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[RAM]

So totally not game-balance stuff here. It happened and is passed and is too late to change now. So please, no salt, I am not asking for anything to be different.
Would lightning be more or less effective against full-body metal armour? Personally, I would not expect it to be ineffective, but I would assume that it would have less effectiveness. It would, of course, be more likely to actually hit someone in armour, but hitting soldiers on a battlefield is not all that difficult. When it actually hits someone the electricity would tend to ground through the armour instead of the soldier, wouldn't it?

It just strikes me as being sort of like Pokemon reasoning. A worm made out of high-purity metal that is in solid chunks heavier than a car is going to have a rather large electrical capacity and operate like an electrical wire, doing little other than producing trace-quantities of thermal energy unless it becomes very narrow, like with a fuse. Anything with enough voltage for a metal worm to even notice would leave some silly little armadillo thing fried, roasted, carbonised, and exploded.

Not saying that armour in a storm is a good plan, just that it would increase the odds of surface burns that you might recover from and reduce the odds of a line of cooked flesh from your shoulder to your foot with an imminent date with gangrene and a shroud of borked electrical signals. The force that makes metal armour more vulnerable to electricit is that it is more conductive than human flesh is, this same force protects any human flesh that is nearby. The same thing that makes it more likely to be hit by lightning also makes it less likely to spread that lightning to anything nearby...

So... Am I crazy or would the lightning-counters-armour thing not actually hold up to proper physics(not that I expect proper physics to be stuck to overly rigidly in games where it is more fun to just go with stuff than spend hours researching every tiny detail...)?

[Taricus]

Even if the lightning itself is more effectively routed, the heat of the resultant energy put by the bolt would almost certainly be lethal due to overheating. The armour may hold up but the person inside wouldn't be as lucky.And you'd still get some of the electrical energy entering to poor sod who's been electrocuted as well.

Besides you have cheap plate armour in the 900s. Don't complain about realism

[evictedSaint]

I'm confused as to what exactly you're arguing or what you want. 

Would lightning be less effective against someone wearing a full suit of armor?  I guess, much in the same way shooting someone in the head would be less effective if they were wearing a wooden bucket as a helmet.

[RAM]

I thought that I made it clear that I wasn't complaining or requesting anything. Evidently I did not and I apologise.
What I want is to address physics inaccuracies. Just, you know, verify some curiosity I have been having and possibly correcting some inaccurate beliefs. The thread seemed to be quiet so I didn't think that it would cause harm.
If I wanted to complain I would aks why anyone would think to use electricity against metal in the 900s and raise a stern metagaming eyebrow.
On the point of people being cooked in their armour. I do not believe that the amount of energy is sufficient. Even a bolt straight through a person will only cook the area through which it travels. I am certainly willing to believe that people would still die from it, but some people already survive, and some few even recover, from lightning strikes. I feel that armour would improve the survival and recovery rate(provided that it is full-body armour, wearing a metal helm or holding a metal umbrella and having it terminate next to your head or chest is just plain terrible) feel that "lightning beats metal" is, while fine for game balance, not something that you would want to carry with you as general knowledge.

But I could easily be wrong. If any of my arguments are inaccurate or insufficient please speak up, or we can drop this topic if it seems too prone to hostility.

[NUKE9.13]

I'm confused as to what exactly you're arguing or what you want. 

Would lightning be less effective against someone wearing a full suit of armor?  I guess, much in the same way shooting someone in the head would be less effective if they were wearing a wooden bucket as a helmet.

And the wooden bucket is magnetic (and the bullits ferrous)

I think the added chance of getting hit is what tips the scales. Lightning is rarely lethal, but that's because lightning rarely hits people.
Though tbh you do raise some interesting points. Had you brought them up in our thread whilst we were considering lightning, we may not've gone that route.
But as you say, it's in the past now. A wizard did it. Feel free to employ one (1) piece of pokemon logic against us.

