Minor armor changes.

[comrade raoul]

I'd like to make a few changes to armor.

- Openly ripping off Korimyr the Rat's house rule, no character begins play with proficiency in heavy armor (that is, clerics, fighters, and paladins lose their initial proficiency). As with Korimyr's rule, fighters gain an additional bonus feat at 3rd level, and paladins gain free heavy armor proficiency at 5th level.
- Heavy armor provides a stackable DR of 1/- when worn.
- The armor bonus of chainmail is increased to +6.
- The maximum Dexterity bonuses of splint mail, banded mail, and half-plate are each increased by +1 (thus, the new maximum Dex bonuses are +1 for splint mail, +2 for banded mail, and +1 for half plate).
- Two new especially powerful types of armor are added (in a blatant theft from Arcana Unearthed). Dragonscale armor is medium armor; it has an armor bonus of +7, a maximum Dexterity bonus of +4, an armor check penalty of -3, a spell failure chance of 20%, and a cost of 4,000 gold pieces.
- Greater plate is "very heavy" armor (see below); it has an armor bonus of +10, a maximum Dexterity bonus of +0, an armor check penalty of -9, a spell failure chance of 50%, and a cost of 3,000 gold pieces.
Because greater plate is so heavy and difficult to move in, it counts as having its own weight category, "very heavy." Very heavy armor functions as heavy armor, with the following exceptions: characters wearing very heavy armor can't charge or run at all, and proficiency in very heavy armor requires Strength and Constitution scores of at least 15 in addition to the normal heavy armor proficiency. If greater plate (or some other hypothetical very heavy armor) is made out of mithril (or if it is otherwise treater than lighter than normal), it is treated as ordinary heavy armor.

 

[comrade raoul]

The nice thing about this system is that I think it balances armors pretty effectively: you get a very clear, progressive tradeoff of cost and mobility for protection. Consider the ideal light, medium, and heavy armors, including mithril as a possibility:

Light armor
- Mithril chain shirt: Armor bonus +4, max Dex +6, armor check 0, spell failure 10%. Cost 1,100 gp.
- Mithril chainmail: Armor bonus +6, max Dex +4, armor check -2, spell failure 20%. Cost 4,150 gp.
- Mithril breastplate: Armor bonus +5, max Dex +5, armor check -1, spell failure 15%. Cost 4,200 gp.

Medium armor
- Masterwork dragonscale armor: Armor bonus +7, max Dex +4, armor check -2, spell failure 20%. Cost 4,300 gp.
- Mithril full plate: Armor bonus +8, max Dex +3, armor check -3, spell failure 25%, DR 1/-. Cost 10,500 gp.

Heavy armor
- Mithril greater plate: Armor bonus +10, max Dex +2, armor check -6, spell failure 40%, DR 1/-. Cost 12,000 gp.

Note that now, the best light armor gives a combined armor and Dexterity AC bonus (assuming optimal Dex) of +10, medium armor has a combined bonus of +11, and heavy armor has a combined bonus of +12 -- even at high levels, you trade mobility for defense. Within those values, there are significant price differences depending on the amount of Dexterity required for optimal protection, and (for medium armor), for the additional possibility of DR. The result is that high-level armor choices should be more interesting than under the standard rules.

 

[Phaedrus]

How much does Greater Plate weigh?

And are you saying it takes a feat to be able to wear it?

 

[comrade raoul]

Sorry to be confusing: let me clear things up.

Dragonscale armor weighs 25 pounds, and greater plate weighs 80 pounds. Don't worry if the latter number is unrealistic, which it probably is -- greater plate is meant to be classic fantasy armor and is more concerned with flavor and balance than with realism.

You don't need to spend an additional feat to wear greater plate proficiently. Anyone who has Str and Con of at least 15 and is proficient in heavy armor is also proficient in greater plate. It's basically heavy armor, but it's also so heavy that you need a lot of strength and stamina in order to move around effectively in it for any length of time.

 

[Technik4]

I did some work on reworking armors a while ago. I like adding AC to Chainmail, but I'd say you would have to switch prices for Chainmail and Breastplate if you did. My version also added DR 1/- to all heavy armors and had generally reduced dex modifiers, especially for medium armors (making it a more attractive class of armor instead of just seeing Mithril Chain Shirt and Mithril Full Plate). I never got a chance to playtest it, but it was a fun little project.

Technik

 

[Spyritwind]

Interesting. I thought medium armors got hosed and are pretty much useless. Very few characters actualy use it. I also bumped up chainmail, but I went a head and bumped breat plate also. I then added two medium armors at the plus five AC mark and bumped all heavy armor up one. So in short ... all armor with an AC bonus of plus five or greater add one AC and I added two armors with plus five AC.