Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Lets Talk about Medium Armor
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Xeviat" data-source="post: 7639256" data-attributes="member: 57494"><p>Hi everyone. I'd like to talk about medium armor, and possibly about improving it. 4E got rid of the concept of medium armor and just had lights and heavies. Some armor was just flat out better than others, but proficiencies were given out by armor and not all at once. 3E had varied max dex bonuses, allowing everyone to aim for roughly the same 17-18 AC (with full-plate and padded being special).</p><p></p><p>5E is ... different. Light and Heavy Armors line up pretty well on their own. Studded Leather is the basic light armor (it's cheap enough that you could have it at first level) at 12+Dex AC. Chainmail is the basic heavy armor, for 16 AC.</p><p></p><p>For a light armor wearer starting with 16 Dex (doable for dex fighter, ranger, and rogue, and more warrior inclined light armor casters), this is AC 15 compared to heavy armor's AC 16. The light armor wearer can boost their Dex twice, ending with AC 17, while the heavy armor wearer can upgrade their armor twice, ending with AC 18.</p><p></p><p>That's good. That's balanced.</p><p></p><p>What about medium armor? Well, a medium armor wearer needs a Dex of 14 to maximize their AC, which can be doable with standard array but really limits options. Chain and Scale are the baseline medium armors. With a 14 Dex, Chain is AC 15, and Scale is AC 16. Scale comes with stealth penalties, just like heavy armor, so the comparison is good here. Medium armor gets to upgrade once, to 16 or 17 AC accordingly ... but that's it.</p><p></p><p>So, not only does Medium armor require you to make Dex a secondary or tertiary stat (which limits character options in my opinion), but it ends up having lower AC than light armor or heavy armor.</p><p></p><p>I feel like medium armor needs 2 boosts. I feel like the distinction between "light medium" armors that don't penalize stealth, and "heavy medium" armors that do penalize stealth aren't really utilized. I've personally never seen a character proficient in stealth who wasn't a dex focused character, so medium armor wouldn't benefit them anyway. But maybe I play with power gamers.</p><p></p><p>I'm not sure where the balance point should be. Medium Armor proficiency is paired with shield proficiency generally speaking, but shield use comes with its own hand things. I feel like medium should be an all around improvement over light, and heavy should be an improvement over medium. I'm not sure "disadvantage on stealth" is really in the same category as "+1 AC" to be balanced against it. I'm not sure "you don't need to invest in Dex" is also a "point" in favor of Medium armor, as investing in lower Dex still comes with its own penalties.</p><p></p><p>So, where do you think Medium armor should be? Should medium armor always be +1 AC over light? Should heavy always be +1 AC over medium? Should "disadvantage on stealth" be worth +1 AC? Is 14 Dex too must to ask for medium armor wearers?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Xeviat, post: 7639256, member: 57494"] Hi everyone. I'd like to talk about medium armor, and possibly about improving it. 4E got rid of the concept of medium armor and just had lights and heavies. Some armor was just flat out better than others, but proficiencies were given out by armor and not all at once. 3E had varied max dex bonuses, allowing everyone to aim for roughly the same 17-18 AC (with full-plate and padded being special). 5E is ... different. Light and Heavy Armors line up pretty well on their own. Studded Leather is the basic light armor (it's cheap enough that you could have it at first level) at 12+Dex AC. Chainmail is the basic heavy armor, for 16 AC. For a light armor wearer starting with 16 Dex (doable for dex fighter, ranger, and rogue, and more warrior inclined light armor casters), this is AC 15 compared to heavy armor's AC 16. The light armor wearer can boost their Dex twice, ending with AC 17, while the heavy armor wearer can upgrade their armor twice, ending with AC 18. That's good. That's balanced. What about medium armor? Well, a medium armor wearer needs a Dex of 14 to maximize their AC, which can be doable with standard array but really limits options. Chain and Scale are the baseline medium armors. With a 14 Dex, Chain is AC 15, and Scale is AC 16. Scale comes with stealth penalties, just like heavy armor, so the comparison is good here. Medium armor gets to upgrade once, to 16 or 17 AC accordingly ... but that's it. So, not only does Medium armor require you to make Dex a secondary or tertiary stat (which limits character options in my opinion), but it ends up having lower AC than light armor or heavy armor. I feel like medium armor needs 2 boosts. I feel like the distinction between "light medium" armors that don't penalize stealth, and "heavy medium" armors that do penalize stealth aren't really utilized. I've personally never seen a character proficient in stealth who wasn't a dex focused character, so medium armor wouldn't benefit them anyway. But maybe I play with power gamers. I'm not sure where the balance point should be. Medium Armor proficiency is paired with shield proficiency generally speaking, but shield use comes with its own hand things. I feel like medium should be an all around improvement over light, and heavy should be an improvement over medium. I'm not sure "disadvantage on stealth" is really in the same category as "+1 AC" to be balanced against it. I'm not sure "you don't need to invest in Dex" is also a "point" in favor of Medium armor, as investing in lower Dex still comes with its own penalties. So, where do you think Medium armor should be? Should medium armor always be +1 AC over light? Should heavy always be +1 AC over medium? Should "disadvantage on stealth" be worth +1 AC? Is 14 Dex too must to ask for medium armor wearers? [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Lets Talk about Medium Armor
Top