The Crimson Binome
Hero
It meets all of the basic criteria. At low levels, medium armor and heavy armor are better than light armor, because the person wearing light armor doesn't have maximum Dexterity yet. The distinction between medium and heavy is that medium armor requires decent Dexterity to use effectively, while heavy armor allows you to ignore Dexterity (which is a benefit, and thus gives value to heavy armor proficiency).[MENTION=60210]jaelis[/MENTION] this gives back to the rogue (because I don't truly harbor Dex any ill will), captures everything a boil down needs to capture for me, takes most everything offered for consideration in the thread into account, and gets buy-in from [MENTION=6775031]Saelorn[/MENTION], so, I'm feeling pretty good about it.
At high levels, cheap light armor catches up to cheap medium armor and cheap heavy armor, as soon as your Dexterity tops out. By then, though, everyone should have moved on to masterwork armor, at which point light and medium are equally effective and heavy armor regains the lead.
In the table, it's probably better to go with "light armor, masterwork". Personally, I would go with "light armor (superior)" in order to indicate that its superiority could be a result of materials or design, rather than it necessarily being well-made.Most burning question: Should things be listed as "light masterwork armor" or "masterwork light armor" ?