As a science teacher, I don't think they would necessarily have to rely on mythological materials to protect themselves from the main types of spells - 1: Lightning, 2: Water, 3: Ice, and 4: Fire. 1. Lightning: Full plate would indeed be invulnerable to lightning PRECISELY because it conducts electricity. Current flows in the path of least resistance - through metal, and large surfaces of metal, means it won't go through you - much in the same way that being inside of a car protects you from lightning. Sure there are gaps, but you wouldn't wear plate without an undergarment like a gambeson. 2. Water: The plate could be electroplated with another material to resist rust without compromising its integrity; like nickel for example. The gambeson underneath could be made water resistant with a melted wax + oil finish like on canvas, or a cloak. 3. Ice: The metal would protect from projectiles and the cloth padding underneath the armour could protect against the cold. It is feasible that it could get quite warm when wearing a suit of armour anyway. 4. Fire: Metal conducts heat, so from fire you'd need a material barrier to keep the heat away; leather, wool, and layers of cloth would do. They take it up a notch by rolling aluminium into foil that can be layered to make the lining of the gambeson much like they do in fire-proof suits and space suits today. Heat doesn't transfer very well through air, which is partly why wool is so effective. The outer lining of the gambeson could be made out of something inert such that even under high temperatures it has no chemical reason to combust in the presence of oxygen in the air.
Metal against lightning spells would be especially effective if you had a chain of some kind trailing along the ground in order to electrically ground the armor. Then you would be virtually invulnerable to lightning spells!
I think the biggest change would be tactics. Attack a fire wizard when it rains but never a lighting one. Have a ice wizard that can turn winter into summer allowing you to attack your enemy all year round. Nature wizard growing fresh food for your army on the spot.
Yeah there might be a few special mages that are very skill in one type of magic, while the basic mage might be more skilled in many than school or element of magic. To best be able to counter anything the enemy throws at them. Like a fire ball, counter it with a water ball. Bolt of lighting? Well good luck trying to hit someone with a bit of risen earth in your way. Of course a lot of this would depend highly on what type of magic and how powerful it is, in a setting.
It really depends on the lore. Some fantasies if you choose one magic like fire you can't choose another like water because there too different. But if we are talking mages powerful enough to fight entire armies being common, they usually only use one kind of magic.
Judging by Total Warhammerthe tactics will revolve around deceiving the enemy into using their magic ineffectively, while ensuring that they make some tactical blunder that allows you to devastate their forces with your spells.
If there's apocalyptic spells that can destroy entire armies in one go, why bother having armies? Wouldn't it just be battles between a few god-like mages?
Well if we go by the idea these mages have some sort of limit on their magic or spells. Well what better way to make them waste some of that magic than cannon folder?
Stewart Ashton the best way against that is armys filled with both melee combatants and mages. The mages do their best to mitigate the damage while sheer numbers overwelm the enemy's mage. usually a mage with that sort of power are considered rare and is a huge drain on their body so it would require careful use.
In many fantasy settings mages are in guild or have (un)written code to not aid any side. Also in many setting mages don't want to aid fight "just because". For example Gandalf, Saruman, Sauron they all are pretty much semi-gods yet they preffered to fight in melee than to use OP magic if there was some battle.
The mages may be fewer in number and they can still use bodyguards, scouts, spies, and skilled laborers if they cannot conveniently magically create or summon those. If the mages are feudal warlords they'll probably conduct raids with a small gang of the magically elite. Full out warfare might use mere mortal armies like chess pieces. While the mages have magical energies warring with each other, the common armies might fight it out. If there's a stalemate in magic, but your side's army wins then the enemy sorcerer(s) might not be able to stalemate against your magic and defeat your army at the same time.
+Tom P Correct, people who actually work around high voltage electricity wear stuff similar to chain mail and are ground. Just google "tesla coil suits"
Only a full suit of armor. If all you have is a spear, shield, gambeson, and a metal helmet it might be better to go without the helmet against a lighting wizard.
LEGOSHADOWSPARTAN the metal helmet would still conduct and spread the electricity around your head. instead of recieving a single point strike, you would broaden the area of attack. which i think is still better
You would want to make it quite differently to make it an effective Faraday cage.... the less angles and ridges the better but you need to join everything with conductors.
I would also contend that battlemages would significantly reduce the amount of armor worn by line troops, similar to how the advent of the musket triggered a phase-out of armor IRL. If armor cannot stop a spell, you're better off just not wearing it so you can close on the mage faster.
SandTrout It seems like already common fabrics and leathers would do a good enough job at stopping fire or ice spells. As for lightning, most metal armors that covered most of the body would hold the charge and prevent harm.
+SandTrout A couple of points: - First off, it would probably depend on how common battlemages were and whether they could cast spells almost indefinitely or whether they only had the energy for a few (and so must use them carefully to turn the tide of battle). Basically, if every battle features battlemages casting fireballs, lightning bolts etc. left, right and centre, then yeah mundane armour is pretty worthless. However, if battlemages are relatively rare or else don;t cast many spells (so that the majority of the fighting is still done my mundane troops), then armour would still be prevalent. Basically, it will come down to whether the majority of casualties are caused by magic or mundane weapons. - Something else to consider in the first scenario is what the actual purpose of line-troops is in the first place. If battlemages have almost unlimited magic and can blast away swathes of troops, what's the point of using those troops in the first place? Is it not more likely that the battlemages would basically fight amongst themselves for dominance, and not bother with mundane armies at all? Indeed, their armies could be more akin to police - who take over the areas conquered by the battlemages and keep order there.
Depends on the nature of magic. If magical runes or something similar could be used to defend against spells, then you might see shock troops on the front line wearing extremely high-quality and ornate gear to take the brunt of the magical assault, to be followed up by soldiers with cheaper and more familiar armor.
Virideon even if battlemages aren't rare, you are making the "just stab them under the armpit if they have plate" argument. A large amount of battlemages means many on both sides. That means that they would have both offensive and defensive spells. Some Mages would be deflecting, absorbing, or in some way countering the offensive spells of the others. Having a battlefield destroying fireball doesn't mean much when someone else has a battlefield protecting force field. It's the same with conventional weapons, really. Tanks are great against infantry, but not so great against aircraft, so you give infantry anti-tank weapons and give tanks anti-aircraft weapons to counter. For all we know, the reason city destroying fireballs aren't used is because it's super easy to place a forcefield over the mage casting it and they will blow themselves up when the fireball explodes in their face. Always assume that defensive measures will occur for every offensive measure until skill and being clever becomes the determining factor. The only times that doesn't occur is when a new weapon/defense is introduced and people are seeing it for the first time. After that, expect it to be less damaging until it is finally overcome entirely by the new weapon/defense.
@SandTrout I disagree. Magic doesn't automatically mean it bypasses armor, usually in fictional settings what it offensive spells do is manifest arcane energy in the form of a base element (fire for example) which can then be launcher at a target. If you fire a ball of fire at full plate armor, it is unlikely to punch through and I would argue that it could easily bounce off since it carries less mass than an arrow would. Say you fire an ice ball at someone which would obviously carry some mass it could act like a canonball in a sense but I don't recall any fantasy setting where a spellcaster could fire a projectile faster than a modern bullet. And even if it could, it is still ice and has ice-like properties so it would likely shatter upon impact with plate armor. Even with something like say electricity, using scientific knowledge. Whilst someone in full plate armor would definitely be a good receiver of electric currents, because the person is presumably grounded with the earth it would pass through him and be very unlikely to just instantly kill the person. Unless it is a highly concentrated lightning bolt in which case I can imagine it would definitely make a good impact on plate. But what I wanted to highlight with my theorizing here is that just because 'magic spells' doesn't mean that armor becomes instantly useless. You run in to problems with combat spells against heavy armor very easily.
actually metal armor wold most likely be the most ideal against electric magic, just because it is a great conductor. if you are hit by electricity you want to provide a ''good'' way for the electricity to pas to earth. plate armor would be a better conductor than your body which means it would pass thru it rather than you. also the reason you are safe in a car during a lightning storm has nothing to do whit rubber tiers. think about it the lightning came from hundreds of meters up in the sky, its not like the last 30 cm form the bottom of your car to ''earth'' is gonna stop it. the reason you are safe is the metal frame. same principle. electricity always takes the easiest way to ''earth''
I imagine shields might change shape to "catch" or deflect flames and redirect lightening. For example a shield might have a spike on the bottom that could be driven into the ground to help with lightening. Of course, properly done chain mail can function as a Faraday cage so fire and maybe ice would be bigger issues. Maybe the magic user can use telekinesis to throw rocks or people so impact resistance and absorbing the hit could be important. Another idea is a druid type that can use plants to maybe spread toxic spores or vines that can get into cracks. The deadliest magic user might be one that controls air. What if they could simply suck the air out of an area and suffocate your troops? Or have "blades" of air thin enough to go through eye slits, etc. A video on what the form of weapons would be in a world with magic would also be cool. Something with range and a lot of hitting power to take down magic shields and/or maximize killing power. Maybe something with enough range to suppress them until you can get close.
@@thearisen7301 So create Napalm then. @RNG_ Lord Though if the Fire is an explosion and little flame a Knight could be killed without damaging the armor to much, if it's constant they'll be cooked alive (for instance why using a Flamethrower on a Tank is actually a good idea and most games fail to realize just how devastating they can be to vehicles as constant applied heat even if your not directly hitting the crew your going to kill them with or without an opening to fire into), as for Plate Armor it could be made into a Faraday cage with little adjustment, if a Wizard can use air, then they'd be dangerous to an extent, as their skill would play a larger role then a fire or ice mage who can simply kill a knight or several with ease, through sheer force as unless the wind Wizard is particularly powerful in comparison to most other Wizards, odds are they might be more effective at disrupting enemies, for example creating a gust of wing to knock a hole in a battleline before a cavalry charge hits it, meanwhile a fire or ice Wizard simply needs a spell with enough force, for example in a different thread someone mentioned ice going at the speed of a cannonball (even if the ice doesn't pierce through the Knight the force alone is lethal considering their chest will now be caved in), and the aforementioned explosion from a Fireball, as while the wind Wizard can probably conjure a spell of equal force at the end of the day wind can only be so lethal on it's own.
Should we not consider the possibility that soldiers in a magic abundant world would simply abandon armour in the same way that European soldiers abandoned theirs after the development of gunpowder weapons?
Watergeit they wouldnt Completly abandon armor. It would be lighter and less covering at the very most. You can also Imbue Armor with echnants and runes that basically act as a all around sheild better then say cloth or leather. the larger armor would mostly be for Big game hunters and such.
True, but if only the enchantments count you could do the same with cloth / leather uniforms for the same effect. Note that the scenario I described would assume that the offensive magic used is magnitudes stronger than any defensive enchantments available (similar to musket vs plate).
Depends on how often magic is used and if there is anything that can prevent magic from doing damage. For example, armor is good because it protects from swords, arrows and other weapons (obvs). Europeans soldiers abandoned armor because 1. it didn't protect against gunpowder weapons AND 2. gunpowder weapons could be commonly used. So i think you have to take both those factors into consideration. If gunpowder weapons were used, but were very uncommon and it wouldn't have made much difference on the battlefield or even if it did, it was rare, then i don't think they would have abandoned it. In a fantasy setting i think soldiers would abandon armor only if 1. it didn't protect against magic 2. magic was very common as if to actually pose a regular threat and i'd make a 3. there aren't any ways to protect you from magic (different materials or enchantments etc.). If all these conditions are met then yes, they wouldn't wear armor. Otherwise i think we'll always see some type of armor.
well there is the need to protect from non-magic, esspecially in a universe that requires lots of study or special genes to use magic, magic intuined cloths would therefore be expensive and thus regular soldiers would whear traditional armour as magic armour would be too expensive and swords/spears would still be common enough to worrent protection. for example gun powder made armour obsolete bit officers and elite troops still war armour up intill bolt action rifles as close combat was still an effective tactic (due to slow reloads) thus those who could afford it would buy their own armour. during ww1 german soldiers (and latter everyone else) used steel armour to protect from close combat, shrapenel and even small arms fire (the more expensive german steel vests could stop rifle rounds while others could stop pistal rounds) and during ww2 soviet assault troops wore steel vests with slightly better stoping power and the modern US army were going to use steel plates aswell intill someone pointed out ceramic plates are lighter and stronger. but my orginal point was that as long as armour is effective against a resonablely large % of your enemies then you are going to protect your self if you can.
Yes you are right faraday cage which means that electricity will flow to the material with least resistance which in this case is the metal therefore the electricity will not go the user instead it will flow through the armour.
It doesn't flow _to_ the material with least resistance, it flows _through_ the material of least resistance, and to the point of lowest potential available, typically the ground. If, for some reason, you were wearing plate armour or maille with leather boots, you'd get shocked.
Also, lighting is directed so has penetration through conductive material due to the magic nature, otherwise it'd go to the ground long before hitting you. So having as much of the energy absorbed or deflected by insulating materials would help lesson how much manages to punch through. Alongside that, running electricity through steel tends to heat the steel up. And having hot metal on your skin or on flammable cloth is generally a bad idea, potentially worse than the electricity jolt. It's also why one should always keep the heat metal spell in D&D on hand when you face mid to high level intelligent creatures. If they have any fighters with metal stuff you can just turn their armor into a red hot coffin if they're not fire immune.
It also flows directly through whoever is in the cage but without being grounded it will have no effect on them. They do repairs to high tension power lines from helicopters without a faraday cage, they first connect the helicopter to the cable with a ground wire and then the technician can do whatever he wants to the cable, the helicopter and himself is not grounded and the electricity flows through without causing harm. You could be in a faraday cage and lick the bars and hold other bars barehanded after licking your palms and you get the same effect. Fun fact the reason why you are safe from lightning inside a car isn't the rubber tires, it is the metal body of the car acting like a Faraday Cage, lightning will and does jump the space between the car and the ground bypassing the tires. just don't be stepping out of the car when lightning strikes or you will be fired.
Actually a metal armor could be pretty good against lightning bolts if it implemented Farady Cage principles. In a scenario where electricity was "tamed" much earlier because mages could use it, people probably could have tested with it much earlier, managing to emulate those results at a high fantasy, feudal-esque era.
Every time I look at the subscriber count you seem to have an extra 20k! I kind of miss the days when there was only around 2k of us and it felt more personal, but I am very happy to see you continue to grow along with other similar channels.
>Electricity >Good against metal armor Look, I know you're a history buff and not a physics buff, but there's this little thing called the FARADAY CAGE. True, metal on full plate is a conductor. How much of that metal is actually in contact with the wearer's skin? It could be a little or none at all, but I highly doubt that a person would run into battle NAKED under a full suit of armor. No, they would likely have some sort of insulator beneath the metal to make sure that they not only stay temperate in extreme temperatures, but be much more resistant to electrical shock from either thunderstorms or mages in a fantasy setting. Basically, the metal from the armor conducts the electricity and spreads it throughout its surface area which greatly decreases the potency. Then, even if the skin has contact, it'll be too diluted to hurt much at all. Now you may argue that the heat from the electricity may cause burns. This is only true for stronger arcs such as from lightning. Even then, the armor would only heat up for a fraction of a second and immediately cool down afterwards at a significant pace. The lack of contact with skin would also cause the insulation to absorb most of the thermal energy and prevent burns. So either you'd get very light, sudden burns or just a warm and tingly feeling. The only caveat to this is in the rare scenario that the arc is so powerful that it instantly heats the metal up to the point that it burns the insulation. I don't know the chances or logistics of that, but it would likely have to be a sustained shock like that from a tesla coil with immense thermal energy behind it which would need to be several times higher than the temperature needed to burn the insulation. Question to consider: have you ever seen someone's clothes burn off who got struck by lightning? The comment thread by Tom P will give more insight into this; he's in the top comments.
