D&D 4E 4e Expanded Armor Tables/Types/Varieties

[jeff0]

The gist of the idea here seems reasonable. Though to make the choice of armor more interesting, I would increase the number of parameters. Speed modifiers are considerably more punishing than skill penalties, so mixing those up a bit more would be interesting. Perhaps perception and attack penalties would work too.

Also, make sure to balance the armor types against obvious class builds. Rugged clothing would be a no-brainer for most wizards (with under 26 Int), and gives a +2 AC boost for practically no cost.

I think people are more inclined to care about weapons than armor. It would seem lame to me if a greataxe and greatsword were the same mechanically, but I'm just fine with putting hide armor on my character while describing it as studded leather or brigandine. I can sympathize though, as I recently posted what I thought was an awesome house rule, and received near-zero feedback.

 

[Terwox]

You need to remove heavy shields to stop paladins, and fighters with the feat, from having too much AC at first level.

If you're going to provide an armor alternative that includes more options, you also need to have it mimic the system of the game more cleanly. Per your 2nd note, having people at 30th level who are 6-8 points above normal AC is an unplayable system change.

If you change the math to reflect the system, possibly allowing some feats to move ACs 1 or 2 above current maximums given a feat expenditure, you might get some more responses and play out of this.