. . . while you're at it. . . Fix heavy armor!

[HP Dreadnought]

For the entire duration on 3.x, heavy armor has been the neglected stepchild of the combat system. Its always inadequate compared to the other kids, and gets no revisionist love!

Please. . . for the love of god(!!) make it worthwhile to wear heavy armor, even at high levels!!!! That means seriously ramping up the protective capabilities of heavy armor and/or decreasing the protective capabilities of other magic items.

Don't let heavy armor suffer in silence and shame any longer!

 

[RigaMortus2]

I think what they really need is to encourage the use of heavy armor for those that normally use it. The biggest penalties are Armor Check and Movement. I would have Fighter abilities/talents/etc that take advantage of this, reduce the Armor Check penalty and reduce the speed penalty for that class.

 

[TerraDave]

Heavy armor??

Is this a humor thread? What about medium armor?

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Is this a humor thread? What about medium armor?

You mean breastplates?

Or mithril full plate?

 

[Cadfan]

Just deleting the Gloves of Dexterity in 3e basically fixes heavy armor.

Dex 12 + Platemail = 19 AC
Dex 16 + Breastplate = 18 AC
Dex 18 + Chain Shirt = 18 AC
Dex 22 + Leather = 18 AC
Dex 24 + Padded = 19 AC.

Without magical dexterity enhancement, its tough to get a dexterity that high. Most people will be running about a 14, which means they'll be sitting at about 17 AC in medium armor, or 16 AC in light. +3 AC is a noticeable difference, and worth it.

So I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just pointing out that fixing this problem may be a lot easier than it seems.

 

[WyzardWhately]

SAGA had a whole talent chain that made armor awesome-er. Also, Mearls' earlier work (Iron Heroes) had the Armiger class. I'd say there's a really good chance of the heavy armor getting some love.

 

[TerraDave]

You mean breastplates?

Or mithril full plate?

or is it mithril breastplate?

But seriously, it seems to be nothing, some kinda chain shirt, or, if you are cleric that can do everything a cleric can and does not care about mobility or skill checks, full plate.

Maybe they should just fix armor.

 

[Jedi_Solo]

You mean breastplates?

Or mithril full plate?

For my group it's the Breastplate style of Medium Armor. Heavy Armor gets used all the time.

Medium Armor tends to lowers your land speed the same amount as Heavy Armor. Multiple classes lose abilities when they wear Medium Armor; Bard, Ranger (I could have sworn Barbarian did as well but apparently not - did they lose Fast Movement in Medium Armor in 3.0?) and likely multiple others not in the SRD.

 

[Celebrim]

Given that heavy armor tends to be associated with mounted warfare on open fields rather than tomb raiding, exploring caves, trekking in the jungle or doing any of the other things that adventurers tend to do, I'm not sure that it isn't reasonable that the penalties associated with heavy armor outweigh the benefits most of the time.

What exactly do you want to see? What's your ideal end state?

 

[Aloïsius]

Given that heavy armor tends to be associated with mounted warfare on open fields rather than tomb raiding, exploring caves, trekking in the jungle or doing any of the other things that adventurers tend to do, I'm not sure that it isn't reasonable that the penalties associated with heavy armor outweigh the benefits most of the time.

Ditto.
I think heavy armor should be useless in adventuring setting, but a life-saver in battle.

Heavy armor as DR would do the trick, if you consider that each minute/rounds on the front line in a battlefield cause xD6 damage because of the chaotic nature of such a melee.