
8	6	5	4	4	3	3	2	2	1
9	7	6	4	5	4	3	2	2	1
11	9	7	5	6	4	4	3	2	1
12	10	7	6	6	5	4	3	3	2
13	11	8	6	7	5	5	3	3	2
14	12	9	7	7	6	5	4	3	2
15	13	10	8	8	7	5	4	3	2
16	14	10	9	9	7	6	5	4	3
17	15	11	9	9	8	6	5	4	3
18	16	12	10	10	9	7	6	4	3
19	17	12	11	11	9	7	6	4	4
20	18	13	11	11	10	8	6	5	4

Damage Padding

Damage padding directly reduces the health point loss inflicted, but will not reduce the critical rank of the original attack. For example, if a particular attack would deal 20 HP damage and a wound from the critical, then against someone wearing armor with 6 damage padding points ("somewhat padded") the attack would instead deal 14 HP, but the wound and critical rank would remain the same.

Randomization

The amount of padding points applied to a successful attack may be randomized (note that this is distinct from critical randomization). For critical or damage padded armor up to "somewhat" padded, the amount of padding applied is fixed. That is, any armor with 6 points or less (inclusive) of damage or critical padding will always provide the maximum amount of padding it can to any attack. In the case of greater levels of padding, the amount of padding points applied will be randomized but the armor will never provide less than somewhat critical or damage padding. The exact probability distribution of the possible values is unknown. This change was announced by GM Warden in early 2008.

Interactions

Redux

If redux is active, then for the purposes of calculating max critical rank, critical padding is applied after weapon damage factor reduction. In the Max Critical Rank formula above, the Damage Factor should be reduced by the redux factor. For example, for a handaxe against chain armor, the usual DF is 0.240. If there is 50% redux then simply use 0.120 as the DF, the rest of the crit rank calculation proceeds the same.

Damage padding is applied to the end result after all redux effects.

Armor Accessories

Combining armor items with enhancements have various effects. Note that the effects only take place in the active area. i.e. Effects due to enhancement of armor remain unchanged with respect to the head, neck, torso, and arms when worn in conjunction with leg greaves that bare an enhancement.

• Padding + Padding (Similar) : Armor accessories with padding types similar to the armor they cover result in the area having padding equal to the highest rank between the two. e.g. Masterfully critical padded leg greaves worn with heavily critical padded hauberk results in masterful critical padding of the legs.
• Padding + Padding (Dissimilar) : Armor accessories with padding types different from the armor they cover causes both types of padding to be halved in effectiveness. e.g. Heavily critical padded leg greaves combined with heavily damage padded hauberk results in somewhat critical and somewhat damage padding of the legs.
• Padding + Spikes/Flares : Armor accessories with flares combines with critical or damage padded armor results in the padding being halved in that coverage area. e.g. Fire flaring leg greaves combined with heavily damage padded hauberk results in somewhat damage padding of the legs with the appropriate flaring effects.
• Padding + Enhancement : For these purposes, enhancement refers to resistance to specific damage types, an active bless, or TD enhancement. Armor accessories with such enhancements cause padding of the base armor to be halved in effectiveness. e.g. Heavily critical padded hauberk worn with blessed leg greaves results in somewhat critical padding of the legs.
• Padding + Stat/Skill Enhancement : Armor accessories that are only skill or stat enhancives will retain the padding of the main armor. e.g. Heavily critical padded double leather with +2 strength arm greaves will retain heavily crit padding in that area.

Flares

Temporary flares applied to an item (such as Consecrate (1604) plasma flares) have reduced strength if the item has padding. If the padding is 10 points or more, temporary flares will not take effect. This restriction only applies for temporary flares; permanent flares are not reduced.

Spells and Abilities

Padding from spells and abilities are applied additively to any existing padding on armor. This includes Mage Armor (520) and the Sigils of Minor/Major Protection of the Guardians of Sunfist. For example, if a character is wearing armor with 10 padding points ("heavily padded") and uses Sigil of Major Protection for 10 additional padding points, they would have an effective 20 padding points for the duration of the sigil (equivalent to "masterfully padded").

