Medium Armor: Why?

[Empirate]

Take a look at Pathfinder. They really thought about armor types for that system overhaul, and the result is at least a bit better than 3.5:

Padded (5 gp): +1 / +8 / 0 / 5%
Leather (10 gp): +2 / +6 / 0 / 10%
Studded Leather (25 gp): +3 / +5 / -1 / 15%
Chain Shirt (100 gp): +4 / +4 / -2 / 20%

Hide (15 gp): +4 / +4 / -3 / 20%
Scale Mail (50 gp): +5 / +3 / -4 / 25%
Chainmail (150 gp): +6 / +2 / -5 / 30%
Breastplate (200 gp): +6 / +3 / -4 / 25%

Splint Mail (200 gp): +7 / 0 / -7 / 40%
Banded Mail (250 gp): +7 / +1 / -6 / 35%
Half Plate (600 gp): +8 / 0 / -7 / 40%
Full Plate (1,500 gp): +9 / +1 / -6 / 35%


The improvement seems to be more or less linear, so you will probably find the armor to fit your Dex mod. Non-Full Plate heavy armor is viable now (especially on a budget), and the medium armor types have received a buff as well, while light armor stays more or less as is.

 

[domino]

Because without medium armor, mithral full plate would be light armor.

 

[Summer-Knight925]

if you have unearthed arcana, the Armor as DR makes more sense

it grants a small bonus to your actual armor class and grants damage reduction, what I didn't like about that system is it was DR for all types when in reality spears and arrows go through chainmail easily...in the system I'm making armor is DR to certain types of weapons, bludgeoning overcomes most types meaning a mace can be better than a longsword...yay for maces!

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Take a look at Pathfinder. They really thought about armor types for that system overhaul, and the result is at least a bit better than 3.5:

Padded (5 gp): +1 / +8 / 0 / 5%
Leather (10 gp): +2 / +6 / 0 / 10%
Studded Leather (25 gp): +3 / +5 / -1 / 15%
Chain Shirt (100 gp): +4 / +4 / -2 / 20%

Hide (15 gp): +4 / +4 / -3 / 20%
Scale Mail (50 gp): +5 / +3 / -4 / 25%
Chainmail (150 gp): +6 / +2 / -5 / 30%
Breastplate (200 gp): +6 / +3 / -4 / 25%

Splint Mail (200 gp): +7 / 0 / -7 / 40%
Banded Mail (250 gp): +7 / +1 / -6 / 35%
Half Plate (600 gp): +8 / 0 / -7 / 40%
Full Plate (1,500 gp): +9 / +1 / -6 / 35%


The improvement seems to be more or less linear, so you will probably find the armor to fit your Dex mod. Non-Full Plate heavy armor is viable now (especially on a budget), and the medium armor types have received a buff as well, while light armor stays more or less as is.

Mostly like that, though I would've preferred they hadn't buffed full plate. At 8/1 it was already the best armor for anyoe without crazy dex. Alternatively, if they wanted to increase AC values across the board, boost all the heavy and medium armors another +1 and give the light armors higher max dex. Or something.

 

[Empirate]

I see you point, and feel much the same about Full Plate. I think they wanted to keep Full Plate as being really, really prestigious and special. It's so costly you could almost get a nice magic item for the price - one of very few mundane items in that regard. So they wanted to make it extra nice, I guess.


Concerning another point made above: Chainmail is actually quite good against spears and arrows. There are accounts in the medieval source texts that state crusader knights had "their mail stuck full of arrows like a hedgehog, but were in fact barely wounded underneath. Their sight filled the heathens with awe, for they knew not such armor", or some such.
Flexible armor that is well made (chain or scale mail) can work much like kevlar, dispersing the force of impact over a wider area. So being shot at with an arrow wearing chainmail might feel more like being whacked with a rubber hammer - IF the arrow is shot at range. At short distances, arrows and crossbow bolts could penetrate all medieval armor except plate.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

One help would be to have Medium Armors not reduce your speed.

Then bump Chain Mail up to AC +6, bump price to 300gp (it was a little sad that 3.x gave us so few D&D PCs wearing Chain Mail.)

I might even go with dropping the Banded and Splint Mail prices a sliver more.

 

[Dandu]

I feel that there is something ''wrong''...some classes, like rogues have abilities, like evasion that work only in light armor. At the same time, most rogues will have a +4 DEX most of the time. This means that they are ''punished'' by this change, since there is no +4 +4 light armor here...

Actually...

 

[anest1s]

Actually...

Why. Where was this one hidden all this time.

Still, I didn't mean that there are no options, just that there aren't any without using magic or mithril

Thanks for pointing out that armor though >.>

 

[domino]

And depending on how you can argue it, you can make celestial mithril armor. Which is a little silly, but awesome if you can get it.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Actually...

My holy liberator's follower—a bralani eladrin archer (with Dex gloves)—just loooooooves that.