Awfully Alarmed About Armour

So with the confirmation in a recent Rule-of-Three article that humans will receive some pretty hefty bonuses to starting ability scores, I have become convinced that low-level Rogues, etc. with an 18 Dexterity will be fairly common.

This means that even low-level Dex-based characters will be able to achieve the same Armor Class as a Fighter in plate armour (i.e. 17) by spending only a measly 25gp to purchase studded leather.

Since the Fighter will almost certainly not have plate available to him in the beginning, this means that that Rogue's AC will very easily be much greater than that of a low-level Fighter. Even a Dex 14 Rogue will have an AC equal to that of the starting Fighter in chainmail.

This is unsatisfactory.

The Legends & Lore Fighter Design Goals article led me to believe that the Fighter would have a "high AC" (which is promised in the same paragraph in which it is noted that the Fighter would have access to the heaviest armour, leading me to believe that heavy armour would afford the best AC). I don't consider the mail-clad beginning Fighter's AC to be very high, especially when this is easily eclipsed by the Rogue for minimal effort.

Many--heck, maybe most--players have issues that will "make-or-break" this new edition of the game for them; well, this is mine. I want to see heavy armour represented as being effective. I feel that it got shortchanged in the past two editions; it was all too easy and disgustingly common for characters in little to no armour to have ACs that surpassed those of the heavy armour-wearers.

If heavy armour doesn't work as I feel that it should, I will not feel that my favorite fantasy archetype of the Knight in Shining Armour is adequately supported. I don't want to be forced to play a lightly-armoured Swashbuckler-type in order to be effective and have a high expectation of survival.

Please, WotC, do something about the armour. I don't even care what it is--I'll shut up and be happy with a +1 AC boost to all heavy armour, or with it granting a modest amount of DR, or even a well-developed feat tree/chain to do both or either of those things that is open only to classes that use heavy armour.

The armour (and weapon) rules are apparently just place holders at this time, hopefully we will get some better ones soon.

Don't be alarmed. This is the first round of the playtest, and it's not meant to test the character creation rules.

I agree with your premise: heavy armor should offer better protection than light armor. With a high Dexterity, characters with light armor should be able to achieve AC that is "good enough," but certainly not exceed or even match heavy armor users.

There should be some reason to wear light armor, though. I want Str fighters to wear plate and Dex fighters to wear leather. A 5' movement penalty is not going to make this happen. What would?

• Heavy armor requires high Str
• Heavy armor imposes penalty on Dex-based attack rolls and checks
• Heavy armor imposes penalty on Con-based checks/saves

I actually wouldn't mind if all of those were true. It would mean that heavy armor provides the best protection, but still isn't always the best option (don't wear full plate if you're crossing the desert, etc.).

The designers have flat-out said that armor isn't working right as written and that they're working on balancing it better.

Abstruse said:

The designers have flat-out said that armor isn't working right as written and that they're working on balancing it better.

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Can you give me a link to your source?

GX.Sigma said:

Can you give me a link to your source?

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It was in the Q&A chat last week...and I'm having a hell of a time finding the archive. Best I can do is give you a quote and a third-party transcript.

11:59

Comment From Rheim
I have a question about Armor balance. From the playtesting guide, it seems that there isn’t a good balance between Light/Medium and Heavy Armors. Are there revised rules coming out on this? Right now there seems little advantage to wearing say, Heavy Armor versus Medium Armor.

12:00
Jeremy Crawford:
Armor–that’s going through the same review with weapons, so I expect changes there too.
12:00
Mearls:
Yes, armor will go back to the drawing board. We included it in the document as a reference, but it hasn’t received a lot of attention. I’d like to see if we even need medium armor in the game. Starting gear might also change – you might start lower on the totem pole and buy your way up to better armor over the first few levels. NQ.

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Reference is here.

The first WTF threads coming out of the play test were all about the imbalance of armor. I get the feeling everyone, including WOTC, are fully aware of the minor whoops there.

High confidence this is a beta only problem.

I just want to jump in to say that I love the idea of starting low and buying better armor over the first few levels. I'd like to see weapons and other gear potentially work that way. Let the first couple upgrades be mundane before throwing magic into the mix. It would make a good default, with increased magic as a solid option.

Jeff Carlsen said:

I just want to jump in to say that I love the idea of starting low and buying better armor over the first few levels. I'd like to see weapons and other gear potentially work that way. Let the first couple upgrades be mundane before throwing magic into the mix. It would make a good default, with increased magic as a solid option.

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If you check the link I posted above, they talked about weapons in the Q&A as well. Can't remember off the top of my head, but they did say pretty much what you did. Also, they're really trying to pull away from the idea that magic weapons are "required" as you level.

So no more "I'm 7th level and I haven't gotten my +2 weapon yet!" whining. A magic weapon's a powerful thing and since to-hit numbers and AC aren't going to scale nearly as much, that's going to be a flat +5% chance to hit for every +1 on the weapon. So that's a pretty big deal, even later on in the game.

I'd like that too. I have an iron sword. I have a steel sword. I have a masterwork steel sword.

Chain armor, scale, plate.

Random gadgets, thieves' tools, master kit.