Actually, a fully surrounding metal armour would be one of the best protections against lightning bolts - as long as the metal isn't heated up too much. Which can be avoided by making it thicker. You might still get knocked out because of the EMP
5:21 "if the wizards are using lightning bolts then definitely metal armour is not a good idea" this is a very common misconception, metal armour would actually be ideal, especially copper armour or any highly conductive armour, this is because electricity follows the path of least resistance, metal is a better conductor than flesh so the lightning would go through the metal and into the ground and not even bother touching you, the only thing you have to worry about is heat, the greater the resistance to more the metal will heat up, a suit of copper would probably be fine (i mean lightning rods use copper to channel lightning into the ground so given a thick enough gauge, it should do just fine) or a copper coating over a suit of steel. though, even if the suit got hot from resistance, the doublet underneath would likely keep it from burning you before it cooled down again (the whole suit won't get hot just where the electricity travels...likely one line straight down the centre with small branches along the way as it tries to find it's way to the ground...that area will get hot but the rest will not, once the electricity is gone the heat will equalize...probably fuck up the tempering on your suit a bit but you'll survive) 10:12 you call that an arm's race, sometimes called the red queen's race (because you have run and run as fast as you can just to stay in one place)
A bit nitpicky, but I would say either "How should fantasy armour really look?" or "What should fantasy armour really look like?" for the title. I mean, what you have may not be actually wrong, but I personally think the alternatives sound better.
coryman125, I was going to point that out. Saying _*how should_ xyz _look like ?_ is indeed incorrect, because _how_ and _like_ fill the same role. I haven't studied English grammar enough to give a proper defence of this, but it's related to the fact that _like_ takes a direct object (think _like what ?_ as opposed to _*like how ?_ - the second is an ungrammatical question). My personal preference would be for _what should_ xyz _look like ?_ but _how should_ xyz _look ?_ is also correct.
I love the armours used in a epic fantasy series called The Stomrlight Archive: not only they have their mystery behind them (they are used by nobles but not fully understood because they are like relics), they both repair themselves and enhance physically the user (with limitations) and other cool stuff happens around that :) It's cool for example seeing that they use very heavy weapons for specific battles because they have that armour that allows that, when common warriors couldn't and use other methods instead. Really recommended 2 (huge) books to read, even with magic and so on the author created a good mechanics of magic and battle techniques , lore of the world that goes behind what seems and that make sense of what you have in the current present (not just unlimited and staged overpowered things you see in classical high fantasy series).
Actually if there was lightning magic a metal armor would be great, remember inside a conductor a charge is always 0. The armor would protect you a lot more than any other due to this fact. You can see this used in our world when scientist are around large charges they can have Chainmail (Fully covering all of the body) to prevent them from getting hurt.
very interesting video, also find it really cool to know you have an argonian character in skyrim, they're my favorite race in the Elder Scrolls series and feel they don't always get enough love. kudos!
Metal armor would be ideal for fighting lightning because it is a conductor. Electricity goes down the least resistive path to the ground, so it is going to go through the metal and avoid you. This is the basis for a Faraday cage. Wooden armor would burst into flames because it is a flammable resistor.
but the electricity heats the conductor, and the metal armour can be too heated for the warrior (the warrior doesn't die for the lightning, but for the heat)
@@vonakakkola what’s the alternative? Get directly struck by lightning? Also metal is a conductor the electricity would travel through it with minimal resistance and would as such hardly heat it up, not to mention even if the armor got heated a shit ton you would still be wearing padding underneath that would protect the wearer from the heat. And like I said what’s the alternative? To not wear anything and get a lightning bolt shot directly into your chest?
What about armor that is similar to modern day tank and kevlar, which is made to explode upon or before impact to destroy the projecticle yet destroyed at the same time. This might be especially useful against the gigantic spells aka Warhammer, where it would produce a heavier one time counter and say an embedded crystal explodes out or the fantasy wood absorbs the charge and is blasted off sparing the warrior.
Just gonna say, dragon armor in Skyrim can make sense, but not for the reason you gave. The Dovahkiin isn't physically anything special, they're still mortal, they can be killed by normal weapons and it only takes someone more skilled than they are to do it. It's the spiritual part of the Dovahkiin that is special. The soul of a dragon, and the magic that comes with it. They can Shout, and absorb the souls of dragons, but it doesn't add to physical strength as far as we can see. But dragon bones and scales could just be very light, and they should be, considering those massive unaerodynamic things can fly.
I haven't been through all of your videos yet, but I'd LOVE to hear your comments on Tolkien's Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, both the novels and the Peter Jackson films. You mentioned how magic might be used in mass combat, with spells primarily being cast at an advancing army before they got into melee range with the spell caster's own troops and area of affect spells would injure your own people as well as the enemy. It made me think that armies could wear a base of steel armor in anticipation of melee combat, but atop that would be something that could resist magical effects, but would be expected to ablate with each magical attack, or be easily detached or quickly destroyed as soon as physical combat began. Something like a filigree or fragile substance (Specially inscribed cloth? leather and vellum phylactery worn on the breastplate?) that could "dissipate magical energies, magical fire, lightning, etc." but only for a few strikes before being destroyed itself, and would be otherwise useless in physical combat. This would also affect tactics since the armies would rush to engage each other in physical combat before the magical attacks had fully destroyed their outer 'magic resistant' shielding. It's an interesting thought!
These are brilliant ideas to apply to a DnD campaign. Most ideas are already within the boundaries of the rules but the flavor and the look of it is very nice.
This was interesting I also analyzed this topic. I want to create fantasy world myself, and one of ideas I have was abandon armors and weapons almost compleatly (swords could be still for self defence) but all of Warriors, Soldiers and fighters would use magic, not weapons and armor. Why I think this make sence, becuse to me lot and I mealn 90% fantasy make one mistake. I beleve you can all agree that telekinsis is one of the most common magical abillities. So how would you attak someone with telekinesis???? You would throw something on him, yes that could kill him, but I would use telekinsis to crush his brain, or heart. Fireballs, lightning or ice attkas are really cool, but isn't effectiveness thing you want most????? You often have mages that can manipulate water, how they attak??? With water attkas, ice attkas, waves etc. But body of all living beings is 80% water, woudnť be eaisre to manipulate this water to kill them. I beleve in fantasy when you have magic, someone who do not have magic is useless in war. You can say that thare can be mages that would shield army againts that, but than is the mage more important thant that army. Does powefull mage need soldiers any more??? I think NO. So using medieval weapons and armor in Fantasy when oyu have magic is like using them now when you have tanks and missiles. On the onter hand I do not want abandon armors and weapons compleatly, like I said sword are still good for self defence, armor could work like sign of class. And for bandits who attak small village (where is little chance to meet mage) and similar groups, weapons would make sence. But for warfere magic itself is enough
Warmex Alquist, it's worth remembering that mages are also limited. Let's assume for example that conservation of energy holds, so that any magical act takes as much energy as it would for you to do something manually (long-range magical acts taking more energy as we need to consider the energy it would take for you to travel from A to B and back, for example). Let's also assume that not everyone has magical affinity _or_ that learning magic is prohibitively expensive and therefore limited to the richest classes _or_ that magic is rationed for whatever other reason. (Two assumptions that I feel are reasonable.). In that case, it becomes useful to have armies, as mages can only do so much. Mages would also be prime targets for the opposing army, and so will be more useful if they are defended and don't need to worry about their own protection.
Well that depend on several factors. Yes energy is important but this is the thing to crush the brain you would need a very little energy, just need a little push in the right place and the person is dead or incapacitated (If someone can lift several tons with telekinesis than this would be nothing, he would need control and precision but htat could be trained). So I beleve for competent mage is not problem kill thousand knights without magical protection in instant, snap of fingers. Yes you can have different mage protecting that knights but that would make this mage vs mage and knights are expendable. How I see this when one powerfull mage can kill an army by snap of fingers, than More powerfull mage> Less powerfull mage + army Raise army of 1000 man is laso wery expensive and I beleve 10 mages would be better idea than 10 000 man at arms. Like I said that depend on lot of factors. It would be differnet if 20%, 2% or 0,02% of people could use magic. But if anyone with training could have some level of competence in magic, Weapons and armor are not need any more.
Warmex Alquist, I think you're absolutely right about the brain-crushing or artery-snapping, that's what's so clever about it. The thing about the mages, however, is that one mage can only keep track of so many people at a time, and only cast so many spells at once. This is why an army may be a good tactical move to distract and get at a mage.
Like I said that depend on several factors, can this mage create shield for himself, can he snece life??? Plus i never said that I think One mage should replace army I beleve there will be armies but this armies would be smaller and it would be army of mages. That make much more sence to me. If you have 1% population mages yes they will be not-mage soldiers, but when you have 20% mages This could be enough to make soldiers expendable or pointless. Whats more Mages are not only fantasy element, humans would have problem, againts Trolls, Giannts and Dragons (amd much more creatures), so mages armires would be effective of humans (or human like races) because for example dragons would chabge warfare copmpleatly and if these dragons can use magic (and In my fantasy they can) well than guy in heavy armor with spear and sword yould be like guy with knife between tanks. And one thing that would replaced amn at arms and create compromise could be golems, they could be mass produced, fell no pain no fear they can be magical and they are prety cool. Well again that is also debetable how expensie they would be? But I think they are better than humans (or elfs, dwarfs etc) I have different ideas, when water mage use water from river or sea to cteate wave to atak enemy, I beleve it will be better use water inside their bodies. When you have fire mage, he can use fireball but imagine this, what if some firemage figured out how create fire inside someone's body? RIP armor. Or air mage he can suck oxygen from some area. RIP armor. Metatron said that in Fantasy people would evolve armor to react to magic, and I agree with him that this would in some fantay make sence but at the same time I beleve mages would create spels that would make armor useless. Because magic has more options than weapons and armor it would end like Magic vs Magic. It come to the poin how powerfull magic can be, and from some point Magic can make everything else useless.
Warmex Alquist on why you cannot support this many mages: so assuming conservation of energy mages will have to produce various sources from which they will be able to use up during battles. so pretty much they would use the energy they would gain from the food they would eat and storing it in various objects. that means that the city will have to use up extra resources on mages just so that they can be used during battles on top of having to use resources for their training. (note that to train they would have to make use of these various storages) on top of that, an army consisting mostly of mages would be much smaller and thus more prone to night attacks which would damage it way more than a usual army. you would want more skilled mages as they would be more precise and more energy efficient. now you would also want some of them to receive some solid warrior training on top of their magic training so that you could use em to catch the enemy off guard (night attacks etc). the numbers would depend on whether you could make magic items that can be used by anyone (think of these like bombs, pistols etc) and how powerful would these be. finally there could be enchantments (on talismans or other shit) that would heavily increase the energy costs of magic in a small area around the bearer. Or it could be that the range that you want to affect directly something with your spell costs too much energy for it to be worth it (like you would do the telekinesis trick for close quarters combat but not at long range )
I'm not him, but I am pretty sure that if people are so strong that they easily break trough armor it is useless. On the other hand they'd be strong enough to wear heavier armor... but if you put a 1-meter layer of steal on a man it would make him unable to move. I also assume your humans have the same weight so with incresed strength they need to worry much more about cnockback. I'd say the armor would be made of something ridiciously heavy and durrbale like a melttogether of used up uranium. It is used in russian tanks. I'd also assume it is about 6-10 centimeters thick and has very strong neck protection. The leggs would also have spikes or something on the soles to limit cknockback further.
I must say the extra visuals in this video made it alot more enjoyable ontop of your interesting information. i hope you keep up with this idea in future videos!
I enjoyed the Sword of Truth universe (books by Terry Goodkind) for this, each side had mages with apocalyptic powers, it was mentioned in universe that it usually basically became a dispelling contest between wizards in which each side neutralised the other's magic, so armour looked the same because troops fought troops whilst mages fought mages, if your army didn't have a mage and the other army did, you were almost certainly doomed
And noting based on Total War 2 and cover, the condition of the wearer.The elf guy in armor is Teclis, who was afflicted with illness from birth and had to drink potions to keep healthy. Have to account for possible attacks, weariness, and weather based on occasion when potion wears off.Nothing about armor though, the lore stated that it was his staff that is keeping him energetic on combat level.
Something that has a ridiculously super high melting point since the plasma from the lightsaber is super hot (because the plasma can be all the way from 8000°C and 25000°C)[Armour would be pretty much useless unless you could forge something that can withstand the beginning part of the transition region of the sun 8000°C-50,000°C] Either that or just wearing light clothes so they can jump around and dodge the plasma blade, since it seems that the force increases a users reaction time and speed overall drastically.
if the material existed, then in the star wars universe it would be easily accessible to the Jedi and the Sith. For anyone else that's not in one of those two orders, it would be outrageously expensive.
fuck all of that science shit star wars universe has cortosis (a lightsaber resistant metal that actually affects kyber crystals and turns lightsabers off on contact)
I've seen a plethora of your videos, and I enjoy them a lot. And i want to congratulate you on your channel. This is the first time i actually comment on one of your videos. Regarding the lightning magic vs metal armour, I actually ENCOURAGE the use of metal armour against lightning, but you have to be COVERED in it from head to toe (with helm and it's visor down). If there is a gap in your armour, it is actually detrimental. Why I say this? because the full plate armour can act as a Gaussian Sphere, that is, keeping the electricity harmessly at the surface of your armor, and grounding it, without it ever touching your skin or internal organs.
A fun thing I remember about the Warhammer universe is that there are an entire sect of mages who specialize in dealing with heavy armour, causing plate and other metals to heat up to the same degree as when it was first forged. Because of that taking plenty of heavier armoured troops can end up being a huge detriment to your battle plan.
I would say ceramics, like the ones used in modern armor, could be a good choice. Ceramics are good insulators & take impact well. So ceramics with a steel backing for when the ceramic eventually gets cracked would be a good option. I would definitely go with a similarly designed shield to try to keep whatever magic is being thrown away from you.
You stated that if they are using lightning bolts that metal would be bad but if you had something like treated leather or even linens between yourself and the metal will increase resistance and would send most, if not all, of the electricity to the ground meaning metal would actually protect you most as wood wouldn't transfer any of the energy to the ground meaning it would instead damage you with either force or super heated (most likely both). As you stated with using rounded breastplates instead of flat breastplates as it will deflect the blow, metal would have more efficiency at deflecting certain things (like lightning) than some other materials. I do agree that shape may change/material and I quite enjoy your outlook. Good video (this isn't me saying you are wrong just trying to start a conversation), keep up the good work!
Yee if you look how slow the spell is, a trained fighter could easily dodge it and do a counter attack. Or just raise a shield of any kind. I never understood how magic in hp should make sense anyway, because any f*king muggle could eliminate voldemorts squad in less than a minute with a gatling gun. Everyone who can operate a gun could kill even Dumbledore or Voldemort (at least 1/7 of him) without any effort
@Sh4dy: What makes u believe an "Avade Kedavra" or even any spell in Harry Potter is slow? Where they in the movie? In all of the series there is never once a situation where somebody manages to actively dodge a spell. (ofc ducking behind cover or some such works but i mean like just stepping out of the way). About the Guns versus Spell argument. I am pretty sure they could work out some spells that protect them from gunfire. However, the biggest advantage for mages in Harry Potter again humans is that their realm is not accesible by muggles. So should the war not go well they could just vanish and return at a point at which they have according spells.. or just dont care to return.
joe the sheep In the movies, Avada Kedavra is slow enough to dodge if one expects it. in the books it is described to make a "swoosh" sound or something, so I think it is slow there as well. maybe it isn't after all, though. Still, a shield should be able to tank a hit, thus allowing a direct counter spell. Of course they could come up with spells against gunfire, but 1) the bullet is too fast for them to react and 2) They *don't even know what a gun is* , because they have been living under a rock for 500 years. They don't know *any* muggle technology (apart from Arthur Weasly and a hand full of others).
Sh4dy A shield wouldn't protect against Avada Kedavra, because it's magic. It's not a physical projectile like an arrow that you can just block with a shield. It would go through the shield and kill the person anyway. And in a battle situation, even if the fighter it's aimed at can duck to avoid getting hit, it will still hit the person behind him, because remember he's part of a bigger army and not just fighting alone. A group of wizards casting Avada Kedavra at a formation of muggle soldiers is guaranteed to inflict casualties.
