D&D 5E Armor in D&DNext

[variant]

I think it would be studded leather of the two that wouldn't be around if we want to go for historical accuracy for armor. Here is a list of different armors.

 

[Valetudo]

When i said class, I meant lt med and hev.

 

[variant]

I think the medium category is just there to force people to take two feats to get the benefit from heavy armor which is suppose to be superior to light armor.

 

[Valetudo]

Maybe or a middle ground for classes like the cleric. But one thing i noticed in 4th ed. was that clerics in lt and with a dex bonus were more effective than any in med or hev.

 

[variant]

As far as I am concerned, I would just have them remove the medium category, place scale and splint in the heavy category and place ringmail in the light category. They can add padded to the light category. I am not sure if dragon scale should be in a mundane armor list.

Just don't make it easy for a class trained in light armor to simply move up to heavy armor via a feat.

 

[WSmith]

I think all armor should provide 100% of the Dex bonus and no movement penalty. I don't see a good reason why it shouldn't.

I have to agree. I am not one of these guys that get crazy for historical accuracy, but I did see a documentary about knights fighting in full armor. The way armor was crafted, it did not slow them down at all. Granted, they needed assistance getting on the mount and such, but either fighting from horse back or on foot, the fought just as agile as the unarmored fighter.

Now, someone earlier mentioned the endurance factor. That might be true and I don't remember if that was mentioned. Not sure if I care about that in a fantasy RPG. If the rule was simple, I would go for it.

So, I would be fine if all armors allowed all of the DEX modifier. I would also say that heavier should not take away from the movement allowance just because of its type. BUT, I would be alright if the weight added to the encumbrance and based on encumbrance, speed was slowed.

 

[ArmoredSaint]

Pretty awesome possiblity isn't it? A lucky Rogue having rolled exceptional stats will finally live up to it's source material.

Actually, it is most emphatically not an awesome possibility. I'm still very firmly of the opinion that Fighters should have the highest AC (as the developers' articles and columns have stated), and that that high AC should be achieved primarily through wearing heavy armour.

Usually they will, but not necessarily, and that mimics reality quite a bit better than your desires, I think.

I disagree. Reality would seem to argue that people fought in the best armour they could afford.

 

[Fifth Element]

I think all armor should provide 100% of the Dex bonus and no movement penalty. I don't see a good reason why it shouldn't.

Because knights in shining armour are not the only archetype for a fighter?

Put another way, why doesn't Conan wear full plate?

 

[Fifth Element]

I disagree. Reality would seem to argue that people fought in the best armour they could afford.

"Best" is not a synonym for "heaviest".

 

[ArmoredSaint]

Put another way, why doesn't Conan wear full plate?

Why do you think that Conan doesn't wear full plate?

How many of the original Robert E. Howard Conan stories have you read? He wears heavy armour, including full plate, in an awful lot of them----Queen of the Black Coast, Black Colossus, The Scarlet Citadel, and The Hour of the Dragon, just to name a few. In a good many of the remaining ones, he wears at least a mail shirt.

In fact, Conan even enters our literary history clad in plate--the very first Conan story, The Phoenix on the Sword, features a King Conan fighting off some assassins while partially armed in what is described as "elaborate" Aquilonian plate armour.

"Best" is not a synonym for "heaviest".

Since the poster to whom I was responding specified reality (by which, I gather he means historical reality), the best armour (at least in terms of protection afforded to the wearer) did indeed tend to be the heaviest.