D&D (2024) Armor, simplified for 5.5E:

[gorice]

in 5E there is no real choice

you have studded leather for light.

you aim for halfplate with medium or if your REALLY aim for stealth it will be breastplate, but that will be aimed towards mithral halfplate.

and you have full-plate for heavy. or if you're lucky mithral or adamantium version of it.


same as in 3.5e;
there was 3 basic armors only: chainshirt, breastplate, full-plate.

I wouldn't say 'no choice' exactly, since the better options are expensive, and some characters, like melee rangers, might want both protection and stealth, but I take your point.

 

[Gorck]

I wouldn't say 'no choice' exactly, since the better options are expensive, and some characters, like melee rangers, might want both protection and stealth, but I take your point.

And some groups play with the encumbrance rules as well. You might want that heavier armor, but you might not have the Strength to endure wearing it (outside of the listed Strength requirements for the last 3 armors on the table).

 

[tetrasodium]

And some groups play with the encumbrance rules as well. You might want that heavier armor, but you might not have the Strength to endure wearing it (outside of the listed Strength requirements for the last 3 armors on the table).

Really & truly the 5e encumbrance rules are designed to ensure that they never have an impact on a PC & the system is made with a built in "My PC PC rejects your rules change" player choice veto option called "powerful build" if the gm puts in place rules that might make encumbrance matter.

 

[tetrasodium]

in 5E there is no real choice

you have studded leather for light.

you aim for halfplate with medium or if your REALLY aim for stealth it will be breastplate, but that will be aimed towards mithral halfplate.

and you have full-plate for heavy. or if you're lucky mithral or adamantium version of it.


same as in 3.5e;
there was 3 basic armors only: chainshirt, breastplate, full-plate.

With acp & asf the others were for various forms of gish in 3.5. Since it wasn't uncommon for a pc to get asf reduction from a combination of feats with a big drop & levels in a PrC that gave smaller per level reductions those other forms of armor did get used by some builds

 

[Yaarel]

If there are eight abilities:

Strength/Constitution
Dexterity/Athletics
Intelligence/Perception
Charisma/Wisdom

Then Athletics handles all mobility checks and gets the "dodging" AC bonus (not Dexterity).

This makes all of the ability scores roughly equally useful.

 

[Bladesinger]

Honestly, if I was going to 'simplify' armor, it would just be to flavor text. Thus -

Light Armor - 12+Dex, 15 G.P.
Medium Armor - 14+Dex (max +2), Disadvantage on Stealth, STR 13 min., 50 G.P.
Heavy Armor - 17 AC, Disadvantage on Stealth, STR 15 min., 400 G.P.

This way you stay within bounded accuracy, and you can just describe what type of armor you are wearing to fit you charactor's flavor. Maybe even add Plate back in at its 'normal' stats for that super-heavy choice if you want it.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Honestly, if I was going to 'simplify' armor, it would just be to flavor text. Thus -

Light Armor - 12+Dex, 15 G.P.
Medium Armor - 14+Dex (max +2), Disadvantage on Stealth, STR 13 min., 50 G.P.
Heavy Armor - 17 AC, Disadvantage on Stealth, STR 15 min., 400 G.P.

This way you stay within bounded accuracy, and you can just describe what type of armor you are wearing to fit you charactor's flavor. Maybe even add Plate back in at its 'normal' stats for that super-heavy choice if you want it.

I would totally go for this. Fighters can start with medium armor.

Now to do the same for weapons…

 

[Lojaan]

Honestly, if I was going to 'simplify' armor, it would just be to flavor text. Thus -

Light Armor - 12+Dex, 15 G.P.
Medium Armor - 14+Dex (max +2), Disadvantage on Stealth, STR 13 min., 50 G.P.
Heavy Armor - 17 AC, Disadvantage on Stealth, STR 15 min., 400 G.P.

This way you stay within bounded accuracy, and you can just describe what type of armor you are wearing to fit you charactor's flavor. Maybe even add Plate back in at its 'normal' stats for that super-heavy choice if you want it.

Love it

 

[Bill Zebub]

Love it

As with the parallel thread on scimitars, I don’t need the rules, and especially equipment lists, to tell me what to imagine. My imagination is bigger than any possible such list.

 

[Mistwell]

in 5E there is no real choice

you have studded leather for light.

you aim for halfplate with medium or if your REALLY aim for stealth it will be breastplate, but that will be aimed towards mithral halfplate.

and you have full-plate for heavy. or if you're lucky mithral or adamantium version of it.


same as in 3.5e;
there was 3 basic armors only: chainshirt, breastplate, full-plate.

It's taken me to level 7 to be able to afford half-plate and full plate would have taken likely another level.