Why is armor less emphasized?

[Endur]

Armor has been de-emphasized in 3e. Platemail was the standard armor in AD&D, and now chain shirts are more popular than Platemail.

Magical Armor always came 2nd to magical weapons. Example: Arrows of Slaying and Vorpal Swords have been around since D&D began. No armor equivalent for either of those magical abilities.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Wearing a scabbard like that - did he even need the armor (except for appearances)? In a certain sense his scabbard *was* his armor.

"Not again, your majesty! That's the third time this week you've left the castle wearing naught but your scabbard to taunt the ruffians down at the tavern!"

Magical Armor always came 2nd to magical weapons. Example: Arrows of Slaying and Vorpal Swords have been around since D&D began. No armor equivalent for either of those magical abilities.

"Let me just put on this Vorpal Helmet, here and" *snicker-snack*
"Huh...apparently, vorpal helmets cut your head off, too."

 

[Nifft]

"Let me just put on this Vorpal Helmet, here and" *snicker-snack*
"Huh...apparently, vorpal helmets cut your head off, too."

Excellent. This item will be sold in the same store as the Head of Vecna.

Thanks, -- N

 

[Votan]

Excellent. This item will be sold in the same store as the Head of Vecna.

Thanks, -- N

Wow -- cool Knights of the Dinner Table reference. Bravo!

 

[Darklone]

Dietrich von Bern had first a magical helmet, then a magical sword. Magical armor came later... together with a new sword. Siegfried? Well he didn't need armor, he WAS armor.

It's all about the DM... I had more than one player who had a signature armor with special abilities rather than weapons.

 

[Kaodi]

I don't know what the rules in Races of Stone look like, but we could always devise our own feats and iconic armours.

Skin of Yzakaush

After slaying the seemingly impervious demon Yzakaush, the unnamed warrior fashioned the demons rigid hide into a suit of full plate that he donned before heading off to fight in the war plaguing his country. The demon's skin provided exceptionally good protection, but when the warrior had donned it, it fused itself to him, and he was unable to remove it. Furthermore, every night he was plagued by nightmares. Eventually, madness took over and he was slain while attacking a legion of warriors single-handedly.

The Skin of Yzakaush is a cursed suit of full plate armour. It functions as +5 full plate of fortification and invulnerability. Because it fuses itself to its wearer, it allows slightly better movement, having a max Dex bonus of +2 and an armour check penalty of -4. It is treated as medium armour for the purpose of sleeping in it, so someone possessing the Endurance feat would have no problem in this respect. Every night though, the wearer is affected by an effect identical to the nightmare spell, with the maximum -15 penalty (effective Will DC = 32). However, if the wearer manages to make the save for seven nights in a row (becoming immune to the spell does not count as a save), they will no longer be affected by nightmares.

 

[phindar]

AE has Exotic Armors. They require a feat to use (just Armor: Exotic, not per type), and they generally give you a higher armor bonus if you're not flat-footed. (The Definitive Harness is I think a +12 armor, but if you're flat-footed its the same as full plate, +8.) Articulated plate, articulated shields, things like that are included under the exotic armors.

 

[Endur]

Vorpal Helmet. That's funny. Not quite what I meant, but funny.

Actually, now that I think about it, we had intelligent armor and shields back in our variant AD&D game in the early 80s. But our game combined AD&D with Arduin Grimoire, Chivalry and Sorcery, Tunnels and Trolls, and Runequest, so it could hardly be called a typical AD&D game (although it might have been typical for those days).