One of my favorite fantasy games is a little known RPG from the mid 90s called Exile: Escape from the Pit. The magic system was particularly good in that spell effects would actually stack. In other words, casting three Bless spells on someone made them much more powerful than casting just one. Furthermore, most spells could be countered. So a Bless spell was countered by a Curse spell, Haste countered by Slow, Poison spells by Cures, etc. Additionally, most spells had powerful single-target versions as well as weaker AOE versions. What would end up happening in larger battles, was front line fighters would engage the enemy fighters as they tried to break through to get to the spell-casters. Meanwhile, spell-casters would continually buff their own forces while debuffing enemy forces. You often couldn't risk using your more powerful damage dealing spells because the enemy fighters would gain the upper hand over your own fighters. If you could gain the upper hand, either on the combat side or the spell-casting side you could usually win the battle. It made for some really fun and dynamic strategy for such a simple game. Another one I really liked was Age of Wonders, where spells were so powerful you could even permanently alter parts of the map, like leveling mountains and freezing bodies of water so that an army could march across, or even just magically nuke whole areas!
Really cool Video! It's funny since i'm thinking about playing P&P RPGs again, or better said i'm playing with the thought of starting again with worldbuilding and creating my own Game system (only for private purposes). So i really like your fantasy and folklore themed videos you make in recent times. Very appreciated! The possibilities which some (fantasy) materials could offer, are almost indefinite IMO. Especially when worldbuilding, this aspect alone could change the whole (fantasy) world. Again, cool video! I hope there will be many more like this! Cheers!
Great video, loved to see the consideration that, while armour in video games isn't realistic by real-world standards, this can be attributed to innovation necessary for the unique combat environment in that fantasy world. Would love to see more video's on this and similar subjects like weapons and other equipment. One criticism I noticed is that you really do need to list the games that you use footage of in these videos. List them in the description or the credits at the end of the video. Otherwise, you can get accused of plagiarism and violation of copyright, but also this directs viewers to games they see in your videos they might find interesting.
So thought i'd chime in on this because its something i thought of quite a bit. If you want to imagine how fantasy armor works i think your best bet is to look at modern armor. Most magic i've seen in games that have battle mage type characters that sling fireballs and such are mostly things that forced us to adapt but instead of magic it was technology. Look at the modern soldier for example. Bullets are projectiles that can pierce armor, so armor material had to change and we see ceramic plating. One time use plates that break when struck but can stop a much larger round. Some of the most common weapons involve either a blast (force damage), or intense heat or flame (fire damage). So naturally, our clothing is made of material that turns to ash when burnt providing momentary protection from intense flames by absorbing heat. We have found soldiers burned in battle were only seriously burnt in places that was not covered such as the face, arms if they had their sleeves rolled up and such. Hence gloves and long sleeves. We use sound cannons, smoke grenades, and nightvision/thermals. Also a good scifi example would be shadowrun since they have the technology to counter many magical effects. As for some more fantasy only things in battle, lightning bolt? What about a lightning rod? Not really something an individual would carry but we are talking battlefields. So it could provide protection against lightning based strikes. But the important part that i've concluded is to have magic of your own. Wizards separated between artillary and counter magic or abjuration. There only job is to shut down mass casualty spells while your own wizards try to inflict their own. Individual units may carry eldritch knights who can perform minor feats of magic and counter magic as needed on the battlefield if those are available. If they are unable to counter magic and its that big of a problem we would probably see a decline in people bothering to wear armor as we saw when muskets started becoming the common tool of warfare.
loved this table setting with the statues and the sword. So, going by this Idea of armor evolving into magic-defensive equipment as well, I would say that many of the games we play and complain about unrealism are realistic! Dark Souls for instance has many pieces of gear that are Just clothing, but are very protective against Magic, lightning or Fire: like the gold hemmed set, the Black Sorcerer set and many others.
Another thing I don't seem to find often touched on in fantasy universe, is the technology advances that might come from using magic in production of armor as well as new ressouces coming from monsters. For example, we are currently developping new steel using nanotubes and exploring the uses of spider silk. Now, in a fantasy universe you can have tons of fearsome monsters whose strenght partially comes from their skin, scales, feathers, bones, etc. I can easily imagine people trying to find a way to use giant larvae/spiders to produce high quality, highly resistant silk in huge quantities for clothes and armor production. Wich would result in a unique kind of silk armor. You could also use leather from some monsters rather than cows (especially if drakes are used as mounts). And magic could be used during the smithing/smelting process to create lighter and stronger steel and/or make steel production more reliable. And rather than being used on their own, fantasy metals could be used alongside iron to create unique alloys. So that rather than create a handful of mithril plate armor, you create a lot of super steel plates armor wich benefits a bit from the qualities of mithril. You could even use golem magic to create what would essentially be power-armor, allowing super heavy infantry that would be able to take on large monsters, demons and the like. In the same way, by using enchantements to improve physical capabilities of he wearer you could make super-hero suits that would transform some soldiers into super-fast, agile and strong killing machines. And of course all of these ideas could be mixed together as well. There are so many things that could be done that when I see RPGs simply making a bunch of different metals that are all better than one another and use it as a basis for their armor it feels really unimaginative.
As many have said in the comments, a metal armour would be surprisingly good against electricity magic, as it would behave like a wearable Faraday cage. The electrons would travel through the metal without touchinkg the skin until they would eventually travel to the ground. Many, people, myself in the past included, think resistive materials protect you from harm, and while this in theory true, the electrons keep orbiting the material in form of static electricity until they find another material more conductive to jump into, like our skin, for example.
Lots of people seem to be hung up on the Lightning Bolt thing, or fire, but here's a thought: what about conjured poison gases? Or things that do damage by freezing? Or conjuring acid? Or use of compression waves (sound attacks)? In order of how I can think to counter these: adapting visored helmets with some mechanism to filter air, likely somewhat similar in appearance to a plague doctor mask; increased insulation in your under padding and hydrophobic outer coating on the Armor to prevent ice buildup, especially at the joints; non reactive outer coating (ceramic?). As for the Lightning and fire, Lightning can be partially dealt with by making a mail faraday cage under the plate, but leaves an issue with heat buildup. I think the solution to that and the Fire issue are the same: ablative heat shields. Coat the Armor in some material that will evaporate away when heated to extreme temperatures, taking with it an inordinately high amount of heat. I can foresee either special paints or a layer of liquid suspended in between the Armor plates, with a pressure release valve to let off steam when it gets to hot to cool the Armor back off. If you were to have all of these on one suit, it'd be way to large and heavy, unless some means of either providing the wearer increased mechanical power or significantly reducing weight could be achieved.
Since you started with a reference to Warhammer, I think that it is worth mentioning that the Dragon Princes (elite High Elf heavy cavalry) have armour that is resistant to fire and any kind of breath attack, which they wear because they muck around trying to wake up and tame dragons. I think it only really makes sense for highly elite troops to have magic resistant armour in a fantasy setting due to its expense, rarity, and difficulty to make. BTW what are you thoughts about the powered armour of space marines in Warhammer 40k?
My point to this video- When I was makeing up my own fantasy story of Wars of Magicians years ago, I came up with this idea of anti-magic armor which is kinda like reactive armor on modern tanks. I imagined it as a vest made out of a lot simple amulets. Each amulet would be independent, and independently charged with energy and some kind of specially designed spell to counter enemie's spells. I would be worn over normal anti-weapon armor, and if a wearer would be targeted by a spell, armor would have activated as many amulets as necessary. You can imagine it looking a bit like those roman awards and medals that were worn by centurions. Video sugesstion: Japanese invasion of Korea comanded by Toyotomi Hideyoshi! It's just soo interesting topic, which is usually being reduced just to something like "yeah, japanese tryed it twice, were beaten on sea, succeeded 300years later". I would like to know more about battles on mainland, about korean and chinese war technology of that time, chinese involvement, and may be a little comparison with 20th century Korean war would be nice... Thanks for your videos!
A few post thoughts: Electricity also comes with an inherent magnetism known as "Inductance". If he had any level of control of inductance, it would be similar to Magneto from x-men. Or he could fire a bolt either side of you and tear your armour off, potentially killing you in the process depending on the design. Also, depending on the level of control, he could simply crush your armour. You spoke about materials, but how many trees have stopped lightning bolts? An object's resistance will simply determine the amount of heat generated if the current's potential is high enough. If your armour's resistance is high, it may limit his ability to "Hit" you dependant on his exact control, but if he did hit you, the extra resistance would actually just kill you quicker. Your armour would heat up faster and you would fry.
I think metal armor to have a faraday cage affect and asbestos arming doblet/gambeson for fireball. As for negative energy attacks I guess positive reinforcement chants like: "I feel fine I feel great I can do this!"
I enjoy your work and am new to the topics you speak on, but was thinking that armor could have some sort of rubberized coating or silicone added between metal layers to add protection from fire, electricity and absorb blows.
This is a really interesting idea, I think there would be many interesting ways to alter armor to fight against specific magics. For instance against electricity based magic, a cloth/linen or leather armor would be effective, something like a gambeson, modified with a metal external ribcage and a set of lightning rods that go above the head and lead to a series of insulated wires that drag on the ground. Basically making it so that the electricity is redirected away from the body. Fire resistant armor would be made so that the helm is enclosed in the front so that fire/super-heated air have no direct access to the face, and thus so long as they don't catch on fire or melt, the soldier within "should" be protected. Of course just adding a large shield to the mix would make things much easier. I don't think cold magic would require much modification to normal armor (depending on the situation of course.) Summoning magic I would think wouldn't require too much modification from regular armor. If they're bringing in animals, even if they were as exotic as say dinosaurs or alien animals I don't think would require too much change. More supernatural creatures might require specialization, but you know, if somebody brings a 20 ft. tall burning demon, or summons an archangel, or conjures a flock of intangible spirits that can eat your life-force directly I don't think there would be a mundane way to protect against that. And what about telekinesis? imagine being able to pick a 50 lbs. rock and chuck it someone at MLB pro pitcher speeds. What if it was 100 lbs.? 400 lbs.? Half a ton? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there is a "realistic" way to make armor that can protect you from that. Even the fifty pounds would hurt hitting you at 100 mph. I think armor would evolve to fight specific forms of magic, but in other cases it would be utterly impossible to account for what would be on the battlefield. Not that they wouldn't try, but it wouldn't be cost effective.
I would argue that the armour would still mostly be adapted to protect against normal weapons, as magic is not the predominate threat on the fantasy battlefield, it is still mostly mortal men and beasts fighting each other with metal tools. Where magic is involved the threat will mostly be countered with magic, like enchanted talismans protective spells et cetera, so the armour will only look different in so far as the attached talismans and means to enchant the armour make them look different. This depends of course on the level of magical presence and specific type of magical effect in the fantasy world, from a certain point of magic use saturation normal armour and weapons would become totally useless, in such a setting it would make sense that people would just bedeck themselves with artifacts that have some magical function and those could look like anything. Still, a fantasy setting like Warhammer is not so saturated that armour and weapons would be used any differently from how they where historically used.
Actually provided the wood is fire resistant it might make more suitable armor. Not too much stretch of the imagination that those mages that throw fire balls can heat up armor and would have an easier time with metal than wood. Choice would also depend which materials are avaliable (draws living in mountains may prefer metals, lizard people living in swamps may prefer wood). The idea that form follows function can explain any shape - it's to channel magic/defend against magic. Hmm... maybe even to turn the tables. Shape/runes that makes those wearing your special wooden armor imune to fire - hit them with a fireball and all you do is give them an extra line of defense.
In Warhammer fantasy there was gromril ore, which was the hardest metal in the entire univrse. Only reachable by deep mining dwarfs and originally it came from the space via meteor strikes. It was so resistant it could deflect "Giant" blows and help the Irondrakes ( ie dwarf with flamethrowers ) to don't get overheated problems and burn themselves. Entire wars has been fought for a single gromril armour piece. Only way to get them was to steal from corpses on the battlefield. ( for other races ) Warhammer lore is pretty expansive
Speculation: Special copper tracing or a type of copper radiator on the (Back/Shoulders/Legs/Arms) could be used to diffuse heat pretty fast, and the fact that you're covered in what is basically a Faraday cage would make you resistant to fire and lightning. You'd want to have a layer of Leather or padding underneath which would basically act as an oven-mitt while the heat dissipated from a fiery spell, and also protect the wearer from cold, should that be an element to use. I think it would start to be a problem when you get supernatural or ultra-strong monsters or spells that can propel projectiles at a much faster velocity than even bullets, at which point you may need to start considering more fantastic protections like shielding spells, armor reinforcing enchantments, or Armor made form a kind of "unobtainium".
What I miss in the video is other magic types than damage and summoning. Especially buffs, like shield spells, spells that give you the magic properties of an element ("stone skin"). Tactics and formations made to counter certain debuffs, like a spell of fear. Ways to deal with battlefield control, ways to deal with something like magical corruption, necromantic corruption et cetera. Magic traps. Invisible enemies, invisible spells, invisible weapons in the hand of visible enemies. Weapons for characters with presicence, heightened physical abilities. Weapons that seemingly defy some physical law, like a supersharp thorn-like melee weapon that gets a lot of impulse without being slow to use as a real weapon would get. But I can understand why he did not do that. One would need start speculations in speculations and create a "magical theory" of a certain world before he could analzye that, and when he is done, it only works for this world.
as reflective as possible, the shiniest armour (with a heatsink-like sandwiched armor underneath) will avoid the user from overheating by fire magic; Insulation will avoid the consequences of lighting and cold magic, making the armour a faraday cage or the insulation being a cold protection itself; Use blessings to fight the undead and don't leave any skin exposed to avoid curses (most fantasy scenarios make curses work only if the target gets skin contact from the magician/wizard/shaman)
Some other things to consider: Frequency and repetitiveness of magic usage. After all, if the Mage in question is a 'nova burst' and is effectively done, then you only need a one-shot defense, perhaps one of an arcane nature, pitting magic against magic. It is only if you see both mages as a common battlefield danger and has the endurance to remain relevant throughout the battle that you would see any significant changes. Another thing magic could easily be used for is indirect aid. In D&D 3.5, for example, it was almost always more beneficial to use a Haste spell than a Fireball or Lightning Bolt because the extra attack every melee combatant received would deal considerably more damage than said blast of elemental fury. Likewise, once you get into the mid-levels and higher level spells come online, you find certain buffs being 'standard issue'. I had a cleric which would cast Greater Magic Weapon, Magic Vestments, and various other buffs at the beginning of the day, ones which could be expected to last all day long. Then situationally, buffs like Death Ward or Freedom of Movement could be used to negate opponent tactics. But if you are looking at, say, fireballs... it would affect the battlefield much like artillery with grapeshot or airburst shells. The only solution really would be either enchanted armor or those with arcane properties which bestow resistance upon them (such as your commentary about Mithril) or rushing the mage, which has also been a traditional fantasy tactic. This would less impact individual person's armor, but perhaps a focus on either area-effect arcane defense against such (perhaps similar to earthenworks and berms and overhead protection to counter artillery), or on detecting and sniping the casters before they can launch. A third potential restriction which might limit the change in armor as you describe might be rarity. In most fantasy settings, permanent enchantments are rare and expensive, which is not suitable for military logistics. Mithril and Adamantium are traditionally rare metals found only in the deepest bowels of the earth, with significant consequences for delving for. So again, while an individual might gather enough wealth to own a personal suit, it is not very realistic to equip an entire army with such. At best, it might be able to outfit special squads with such gear as a specific counter for charging in and eliminating opponent casters. However, this is a very interesting line of discussion, and very much a worthy topic to consider.
