Breastplate

[BartD]

Do you think this armor is balanced or will it cause problems?

Breastplate
Type: Light (benefits from high dex/int)
AC: 4/5/6 (one better than hide armor)
Check: -1 (as hide)
Speed: -1 (as chain)
Price: 35 gp (between hide and chain)
Weight: 30 lbs (between hide and chain)
Proficiency: Requires Chain mail proficiency to wear.

 

[Mengu]

This might quickly become the default armor for tactical warlords. A Tactical warlord could start out with AC 19 (20 with 1 feat). It's stepping dangerously into Defender AC levels, but aside from that, I don't see any immediately broken implications. A Swordmage with 1 feat can jump up to AC 22 at first level, but that's got some fairly steep cost in stats.

I think it's a decent item. It'll be useful for some builds, and will be a tough call for certain others if they need to decide between -1 speed and +1 AC.

 

[Garthanos]

Do you think this armor is balanced or will it cause problems?

Breastplate
Type: Light (benefits from high dex/int)
AC: 4/5/6 (one better than hide armor)
Check: -1 (as hide)
Speed: -1 (as chain)
Price: 35 gp (between hide and chain)
Weight: 30 lbs (between hide and chain)
Proficiency: Requires Chain mail proficiency to wear.

wierding me out.. heavy proficiency to wear and light behavior.

Eladrin chain weirdly impede like light armor but "require proficiency" for heavy armor and do not allow int/dex (unless my memory is failiing again)

I have a Aurelian light armor, it looks like thin light well hinged and fully customized to the person ... chain, scale and plate... the scale and plate normally have poor coverage due to cultural elements ( I thought of a increase critical range clause or something...) But the main effect it wears completely like cloth/scale and hide. It protects like masterwork cloth,leather and hide....

 

[Obryn]

Every Barbarian in the game would get this armor, I think.

-O

 

[Mengu]

Every Barbarian in the game would get this armor, I think.

-O

Nope, a barbarian who does not wish to sink any points into dexterity or intelligence, will have no desire for this armor. Chain is much more maintenance free, so you can focus on your Str/Con or Str/Cha.

 

[Obryn]

Nope, a barbarian who does not wish to sink any points into dexterity or intelligence, will have no desire for this armor. Chain is much more maintenance free, so you can focus on your Str/Con or Str/Cha.

Even with the +1 AC/Reflex per tier in Light Armor?

It makes Breastplates a base of +5/+7/+9, vs. Chain which will be +6/+9/+12, and they'll get a Reflex bump on top of this.

If they start with a 12 dex (which is far from absurd) and never put anything into it other than the paragon/epic boosts, it will end up at +6/+8/+11, with a little bit of squidginess based on what + their armor is. I dunno about you, but I'd trade 1 point of AC for 3 points of Reflex just about any day!

-O

 

[keterys]

I think I'd rather see breastplate fall into the heavy area, like:

Type: Heavy
AC: 6/9/12 (as chain)
Check: 0 (as scale)
Speed: - (as light armor)
Price: 35 gp (between hide and chain)
Weight: 35 lbs (between hide and chain)
Proficiency: Requires Scale mail proficiency to wear.

Ie, Scale but -1 AC and +1 Speed. Or, like Eladrin Chain.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

The other way to do it is just plain old reskinning. Make it identical to chain, but describe it differently.

Another option would be to drop the check and speed penalties and lower the AC by one, but otherwise let it operate the same as chain (ie it is heavy armor and requires chain proficiency). Not 100% sure that would be perfectly balanced either, but it seems to me like some characters would be willing to lose a point of AC for a speed boost and the loss of the check penalty.

 

[keterys]

Yeah, I could see doing that on some characters.

 

[Burrito Al Pastor]

I'm not entirely clear on the need for this. Why should a seventh armor type be added to the game, aside for the sake of tradition? I mean, aesthetically I miss chain shirts and studded leather, but if it's ever a Real Issue I'll just rename my hide armor. (Nobody likes hide.)

To put it another way: Are you trying to add breastplate because you feel like there's a gap between light and heavy armor that needs to be filled, or because you think breastplate should be in the game?