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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Doctor Proctor" data-source="post: 5679095" data-attributes="member: 78547">Pretty much... The time one of my DM's didn't let my STR/CON Fighter sleep in heavy armor, we got ambushed. I had to blow my turn using a Standard to put on my shield just to get above an 11 AC! Even then, I was still 6 or so points of AC below the lowest party member (Our Staff Wizard with magic Leather armor), which meant I couldn't mark anything (since then it would get even worse) and basically just cowered in the back.  All rules like this do is punish the heavy AC users, with nothing to balance it out. We already get check and speed penalties, can't hold items in the off-hand (if using a Heavy Shield), and light armor users can still usually match or better our AC without too much trouble. And then you're going to add yet another penalty on top of that???  It's enough to basically invalidate certain class choices, like Paladin. At least with a Fighter you can go high DEX and use Hide armor, but with a Pally you'd be gimping the class by tossing an 18 into DEX. It also practically invalidates certain racial/class combinations, like the iconic Dwarf Fighter, or Dragonborn. Also, good luck getting a Warlord, Ardent or Battle Cleric. They already have much lower AC than other frontline combatants, and now there's a risk that they could be completely in the basement? The only real potential solution past the early levels is for every heavy armor user to use Summoned Armor, which basically means carrying around two suits of magic armor, or just never getting to use any of the neat magical heavy armors. And all of this in a vain attempt to bring vermisilitude, when many people who have actually worn the armor have said that there's no problems when you sleep in it? This is one holdover from 3e that I can't wait to see go away. (Oh, and I'm speaking from experience when I say that these rules tend to invalidate certain class choices or race/class combinations. When that same DM ran a one-off just to break things up, most of us just created Paragon versions of our characters to see what they would be like in 10 levels. Not me. I turned in my Dragonborn STR/CON Fighter in Scale for an Eladrin Spear Fighter with high DEX and Hide armor. I wasn't about to let that happen again...)</blockquote>

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