This is why the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic setting appealed to me so much. And it still does, I guess. Especially due to some of the very first fanfictions explaining elements of the world, such as why the alicorns had to *make* the sun and moon move, and why the ponies had to artificially manufacture most of the planet's weather. Something big went down. Something magical. Add to that the glimpses of the pony military and their war magic, plus the glimpses of historical armor in the show. Throw in the ancient race of elf-like deer (some of which are regular dumb deer, while a rare few survive in highly magical communes, suggesting that their race is somehow cursed), *dragons that wear armor,* and all manner of other different races that all have their own cultures... It's a rich setting with its fair share of dark armies and evil overlords. The best war story I've yet written was an MLP short story set in a nearly forgotten era when deer and their client races had broken most of the planet, leaving standard warfare almost completely outmoded by golems, the most powerful sorcerers, weather warfare, summoned/engineered monsters, and "plundervines." And I say that despite participating in a group-written story about the fall of a fictional South American country wherein half the characters were experienced guerrilla fighters, and the other half were British/Americans.
The bit you mentioned about Orcish armor made me curious. I think you should do a follow up video to this talking about how armor might change for a world with multiple species with similar levels of sentience and civilization as humans. Like how Elven armor tends to be more "pretty" while Dwarven and Halfling armor tend to (possibly unrealistically) look like smaller versions of Human armor
Many people already pointed that out, but as a physicist I feel obliged to bring it to attention again: If the enemy uses lightning spells, you WANT metal armour. However, you actually want to be completely covered, and different pieces of armour should interlock in a way that allows electricity to flow between them. Also, the armour should be grounded, or otherwise the body parts between the armour and ground will be fried. Easiest would be to be covered in mail(including mail leggings), you could add Plates for better protection against weapons. I'm not only saying that because of theoretical knowledge, but also from my own experience of taking the lightning bolt of a tesla coil with my own hand. There are more than enough videos of people playing with a tesla coil while wearing mail, which should demonstrate quite well what I'm getting at. It's an amazing feeling to take the lightning of a tesla coil with ones own (mail-protected) hand ;)
One thing that is also appears quite frequently is the idea of magical runes. Perhaps say that any armour could be enhanced though runes that are imbued by wizards, allowing a basic level of protection from magic and spells. In that regard, armour could perhaps have been more developed to have more prominent runes (or even discrete ones?) which could even go so far as to explain the weird shapes that some armours take. Court wizards could even be taking part of development of more powerful runes to imbue in the armour. Perhaps a drawback could be that the runes break/shatter when they reach their threshold, killing the magical resistance of the armour and perhaps even making the armour completely useless and granting the full force of the spell onto it's victim. This could also explain why mages generally wear lighter armour or simply cloth, as the elaborate patterns are simply a spell in itself.
I think the armor will be very similar to modern day combat equipment. If you think about it, we are basically using "magic" during our wars. The battle equipment focuses on mobility and camouflage. At the end of the day, nothing will protect you against a massive fireball/rocket... So it's better to never get hit by it. Line formations and heavy/bulky metal armors are out of the question in my opinion.
In a universe where they have lightning bolts you would wear plate armour and use chain suits underneath to conduct the electricity away from your body, and then gambeson beneath as usual because the cloth wouldn't be conductive. They would ensure the metal creates a perfect circuit (no gaps) so the electricity would simply channel away and into the ground. You could definitely (in a fantasy sense) build the armour to be quite good at resisting electrical attacks.Fire is scarier since overheating is already a serious concern even if you DON'T melt.
My favorite fantasy game is my own, Seinvocc. Being a role-playing forum, we are not constricted to what can be programmed and depicted by a team of artists, so we can implement all sorts of this evolutionary logic that you express in this video.
Well that's exactly why I love Warhammer that much. Almost everything makes sense! The "normal" humans wear historical suits of armour, Orcs and servants of Chaos have the weird looking stuff, but it still makes sense cause they are batshit insane.
Dominions is by far my favorite setting for fantasy for many reasons. Also curious to see how you would design an armour for wizards assuming magic worked similarly to tabletop RPG's of old where you need exposure to cast magic or something of the like.
My favorite fantasy game is Dragons Dogma Dark Arisen, I think the armor and weapons are not too garish while still having a nice look, the lore is fantastic, and the gameplay is extremely fluid and fun.
I like the setting of the Iron Kingdoms in the fantasy games of Warmachine and Hordes. In the Iron Kingdoms has got an interesting mix of stuff from the industrial revolution, medieval times and fantasy, and that is what I like a lot. The general of your army (called a Warcaster in Warmachine and a Warlock in Hordes) is a powerful wizard and some of them can be a really good in close combat as well. The warcaster has also a magical powerfield to protect him from harm and is powered by a small steam engine which he or she wears on the back. The warcaster also has, next to units of troops, the ability to command giant steampowered automatons called warjacks which the warcaster commands mentally. The Warlocks can transfer their damage to big monsters, called warbeasts. There a many interesting factions and models on the website of the publisher of this tabletop game (but there is also a video game called Warmachine: Tactics) www.privateerpress.com
My preferred fantasy armor (barring enchantments) is a wool gambeson with mittens and leggings. I would wear mail over it, with kettle hat, and jack chains connecting the pieces together as well as to little metal bits on my boots/shoes. the metal is for a fareday cage, and the wool makes a good insulator against things like fire, and possibly ice magic.
I remember a D&D book fron 3.5 edition. It proposed an alternative to standard fantasy battles and it said that magic would make fantasy war similar to our modern day war. Long range spells, divinations and flight make masses of troops obsolete, instead several platoons of fast moving commando-style troops would be the rule...
I've just recently found your channel, but I though to write my thoughts about enhancing armors against magic. I think, based on how socketing exists in lots of RPGs and MMORPGs, armors could have inside socket of certain magical gems, that could store up magical power (mana or whatever resource magic uses as a base) and based on the gem's affinity towards certain elements, they can provide the armor a certain resistance. In most cases, it should be opposite element based resistance, like fire element based gems can use their stored energy if the person is affected by cold magic. It can also be an semi-automatic, reaction based thing, like if the gem is affected by a certain ammount of heat or cold, or senses water or poisonous things or extremely high ammount of light, these magical gems could react by themselfs by emitting their stored (forced into them by outside force, like an enchanter) or naturally accumulated magical power and counteract against the incoming effect. In terms of lightning, nature element would be the go to, based on wood, or earth; against light, shadow is the thing, against necromancy/curses, light, nature, if it's separated from nature, life can be used too, etc. If these mechanics would be there, then armor would generaly work the way it currently works with an addition of inside jewelry and their craftong process would also include cooperation of jewelers too with blacksmiths and magicians.
the reason for the high cost of titanium is not because of chemical rarity, but rather it's expensive extraction process. for example, titanium compounds are used to make some kinds of cheap white paint. furthermore, titanium is very expensive to utilise in fabrication due to it's high chemical reactivty and very high melting point. labour cost wise, technical skill is also worth a lot (welding, heat treatment etc is complicated)
Fun fact: Extremely dense white oak has ablative properties and was used on early Chinese space vehicles as protection from reentry conditions. Real wood undergoing one of the toughest jobs against heat. Slamming into the atmosphere at hyper sonic speed. So White oak siege weapons and such would be common place and deliberately farmed. Any mage trying to burn through that is going to have their job cut out for them! Magic protection could also come from animal hides with natural magic resistance. Wear them under regular armour?
Something that you touched on in the end when you talk about your DnD, would justify high magic settings with armor exactly like that we see in history. Enchanted armor. The Armor could be built with weapon combat in mind and then have magic wards put on it to make it strong against magic attacks. Hell in high magic settings you could have plain clothing with magic enhancement making it more protective then full plate. Depends on the rules of magic in that world.
It's a very difficult topic to discuss and speculate around. Mainly because it all bottles down to how magic works in the particular setting. Some settings offer very little explanation of how magic works. Other settings give more in-depth explanations. But there is also a huge variety in how it works. For instance, in one setting, fire based magic attacks might work on the principle that the warlock basically summons a gout of flames that emmanate from the warlock towards the target. In that setting, armour made of fire-retardant materials would make sense. But in another setting, inncineration of a target might be caused through getting the target to spontaneously combust (the source of heat and inevitable fire is caused inside the targets body), in such a setting, fire retardant materials worn on the body would be rendered useless. And in other settings, magic is sometimes basically a forced shared fantasy between the warlock and the intended target with the power of suggestion (like the matrix: "I thought It wasn't real?", "Your mind makes it real") which somehow manifests itself magically in real life. In that type of scenario, worn armour would be irrelevant, since the determining factor of whether the target gets burnt to a crisp or not is solely dependant on the targets ability to steel his mind and disbelieve the almost telepathic subliminal suggestion that the magic user tries to imbue his victim with in order to incinerate him.
Check out the game "Arcanum", old as hell but the theme can be summed up as "high fantasy being hit with an industrial revolution" and the conflict of the contradicting laws of nature and magic. Which leads to such amazing moments as shooting dragons with elephant guns, your powerful spellcaster becoming a whimp as soon as he enters a city because all the technology around you disperses your magic or your steampowered armour grinding to a halt and your revolvers constantly missfiring in an elven forest since all the arcane energy distorts the laws of physics.
Although iron is about nine times as common in the crust as titanium, the main reason for titanium's price is the difficulty of refining it from its oxide form.
Warhammer fantasy armor in its own video would be epic! From the Empire to Vampire counts, and all in between, even if a couple of minutes on each basic races armor/weapons. Thanks!!
There are several people who talked about metal armor being a faradayan cage. Now, I am not deep into physics, so what I write might be wrong but: The idea here is that you don't want to get hit at all. If you get hit, yes, it might be that nearly everything of the current passes through the armor. Let's assume, all of it is, best case. Two things: 1. This means that the armor gets hot, right? With enough energy, red hot. Cooking you alive. Might be a less damaging effect than getting hit without one, but that's about the difference of you getting hit by a full blow from a tank and getting hit by a tactical missile. Tank is weaker than the missile but you are dead in both cases. 2. Explosion. A lightning can carry considerable energy. Consider this: Sand is relative resistant towards electric current, but a lightning hitting it will result in an explosion and melt a part of it to glass. If the armor conducts the energy into the ground, this will cause the ground to blow up (given enough energy). You don't even need to get hit directly - if this goes off in front of you, this is like you stepping on a landmine. Well okay, granted, might be weaker than one because no shrapnels, but deadly nonetheless. I think the mistake people make here is to think in games. In those, characters get hit dozens of times, resulting in a loss of HP. This creates the illusion that taking a single hit is comparatively harmless while in reality, it could kill you. As for mages who throw damage spells, consider that in order to be in business, they need to be stronger than a naptha grenade thrower. You get hit by one, you die. (Except maybe for magic armor as Metatron is talking about)
Dont forget a lot of magic takes the form of projectiles or rays. Even if acid a "bolt" is still a physical projectile and thus can be deflected. This is actually mentioned in dragon age inquisition by the iron bull when he mentions Cullen trains the recruits to angle their shields so that if such a magic projective comes at it it skews away rather than say towards their face. Alongside that, there are also expanded military supplies such as alchemic ointments for the armor, so instead of oiling up your suit of armor with grease or something you'd use an alchemic treatment that would absorb fire or lightning or whatever and project corrosion treatment to help ensure the armor could take a fireball or two.
Something to point out concerning metal armor vs lightning. Full plate armor insulated with cotton & wool would behave has a Faraday cage, carrying the electricity along the outer surface of the armor as mentioned in other comments. The big disadvantage would be the heat generated from the electricity going through the plates. I would imagine that the armor would be designed with heat-sink like characteristics externally, with thermal insulation internally.
In response to your question on setting, I would have to say Warhammer or Game of Thrones, but the Witcher 3 would definitely be my favorite fantasy game.
The funny thing is that iron or steel armor should protect well against electricity, BECAUSE it conducts electricity. I remember seeing this show on The Weather Channel about three mad scientists doing weather-related experiments, and a guest did an experiment in which he wore chainmail or something and got electrocuted. The idea is that the armor absorbs all the electricity and goes out the other end, into the ground.
My favourite fantasy video game setting? Either Ivalice from Final Fantasy XII or Hydaelyn from Final Fantasy XIV. In terms of armour, mage gear seems very magic resistant while more conventional gear isn't stat-wise. Though in the latter, Paladin can now block magic with their shields, Dark Knight has specific abilities to block magic damage and Warrior is just Warrior. However, I've got both lore books and in the sections on armour, they do often mention that Job specific gear is enchanted.
Well for a mild fantasy i really like kenshi, its basically a post apocalyptic alternate univers feudal japan themed RPG/RTS/survival/sandbox, in the sense that each character is fully customizable, but you can have many characters, and even build a town if you wanted to. They put soo much detail into how weapons and armor works, it being mostly a swordbased game. They have katana, wakizashe, nodachi, horse choppers, those crazy huge two man swords the japanese built to disrupt troop formations(it didnt work), then they also have a light midieval europe faction, with armor way too large, and as such they can barely walk, but they take forever to kill. unarmored troops are faster, but only for a while, as each character by carrying more stuff gets stronger, bulks up and at the end can fight in full metal armor without hindrance. Some of the larger blades at first also cannot be used with any effectiveness at all, but once your character is strong they can wield it effectively. its a pretty well built game, though it does take an SSD harddrive and a pretty OP pc to run, as the map is huge and it follows a no loading screen policy, so you gotta run everywhere.
Warcraft universe? There are of course often runes that are used to give extra protection from other elements. There's Fel, Arcane, Light, shadow and the elements, the nature and the chi. Though there is the chaos magic, which is made of multiple schools of magic, which means that there is absolutely zero ways of defending against it.
Safe to say that against magic, armor won't probably matter unless it's enchanted with magic/elemental resistance stuff. If it's metallic, which would mean it probably conducts electricity, lightning or earth (which would essentially act as a magical bludgeon) would be quite effective. If the armor is considered "light" or your foe is unarmored, fire for everything. As for ice, a well-aimed icicle in the armor's gaps may be enough if the plan isn't to give your foe hypothermia in tropical environments. Water? Get it highly pressurized and it would be pretty obvious for what you use it for. Also, even if you do find ore that gives armor even the slightest resistance to magic, chances it will be so rare that it will be expensive. It's kinda like firearms: when blacksmiths tried to work on plate armor that could resist bullets from flintlocks and other firearms, the results were so heavy and expensive that initially, those who could afford it settled just for the upper body armor only to give up altogether on it afterwards.
As a science teacher, I don't think they would necessarily have to rely on mythological materials to protect themselves from the main types of spells - 1: Lightning, 2: Water, 3: Ice, and 4: Fire.
1. Lightning: Full plate would indeed be invulnerable to lightning PRECISELY because it conducts electricity. Current flows in the path of least resistance - through metal, and large surfaces of metal, means it won't go through you - much in the same way that being inside of a car protects you from lightning. Sure there are gaps, but you wouldn't wear plate without an undergarment like a gambeson.
2. Water: The plate could be electroplated with another material to resist rust without compromising its integrity; like nickel for example. The gambeson underneath could be made water resistant with a melted wax + oil finish like on canvas, or a cloak.
3. Ice: The metal would protect from projectiles and the cloth padding underneath the armour could protect against the cold. It is feasible that it could get quite warm when wearing a suit of armour anyway.
4. Fire: Metal conducts heat, so from fire you'd need a material barrier to keep the heat away; leather, wool, and layers of cloth would do. They take it up a notch by rolling aluminium into foil that can be layered to make the lining of the gambeson much like they do in fire-proof suits and space suits today. Heat doesn't transfer very well through air, which is partly why wool is so effective. The outer lining of the gambeson could be made out of something inert such that even under high temperatures it has no chemical reason to combust in the presence of oxygen in the air.
medieval alumunium refining xd
Well, I dont care if its just fantasy, it is still cool to find out
Metal against lightning spells would be especially effective if you had a chain of some kind trailing along the ground in order to electrically ground the armor. Then you would be virtually invulnerable to lightning spells!
I think the biggest change would be tactics.
Attack a fire wizard when it rains but never a lighting one. Have a ice wizard that can turn winter into summer allowing you to attack your enemy all year round. Nature wizard growing fresh food for your army on the spot.
Why would a mage only be capable of one type of magic? Fighters aren't only capable of fighting with one type of weapon.
