1) I kind of touched on this but i will expand on it. I think that each piece of armour may or may not have a unique quality which can only be obtained by that armour. Also the player would have the option of whether to use this or not.
E.g Say the unique attribute of body armour are that they have spikes on them and hence increase the amount of damage which can be done by a player. It is also important to realise that only body armour can have this attribute,not helmets,belts or anything else and only can be found on some body armour,not all.
Another example could be leggings make the ground wet and so for a while the enemy cannot attack,he is slipping and trying to find his feet and so this allows you to attack him.
Also there must be some sort of control on this,say each attribute has a 15% of working.
Other ideas for armour- Repel damage done by a melee weapon for helmets,levitate for boots,belts...???
Rings and amulets excluded though.
Of course the player may not want these attributs into play all the time and so may elect not to use them. To do this the player clicks on the armour(when being worn) and chooses "no" on the special attributes.
2) I bet someone has thought of this before but doesnt matter,how about whips as weapons?
The main advantages would be that recuperation time is low and that enemies are beaten back,i.e when they get hit they are forced back a few paces.
Maybe to counteract this whips shouldnt do as much damage but can still be infused with poision lighting damage etc.
