Chain Shirt and Half-Plate

[Palladion]

Just musing the other day...

Chain shirt would use the same stats and proficiency as hide armor (including Armor Specialization), except when qualifying for magic item abilities, where it would count as chainmail. Catch is that the DM would have to watch for instances (i.e. Agile Armor) where certain properties probably should not apply. Masterwork special properties (i.e. Adventurer's Vault) can be changed to match (Will instead of Fortitude bonuses).

Half-plate would use the same stats and proficiency as chainmail, except when qualifying for magic item abilities, where it would count as plate. Ditto for masterwork special properties.

 

[chronoplasm]

It looks good in theory, but it also looks like it could be quite confusing in practice. I think this is the kind of thing that really needs playtesting to figure it out.

 

[Palladion]

It looks good in theory, but it also looks like it could be quite confusing in practice. I think this is the kind of thing that really needs playtesting to figure it out.

Quite true.

Another modification I would propose is that chain shirt requires Armor Proficiency (Chainmail) and is affected by Armor Specialization (Chainmail) instead of hide, and half-plate is affected by the plate proficiency and specialization.

Mainly I suggest this for the purpose of allowing different armor users to use different magic item abilities (and maybe masterwork armor special abilities). There is really nothing beyond that (and flavor).

 

[DogBackward]

Why don't you just buy hide and say it looks like chainmail? That's what I'm doing with a couple of characters; I have a Ranger in a game where all of the players are knight-style characters, so his hide is actually a light breastplate and a set of greaves. A fighter character I had uses scale, but it looks like a suit of full plate; he's just trained enough that it doesn't slow him down. And one of my clerics uses chainmail that looks like a set of heavy robes and mantle with holy runes for protection.

There's really no need to clutter things up trying to make something for every little spot anymore, since all you have to do is change the flavor a bit. It's easy, really.

 

[Palladion]

Why don't you just buy hide and say it looks like chainmail? That's what I'm doing with a couple of characters; I have a Ranger in a game where all of the players are knight-style characters, so his hide is actually a light breastplate and a set of greaves. A fighter character I had uses scale, but it looks like a suit of full plate; he's just trained enough that it doesn't slow him down. And one of my clerics uses chainmail that looks like a set of heavy robes and mantle with holy runes for protection.

There's really no need to clutter things up trying to make something for every little spot anymore, since all you have to do is change the flavor a bit. It's easy, really.

I think you missed my point.

You cannot have angelsteel hide armor (PHB 227) or battleforged chainmail (PHB 227) (for example), but with the modifications I proposed, you can have an angelsteel chain shirt and battleforged half-plate. The question is not the look or flavor of the armor, but whether the rules will support it (whether it is broken or not), as I mentioned in the previous post.

 

[mkill]

You cannot have angelsteel hide armor (PHB 227) or battleforged chainmail (PHB 227) (for example), but with the modifications I proposed, you can have an angelsteel chain shirt and battleforged half-plate. The question is not the look or flavor of the armor, but whether the rules will support it (whether it is broken or not), as I mentioned in the previous post.

If you really want battleforged chainmail just include it in your game. This is such a minor change that it's hardly worth noting. You can houserule it on the fly.
As the DM, you just say "This armor has the stats of chain mail, except it's a breastplate and it has this enchantment."
Done.