Yeah there might be a few special mages that are very skill in one type of magic, while the basic mage might be more skilled in many than school or element of magic. To best be able to counter anything the enemy throws at them. Like a fire ball, counter it with a water ball. Bolt of lighting? Well good luck trying to hit someone with a bit of risen earth in your way.
Of course a lot of this would depend highly on what type of magic and how powerful it is, in a setting.
It really depends on the lore.
Some fantasies if you choose one magic like fire you can't choose another like water because there too different.
But if we are talking mages powerful enough to fight entire armies being common, they usually only use one kind of magic.
Jesus Christ that's stereotypical af
Judging by Total Warhammerthe tactics will revolve around deceiving the enemy into using their magic ineffectively, while ensuring that they make some tactical blunder that allows you to devastate their forces with your spells.
It's funny to occasionally see people say Megatron instead of Metatron, both are similar and awesome though
Grant C megatron
Mettaton
Fgc_Slamjam ah of course, can't forget about Megaton(s). "the bomb is completely safe" haha
Grant C first time I read:what?
*Look at word "Megatron" and "Megaton"*
Me:now I remember! What an idiot to build town around that bomb
If there's apocalyptic spells that can destroy entire armies in one go, why bother having armies? Wouldn't it just be battles between a few god-like mages?
Stewart Ashton that wouldn't be as cool
Well if we go by the idea these mages have some sort of limit on their magic or spells. Well what better way to make them waste some of that magic than cannon folder?
Stewart Ashton the best way against that is armys filled with both melee combatants and mages. The mages do their best to mitigate the damage while sheer numbers overwelm the enemy's mage. usually a mage with that sort of power are considered rare and is a huge drain on their body so it would require careful use.
In many fantasy settings mages are in guild or have (un)written code to not aid any side. Also in many setting mages don't want to aid fight "just because". For example Gandalf, Saruman, Sauron they all are pretty much semi-gods yet they preffered to fight in melee than to use OP magic if there was some battle.
The mages may be fewer in number and they can still use bodyguards, scouts, spies, and skilled laborers if they cannot conveniently magically create or summon those.
If the mages are feudal warlords they'll probably conduct raids with a small gang of the magically elite. Full out warfare might use mere mortal armies like chess pieces. While the mages have magical energies warring with each other, the common armies might fight it out. If there's a stalemate in magic, but your side's army wins then the enemy sorcerer(s) might not be able to stalemate against your magic and defeat your army at the same time.
Can't metal armor act as a Faraday cage and protect the wearer from electricity?
+Tom P
Correct, people who actually work around high voltage electricity wear stuff similar to chain mail and are ground.
Just google "tesla coil suits"
was about to coment this
Only a full suit of armor.
If all you have is a spear, shield, gambeson, and a metal helmet it might be better to go without the helmet against a lighting wizard.
LEGOSHADOWSPARTAN the metal helmet would still conduct and spread the electricity around your head. instead of recieving a single point strike, you would broaden the area of attack. which i think is still better
You would want to make it quite differently to make it an effective Faraday cage.... the less angles and ridges the better but you need to join everything with conductors.
I would also contend that battlemages would significantly reduce the amount of armor worn by line troops, similar to how the advent of the musket triggered a phase-out of armor IRL.
If armor cannot stop a spell, you're better off just not wearing it so you can close on the mage faster.
SandTrout It seems like already common fabrics and leathers would do a good enough job at stopping fire or ice spells. As for lightning, most metal armors that covered most of the body would hold the charge and prevent harm.
+SandTrout A couple of points:
- First off, it would probably depend on how common battlemages were and whether they could cast spells almost indefinitely or whether they only had the energy for a few (and so must use them carefully to turn the tide of battle). Basically, if every battle features battlemages casting fireballs, lightning bolts etc. left, right and centre, then yeah mundane armour is pretty worthless. However, if battlemages are relatively rare or else don;t cast many spells (so that the majority of the fighting is still done my mundane troops), then armour would still be prevalent. Basically, it will come down to whether the majority of casualties are caused by magic or mundane weapons.
- Something else to consider in the first scenario is what the actual purpose of line-troops is in the first place. If battlemages have almost unlimited magic and can blast away swathes of troops, what's the point of using those troops in the first place? Is it not more likely that the battlemages would basically fight amongst themselves for dominance, and not bother with mundane armies at all? Indeed, their armies could be more akin to police - who take over the areas conquered by the battlemages and keep order there.
Depends on the nature of magic. If magical runes or something similar could be used to defend against spells, then you might see shock troops on the front line wearing extremely high-quality and ornate gear to take the brunt of the magical assault, to be followed up by soldiers with cheaper and more familiar armor.
Virideon even if battlemages aren't rare, you are making the "just stab them under the armpit if they have plate" argument.
A large amount of battlemages means many on both sides. That means that they would have both offensive and defensive spells. Some Mages would be deflecting, absorbing, or in some way countering the offensive spells of the others. Having a battlefield destroying fireball doesn't mean much when someone else has a battlefield protecting force field. It's the same with conventional weapons, really. Tanks are great against infantry, but not so great against aircraft, so you give infantry anti-tank weapons and give tanks anti-aircraft weapons to counter.
For all we know, the reason city destroying fireballs aren't used is because it's super easy to place a forcefield over the mage casting it and they will blow themselves up when the fireball explodes in their face. Always assume that defensive measures will occur for every offensive measure until skill and being clever becomes the determining factor. The only times that doesn't occur is when a new weapon/defense is introduced and people are seeing it for the first time. After that, expect it to be less damaging until it is finally overcome entirely by the new weapon/defense.
@SandTrout I disagree. Magic doesn't automatically mean it bypasses armor, usually in fictional settings what it offensive spells do is manifest arcane energy in the form of a base element (fire for example) which can then be launcher at a target. If you fire a ball of fire at full plate armor, it is unlikely to punch through and I would argue that it could easily bounce off since it carries less mass than an arrow would.
Say you fire an ice ball at someone which would obviously carry some mass it could act like a canonball in a sense but I don't recall any fantasy setting where a spellcaster could fire a projectile faster than a modern bullet. And even if it could, it is still ice and has ice-like properties so it would likely shatter upon impact with plate armor.
Even with something like say electricity, using scientific knowledge. Whilst someone in full plate armor would definitely be a good receiver of electric currents, because the person is presumably grounded with the earth it would pass through him and be very unlikely to just instantly kill the person. Unless it is a highly concentrated lightning bolt in which case I can imagine it would definitely make a good impact on plate.
But what I wanted to highlight with my theorizing here is that just because 'magic spells' doesn't mean that armor becomes instantly useless. You run in to problems with combat spells against heavy armor very easily.
actually metal armor wold most likely be the most ideal against electric magic, just because it is a great conductor. if you are hit by electricity you want to provide a ''good'' way for the electricity to pas to earth. plate armor would be a better conductor than your body which means it would pass thru it rather than you. also the reason you are safe in a car during a lightning storm has nothing to do whit rubber tiers. think about it the lightning came from hundreds of meters up in the sky, its not like the last 30 cm form the bottom of your car to ''earth'' is gonna stop it. the reason you are safe is the metal frame. same principle. electricity always takes the easiest way to ''earth''
I was going to say the same thing. In modern times, people use suites of maille to be able to stand near giant Tesla coils without being electrocuted.
I imagine shields might change shape to "catch" or deflect flames and redirect lightening. For example a shield might have a spike on the bottom that could be driven into the ground to help with lightening. Of course, properly done chain mail can function as a Faraday cage so fire and maybe ice would be bigger issues.
Maybe the magic user can use telekinesis to throw rocks or people so impact resistance and absorbing the hit could be important. Another idea is a druid type that can use plants to maybe spread toxic spores or vines that can get into cracks.
The deadliest magic user might be one that controls air. What if they could simply suck the air out of an area and suffocate your troops? Or have "blades" of air thin enough to go through eye slits, etc.
A video on what the form of weapons would be in a world with magic would also be cool. Something with range and a lot of hitting power to take down magic shields and/or maximize killing power. Maybe something with enough range to suppress them until you can get close.
RNG_ Lord What if a mage could create some kind of fire that sticks? Plasma or tar?
@@thearisen7301 So create Napalm then.
@RNG_ Lord Though if the Fire is an explosion and little flame a Knight could be killed without damaging the armor to much, if it's constant they'll be cooked alive (for instance why using a Flamethrower on a Tank is actually a good idea and most games fail to realize just how devastating they can be to vehicles as constant applied heat even if your not directly hitting the crew your going to kill them with or without an opening to fire into), as for Plate Armor it could be made into a Faraday cage with little adjustment,
if a Wizard can use air, then they'd be dangerous to an extent, as their skill would play a larger role then a fire or ice mage who can simply kill a knight or several with ease, through sheer force as unless the wind Wizard is particularly powerful in comparison to most other Wizards, odds are they might be more effective at disrupting enemies, for example creating a gust of wing to knock a hole in a battleline before a cavalry charge hits it,
meanwhile a fire or ice Wizard simply needs a spell with enough force, for example in a different thread someone mentioned ice going at the speed of a cannonball (even if the ice doesn't pierce through the Knight the force alone is lethal considering their chest will now be caved in), and the aforementioned explosion from a Fireball, as while the wind Wizard can probably conjure a spell of equal force at the end of the day wind can only be so lethal on it's own.
Should we not consider the possibility that soldiers in a magic abundant world would simply abandon armour in the same way that European soldiers abandoned theirs after the development of gunpowder weapons?
Watergeit they wouldnt Completly abandon armor. It would be lighter and less covering at the very most. You can also Imbue Armor with echnants and runes that basically act as a all around sheild better then say cloth or leather. the larger armor would mostly be for Big game hunters and such.
True, but if only the enchantments count you could do the same with cloth / leather uniforms for the same effect. Note that the scenario I described would assume that the offensive magic used is magnitudes stronger than any defensive enchantments available (similar to musket vs plate).
Depends on how often magic is used and if there is anything that can prevent magic from doing damage.
For example, armor is good because it protects from swords, arrows and other weapons (obvs). Europeans soldiers abandoned armor because 1. it didn't protect against gunpowder weapons AND 2. gunpowder weapons could be commonly used.
So i think you have to take both those factors into consideration. If gunpowder weapons were used, but were very uncommon and it wouldn't have made much difference on the battlefield or even if it did, it was rare, then i don't think they would have abandoned it.
In a fantasy setting i think soldiers would abandon armor only if 1. it didn't protect against magic 2. magic was very common as if to actually pose a regular threat and i'd make a 3. there aren't any ways to protect you from magic (different materials or enchantments etc.). If all these conditions are met then yes, they wouldn't wear armor. Otherwise i think we'll always see some type of armor.
well there is the need to protect from non-magic, esspecially in a universe that requires lots of study or special genes to use magic, magic intuined cloths would therefore be expensive and thus regular soldiers would whear traditional armour as magic armour would be too expensive and swords/spears would still be common enough to worrent protection. for example gun powder made armour obsolete bit officers and elite troops still war armour up intill bolt action rifles as close combat was still an effective tactic (due to slow reloads) thus those who could afford it would buy their own armour. during ww1 german soldiers (and latter everyone else) used steel armour to protect from close combat, shrapenel and even small arms fire (the more expensive german steel vests could stop rifle rounds while others could stop pistal rounds) and during ww2 soviet assault troops wore steel vests with slightly better stoping power and the modern US army were going to use steel plates aswell intill someone pointed out ceramic plates are lighter and stronger. but my orginal point was that as long as armour is effective against a resonablely large % of your enemies then you are going to protect your self if you can.
this means if a soldier or state can't affford magic cloth but can afford chain mail, the soldier will wear chain mail.
isn't it better to have a armor that conducts electricity better than human flesh against electricity bolts?
Rodrigo Marques *insulates
Yes you are right faraday cage which means that electricity will flow to the material with least resistance which in this case is the metal therefore the electricity will not go the user instead it will flow through the armour.
It doesn't flow _to_ the material with least resistance, it flows _through_ the material of least resistance, and to the point of lowest potential available, typically the ground.
If, for some reason, you were wearing plate armour or maille with leather boots, you'd get shocked.
Also, lighting is directed so has penetration through conductive material due to the magic nature, otherwise it'd go to the ground long before hitting you. So having as much of the energy absorbed or deflected by insulating materials would help lesson how much manages to punch through. Alongside that, running electricity through steel tends to heat the steel up. And having hot metal on your skin or on flammable cloth is generally a bad idea, potentially worse than the electricity jolt.
It's also why one should always keep the heat metal spell in D&D on hand when you face mid to high level intelligent creatures. If they have any fighters with metal stuff you can just turn their armor into a red hot coffin if they're not fire immune.
It also flows directly through whoever is in the cage but without being grounded it will have no effect on them. They do repairs to high tension power lines from helicopters without a faraday cage, they first connect the helicopter to the cable with a ground wire and then the technician can do whatever he wants to the cable, the helicopter and himself is not grounded and the electricity flows through without causing harm. You could be in a faraday cage and lick the bars and hold other bars barehanded after licking your palms and you get the same effect. Fun fact the reason why you are safe from lightning inside a car isn't the rubber tires, it is the metal body of the car acting like a Faraday Cage, lightning will and does jump the space between the car and the ground bypassing the tires. just don't be stepping out of the car when lightning strikes or you will be fired.
Actually a metal armor could be pretty good against lightning bolts if it implemented Farady Cage principles. In a scenario where electricity was "tamed" much earlier because mages could use it, people probably could have tested with it much earlier, managing to emulate those results at a high fantasy, feudal-esque era.
Every time I look at the subscriber count you seem to have an extra 20k! I kind of miss the days when there was only around 2k of us and it felt more personal, but I am very happy to see you continue to grow along with other similar channels.
tell us your opinion on the armor and weapons of the warhammer fantasy universe.
or 40k
Zissimus hue hue hue 40k :)
elektron117 pardon? what do you mean?
+Zissimus It's extremely impractical, with armor and weapons too big to use, and many other designs don't look like they could work
julio cardenas the "old warhammer" was kinda realistic, as they took heavy inspiration from history. Age of Shitmar is crappy even in that aspect.
>Electricity
>Good against metal armor
Look, I know you're a history buff and not a physics buff, but there's this little thing called the FARADAY CAGE. True, metal on full plate is a conductor. How much of that metal is actually in contact with the wearer's skin? It could be a little or none at all, but I highly doubt that a person would run into battle NAKED under a full suit of armor. No, they would likely have some sort of insulator beneath the metal to make sure that they not only stay temperate in extreme temperatures, but be much more resistant to electrical shock from either thunderstorms or mages in a fantasy setting.
Basically, the metal from the armor conducts the electricity and spreads it throughout its surface area which greatly decreases the potency. Then, even if the skin has contact, it'll be too diluted to hurt much at all. Now you may argue that the heat from the electricity may cause burns. This is only true for stronger arcs such as from lightning. Even then, the armor would only heat up for a fraction of a second and immediately cool down afterwards at a significant pace. The lack of contact with skin would also cause the insulation to absorb most of the thermal energy and prevent burns. So either you'd get very light, sudden burns or just a warm and tingly feeling. The only caveat to this is in the rare scenario that the arc is so powerful that it instantly heats the metal up to the point that it burns the insulation. I don't know the chances or logistics of that, but it would likely have to be a sustained shock like that from a tesla coil with immense thermal energy behind it which would need to be several times higher than the temperature needed to burn the insulation.
Question to consider: have you ever seen someone's clothes burn off who got struck by lightning?
The comment thread by Tom P will give more insight into this; he's in the top comments.