Merchant Services

Main article: WPS smithy

Weighting/Padding/Sighting (W/P/S) Combat Effectiveness Rating (CER) vs. Total Services
CER Services 1 10 2 20 3 30 4 40 5 50 6 70 7 90 8 110 9 130 10 150	CER Services 11 180 12 210 13 240 14 270 15 300 16 340 17 380 18 420 19 460 20 500	CER Services 21 600 22 700 23 800 24 900 25 1000 26 1100 27 1200 28 1300 29 1400 30 1500	CER Services 31 1600 32 1700 33 1800 34 1900 35 2000 36 2100 37 2200 38 2300 39 2400 40 2500	CER Services 41 2700 42 2900 43 3100 44 3300 45 3500 46 3800 47 4100 48 4400 49 4700 50 5000

The merchant service to add combat effective points (CEP) will, in most cases, offer to increase the number of services on an item. The relationship between combat effective points and services is shown on the table to the right. Weighting (for melee weapons), padding (armor), and sighting (for ranged weapons) all share this table and are collectively known as W/P/S. The number of CEP on an item is also known as the combat effectiveness rating (CER).

For example, adding 20 services of critical padding to a non-padded item will give it a 2 CER. Adding 20 services to an item that already has 130 services (9 CER) will take it to a total of 150 services (10 CER).

If the number of services on an item fall within an intermediate CER, the item will provide a % chance equal to the progress towards the next CER to increase the combat effectiveness to the next value: an item with 145 services will have a 75% chance to confer a 10 CER (150 services) in combat instead of 9 (130 services). It is possible for an item to have both critical and damage padding or weighting, as applicable, and they can be added separately with a corresponding price surcharge. The total number of services per item is still capped at 5000.

Service Windows

When a W/P/S merchant service is offered, the price (silvers or event currency) of adding services increases as more services are added within the same Service Window, which is set as six two-month periods (Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, May/Jun, Jul/Aug, Sep/Oct, Nov/Dec) spanning a calendar year. This Service Window is tracked per item across all merchants and venues. Cost per service only increases with the number of services added within this window, not the total number of existing services on an item.

Every W/P/S service done an item within a two-month service window (as specified above) will increase the Service Count within that window. Items will become more expensive to work on as the Service Count increases. Price increases happen at Service Counts of 5, 10, and 15, with significant price increases starting at 20+. On the first service after a Service Window ends, the Service Count is reset.

Service Pricing

W/P/S service pricing is dependent on the other mechanical attributes of the item other than the one being serviced. Each attribute is assigned a point value that is summed to determine the total gear points for the item.

Weighting/Padding/Sighting (W/P/S) Gear Point Values
	Property Point Value Enchant 1 per AS/DS TD/Offensive Bonus (armor) 1 per TD/AS Defender (weapon) .5 per DS Flares 7 (Includes Grapple/Knockout) Sanctified 3 Spikes 1 Permabless/Undead Bane 12(weapon), 7(armor) Resistance 1 per 10% Combined Resistance Ensorcell 3 * Tier Enhancive Dependent on value (min 1, max 20) Script (Combat) (see here for specifics) Dependent script impact (min 0, max 20)

Silvers price is then calculated for each gear point, with higher gear points costing more per point.

Price per Gear Point
	Gear Value Price (silvers) 1 - 20 1750 21 - 35 3250 36 - 50 5000 51 - 60 6500 61- 70 8000 71+ 10000

A few item properties are not calculated in the above manner and instead are added on after the value above is determined.

Additional types of W/P/S:
500 silver * Number of Services of types other than the type currently being serviced.
Creature Bane:
Bane Bonus Price (silvers) Flares 15000 Weighting/Padding 5000 per point AS/DS 5000 per AS Evade/Block/Parry 5000 per % increase

Finally, The value is multiplied by the Service Count multiplier and any service type multiplier.

Service Count Multiplier
	Service Count Price Multiplier 1-5 none 6-10 125% 11-15 300% 16-20 350% 21+ 500% + (300% for every service over 21)

Service Type Multipliers

• Critical Weighting/Padding carries a 10% increase on the final price.

Currencies

• All calculations use a base price of silvers, then are converted to alternate currencies at an exchange rate.

Cost Minimums

• GM Merchant Offerings - 10,000 silvers for damage/sighting or 11,000 silvers for critical. Requires 6 gear points or higher to go above minimum.
• WPS Wandering Wagon - 75,000 silvers for damage/sighting or 82,500 silvers for critical. Requires 33 gear points or higher to go above minimum.
• Please see conversion rates below for other currency offerings when offered.

Conversion Rate
The conversion rate varies from event to event.

• Bloodscrip - At Duskruin 2018 the conversion rate was 750 silvers per bloodscrip*

Premium Point Padding

Heavy Padding (only) is available through the Premium Point system at a cost of 1200 points + (armor enchant bonus * 100 points). For example, to add heavy critical padding to 4x (+20) suit of armor would cost 1200 + (20 * 100) = 3200 premium points. The premium point benefit is not additive; it will simply take an item to 150 services, or 10 CER.

Resources

• Saved posts
• WPS smithy
• Item supercharger
• Weighting and Padding Officials folder