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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 2656082" data-attributes="member: 3146">It depends what you mean by "published book." The lorica segmentata (medium armor, +5 armor bonus, +4 max dex, 30' move rate) and Milandesian Cuirass (25' move rate, +6 armor, +3 max dex) from the Player's Guide to Arcanis are both good medium armors even if they are exotic (not being proficient just cranks the armor check penalty and reduces movement--it doesn't reduce the AC.In a normal game, however, tetsujin is right--medium armor (with the possible exception of the breastplate which is potentially a good armor for barbarians or rangers with <18 dex who care more about protection than movement (or who are dwarves)) is all about economics of scale. Before 3rd-4th level, however, it's also sometimes worth it for PCs as a matter of economics. When I'm creating 1st level characters, I will usually opt for scale mail rather than a chain shirt for a non-rogue. 50gp is the cost of 2 scrolls of cure light wounds. I will also often buy chain mail for a fighter. If he has any dex at all, it's as good as splint mail and since most fighters won't have an 18+ dex, it's also just as good as a breastplate. Chain shirts are for characters who want to wear them their entire careers.All that said, however, those various types of armor didn't all coexist simultaneously in the same areas of the real world, so a DM could take the armor table and use it as a worldbuilding tool. Fullplate is a special development of armorers in cities A and B (maybe Milan and Greenwich). The barbarians of the steppes don't have a reliable source of large quantities of metal so most of them wear hide armor and wield hafted weapons (clubs, spears, and axes rather than swords). In the desert region, the ONLY kinds of armor they make are chain shirts, and studded leather. PCs would probably import the best armor they could get from wherever it was manufactured, but that would make them stand out all the more. NPCs would be slightly weaker than usual due to non-optimized armor types, but in most cases, it would only be one or two points of AC and they could mold their class choices and tactics to the kind of armor they wear. (In this example, the desert warriors would probably be dervishes and fighter/rogues rather than fullplate tanks and the barbarians of the Steppes would be heavy duty damage traders--probably taking Shock Trooper and Combat Brute when they reached high enough level. (And if you're dumping a full power attack into your AC with Shock Trooper, the difference between fullplate and hide armor isn't worth mentioning anymore).</blockquote>

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