Actually, a fully surrounding metal armour would be one of the best protections against lightning bolts - as long as the metal isn't heated up too much. Which can be avoided by making it thicker. You might still get knocked out because of the EMP
5:21
"if the wizards are using lightning bolts then definitely metal armour is not a good idea"
this is a very common misconception, metal armour would actually be ideal, especially copper armour or any highly conductive armour, this is because electricity follows the path of least resistance, metal is a better conductor than flesh so the lightning would go through the metal and into the ground and not even bother touching you, the only thing you have to worry about is heat, the greater the resistance to more the metal will heat up, a suit of copper would probably be fine (i mean lightning rods use copper to channel lightning into the ground so given a thick enough gauge, it should do just fine) or a copper coating over a suit of steel.
though, even if the suit got hot from resistance, the doublet underneath would likely keep it from burning you before it cooled down again (the whole suit won't get hot just where the electricity travels...likely one line straight down the centre with small branches along the way as it tries to find it's way to the ground...that area will get hot but the rest will not, once the electricity is gone the heat will equalize...probably fuck up the tempering on your suit a bit but you'll survive)
10:12
you call that an arm's race, sometimes called the red queen's race (because you have run and run as fast as you can just to stay in one place)
A bit nitpicky, but I would say either "How should fantasy armour really look?" or "What should fantasy armour really look like?" for the title.
I mean, what you have may not be actually wrong, but I personally think the alternatives sound better.
That said, the video itself is really nice, and I wish more games took this sort of stuff into consideration!
coryman125, I was going to point that out. Saying _*how should_ xyz _look like ?_ is indeed incorrect, because _how_ and _like_ fill the same role. I haven't studied English grammar enough to give a proper defence of this, but it's related to the fact that _like_ takes a direct object (think _like what ?_ as opposed to _*like how ?_ - the second is an ungrammatical question). My personal preference would be for _what should_ xyz _look like ?_ but _how should_ xyz _look ?_ is also correct.
I love the armours used in a epic fantasy series called The Stomrlight Archive: not only they have their mystery behind them (they are used by nobles but not fully understood because they are like relics), they both repair themselves and enhance physically the user (with limitations) and other cool stuff happens around that :) It's cool for example seeing that they use very heavy weapons for specific battles because they have that armour that allows that, when common warriors couldn't and use other methods instead.
Really recommended 2 (huge) books to read, even with magic and so on the author created a good mechanics of magic and battle techniques , lore of the world that goes behind what seems and that make sense of what you have in the current present (not just unlimited and staged overpowered things you see in classical high fantasy series).
Actually if there was lightning magic a metal armor would be great, remember inside a conductor a charge is always 0. The armor would protect you a lot more than any other due to this fact. You can see this used in our world when scientist are around large charges they can have Chainmail (Fully covering all of the body) to prevent them from getting hurt.
very interesting video, also find it really cool to know you have an argonian character in skyrim, they're my favorite race in the Elder Scrolls series and feel they don't always get enough love. kudos!
Metal armor would be ideal for fighting lightning because it is a conductor. Electricity goes down the least resistive path to the ground, so it is going to go through the metal and avoid you. This is the basis for a Faraday cage. Wooden armor would burst into flames because it is a flammable resistor.
but the electricity heats the conductor, and the metal armour can be too heated for the warrior
(the warrior doesn't die for the lightning, but for the heat)
@@vonakakkola what’s the alternative? Get directly struck by lightning? Also metal is a conductor the electricity would travel through it with minimal resistance and would as such hardly heat it up, not to mention even if the armor got heated a shit ton you would still be wearing padding underneath that would protect the wearer from the heat. And like I said what’s the alternative? To not wear anything and get a lightning bolt shot directly into your chest?
I was going to remark on the grammar in the title, but I see that you edited it already! Cool video. Thanks!
What about armor that is similar to modern day tank and kevlar, which is made to explode upon or before impact to destroy the projecticle yet destroyed at the same time. This might be especially useful against the gigantic spells aka Warhammer, where it would produce a heavier one time counter and say an embedded crystal explodes out or the fantasy wood absorbs the charge and is blasted off sparing the warrior.
I love and appreciate these type of videos. It helps me with developing my book. By the way I'm happy that you've gotten your new armor :)
Just gonna say, dragon armor in Skyrim can make sense, but not for the reason you gave. The Dovahkiin isn't physically anything special, they're still mortal, they can be killed by normal weapons and it only takes someone more skilled than they are to do it. It's the spiritual part of the Dovahkiin that is special. The soul of a dragon, and the magic that comes with it. They can Shout, and absorb the souls of dragons, but it doesn't add to physical strength as far as we can see. But dragon bones and scales could just be very light, and they should be, considering those massive unaerodynamic things can fly.
I haven't been through all of your videos yet, but I'd LOVE to hear your comments on Tolkien's Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, both the novels and the Peter Jackson films.
You mentioned how magic might be used in mass combat, with spells primarily being cast at an advancing army before they got into melee range with the spell caster's own troops and area of affect spells would injure your own people as well as the enemy. It made me think that armies could wear a base of steel armor in anticipation of melee combat, but atop that would be something that could resist magical effects, but would be expected to ablate with each magical attack, or be easily detached or quickly destroyed as soon as physical combat began. Something like a filigree or fragile substance (Specially inscribed cloth? leather and vellum phylactery worn on the breastplate?) that could "dissipate magical energies, magical fire, lightning, etc." but only for a few strikes before being destroyed itself, and would be otherwise useless in physical combat. This would also affect tactics since the armies would rush to engage each other in physical combat before the magical attacks had fully destroyed their outer 'magic resistant' shielding.
It's an interesting thought!
Just cosplay Havel the Rock and you'll be good to go.
Fyrestone don't forget to wield that Dragon Tooth, because apparently holding a tooth can make you resistant to magic...
Because magic...
These are brilliant ideas to apply to a DnD campaign. Most ideas are already within the boundaries of the rules but the flavor and the look of it is very nice.
This was interesting I also analyzed this topic. I want to create fantasy world myself, and one of ideas I have was abandon armors and weapons almost compleatly (swords could be still for self defence) but all of Warriors, Soldiers and fighters would use magic, not weapons and armor. Why I think this make sence, becuse to me lot and I mealn 90% fantasy make one mistake.
I beleve you can all agree that telekinsis is one of the most common magical abillities. So how would you attak someone with telekinesis???? You would throw something on him, yes that could kill him, but I would use telekinsis to crush his brain, or heart.
Fireballs, lightning or ice attkas are really cool, but isn't effectiveness thing you want most????? You often have mages that can manipulate water, how they attak??? With water attkas, ice attkas, waves etc. But body of all living beings is 80% water, woudnť be eaisre to manipulate this water to kill them. I beleve in fantasy when you have magic, someone who do not have magic is useless in war.
You can say that thare can be mages that would shield army againts that, but than is the mage more important thant that army. Does powefull mage need soldiers any more??? I think NO.
So using medieval weapons and armor in Fantasy when oyu have magic is like using them now when you have tanks and missiles.
On the onter hand I do not want abandon armors and weapons compleatly, like I said sword are still good for self defence, armor could work like sign of class. And for bandits who attak small village (where is little chance to meet mage) and similar groups, weapons would make sence. But for warfere magic itself is enough
Warmex Alquist, it's worth remembering that mages are also limited. Let's assume for example that conservation of energy holds, so that any magical act takes as much energy as it would for you to do something manually (long-range magical acts taking more energy as we need to consider the energy it would take for you to travel from A to B and back, for example). Let's also assume that not everyone has magical affinity _or_ that learning magic is prohibitively expensive and therefore limited to the richest classes _or_ that magic is rationed for whatever other reason. (Two assumptions that I feel are reasonable.). In that case, it becomes useful to have armies, as mages can only do so much. Mages would also be prime targets for the opposing army, and so will be more useful if they are defended and don't need to worry about their own protection.
Well that depend on several factors. Yes energy is important but this is the thing to crush the brain you would need a very little energy, just need a little push in the right place and the person is dead or incapacitated (If someone can lift several tons with telekinesis than this would be nothing, he would need control and precision but htat could be trained). So I beleve for competent mage is not problem kill thousand knights without magical protection in instant, snap of fingers. Yes you can have different mage protecting that knights but that would make this mage vs mage and knights are expendable.
How I see this when one powerfull mage can kill an army by snap of fingers, than
More powerfull mage> Less powerfull mage + army
Raise army of 1000 man is laso wery expensive and I beleve 10 mages would be better idea than 10 000 man at arms.
Like I said that depend on lot of factors. It would be differnet if 20%, 2% or 0,02% of people could use magic. But if anyone with training could have some level of competence in magic, Weapons and armor are not need any more.
Warmex Alquist, I think you're absolutely right about the brain-crushing or artery-snapping, that's what's so clever about it. The thing about the mages, however, is that one mage can only keep track of so many people at a time, and only cast so many spells at once. This is why an army may be a good tactical move to distract and get at a mage.
Like I said that depend on several factors, can this mage create shield for himself, can he snece life??? Plus i never said that I think One mage should replace army I beleve there will be armies but this armies would be smaller and it would be army of mages. That make much more sence to me. If you have 1% population mages yes they will be not-mage soldiers, but when you have 20% mages This could be enough to make soldiers expendable or pointless. Whats more Mages are not only fantasy element, humans would have problem, againts Trolls, Giannts and Dragons (amd much more creatures), so mages armires would be effective of humans (or human like races) because for example dragons would chabge warfare copmpleatly and if these dragons can use magic (and In my fantasy they can) well than guy in heavy armor with spear and sword yould be like guy with knife between tanks.
And one thing that would replaced amn at arms and create compromise could be golems, they could be mass produced, fell no pain no fear they can be magical and they are prety cool. Well again that is also debetable how expensie they would be? But I think they are better than humans (or elfs, dwarfs etc)
I have different ideas, when water mage use water from river or sea to cteate wave to atak enemy, I beleve it will be better use water inside their bodies. When you have fire mage, he can use fireball but imagine this, what if some firemage figured out how create fire inside someone's body? RIP armor. Or air mage he can suck oxygen from some area. RIP armor.
Metatron said that in Fantasy people would evolve armor to react to magic, and I agree with him that this would in some fantay make sence but at the same time I beleve mages would create spels that would make armor useless. Because magic has more options than weapons and armor it would end like Magic vs Magic.
It come to the poin how powerfull magic can be, and from some point Magic can make everything else useless.
Warmex Alquist on why you cannot support this many mages: so assuming conservation of energy mages will have to produce various sources from which they will be able to use up during battles. so pretty much they would use the energy they would gain from the food they would eat and storing it in various objects. that means that the city will have to use up extra resources on mages just so that they can be used during battles on top of having to use resources for their training. (note that to train they would have to make use of these various storages)
on top of that, an army consisting mostly of mages would be much smaller and thus more prone to night attacks which would damage it way more than a usual army. you would want more skilled mages as they would be more precise and more energy efficient. now you would also want some of them to receive some solid warrior training on top of their magic training so that you could use em to catch the enemy off guard (night attacks etc). the numbers would depend on whether you could make magic items that can be used by anyone (think of these like bombs, pistols etc) and how powerful would these be.
finally there could be enchantments (on talismans or other shit) that would heavily increase the energy costs of magic in a small area around the bearer.
Or it could be that the range that you want to affect directly something with your spell costs too much energy for it to be worth it (like you would do the telekinesis trick for close quarters combat but not at long range )
Thanks for this. It is something I had not really thought about but will have to incorporate it into how my armies are equipped in my book.
Hey Metatron, I have a question: what might armour look like in a world where superhumans (heavily increased strength, endurance, etc.) are common?
I'm not him, but I am pretty sure that if people are so strong that they easily break trough armor it is useless.
On the other hand they'd be strong enough to wear heavier armor... but if you put a 1-meter layer of steal on a man it would make him unable to move.
I also assume your humans have the same weight so with incresed strength they need to worry much more about cnockback.
I'd say the armor would be made of something ridiciously heavy and durrbale like a melttogether of used up uranium. It is used in russian tanks. I'd also assume it is about 6-10 centimeters thick and has very strong neck protection.
The leggs would also have spikes or something on the soles to limit cknockback further.
Like this: giftsforgeeks.org.uk/uploads/files/3d%20warhammer/Warriors%20of%20chaos/warriors%20of%20chaos%20army%20book.jpg
I must say the extra visuals in this video made it alot more enjoyable ontop of your interesting information. i hope you keep up with this idea in future videos!
What amour should I wear if I'm gonna fight a meteor?
every armor
General noob plot armor
A bomb shelter.
magicly enchanted anti-meteor armour
all u need is a good helmet.. no full armor needed
I enjoyed the Sword of Truth universe (books by Terry Goodkind) for this, each side had mages with apocalyptic powers, it was mentioned in universe that it usually basically became a dispelling contest between wizards in which each side neutralised the other's magic, so armour looked the same because troops fought troops whilst mages fought mages, if your army didn't have a mage and the other army did, you were almost certainly doomed
titanium is plentiful, refining and working with it is expensive.
And noting based on Total War 2 and cover, the condition of the wearer.The elf guy in armor is Teclis, who was afflicted with illness from birth and had to drink potions to keep healthy. Have to account for possible attacks, weariness, and weather based on occasion when potion wears off.Nothing about armor though, the lore stated that it was his staff that is keeping him energetic on combat level.
What kind of armor would you suggest for a Jedi? Or is wearing only robes optimal for them?
Something that can protect against lasers.
Something that has a ridiculously super high melting point since the plasma from the lightsaber is super hot (because the plasma can be all the way from 8000°C and 25000°C)[Armour would be pretty much useless unless you could forge something that can withstand the beginning part of the transition region of the sun 8000°C-50,000°C] Either that or just wearing light clothes so they can jump around and dodge the plasma blade, since it seems that the force increases a users reaction time and speed overall drastically.
I think that the armor that Malkavius2 Gaming is suggesting would cost around the same as the temperature it could withstand, times 2 or 3.
if the material existed, then in the star wars universe it would be easily accessible to the Jedi and the Sith. For anyone else that's not in one of those two orders, it would be outrageously expensive.
fuck all of that science shit star wars universe has cortosis (a lightsaber resistant metal that actually affects kyber crystals and turns lightsabers off on contact)
I've seen a plethora of your videos, and I enjoy them a lot. And i want to congratulate you on your channel. This is the first time i actually comment on one of your videos.
Regarding the lightning magic vs metal armour, I actually ENCOURAGE the use of metal armour against lightning, but you have to be COVERED in it from head to toe (with helm and it's visor down). If there is a gap in your armour, it is actually detrimental. Why I say this? because the full plate armour can act as a Gaussian Sphere, that is, keeping the electricity harmessly at the surface of your armor, and grounding it, without it ever touching your skin or internal organs.
witcher 3 has fictional armor that would work in real world too :)
A fun thing I remember about the Warhammer universe is that there are an entire sect of mages who specialize in dealing with heavy armour, causing plate and other metals to heat up to the same degree as when it was first forged. Because of that taking plenty of heavier armoured troops can end up being a huge detriment to your battle plan.
they use Chamon, the yellow wind of metal.
notification Squad where you at?!
Here! Kansas!
I would say ceramics, like the ones used in modern armor, could be a good choice. Ceramics are good insulators & take impact well. So ceramics with a steel backing for when the ceramic eventually gets cracked would be a good option. I would definitely go with a similarly designed shield to try to keep whatever magic is being thrown away from you.
Skyrim is better but i love dragon's dogma armor.
KingofSolstheim ;-; i love that game
You stated that if they are using lightning bolts that metal would be bad but if you had something like treated leather or even linens between yourself and the metal will increase resistance and would send most, if not all, of the electricity to the ground meaning metal would actually protect you most as wood wouldn't transfer any of the energy to the ground meaning it would instead damage you with either force or super heated (most likely both). As you stated with using rounded breastplates instead of flat breastplates as it will deflect the blow, metal would have more efficiency at deflecting certain things (like lightning) than some other materials. I do agree that shape may change/material and I quite enjoy your outlook. Good video (this isn't me saying you are wrong just trying to start a conversation), keep up the good work!
Wimpy mages? Two words for you, Avada Kedavra
anndddddd ded
Yee if you look how slow the spell is, a trained fighter could easily dodge it and do a counter attack. Or just raise a shield of any kind.
I never understood how magic in hp should make sense anyway, because any f*king muggle could eliminate voldemorts squad in less than a minute with a gatling gun. Everyone who can operate a gun could kill even Dumbledore or Voldemort (at least 1/7 of him) without any effort
@Sh4dy:
What makes u believe an "Avade Kedavra" or even any spell in Harry Potter is slow? Where they in the movie? In all of the series there is never once a situation where somebody manages to actively dodge a spell. (ofc ducking behind cover or some such works but i mean like just stepping out of the way).