[10ebbor10]

Anyway, let's look at the physics. Lighting is an ultrashort, high voltage pulse. There are 3 main dangers :

1) The Arc Flash => Air heated by lightning is extremely hot, possibly well in excess of 20 000 degrees. This is however an extremely localized effect, occuring only within a few centimeters of the impact and exit point

2) Resistive heating => Basically, electric resistance turns electricity into heat. Not that great if the object resisting is your flesh.

3) Neural interference => Your body uses electricity for many things, including telling your heart what to do. Shocking it is not advised.

Now, the armored suit protects against 3 with certainity. Lightning follows the path of least resistance, and thus will never enter the flesh of the occupant. Against 2, it's also a great defense, because metal has greater conductivity and thus doesn't heat as much. Given the very short burst of lightning, the metal will not overheat.

Number 1 does this :

http://lightningsafety.com/nlsi_pls/car_strike_pix/pic1b.jpg

Depending on how thick the armor is, this should inflict only light damage upon it. I mean, the helmet will be damaged, no doubt, but the occupant will not be harmed as the explosion takes place on the outside.

So, it's not a bullet and a wooden helmet, it's a poison dart. Lethal if it penetrates, harmless if it doesn't.

Feel free to employ one (1) piece of pokemon logic against us.

Electric does not get a bonus against steel type pokemon.

That said, will you please tell your ships to simply burn. It suprises me that none of our fireball spells have had any noticeable effect on the naval theather. Just doesn't make any sense.

[Taricus]

You're thinking that we didn't ask the same question about the sea

[10ebbor10]

You're thinking that we didn't ask the same question about the sea

You too are wondering why your stuff isn't burning down?

[Taricus]

No, about mages not casting at sea.

[10ebbor10]

We're certain that mages are casting at Sea.

1) Way back at the start of the game, our naval mages used fire insect to set your sails on fire
2) You used a wind spell to counter that (and counter our mist, and boost your ships, and counter arrows, and counter the regular insects, OP much?)
3) We deployed Myark to sea to no effect

So, unless something weird is going on, spells are used at sea and your boats should be cinders.

[Devastator]

I'd also like to point out that metal does have great conductivity.  If it gets heated, it's extremely effective at transferring that heat to whatever it's touching.  Which would be you.

Really, if the heat's enough to scorch the metal like that, I don't want to be wearing it.  The key part of being safe inside a car is as much the air gap as the metal cage.. you don't have to touch the part that was hit by the lightning.  With a suit, you do.

Plus, well, there's enough juice there to make a lotta current flow.  If your metal is soaked with rain, as is quite likely, you're likely wet down to your toes, giving the lightning lots of juicy paths between the strike and the ground, many of which aren't going to be any fun to the guy wearing it.

[NUKE9.13]

We're certain that mages are casting at Sea.

1) Way back at the start of the game, our naval mages used fire insect to set your sails on fire
2) You used a wind spell to counter that (and counter our mist, and boost your ships, and counter arrows, and counter the regular insects, OP much?)
3) We deployed Myark to sea to no effect

So, unless something weird is going on, spells are used at sea and your boats should be cinders.

2- That's what we were hoping would happen. We thought we were being real clever inventing such a multi-purpose spell. But evidently the GM agreed that that would be OP, so it took us several designs and revisions to get it to do all those things. I mean, isn't the point of this game to invent OP things by being clever?
3- The turn before you deployed Myark, we used a revision to let our weather mages do their thing at sea, finally giving us the major advantage that weather magic should've given us from the start. Adding Myark to the equation countered that advantage, leading once again to parity.

So, yeah. If you want your fireballs to have more of an effect at sea, use a revision to make them do so. Because that's what we had to do.

[10ebbor10]

That's what we were hoping would happen. We thought we were being real clever inventing such a multi-purpose spell. But evidently the GM agreed that that would be OP, so it took us several designs and revisions to get it to do all those things. I mean, isn't the point of this game to invent OP things by being clever?

See, that's the problem with not having the list of designs. It becomes a complete guessing game to try and figure out what works and what doesn't, because you can't even keep track of what is going on and what matters.

isn't the point of this game to invent OP things by being clever?

