D&D General The diminishing effectiveness of armour across the editions

[Neonchameleon]

It's just struck me how much less effective armour and especially plate armour has got since WotC bought out TSR.

• In AD&D field plate is AC2 (and full plate is AC1). A basic orc has a THAC0 of 19 and so needs a 17 to hit field plate, doing 1d8 damage per attack vs a rolled 1d10 hp for a fighter.
• In 3.0/3.5 plate armour is AC+8 for AC 18. A basic orc is listed as having a +4 to attack, needing 14s, and doing 2d4+4 damage vs 10+con hp.
• In 4e with the extra starting hp and orcs being slightly higher level the situation isn't comparable. But plate armour is still pretty useless; AC 18 and a first level monster is at +6 to hit.
• In 5e our plate armour is still AC 18 (and with no dex possible) but our orc is now +5 to hit, needing 13s, doing 1d12+3 damage vs 10+con hp.

In AD&D and 3.X you could get some dex bonus to add to this. In 4e and 5e you can't. AD&D shields were +1 and WotC shields +2. Despite being comparatively rarely used together except with lances you want a shield with plate.

The situation is even more interesting with the humble kobold and its damage.

• The AD&D kobold has a THAC0 of 20 (one worse than the orc) and does 1-4 or 1-6 damage depending on weapon. A hail of slingstones need a few lucky hits to take down a fighter in plate and with a shield as they need 19s to hit.
• 3.X kobolds are +1 to hit (needing 19s on a shielded fighter) and do 1d6-1 damage with spears or +3 to hit and do 1d3-1 damage with slings. A fighter can tank both for quite a long time. The kobolds can hit with the slings of outrageous numbers, but the damage is puny.
• 4e kobolds again are non-comparable, especially as 4e separates the actual fighters from the miners (and makes kobold miners minions).
• 5e kobolds are +4 to hit at melee and range (needing 16s to hit our plate armour and shield fighter) and do 1d4+2 damage. That's gonna leave a mark, especially as they get advantage when mass-ganking someone. And it also means that whereas in both 3.5 and 5e you wanted to rush the shooters to force them into melee it won't do a lot here.

So why does WotC D&D have almost no respect for armour at all? I've two theories - the first is that a whiff-fest is boring and annoying, and the second is that it was a bug accidentally introduced in 3.0 when they moved monsters to effectively using PC rules. But I'm really not sure.

 

[Derren]

1. Because since 3E there is no place in D&D anymore for non combat classes. Everyone must be good at combat, thus not wearing heavy armor must be competitive. Which also means heavy armor can't be too good anymore to not skew balance

2. Today the knight in shining armor is even less cool than it was in 2E times. Now the cool guy is the gruff swashbuckler antihero thus he must be good and the boring knight can't be better than him (or at least only a tiny bit).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

So why does WotC D&D have almost no respect for armour at all? I've two theories - the first is that a whiff-fest is boring and annoying,

This is certainly true and a major motivation in 5e design.

and the second is that it was a bug accidentally introduced in 3.0 when they moved monsters to effectively using PC rules. But I'm really not sure.

I don't know about accidently. In 1st, 2nd, and 3rd editions it was very easy to arrive at a situation where AC was meaningless, either because almost all attacks hit, or almost all attacks miss.

There is also the influence of media - in most modern fantasy movies and TV (LotR, GoT, Witcher etc) heroes are rarely seen wearing heavy armour, and almost never helmets.

 

[prabe]

I think you're introducing some error by comparing first-level characters across the board. At least in 3.x and 5E I wouldn't expect to see a first-level character in full plate; it's been a while (and I don't have my books handy), but it seems unlikely in 1E and 2E, as well. By the time you get to a place where full plate is plausible in 3.x or 5E, you're looking at the increased hit points starting to come into play, which at least some people think of as modeling some amount of defense. In 5E, particularly, the attack bonuses of enemies don't increase all that quickly, so someone with full plate and a shield can be very difficult to hit regularly, even around 12th level.

 

[Charlaquin]

I think your guess that a whiff fest is boring is mostly accurate. D&D has gradually shifted more and more towards survivability being a factor of HP and damage than of accuracy, because a combat where many blows are exchanged is more exciting than one where very few are, and because it’s easier to make the attrition model of difficulty work with larger pools of HP.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

2. Today the knight in shining armor is even less cool than it was in 2E times.

It's not just a matter of "coolness". Authentic full plate is still as Lamborghini expensive as it was in ye olden days, and in modern Ultra HD fake looks faker than ever.

But the Mandalorian manages to rock armour and a helmet so maybe fashions are changing...

 

[Derren]

It's not just a matter of "coolness". Authentic full plate is still as Lamborghini expensive as it was in ye olden days, and in modern Ultra HD fake looks faker than ever.

But the Mandalorian manages to rock armour and a helmet so maybe fashions are changing...

In the real world, but in D&D where the PCs regularly haul more wealth out of some ruins than a village makes in a year full plate has always been very cheap.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

In the real world, but in D&D where the PCs regularly haul more wealth out of some ruins than a village makes in a year full plate has always been very cheap.

I'm referring to the cost of making movies and TV shows featuring characters in full plate, which is the real world.

 

[Derren]

I'm referring to the cost of making movies and TV shows featuring characters in full plate, which is the real world.

Thanks to mass production its not more expensive than any other props. Or do you think on TV they are wearing real armor?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Thanks to mass production its not more expensive than any other props.

It is you know. You can't mass produce HD realistic full plate.