Awfully Alarmed About Armour

[Trance-Zg]

Best thing I have read is they are thinking of removing medium armor.

It was always sub-par as a unwanted bastard child of light and heavy armors.

 

[Bran Mak Morn]

Mike Mearls commented on the armor thing yesterday:

mikemearls comments on AMA: Mike Mearls, head of D&D Research and Design at WotC
mikemearls comments on AMA: Mike Mearls, head of D&D Research and Design at WotC
In answer to my question of why not allow heavy armor the Dex bonus:So basically, a heavily armored fighter will have better AC than a high Dex light armor guy, and medium armors have various combinations of Dex bonus cap and stealth disadvantage.

I kinda like this

 

[ardisian]

Armor Revision

I was playing with this idea for armors

Light Armor
Leather AC 12 + dex mod
Studded AC 13 + dex mod
Chain Shirt AC 14 + dex mod

Medium Armor
Ring AC 15 + 1/2 Dex mod
Scale AC 16 + 1/2 Dex mod
Chainmail AC 17 + 1/2 Dex Mod

Heavy Armor
Splint AC 17
Banded AC 18
Plate AC 19

With this setup, at dex 20 all armors would have the same AC, but at lower dex medium and heavy armors are better in various degrees

It also keeps the max AC with shields at around 21. Still reasonable to hit for most - but not too easy.

 

[dammitbiscuit]

I was playing with this idea for armors

Light Armor
Leather AC 12 + dex mod
Studded AC 13 + dex mod
Chain Shirt AC 14 + dex mod

Medium Armor
Ring AC 15 + 1/2 Dex mod
Scale AC 16 + 1/2 Dex mod
Chainmail AC 17 + 1/2 Dex Mod

Heavy Armor
Splint AC 17
Banded AC 18
Plate AC 19

With this setup, at dex 20 all armors would have the same AC, but at lower dex medium and heavy armors are better in various degrees

It also keeps the max AC with shields at around 21. Still reasonable to hit for most - but not too easy.

These are pretty solid, workable numbers, relative to each other. It's a system with good parity.

I do wonder, though, if you need to shave 1 point off across the board. Otherwise, a 16ish AC is going to be normal for most players at first level, which feels a little on the high side. Some monsters only have a +1 attack bonus.

11 ac from leather armor might annoy people, though, so it could be simpler to just give all monsters/NPCs +1 to attack. Or rename/refluff things, because as has been mentioned several times in D&D's history, adding metal studs to your leather armor does NOTHING. So the first tier of light armor could be robe, jerkin, or jacket, middle could be actual leather armor, and high would then be layering a chain shirt on.

 

[ardisian]

So something like this
Light Armor
Padded/Cloth AC 11 + dex mod
Leather AC 12 + dex mod
Chain Shirt AC 13 + dex mod

Medium Armor
Ring AC 14 + 1/2 dex mod
Scale AC 15 + 1/2 dex mod
Chainmail AC 16 + 1/2 dex mod

Heavy
Splint AC 16
Banded AC 17
Plate AC 18

It could work - maybe some adjustments on which armors to include (maybe remove ring and replace with something else, etc)

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

I kinda like this

Here's the full quote:

We're completely re-working armor. We're bulking up heavy armor, giving medium armor a better definition, and slightly pulling back on light armor.
Heavy armor allows no Dex bonus but has a high base value. Heavy armor always gives disad on attempts to be stealthy.

Medium armor has +2 Dex max or no Dex allowed. It sits below heavy armor. Classes like the ranger and barbarian are proficient with it. Some medium armors give disad on checks to hide or move silently. Basically, if you play a ranger or barbarian, you can either junk Dex and take a "heavier" medium armor or take a lighter one that lets you be stealthy.

Light armor allows full Dex and has no stealth drawbacks.

So it sounds like medium armor will be split into two types: heavy-medium that is mechanically the same as heavy armor, or light-medium that has unique mechanics (+2 max dex bonus, no stealth drawbacks). And the reason for this is so that you can design a barbarian or ranger who doesn't need dex, but also doesn't get to wear full plate without a feat/theme.

Obviously this will depend on what the AC numbers they come up with are, but Ardisian's numbers could work.

The only remaining problem is that unlike in 3e, there is now no mechanical reason to ever wear e.g. leather armor or splint mail after your first level (when you've probably got enough cash to buy nonmagical chain shirt or plate).

 

[GX.Sigma]

The only remaining problem is that unlike in 3e, there is now no mechanical reason to ever wear e.g. leather armor or splint mail after your first level (when you've probably got enough cash to buy nonmagical chain shirt or plate).

I do not see that as a problem.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

I do not see that as a problem.

Meh, I kind of wish they'd bump chain shirt up to medium so rogues would be encouraged to stick in iconic leather armor.

 

[ardisian]

I could have sworn that had been the case in some older edition - I may be thinking of chain mail and elven chain mail - wasn't elven chain mail considered light armor, while chainmail was medium?

 

[dammitbiscuit]

Yep, 3e gave people new shinies: Giant In the Playground Games