Evidently not, because then our plate armor would defend against lightning. Or your horses would run away from fire. Or your ships would burn down. Whether something works logically or not varies wildly depending on the situation.

The turn before you deployed Myark, we used a revision to let our weather mages do their thing at sea, finally giving us the major advantage that weather magic should've given us from the start. Adding Myark to the equation countered that advantage, leading once again to parity.

But ...

How are we supposed to know that our wizards won't work at sea when they've worked at sea before? The firebugs were used to great effect at sea, by logic, our current (cheaper) fireball spells should be as well.

If we'd revise our soldiers meals to remove  cyanide and quicksilver, would you think it fair that you suddenly had to deal with quicksilver poisoning and cyanide deaths?

[10ebbor10]

I'd also like to point out that metal does have great conductivity.  If it gets heated, it's extremely effective at transferring that heat to whatever it's touching.  Which would be you.

Really, if the heat's enough to scorch the metal like that, I don't want to be wearing it.  The key part of being safe inside a car is as much the air gap as the metal cage.. you don't have to touch the part that was hit by the lightning.  With a suit, you do.

Plus, well, there's enough juice there to make a lotta current flow.  If your metal is soaked with rain, as is quite likely, you're likely wet down to your toes, giving the lightning lots of juicy paths between the strike and the ground, many of which aren't going to be any fun to the guy wearing it.

Skin effect means that the lightning will travel over the outer skin. Unless your armor is a tanktop or shorts, there should always be a single continuous metal path for the electricity to take, the rain then doesn't matter. Humans don't transmit electricity well, and thus no current will go through them regardless of configuration.

And while the heat scorching is an issue, remember that it occurs where the lightning hits the metal, on the outside of the helmet. Medieval armor is quite thick, and most of that damage there is the paint being burned of. The metal itself never melts, as the lightning strike does not last sufficiently long for heat transfer. It will be uncomfortable, and the target will have a very big headache, but it won't really matter.

[Devastator]

I'd also like to point out that metal does have great conductivity.  If it gets heated, it's extremely effective at transferring that heat to whatever it's touching.  Which would be you.

Really, if the heat's enough to scorch the metal like that, I don't want to be wearing it.  The key part of being safe inside a car is as much the air gap as the metal cage.. you don't have to touch the part that was hit by the lightning.  With a suit, you do.

Plus, well, there's enough juice there to make a lotta current flow.  If your metal is soaked with rain, as is quite likely, you're likely wet down to your toes, giving the lightning lots of juicy paths between the strike and the ground, many of which aren't going to be any fun to the guy wearing it.

Skin effect means that the lightning will travel over the outer skin. Unless your armor is a tanktop or shorts, there should always be a single continuous metal path for the electricity to take, the rain then doesn't matter. Humans don't transmit electricity well, and thus no current will go through them regardless of configuration.

And while the heat scorching is an issue, remember that it occurs where the lightning hits the metal, on the outside of the helmet. Medieval armor is quite thick, and most of that damage there is the paint being burned of. The metal itself never melts, as the lightning strike does not last sufficiently long for heat transfer. It will be uncomfortable, and the target will have a very big headache, but it won't really matter.

Have you gotten hit by lightning while wearing a suit of full plate?  Because right now this is sounding like you're trying to pass off speculation as a fact.  There's plenty of reasonable ways why a guy wearing metal armor might get hurt by lightning, while still allowing the plate to mitigate the damage.

Really, there's the soaking wet skin, which transmits electricity just fine, the stun effects from the thunderclaps, (just about every time I've heard of someone getting hit by lightning, the words immediately following the strike are "I got myself up off the ground"), heat transfer, as if it's hot enough to blister paint, it's enough to blister people, the possibility of the soldier being bloody or partly wounded, etcetera.

Lots of ways someone could get hurt, while still leaving it possible for the armor to mitigate some damage, or block it some of the time.  Like it's been being described.