About the Guns versus Spell argument. I am pretty sure they could work out some spells that protect them from gunfire. However, the biggest advantage for mages in Harry Potter again humans is that their realm is not accesible by muggles. So should the war not go well they could just vanish and return at a point at which they have according spells.. or just dont care to return.
joe the sheep In the movies, Avada Kedavra is slow enough to dodge if one expects it. in the books it is described to make a "swoosh" sound or something, so I think it is slow there as well. maybe it isn't after all, though. Still, a shield should be able to tank a hit, thus allowing a direct counter spell.
Of course they could come up with spells against gunfire, but 1) the bullet is too fast for them to react and 2) They *don't even know what a gun is* , because they have been living under a rock for 500 years. They don't know *any* muggle technology (apart from Arthur Weasly and a hand full of others).
Sh4dy
A shield wouldn't protect against Avada Kedavra, because it's magic. It's not a physical projectile like an arrow that you can just block with a shield. It would go through the shield and kill the person anyway. And in a battle situation, even if the fighter it's aimed at can duck to avoid getting hit, it will still hit the person behind him, because remember he's part of a bigger army and not just fighting alone. A group of wizards casting Avada Kedavra at a formation of muggle soldiers is guaranteed to inflict casualties.
One of my favorite fantasy games is a little known RPG from the mid 90s called Exile: Escape from the Pit. The magic system was particularly good in that spell effects would actually stack. In other words, casting three Bless spells on someone made them much more powerful than casting just one. Furthermore, most spells could be countered. So a Bless spell was countered by a Curse spell, Haste countered by Slow, Poison spells by Cures, etc. Additionally, most spells had powerful single-target versions as well as weaker AOE versions.
What would end up happening in larger battles, was front line fighters would engage the enemy fighters as they tried to break through to get to the spell-casters. Meanwhile, spell-casters would continually buff their own forces while debuffing enemy forces. You often couldn't risk using your more powerful damage dealing spells because the enemy fighters would gain the upper hand over your own fighters. If you could gain the upper hand, either on the combat side or the spell-casting side you could usually win the battle. It made for some really fun and dynamic strategy for such a simple game.
Another one I really liked was Age of Wonders, where spells were so powerful you could even permanently alter parts of the map, like leveling mountains and freezing bodies of water so that an army could march across, or even just magically nuke whole areas!
Really cool Video!
It's funny since i'm thinking about playing P&P RPGs again, or better said i'm playing with the thought of starting again with worldbuilding and creating my own Game system (only for private purposes). So i really like your fantasy and folklore themed videos you make in recent times. Very appreciated!
The possibilities which some (fantasy) materials could offer, are almost indefinite IMO. Especially when worldbuilding, this aspect alone could change the whole (fantasy) world. Again, cool video! I hope there will be many more like this!
Cheers!
Great video, loved to see the consideration that, while armour in video games isn't realistic by real-world standards, this can be attributed to innovation necessary for the unique combat environment in that fantasy world. Would love to see more video's on this and similar subjects like weapons and other equipment.
One criticism I noticed is that you really do need to list the games that you use footage of in these videos. List them in the description or the credits at the end of the video. Otherwise, you can get accused of plagiarism and violation of copyright, but also this directs viewers to games they see in your videos they might find interesting.
So thought i'd chime in on this because its something i thought of quite a bit. If you want to imagine how fantasy armor works i think your best bet is to look at modern armor. Most magic i've seen in games that have battle mage type characters that sling fireballs and such are mostly things that forced us to adapt but instead of magic it was technology. Look at the modern soldier for example. Bullets are projectiles that can pierce armor, so armor material had to change and we see ceramic plating. One time use plates that break when struck but can stop a much larger round. Some of the most common weapons involve either a blast (force damage), or intense heat or flame (fire damage). So naturally, our clothing is made of material that turns to ash when burnt providing momentary protection from intense flames by absorbing heat. We have found soldiers burned in battle were only seriously burnt in places that was not covered such as the face, arms if they had their sleeves rolled up and such. Hence gloves and long sleeves. We use sound cannons, smoke grenades, and nightvision/thermals. Also a good scifi example would be shadowrun since they have the technology to counter many magical effects.
As for some more fantasy only things in battle, lightning bolt? What about a lightning rod? Not really something an individual would carry but we are talking battlefields. So it could provide protection against lightning based strikes. But the important part that i've concluded is to have magic of your own. Wizards separated between artillary and counter magic or abjuration. There only job is to shut down mass casualty spells while your own wizards try to inflict their own. Individual units may carry eldritch knights who can perform minor feats of magic and counter magic as needed on the battlefield if those are available. If they are unable to counter magic and its that big of a problem we would probably see a decline in people bothering to wear armor as we saw when muskets started becoming the common tool of warfare.
loved this table setting with the statues and the sword.
So, going by this Idea of armor evolving into magic-defensive equipment as well, I would say that many of the games we play and complain about unrealism are realistic! Dark Souls for instance has many pieces of gear that are Just clothing, but are very protective against Magic, lightning or Fire: like the gold hemmed set, the Black Sorcerer set and many others.
Another thing I don't seem to find often touched on in fantasy universe, is the technology advances that might come from using magic in production of armor as well as new ressouces coming from monsters. For example, we are currently developping new steel using nanotubes and exploring the uses of spider silk.
Now, in a fantasy universe you can have tons of fearsome monsters whose strenght partially comes from their skin, scales, feathers, bones, etc. I can easily imagine people trying to find a way to use giant larvae/spiders to produce high quality, highly resistant silk in huge quantities for clothes and armor production. Wich would result in a unique kind of silk armor. You could also use leather from some monsters rather than cows (especially if drakes are used as mounts). And magic could be used during the smithing/smelting process to create lighter and stronger steel and/or make steel production more reliable.
And rather than being used on their own, fantasy metals could be used alongside iron to create unique alloys. So that rather than create a handful of mithril plate armor, you create a lot of super steel plates armor wich benefits a bit from the qualities of mithril. You could even use golem magic to create what would essentially be power-armor, allowing super heavy infantry that would be able to take on large monsters, demons and the like. In the same way, by using enchantements to improve physical capabilities of he wearer you could make super-hero suits that would transform some soldiers into super-fast, agile and strong killing machines. And of course all of these ideas could be mixed together as well.
There are so many things that could be done that when I see RPGs simply making a bunch of different metals that are all better than one another and use it as a basis for their armor it feels really unimaginative.
As many have said in the comments, a metal armour would be surprisingly good against electricity magic, as it would behave like a wearable Faraday cage. The electrons would travel through the metal without touchinkg the skin until they would eventually travel to the ground.
Many, people, myself in the past included, think resistive materials protect you from harm, and while this in theory true, the electrons keep orbiting the material in form of static electricity until they find another material more conductive to jump into, like our skin, for example.
Lots of people seem to be hung up on the Lightning Bolt thing, or fire, but here's a thought: what about conjured poison gases? Or things that do damage by freezing? Or conjuring acid? Or use of compression waves (sound attacks)?
In order of how I can think to counter these: adapting visored helmets with some mechanism to filter air, likely somewhat similar in appearance to a plague doctor mask; increased insulation in your under padding and hydrophobic outer coating on the Armor to prevent ice buildup, especially at the joints; non reactive outer coating (ceramic?).
As for the Lightning and fire, Lightning can be partially dealt with by making a mail faraday cage under the plate, but leaves an issue with heat buildup. I think the solution to that and the Fire issue are the same: ablative heat shields. Coat the Armor in some material that will evaporate away when heated to extreme temperatures, taking with it an inordinately high amount of heat. I can foresee either special paints or a layer of liquid suspended in between the Armor plates, with a pressure release valve to let off steam when it gets to hot to cool the Armor back off.
If you were to have all of these on one suit, it'd be way to large and heavy, unless some means of either providing the wearer increased mechanical power or significantly reducing weight could be achieved.
Since you started with a reference to Warhammer, I think that it is worth mentioning that the Dragon Princes (elite High Elf heavy cavalry) have armour that is resistant to fire and any kind of breath attack, which they wear because they muck around trying to wake up and tame dragons. I think it only really makes sense for highly elite troops to have magic resistant armour in a fantasy setting due to its expense, rarity, and difficulty to make. BTW what are you thoughts about the powered armour of space marines in Warhammer 40k?
My point to this video- When I was makeing up my own fantasy story of Wars of Magicians years ago, I came up with this idea of anti-magic armor which is kinda like reactive armor on modern tanks. I imagined it as a vest made out of a lot simple amulets. Each amulet would be independent, and independently charged with energy and some kind of specially designed spell to counter enemie's spells. I would be worn over normal anti-weapon armor, and if a wearer would be targeted by a spell, armor would have activated as many amulets as necessary. You can imagine it looking a bit like those roman awards and medals that were worn by centurions.
Video sugesstion: Japanese invasion of Korea comanded by Toyotomi Hideyoshi! It's just soo interesting topic, which is usually being reduced just to something like "yeah, japanese tryed it twice, were beaten on sea, succeeded 300years later". I would like to know more about battles on mainland, about korean and chinese war technology of that time, chinese involvement, and may be a little comparison with 20th century Korean war would be nice...
Thanks for your videos!
A few post thoughts:
Electricity also comes with an inherent magnetism known as "Inductance". If he had any level of control of inductance, it would be similar to Magneto from x-men. Or he could fire a bolt either side of you and tear your armour off, potentially killing you in the process depending on the design. Also, depending on the level of control, he could simply crush your armour.
You spoke about materials, but how many trees have stopped lightning bolts? An object's resistance will simply determine the amount of heat generated if the current's potential is high enough. If your armour's resistance is high, it may limit his ability to "Hit" you dependant on his exact control, but if he did hit you, the extra resistance would actually just kill you quicker. Your armour would heat up faster and you would fry.
I think metal armor to have a faraday cage affect and asbestos arming doblet/gambeson for fireball. As for negative energy attacks I guess positive reinforcement chants like: "I feel fine I feel great I can do this!"
I enjoy your work and am new to the topics you speak on, but was thinking that armor could have some sort of rubberized coating or silicone added between metal layers to add protection from fire, electricity and absorb blows.
This is a really interesting idea, I think there would be many interesting ways to alter armor to fight against specific magics.
For instance against electricity based magic, a cloth/linen or leather armor would be effective, something like a gambeson, modified with a metal external ribcage and a set of lightning rods that go above the head and lead to a series of insulated wires that drag on the ground. Basically making it so that the electricity is redirected away from the body.
Fire resistant armor would be made so that the helm is enclosed in the front so that fire/super-heated air have no direct access to the face, and thus so long as they don't catch on fire or melt, the soldier within "should" be protected. Of course just adding a large shield to the mix would make things much easier. I don't think cold magic would require much modification to normal armor (depending on the situation of course.)
Summoning magic I would think wouldn't require too much modification from regular armor. If they're bringing in animals, even if they were as exotic as say dinosaurs or alien animals I don't think would require too much change. More supernatural creatures might require specialization, but you know, if somebody brings a 20 ft. tall burning demon, or summons an archangel, or conjures a flock of intangible spirits that can eat your life-force directly I don't think there would be a mundane way to protect against that.
And what about telekinesis? imagine being able to pick a 50 lbs. rock and chuck it someone at MLB pro pitcher speeds. What if it was 100 lbs.? 400 lbs.? Half a ton? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there is a "realistic" way to make armor that can protect you from that. Even the fifty pounds would hurt hitting you at 100 mph.
I think armor would evolve to fight specific forms of magic, but in other cases it would be utterly impossible to account for what would be on the battlefield. Not that they wouldn't try, but it wouldn't be cost effective.
I am really enjoying these what if videos. I really wish there was a game/movie/book which put so much effort into its lore and mechanics.
I would argue that the armour would still mostly be adapted to protect against normal weapons, as magic is not the predominate threat on the fantasy battlefield, it is still mostly mortal men and beasts fighting each other with metal tools.
Where magic is involved the threat will mostly be countered with magic, like enchanted talismans protective spells et cetera, so the armour will only look different in so far as the attached talismans and means to enchant the armour make them look different.
This depends of course on the level of magical presence and specific type of magical effect in the fantasy world, from a certain point of magic use saturation normal armour and weapons would become totally useless, in such a setting it would make sense that people would just bedeck themselves with artifacts that have some magical function and those could look like anything.
Still, a fantasy setting like Warhammer is not so saturated that armour and weapons would be used any differently from how they where historically used.
Actually provided the wood is fire resistant it might make more suitable armor. Not too much stretch of the imagination that those mages that throw fire balls can heat up armor and would have an easier time with metal than wood.
Choice would also depend which materials are avaliable (draws living in mountains may prefer metals, lizard people living in swamps may prefer wood).
The idea that form follows function can explain any shape - it's to channel magic/defend against magic. Hmm... maybe even to turn the tables. Shape/runes that makes those wearing your special wooden armor imune to fire - hit them with a fireball and all you do is
give them an extra line of defense.
In Warhammer fantasy there was gromril ore, which was the hardest metal in the entire univrse. Only reachable by deep mining dwarfs and originally it came from the space via meteor strikes. It was so resistant it could deflect "Giant" blows and help the Irondrakes ( ie dwarf with flamethrowers ) to don't get overheated problems and burn themselves.
Entire wars has been fought for a single gromril armour piece. Only way to get them was to steal from corpses on the battlefield. ( for other races )
Warhammer lore is pretty expansive
Speculation:
Special copper tracing or a type of copper radiator on the (Back/Shoulders/Legs/Arms) could be used to diffuse heat pretty fast, and the fact that you're covered in what is basically a Faraday cage would make you resistant to fire and lightning. You'd want to have a layer of Leather or padding underneath which would basically act as an oven-mitt while the heat dissipated from a fiery spell, and also protect the wearer from cold, should that be an element to use.
I think it would start to be a problem when you get supernatural or ultra-strong monsters or spells that can propel projectiles at a much faster velocity than even bullets, at which point you may need to start considering more fantastic protections like shielding spells, armor reinforcing enchantments, or Armor made form a kind of "unobtainium".
What I miss in the video is other magic types than damage and summoning. Especially buffs, like shield spells, spells that give you the magic properties of an element ("stone skin"). Tactics and formations made to counter certain debuffs, like a spell of fear. Ways to deal with battlefield control, ways to deal with something like magical corruption, necromantic corruption et cetera.
Magic traps. Invisible enemies, invisible spells, invisible weapons in the hand of visible enemies.
Weapons for characters with presicence, heightened physical abilities. Weapons that seemingly defy some physical law, like a supersharp thorn-like melee weapon that gets a lot of impulse without being slow to use as a real weapon would get.
But I can understand why he did not do that. One would need start speculations in speculations and create a "magical theory" of a certain world before he could analzye that, and when he is done, it only works for this world.
as reflective as possible, the shiniest armour (with a heatsink-like sandwiched armor underneath) will avoid the user from overheating by fire magic; Insulation will avoid the consequences of lighting and cold magic, making the armour a faraday cage or the insulation being a cold protection itself; Use blessings to fight the undead and don't leave any skin exposed to avoid curses (most fantasy scenarios make curses work only if the target gets skin contact from the magician/wizard/shaman)
Some other things to consider:
Frequency and repetitiveness of magic usage. After all, if the Mage in question is a 'nova burst' and is effectively done, then you only need a one-shot defense, perhaps one of an arcane nature, pitting magic against magic. It is only if you see both mages as a common battlefield danger and has the endurance to remain relevant throughout the battle that you would see any significant changes.
Another thing magic could easily be used for is indirect aid. In D&D 3.5, for example, it was almost always more beneficial to use a Haste spell than a Fireball or Lightning Bolt because the extra attack every melee combatant received would deal considerably more damage than said blast of elemental fury. Likewise, once you get into the mid-levels and higher level spells come online, you find certain buffs being 'standard issue'. I had a cleric which would cast Greater Magic Weapon, Magic Vestments, and various other buffs at the beginning of the day, ones which could be expected to last all day long. Then situationally, buffs like Death Ward or Freedom of Movement could be used to negate opponent tactics.
