"Plate armor not costing enough" fix

[Alex319]

One common complaint about 4e equipment is that plate armor (and sometimes other armor types) doesn't cost as much as it "should," given how much harder it is to make than other armor types. Here is a possible fix that leaves as much as possible about the AC progression unchanged:

1. There are only three types of armor: cloth armor (uses AC bonus, masterwork progression, and other stats equivalent to cloth), light armor (uses AC bonus, masterwork progression, and other stats equivalent to leather), and heavy armor (uses AC bonus, masterwork progression, and other stats equivalent to chain)

2. Hide armor proficiency is renamed "Light Armor Training" and gives +1 bonus to AC while wearing light armor. Scale armor proficiency is renamed "Heavy Armor Training" and gives +1 bonus to AC while wearing heavy armor. Plate armor proficiency is renamed "Improved Heavy Armor Training" and increases that bonus to +2.

3. Nonmagical light armor is described as leather, and nonmagical heavy armor is described as chain. "Magical" light armor can be described as hide, and "magical" heavy armor can be described as scale or plate (with the increased AC coming from the 'improved armor type' rather than actual 'magic')

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Effectively, the way the system currently works is that you choose an armor type within one of the categories (light or heavy) based on what you are proficient in, and the game makes the higher level armors not cost much more because they still want 1st level characters to be able to choose it.

What this house rule does is still allow players to get the AC increases their proficiency is designed to allow them, but move the different armor types into the magic item system, which is designed for a cost/power tradeoff.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Seems like a whole lot of house ruling to solve basically a non-issue to me. By 2nd level pretty much anything mundane is going to be easily affordable by PCs anyhow, so in essence why bother? Maybe the costs as they are now aren't ultimately realistic, but on the other hand are they really all that seriously wacky? I guess my point is its a just a lot of house ruling to change something that only matters for maybe 5 game sessions at the start of the campaign and even then the effect is pretty marginal.

 

[Alex319]

Well, two things:

1. It actually isn't that big of a change; it's more of a reflavoring than anything else. Effectively everyone gets about the same stats they had before, it's just you don't describe them as wearing "plate armor" until they've upgraded it a couple times.

2. The plate armor costing may not be a big issue to you (and honestly isn't to me, either), but it is a problem for some. Probably at least half the threads I've read discussing the 4e economy mention plate armor costs at some point as an "unrealistic aspect."

 

[Saeviomagy]

2. The plate armor costing may not be a big issue to you (and honestly isn't to me, either), but it is a problem for some. Probably at least half the threads I've read discussing the 4e economy mention plate armor costs at some point as an "unrealistic aspect."

Then make the stuff more expensive than scale + 1, and see how many people actually buy it. It's by far the simplest solution, and only really affects paladins, and even then only affects them by 1 point of ac.

 

[Garthanos]

Paladins they are members of knightly orders and are outfitted with appropriate equipment... the membership includes tithes and similar things which in the long run of the characters life can be ignored entirely. However this membership also includes perks like cheap access to plate armor.... plate armor costs lots more for joe on the street but nobody wanting it in game is joe on the street.