D&D 5E Armor: damage reduction

[Skyscraper]

What would be the consequence of introducing the following additional rule concerning armor (that otherwise work as in the PHB):

Light armor: damage reduction 1 vs percing, slashing and bludgeonning weapons
Medium armor: damage reduction 2 vs percing, slashing and bludgeonning weapons; and all medium armor provides disadvantage on stealth checks
Heavy armor: damage reduction 3 vs percing, slashing and bludgeonning weapons; and all heavy armor reduces speed by 5'.

Some monsters having natural plating could have some measure of damage reduction vs percing, slashing and bludgeonning weapons also, from 1-3 depending on the type of plating.

******

Incidentally, Heavy Armor Master feat is replaced by the following:

- increase STR score by 1 (max 20)
- no 5 foot speed reduction for wearing heavy armor
- immunity to critical hits from percing, slashing and bludgeonning weapons

But this feat modification is secondary to the main question, above.

 

[The Human Target]

Everyone in armor would be a bit tougher.

Really tweaked out heavy armor guys might end up too tough.

Everyone in armor has to do an extra step of subtraction when they take damage which will slow things down a bit.

The damage reduction will get progressively less useful as you level up.

Probably be fine.

 

[Gadget]

As The Human Target said above: it may be really strong at low level (or against swarms of low level foes), but progressively irrelevant against higher level foes that do much higher damage. Is there a reason why heavy armor does not provide disadvantage on stealth checks as well?

This may be the first edition where such an armor-as-damage-resistance does scale better due to bounded accuracy making swarms of mooks more of a threat for a greater range of levels, so I'm not sure how much of an effect it will have on balance over the course of a campaign.

The ability of the feat to negate crits is incredibly useful at all levels though; maybe too good.

 

[Skyscraper]

Thanks for the responses up to now.

1) I should note that my intended campaign level will be 5-10, so while comments are welcome towards this potential houserule for all levels, I'm more interested in the effect in that level range.

2) I only mention what's different from the PHB. [MENTION=23716]Gadget[/MENTION]: heavy armor already provides disadvantage on stealth checks so I didn't repeat it here. I mention it for medium armor because it's not all medium armor that provides disadvantage on stealth checks per current rules.

3) [MENTION=23716]Gadget[/MENTION]: the ability of the new Heavy Armor Master feat to negate crits from bludgeonning, slashing, piercing attacks would replace the -3 damage reduction that is exclusive to this feat under the current rules. Do you believe that it is much stronger? I was looking for something of similar scope in power and thought it might be. What are your thoughts?

 

[pdegan2814]

I would probably include a caveat to limit the resistance or crit immunity to non-magical damage only. Of course, that likely makes it scale even worse.

How would the 5' speed reduction work for dwarves that don't currently get slowed by heavy armor even if they're below the Str requirement? Would they still be exempt?

 

[Skyscraper]

How would the 5' speed reduction work for dwarves that don't currently get slowed by heavy armor even if they're below the Str requirement? Would they still be exempt?

Relevant question. I'll let those that play in campaigns with dwarves answer the question

I've designed my own human subraces that are mechanically similar to those of the PHB, but where all have the same speed (except one race that is 5' faster), and next to none has darkvision because

major rant on a minor issue: everybody and his mother now has darkvision. It's nothing out of the ordinary to have darkvision. On the contrary, it's NOT having darkvision that essentially makes you a lesser being. Most monsters have them, and most PC races.

/rant

So now I don't have dwarves anymore. Nor halflings. Nor elves. Just different kinds of humans. I'm tired of the dwarf drinking ale and plugging jokes about the elf looking like a girl and so on. So predictable. Yawn. And most races don't have darkvision, only a few.

Incidentally, I can now have -5' on heavy armor and not worry about the interaction between that and the dwarf picking up my new heavy armor master feat

If I were to play in campaign that includes dwarves, I'd need to design the Heavy Armor Master house-feat differently I guess.

 

[Diamabel]

Planning on something similar- DR= 1/2 armour value vs pierce/slash/bludgeon. (I would include natural armour, monk WIS bonus to AC, and barbarian CON bonus to AC in this as well.)

Should help bring STR more in line with DEX.

 

[Skyscraper]

[MENTION=6788929]Diamabel[/MENTION]: yes, I've been considering the non-armor bonuses:

Monks: I'll give them a flat +1 AC, no damage reduction.

Barbarians: I'll allow them to re-roll 1-2 once on their d12 for hit points when they level up. This is a small compensation, but then again barbarians do have the choice to don light or medium armor.

Natural armor and Spells: It's likely that I would award damage reduction according to armor-equivalent bonuses:
11-13 = light armor equivalent, so DR = 1
13-15 = medium armor equivalent, so DR = 2
16+ = heavy armor equivalent, so DR = 3

I'll leave some space for subjective adjudication here, depending on the type of creature.

I'd have to rule from the outset for Barkskin (AC 16) and mage armor (AC 13) so they'd probably be -3 and -2 respectively.

Or, maybe the spells and natural armor creatures don't get damage reduction. Because, the creature made from rock doesn't have a distinct armor, it's its skin that is chipped when you hit the hard stuff. Hmmm. Dunno. This would make PCs and armor-wearing NPCs tougher than non-armor wearing monsters. Do I want this?

 

[jgsugden]

If you want DR for armor, I suggest using a different system rather than rewriting this one. It just isn't designed for it.

 

[hejtmane]

Relevant question. I'll let those that play in campaigns with dwarves answer the question

I've designed my own human subraces that are mechanically similar to those of the PHB, but where all have the same speed (except one race that is 5' faster), and next to none has darkvision because

major rant on a minor issue: everybody and his mother now has darkvision. It's nothing out of the ordinary to have darkvision. On the contrary, it's NOT having darkvision that essentially makes you a lesser being. Most monsters have them, and most PC races.

/rant

So now I don't have dwarves anymore. Nor halflings. Nor elves. Just different kinds of humans. I'm tired of the dwarf drinking ale and plugging jokes about the elf looking like a girl and so on. So predictable. Yawn. And most races don't have darkvision, only a few.

Incidentally, I can now have -5' on heavy armor and not worry about the interaction between that and the dwarf picking up my new heavy armor master feat

If I were to play in campaign that includes dwarves, I'd need to design the Heavy Armor Master house-feat differently I guess.

Funny right now in my group 1/2 the players do not have night vision Goliath and two different Gensai