But if you are looking at, say, fireballs... it would affect the battlefield much like artillery with grapeshot or airburst shells. The only solution really would be either enchanted armor or those with arcane properties which bestow resistance upon them (such as your commentary about Mithril) or rushing the mage, which has also been a traditional fantasy tactic. This would less impact individual person's armor, but perhaps a focus on either area-effect arcane defense against such (perhaps similar to earthenworks and berms and overhead protection to counter artillery), or on detecting and sniping the casters before they can launch.
A third potential restriction which might limit the change in armor as you describe might be rarity. In most fantasy settings, permanent enchantments are rare and expensive, which is not suitable for military logistics. Mithril and Adamantium are traditionally rare metals found only in the deepest bowels of the earth, with significant consequences for delving for. So again, while an individual might gather enough wealth to own a personal suit, it is not very realistic to equip an entire army with such. At best, it might be able to outfit special squads with such gear as a specific counter for charging in and eliminating opponent casters.
However, this is a very interesting line of discussion, and very much a worthy topic to consider.
My all time Favorite Fantasy game is Secret of Mana for the SNES but I also like Final Fantasy Explores now and for Setting FFXIV.
This is why the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic setting appealed to me so much. And it still does, I guess. Especially due to some of the very first fanfictions explaining elements of the world, such as why the alicorns had to *make* the sun and moon move, and why the ponies had to artificially manufacture most of the planet's weather. Something big went down. Something magical. Add to that the glimpses of the pony military and their war magic, plus the glimpses of historical armor in the show. Throw in the ancient race of elf-like deer (some of which are regular dumb deer, while a rare few survive in highly magical communes, suggesting that their race is somehow cursed), *dragons that wear armor,* and all manner of other different races that all have their own cultures... It's a rich setting with its fair share of dark armies and evil overlords. The best war story I've yet written was an MLP short story set in a nearly forgotten era when deer and their client races had broken most of the planet, leaving standard warfare almost completely outmoded by golems, the most powerful sorcerers, weather warfare, summoned/engineered monsters, and "plundervines."
And I say that despite participating in a group-written story about the fall of a fictional South American country wherein half the characters were experienced guerrilla fighters, and the other half were British/Americans.
The bit you mentioned about Orcish armor made me curious. I think you should do a follow up video to this talking about how armor might change for a world with multiple species with similar levels of sentience and civilization as humans. Like how Elven armor tends to be more "pretty" while Dwarven and Halfling armor tend to (possibly unrealistically) look like smaller versions of Human armor
Many people already pointed that out, but as a physicist I feel obliged to bring it to attention again: If the enemy uses lightning spells, you WANT metal armour. However, you actually want to be completely covered, and different pieces of armour should interlock in a way that allows electricity to flow between them. Also, the armour should be grounded, or otherwise the body parts between the armour and ground will be fried. Easiest would be to be covered in mail(including mail leggings), you could add Plates for better protection against weapons.
I'm not only saying that because of theoretical knowledge, but also from my own experience of taking the lightning bolt of a tesla coil with my own hand. There are more than enough videos of people playing with a tesla coil while wearing mail, which should demonstrate quite well what I'm getting at.
It's an amazing feeling to take the lightning of a tesla coil with ones own (mail-protected) hand ;)
One thing that is also appears quite frequently is the idea of magical runes. Perhaps say that any armour could be enhanced though runes that are imbued by wizards, allowing a basic level of protection from magic and spells. In that regard, armour could perhaps have been more developed to have more prominent runes (or even discrete ones?) which could even go so far as to explain the weird shapes that some armours take.
Court wizards could even be taking part of development of more powerful runes to imbue in the armour. Perhaps a drawback could be that the runes break/shatter when they reach their threshold, killing the magical resistance of the armour and perhaps even making the armour completely useless and granting the full force of the spell onto it's victim.
This could also explain why mages generally wear lighter armour or simply cloth, as the elaborate patterns are simply a spell in itself.
I think the armor will be very similar to modern day combat equipment. If you think about it, we are basically using "magic" during our wars. The battle equipment focuses on mobility and camouflage. At the end of the day, nothing will protect you against a massive fireball/rocket... So it's better to never get hit by it.
Line formations and heavy/bulky metal armors are out of the question in my opinion.
In a universe where they have lightning bolts you would wear plate armour and use chain suits underneath to conduct the electricity away from your body, and then gambeson beneath as usual because the cloth wouldn't be conductive. They would ensure the metal creates a perfect circuit (no gaps) so the electricity would simply channel away and into the ground. You could definitely (in a fantasy sense) build the armour to be quite good at resisting electrical attacks.Fire is scarier since overheating is already a serious concern even if you DON'T melt.
My favorite fantasy game is my own, Seinvocc. Being a role-playing forum, we are not constricted to what can be programmed and depicted by a team of artists, so we can implement all sorts of this evolutionary logic that you express in this video.
Well that's exactly why I love Warhammer that much. Almost everything makes sense! The "normal" humans wear historical suits of armour, Orcs and servants of Chaos have the weird looking stuff, but it still makes sense cause they are batshit insane.
Dominions is by far my favorite setting for fantasy for many reasons. Also curious to see how you would design an armour for wizards assuming magic worked similarly to tabletop RPG's of old where you need exposure to cast magic or something of the like.
My favorite fantasy game is Dragons Dogma Dark Arisen, I think the armor and weapons are not too garish while still having a nice look, the lore is fantastic, and the gameplay is extremely fluid and fun.
I like the setting of the Iron Kingdoms in the fantasy games of Warmachine and Hordes. In the Iron Kingdoms has got an interesting mix of stuff from the industrial revolution, medieval times and fantasy, and that is what I like a lot. The general of your army (called a Warcaster in Warmachine and a Warlock in Hordes) is a powerful wizard and some of them can be a really good in close combat as well. The warcaster has also a magical powerfield to protect him from harm and is powered by a small steam engine which he or she wears on the back. The warcaster also has, next to units of troops, the ability to command giant steampowered automatons called warjacks which the warcaster commands mentally. The Warlocks can transfer their damage to big monsters, called warbeasts.
There a many interesting factions and models on the website of the publisher of this tabletop game (but there is also a video game called Warmachine: Tactics) www.privateerpress.com
My preferred fantasy armor (barring enchantments) is a wool gambeson with mittens and leggings. I would wear mail over it, with kettle hat, and jack chains connecting the pieces together as well as to little metal bits on my boots/shoes. the metal is for a fareday cage, and the wool makes a good insulator against things like fire, and possibly ice magic.
Ah, I always love these videos. Very interesting. Also, I like the moustache and goatee.
You could be a mighty battle mage, sir. Always impressed by the details.
I remember a D&D book fron 3.5 edition. It proposed an alternative to standard fantasy battles and it said that magic would make fantasy war similar to our modern day war. Long range spells, divinations and flight make masses of troops obsolete, instead several platoons of fast moving commando-style troops would be the rule...
I've just recently found your channel, but I though to write my thoughts about enhancing armors against magic.
I think, based on how socketing exists in lots of RPGs and MMORPGs, armors could have inside socket of certain magical gems, that could store up magical power (mana or whatever resource magic uses as a base) and based on the gem's affinity towards certain elements, they can provide the armor a certain resistance. In most cases, it should be opposite element based resistance, like fire element based gems can use their stored energy if the person is affected by cold magic. It can also be an semi-automatic, reaction based thing, like if the gem is affected by a certain ammount of heat or cold, or senses water or poisonous things or extremely high ammount of light, these magical gems could react by themselfs by emitting their stored (forced into them by outside force, like an enchanter) or naturally accumulated magical power and counteract against the incoming effect. In terms of lightning, nature element would be the go to, based on wood, or earth; against light, shadow is the thing, against necromancy/curses, light, nature, if it's separated from nature, life can be used too, etc.
If these mechanics would be there, then armor would generaly work the way it currently works with an addition of inside jewelry and their craftong process would also include cooperation of jewelers too with blacksmiths and magicians.
the reason for the high cost of titanium is not because of chemical rarity, but rather it's expensive extraction process. for example, titanium compounds are used to make some kinds of cheap white paint. furthermore, titanium is very expensive to utilise in fabrication due to it's high chemical reactivty and very high melting point. labour cost wise, technical skill is also worth a lot (welding, heat treatment etc is complicated)
Fun fact: Extremely dense white oak has ablative properties and was used on early Chinese space vehicles as protection from reentry conditions. Real wood undergoing one of the toughest jobs against heat. Slamming into the atmosphere at hyper sonic speed. So White oak siege weapons and such would be common place and deliberately farmed.
Any mage trying to burn through that is going to have their job cut out for them!
Magic protection could also come from animal hides with natural magic resistance. Wear them under regular armour?
Something that you touched on in the end when you talk about your DnD, would justify high magic settings with armor exactly like that we see in history.
Enchanted armor. The Armor could be built with weapon combat in mind and then have magic wards put on it to make it strong against magic attacks.
Hell in high magic settings you could have plain clothing with magic enhancement making it more protective then full plate.
Depends on the rules of magic in that world.
It's a very difficult topic to discuss and speculate around. Mainly because it all bottles down to how magic works in the particular setting.
Some settings offer very little explanation of how magic works. Other settings give more in-depth explanations. But there is also a huge variety in how it works.
For instance, in one setting, fire based magic attacks might work on the principle that the warlock basically summons a gout of flames that emmanate from the warlock towards the target. In that setting, armour made of fire-retardant materials would make sense.
But in another setting, inncineration of a target might be caused through getting the target to spontaneously combust (the source of heat and inevitable fire is caused inside the targets body), in such a setting, fire retardant materials worn on the body would be rendered useless.
And in other settings, magic is sometimes basically a forced shared fantasy between the warlock and the intended target with the power of suggestion (like the matrix: "I thought It wasn't real?", "Your mind makes it real") which somehow manifests itself magically in real life.
In that type of scenario, worn armour would be irrelevant, since the determining factor of whether the target gets burnt to a crisp or not is solely dependant on the targets ability to steel his mind and disbelieve the almost telepathic subliminal suggestion that the magic user tries to imbue his victim with in order to incinerate him.
Check out the game "Arcanum", old as hell but the theme can be summed up as "high fantasy being hit with an industrial revolution" and the conflict of the contradicting laws of nature and magic.
Which leads to such amazing moments as shooting dragons with elephant guns, your powerful spellcaster becoming a whimp as soon as he enters a city because all the technology around you disperses your magic or your steampowered armour grinding to a halt and your revolvers constantly missfiring in an elven forest since all the arcane energy distorts the laws of physics.
Although iron is about nine times as common in the crust as titanium, the main reason for titanium's price is the difficulty of refining it from its oxide form.
Warhammer fantasy armor in its own video would be epic! From the Empire to Vampire counts, and all in between, even if a couple of minutes on each basic races armor/weapons.
Thanks!!
There are several people who talked about metal armor being a faradayan cage.
Now, I am not deep into physics, so what I write might be wrong but:
The idea here is that you don't want to get hit at all. If you get hit, yes, it might be that nearly everything of the current passes through the armor. Let's assume, all of it is, best case.
Two things:
1. This means that the armor gets hot, right? With enough energy, red hot. Cooking you alive. Might be a less damaging effect than getting hit without one, but that's about the difference of you getting hit by a full blow from a tank and getting hit by a tactical missile. Tank is weaker than the missile but you are dead in both cases.
2. Explosion. A lightning can carry considerable energy. Consider this: Sand is relative resistant towards electric current, but a lightning hitting it will result in an explosion and melt a part of it to glass. If the armor conducts the energy into the ground, this will cause the ground to blow up (given enough energy). You don't even need to get hit directly - if this goes off in front of you, this is like you stepping on a landmine. Well okay, granted, might be weaker than one because no shrapnels, but deadly nonetheless.
I think the mistake people make here is to think in games. In those, characters get hit dozens of times, resulting in a loss of HP. This creates the illusion that taking a single hit is comparatively harmless while in reality, it could kill you.
As for mages who throw damage spells, consider that in order to be in business, they need to be stronger than a naptha grenade thrower. You get hit by one, you die. (Except maybe for magic armor as Metatron is talking about)
Dont forget a lot of magic takes the form of projectiles or rays. Even if acid a "bolt" is still a physical projectile and thus can be deflected. This is actually mentioned in dragon age inquisition by the iron bull when he mentions Cullen trains the recruits to angle their shields so that if such a magic projective comes at it it skews away rather than say towards their face.
Alongside that, there are also expanded military supplies such as alchemic ointments for the armor, so instead of oiling up your suit of armor with grease or something you'd use an alchemic treatment that would absorb fire or lightning or whatever and project corrosion treatment to help ensure the armor could take a fireball or two.
Something to point out concerning metal armor vs lightning. Full plate armor insulated with cotton & wool would behave has a Faraday cage, carrying the electricity along the outer surface of the armor as mentioned in other comments. The big disadvantage would be the heat generated from the electricity going through the plates. I would imagine that the armor would be designed with heat-sink like characteristics externally, with thermal insulation internally.
In response to your question on setting, I would have to say Warhammer or Game of Thrones, but the Witcher 3 would definitely be my favorite fantasy game.
The funny thing is that iron or steel armor should protect well against electricity, BECAUSE it conducts electricity. I remember seeing this show on The Weather Channel about three mad scientists doing weather-related experiments, and a guest did an experiment in which he wore chainmail or something and got electrocuted. The idea is that the armor absorbs all the electricity and goes out the other end, into the ground.
My favourite fantasy video game setting? Either Ivalice from Final Fantasy XII or Hydaelyn from Final Fantasy XIV. In terms of armour, mage gear seems very magic resistant while more conventional gear isn't stat-wise. Though in the latter, Paladin can now block magic with their shields, Dark Knight has specific abilities to block magic damage and Warrior is just Warrior. However, I've got both lore books and in the sections on armour, they do often mention that Job specific gear is enchanted.
Well for a mild fantasy i really like kenshi, its basically a post apocalyptic alternate univers feudal japan themed RPG/RTS/survival/sandbox, in the sense that each character is fully customizable, but you can have many characters, and even build a town if you wanted to. They put soo much detail into how weapons and armor works, it being mostly a swordbased game. They have katana, wakizashe, nodachi, horse choppers, those crazy huge two man swords the japanese built to disrupt troop formations(it didnt work), then they also have a light midieval europe faction, with armor way too large, and as such they can barely walk, but they take forever to kill. unarmored troops are faster, but only for a while, as each character by carrying more stuff gets stronger, bulks up and at the end can fight in full metal armor without hindrance. Some of the larger blades at first also cannot be used with any effectiveness at all, but once your character is strong they can wield it effectively. its a pretty well built game, though it does take an SSD harddrive and a pretty OP pc to run, as the map is huge and it follows a no loading screen policy, so you gotta run everywhere.
Warcraft universe? There are of course often runes that are used to give extra protection from other elements.
There's Fel, Arcane, Light, shadow and the elements, the nature and the chi.
Though there is the chaos magic, which is made of multiple schools of magic, which means that there is absolutely zero ways of defending against it.
Safe to say that against magic, armor won't probably matter unless it's enchanted with magic/elemental resistance stuff. If it's metallic, which would mean it probably conducts electricity, lightning or earth (which would essentially act as a magical bludgeon) would be quite effective. If the armor is considered "light" or your foe is unarmored, fire for everything. As for ice, a well-aimed icicle in the armor's gaps may be enough if the plan isn't to give your foe hypothermia in tropical environments. Water? Get it highly pressurized and it would be pretty obvious for what you use it for.
Also, even if you do find ore that gives armor even the slightest resistance to magic, chances it will be so rare that it will be expensive. It's kinda like firearms: when blacksmiths tried to work on plate armor that could resist bullets from flintlocks and other firearms, the results were so heavy and expensive that initially, those who could afford it settled just for the upper body armor only to give up altogether on it afterwards.