Plate Armor - It isn't really that heavy!

Okay, I'm having an argument with my group. Nothing earthshaking or friendship shattering, and a moot point anyway since my paladin was reduced to -20 hit points. BUT... They refuse to believe that plate mail, despite weighing 60 pounds, was not brutally encumbering. I KNOW that somewhere there's a website describing how plate mail actually allowed a great deal of freedom of movement, but I can't remember what it is! Could someone help me out?

I don't know of any websites, but there is stuff on the history channel all the time. Several times there was a show with this old medieval history expert dressed in full plate, hopping and rolling around without a problem. No, plate armor was not horribly encumbering.

[edit: Heres a site http://www.ceu.hu/medstud/manual/SRM/armor.htm
heres another http://www.mackenziesmith.com/Our_Products/Plate_Armor/plate_armor.html
/edit]

Having actualy worn the stuff, I'll chime in.

It's heavy. And it is awkward. For a long time (It took me several hours off and on) it feels sort of like you just got out of the pool after having spent two hours in there... with your clothes on, to boot.

And if you have full arms/legs (I had full arms, not full legs), it gets worse. The movement in my arms was restricted a bit in certain directions.

Would I say "brutal"? No, not for someone used to wearing it all the time. Does it impead movement though? Yes, a bit.

Now, if the platemail was made to fit you -mine was not, of course-, it wouldn't be quite so bad, no. But that's the key part. For platemail to be "optimal" if you will, it sort of has to be crafted with your body in mind. That or you have to find some that was crafted for someone with a very similar build. The stuff I wore was a bit small in places, a bit large in others, so... *shrug*

I saw that same History Channel special. Had some guy in plate mail doing cart wheels. Pretty cool stuff. Also showed how well it protected against arrows, when they'd shoot it with arrows and the arrow would just bounce off, leaving only a small dent.

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and Tsyr has brought up the very points which made Platemail bearbale

1. The people who wore plate were 'use to it' and physically fitter than most of us (lack of technology does that to you)

2. Plate armour was not common and definately not something bought by every fighter from the corner armourer.
It was specially crafted to suit the person who would be wearing it and thus fully balanced for their use.

It wasn't brutality encumbering but it did put some impediments on the wearer (and yes I've worn it once)

Tsyr said:

Having actualy worn the stuff, I'll chime in.

It's heavy. And it is awkward. For a long time (It took me several hours off and on) it feels sort of like you just got out of the pool after having spent two hours in there... with your clothes on, to boot.

And if you have full arms/legs (I had full arms, not full legs), it gets worse. The movement in my arms was restricted a bit in certain directions.

Would I say "brutal"? No, not for someone used to wearing it all the time. Does it impead movement though? Yes, a bit.

Now, if the platemail was made to fit you -mine was not, of course-, it wouldn't be quite so bad, no. But that's the key part. For platemail to be "optimal" if you will, it sort of has to be crafted with your body in mind. That or you have to find some that was crafted for someone with a very similar build. The stuff I wore was a bit small in places, a bit large in others, so... *shrug*

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Not strong and dexterous enough Tsyr?

Green Knight said:

I saw that same History Channel special. Had some guy in plate mail doing cart wheels. Pretty cool stuff. Also showed how well it protected against arrows, when they'd shoot it with arrows and the arrow would just bounce off, leaving only a small dent.

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A sheaf arrow will bounce off platemail, but a medieval longbow (ca 100lb draw weight, not your typical modern 35 lb draw weight graphite bow) or heavy x-bow firing an arrow with an armour-piercing head will easily penetrate plate at short range. And I've seen this demonstrated on TV also.

Anabstercorian said:

Okay, I'm having an argument with my group. Nothing earthshaking or friendship shattering, and a moot point anyway since my paladin was reduced to -20 hit points. BUT... They refuse to believe that plate mail, despite weighing 60 pounds, was not brutally encumbering. I KNOW that somewhere there's a website describing how plate mail actually allowed a great deal of freedom of movement, but I can't remember what it is! Could someone help me out?

Click to expand...

Point of order: Plate mail was a combination of plate armor pieces and chainmail. It was pretty heavy, but not as relatively heavy as full chainmail, because the weight was distributed around the wearer's body.

Plate armor is the suit of plate with little chainmail involved. A sturdy man wearing the latter could vvault onto the saddle of his steed.

a suit of full plate is only uncomferterable if it doesn't fit right, I should know I used to have a summer job hand makeing the stuff at www.varmouries.com . We also used to model it on occasion. Honestly it is more comferterable to wear a full suit of 15th century gothic armour than it is to wear a 11th century chain halburk and crusader barrel helm.

I have also worn a suit of maximilian however that was really really uncomferterable simply due to the fact that it was about 3 inches too tall for me.