D&D 5E Any One Have Variant Armor Rules?

[Zardnaar]

Medium armour is really only good for those classes with nothing better and that are not MAD with the default array. .

This basically means Barbarian.

For things like clerics you want a 14 dex but you would also want a decent strength score, con score and wisdom score.

 

[CapnZapp]

I think it is far-fetched to assume that most groups aren't ever playing any characters that don't have at least one of a 15+ Strength or 18+ Dexterity, which is what is required for the scenario of heavy armor having no penalties and anyone not wearing heavy armor being better off with light armor rather than medium.

I do too, that's why I offered an explanation to describe most characters, not all characters.

You said "To me it seems more that people are operating under the assumption that a score will either be at it's maximum possible value, or it will be 10 or less"

I offered the explanation that basically amounts to "yep, that sounds about right to me, D&D is the kind of game where you'd generally want to max or dump a stat".

My experience is that it isn't at all far-fetched to assume most groups are playing characters that either have 15+ Strength or 18+ Dexterity (assuming they care for armor at all, of course) or plan on getting there as they level up.

Meaning you can well see characters in medium armor, but mostly only as a stop-gap measure, except possibly for the few character classes that are built around that kind of armor (barbarians come to mind).

I guess this boils down to a difference of degree, and anyway, it's beside the issue. The complaint is that medium armor is caught halfway between two maxima, rather than being its own maximum.

Bickering about whether no, few, some, many, most or all characters use medium armor doesn't resolve this issue - only a rules change that adds a third score to optimize against will do that.

 

[Satyrn]

My experience is that it isn't at all far-fetched to assume most groups are playing characters that either have 15+ Strength or 18+ Dexterity (assuming they care for armor at all, of course) or plan on getting there as they level up.

Meaning you can well see characters in medium armor, but mostly only as a stop-gap measure, except possibly for the few character classes that are built around that kind of armor (barbarians come to mind).

I've described a little bit of my experience in this thread. It doesn't mesh with yours.

 

[CapnZapp]

I've described a little bit of my experience in this thread. It doesn't mesh with yours.

I am discussing in the context of the OPs complaint.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I do too, that's why I offered an explanation to describe most characters, not all characters.

I don't think you are correct about most characters - as in the majority of characters the entire player-base has experienced collectively - fitting to your expectations. And I know for sure that I wasn't talking about "all characters", since I said "most groups" rather than "all groups".

Meaning you can well see characters in medium armor, but mostly only as a stop-gap measure, except possibly for the few character classes that are built around that kind of armor (barbarians come to mind).

Your experience must differ from mine in the extreme, as I have already mentioned my own character who wears medium armor - and it isn't a "stop-gap measure", it's legitimately the best choice for AC given the character's other stats and the campaign specifics - and that barbarians are a class built around not wearing armor at all, so definitely didn't come to mind for me when you said "classes that are built around that kind of armor."

The complaint is that medium armor is caught halfway between two maxima, rather than being its own maximum.

If that is the complaint, it isn't one that I find to make any sense. It's insisting upon optimizing a singular portion of the character over optimizing the character as a whole - and seems likely to include insisting upon optimizing to a specific campaign style whether that is the style of campaign being run or not.

Bickering about whether no, few, some, many, most or all characters use medium armor doesn't resolve this issue - only a rules change that adds a third score to optimize against will do that.

Rules change isn't the only possible solution. It isn't a likely solution, I admit, but a change of perspective - which could be gained by this "bickering" (which is not how I characterized things prior to you choosing to use that negatively-charged word, I believed what was going on was simply a discussion) about when medium armor is or isn't actually already a mighty fine, even optimal, choice.

 

[S'mon]

I see a lot of medium armour IMCs, and DEX 14 seems very common. My own 5e campaigns and the several 5e campaigns I've played in (in London) all used point buy or default array BTW. IME rolling works well in Classic D&D but badly with the 3e/4e/5e attribute bonus system; it creates wild variation in character power. Last time I used it was in a Pathfinder campaign a few years back.

Mind you, a lot of characters IMCs are Barbarians, who either wear medium armour or max out CON for Unarmoured Defence.

I do have a bit of an issue with the 5e 'bad' armours like padded and hide (and even leather), these could just as well have been left off the table I think, much as 4e had a reduced number of armour types. And after watching a bunch of historical armour Youtube videos they tend to bug me a bit. I'd have been fine with just 3
or 4 armour types.

 

[Bitbrain]

Reply to the opening post.

Well, it's campaign specific, but in the secondary campaign my group is currently playing, medium armor grants an extra +1 to AC, and heavy armor doesn't exist at all.

 

[CapnZapp]

Your experience must differ from mine in the extreme, as I have already mentioned my own character who wears medium armor - and it isn't a "stop-gap measure", it's legitimately the best choice for AC given the character's other stats and the campaign specifics - and that barbarians are a class built around not wearing armor at all, so definitely didn't come to mind for me when you said "classes that are built around that kind of armor."

Barbarian is the class built for medium armor, so I no problem whatsoever understanding and accepting your experience.

Where we seem to differ is in what conclusions we draw from that: you appear to think that if you can wear medium armor with the Barbarian class, you might do it with other classes as well.

While to me Barbarian is sort of an exception to the rule*, and that "rule" is what the OP was complaining about.


*) Barbarian is a strength class that does not hand out or work with heavy proficiency. Thus medium. Simple as that.

(The unarmored defense feature can best that, but not for many levels and for many Barbs not at all. Don't look at the class as being built around not wearing armor at all, the feature is far to peripheral for that.)

 

[Zardnaar]

Barbarian is the class built for medium armor, so I no problem whatsoever understanding and accepting your experience.

Where we seem to differ is in what conclusions we draw from that: you appear to think that if you can wear medium armor with the Barbarian class, you might do it with other classes as well.

While to me Barbarian is sort of an exception to the rule*, and that "rule" is what the OP was complaining about.


*) Barbarian is a strength class that does not hand out or work with heavy proficiency. Thus medium. Simple as that.

(The unarmored defense feature can best that, but not for many levels and for many Barbs not at all. Don't look at the class as being built around not wearing armor at all, the feature is far to peripheral for that.)

See my post at the top of the page.

Barbarians about the only class that can effectively use medium armor. Other classes with 4d6 might fare better.

You are limited to dexterity+ 2 so 16 or higher is wasted for AC and if you want to have attacks you would want a decent strength or dexterity score. If you are dex based 16 dex is kind of wasted without a feat and if you want a high strength you need 4 good scores

Might not be to bad for some clerics who are not really needed to make physical attacks like the light cleric but a death cleric might have some issues as one of your major features is making physical attacks then you will have issues over wanting to have decent stats in con, strength, dexterity, and wisdom for a melee character.

 

[CapnZapp]

See my post at the top of the page.

I believe I don't need to since my perception is that I'm supporting your position