Super Simple Armor

mrpopstar · Jun 19, 2018

From a purely mechanical perspective, how does this look?

Armor	Armor Class (AC)	Strength	Stealth
Light armor	11 + Dex modifier	--	Disadvantage
Light armor, masterwork	12 + Dex modifier	--	--
Medium armor	14 + Dex modifier (max 2)	--	Disadvantage
Medium armor, masterwork	15 + Dex modifier (max 2)	--	--
Heavy armor	16	Str 13	Disadvantage
Heavy armor, masterwork	18	Str 15	Disadvantage
Shield	+2	--	--

Seeking thoughts on numbers, balance, crunch, etc. Have I broken anything? Fixed anything?

Design goal: Reduce the armor table to its most basic elements.

GlassJaw · Jun 19, 2018

What are your design goals? Why do you want to simply armor?

The Crimson Binome · Jun 19, 2018

It sounds about right. If you used these rules, instead of the ones in the book, the game would not suffer significantly for it.

It does raise the question of why anyone would buy plate armor, if scale armor was just as effective and also cheaper (or easier to make), but I'm sure you have a reasonable answer for that.

mrpopstar · Jun 19, 2018

GlassJaw said:
What are your design goals? Why do you want to simply armor?

I added my design goals to my OP.

CubicsRube · Jun 19, 2018

Sounds good, since really, that's the kind of armor that peo0lengp for anyway. So i dont see the value of slightly poorer armors except as an interim.

You can then add fluff as you want, for example medium could be lamellar or chain shirt. Heavy could be scale or plate or whatever.

mrpopstar · Jun 19, 2018

Saelorn said:
That sounds about right.

Yeah?

I felt like a Dex modifier max on light made sense. Is the Strength modifier requirement for medium armor sensible?

mrpopstar · Jun 19, 2018

CubicsRube said:
Sounds good, since really, that's the kind of armor that peo0lengp for anyway. So i dont see the value of slightly poorer armors except as an interim.

You can then add fluff as you want, for example medium could be lamellar or chain shirt. Heavy could be scale or plate or whatever.

That's how I see it. Cost and weight can be the differentiators.

mrpopstar · Jun 19, 2018

Saelorn said:
It sounds about right. If you used these rules, instead of the ones in the book, the game would not suffer significantly for it.

It does raise the question of why anyone would buy plate armor, if scale armor was just as effective and also cheaper (or easier to make), but I'm sure you have a reasonable answer for that.

I feel like armor types are aesthetic choices more than anything. You wear scale because it's cultural or what have you. That's story stuff, not mechanics stuff (too me).

Smarmot · Jun 19, 2018

I don't see the point. 5e armour is already pretty simple.

This will give heavy armour users annoyingly high armour class at first level.

The strength requirement for medium armour would strain medium armor classes, especially those that are not martial focussed.