Armor Class (Reverse Engineering)

[Darkthorne]

From the scan in the above link (choose download pic then zoom in)
“Armor is either defined as light or heavy. Light armor is easy to move in if you’re proficient with it. Cloth armor, leather armor and hide armor are light. When you wear light armor, you add either your dex or int to your Armor Class whichever is higher. Heavy armor is more restrictive, so your natural agility matters less. When you wear heavy armor you don’t add an ability score modifier to your AC. Chainmail, Scale Armor and Plate armor are heavy armor”

That being said I would try taking the stat away from your REF save (for heavy armor) then the difference between that and your AC is the armor value. I believe your shield also adds to your REF save

 

[mach1.9pants]

3[/s] 2 if +1 Unknown Bonus for Half-Elf/Warlock)
Hide AC+3
Chain AC+6
Scale AC+7
Plate AC+8

OK, thanks for the apology.
Thus makes sense, light armour 2 or 3 then a jump to heavy armour 6,7 & 8
Still don't know how they got the hide/leather both being 3? I reckon leather must be 2 or why have a different armour type?

 

[konki63]

I have tryed to reverse the monsters AC in order to fix the leather/hide issue but I have given up because the monsters seems full of obvious errors like having 17 in Dex & a +4 Dex bonus instead of +3 ... I couldn't get any reliable info from them ... I will wait for more character sheets ;(

The other advantage of
Light Armor 0/2/3
Heavy Armor 6/7/8

is that you can add something like:
Medium Armor 4/5 + Half (Dex/Int) no move malus
in a later supplement

 

[Daniel D. Fox]

No armor proficiency gives a penalty of -2 Reflex/-2 to Hit according to the picture.

Donning ANY armor takes five minutes or more

Armor qualifies for encumberance as either Light or Heavy (interesting - looks like LIght and Heavy have their own weights no matter the kind of armor)

Masterwork types of armor:
Star = Astral type
Fey = Elven type
Dark = Tiefling type
Spirit = another Astral type "divine"
Forge = dwarven type
Elder = Elemental Chaos-type
Wyrm = Dragonborn type

Godplate and warplate mentioned.

 

[AZRogue]

Here's the section of the photo from the scan that was linked (which shows up very, very clear on my screen).


"Armor is grouped into categories. These categories can help you decide what armor is best for you.

Your class tells you what kinds of armor you're proficient with. You can take feats to learn the proper use of either kinds of armor. If you wear armor you're not proficient with it makes you clumsy and uncoordinated. You take a -2 penalty to attack rolls and to your Reflex defense.

Putting on a suit of armor always takes at least 5 minutes, which means that it's an activity you can undertake only outside combat (likely while you're taking a short rest).

Armor is defined as either light or heavy. Light Armor is easy to move in if you're proficient with it. Cloth armor, leather armor, and hide armor are light armors. When you wear light armor you add either your Intelligence or your Dexterity modifier to your Armor Class, whichever is higher. Heavy Armor is more restrictive, so your natural agility matters less. When you wear heavy armor you don't add an ability score modifier to your AC. Chainmail, scale armor, and plate armor are heavy armors.

Certain kinds of armor are made according to arcane and esoteric methods that involve weaving magic into the substance of the armor. These Masterwork Armors never appear except as magic armor (see page xx) and even then only at the highest levels (16th and above). The various kinds of masterwork armor fall into the same categories as mundane armor and have similar statistics, but they have a higher armor bonus than their mundane counterparts. The cost of masterwork armor is included in the cost of the magic armor.

Cloth Armor: Jackets, mantles, woven robes, and padded vests don't, by themselves, provide any significant protection. However, you can imbue them with protective magic. Cloth armor doesn't slow you down or hinder your movement at all. Feyweave armor is woven with techniques perfected by the eladrin. Starweave armor is fashioned after patterns created in the divine dominions of the Astral Seal.

Leather Armor: Leather armor is sturdier than cloth armor. It protects vital areas with multiple layers of boiled leather plates, while covering the limbs with supple leather that provides a small amount of protection. Feyleather armor is cured by an elven method that leaves the armor supple but tougher than normal leather. Starleather armor is infused with the raw spiritual matter of the Astral Sea., making it light and strong.

Hide Armor: Thicker and heavier than leather, hide armor is composed of skin from any creature that has a tough hide, such as a bear, griffon, or a dragon. Hide armor can bind and slightly hinder your precision, but it's light enough that it doesn't affect your speed. Darkhid armor is superior tiefling armor cured in fire and infused with shadow. Elderhide armor involves scouring the elemental forces.

Chainmail: metal rings woven together into a shirt, leggings, and a hood make up a suit of chainmail. Chainmail grants good protection, but it's cumbersome, so it reduces your mobility and agility. Forgemail armor is made with superior metallurgy and a chain making technique mastered by dwarves. Spiritmail armor is made with techniques from the divine dominions of the Astral Sea.

Scale Armor: Overlapping pieces of highly durable material, such as steel or even dragon scales, make up scale armor. Despite its heaviness, scale is surprisingly easy to wear; its straps and buckles make it adjustable and able to fit snugly on the body, allowing flexibility and agility. Mundane scale armor uses metal plates. Wyrmscale is made using ancient techniques the dragonborn invented to mimic the strength of overlapping dragon scales and elderscale is a similar armor scoured with elemental forces.

Plate Armor: The heaviest type of armor, made up of shaped plates of metal or similarly resilient materials, plate provides the most armor protection. The cost for its superior fortification is mobility and agility. Legend holds that Moradin made the first godplate armor and ancient dwarf smiths copied his pattern imperfectly to make Warplate armor.

Shield Types:
As with Armor, you need the proper shield proficiency to use a shield effectively. When you use a shield, you strap it to an arm and sometimes use the hand on that arm--your shield arm and shield hand. Shields grant a shield bonus that you add to your AC and to your ..."


And that's it, the entire thing transcribed but minus the sidebars. Now I'm tired of typing. The page also shows, in a sidebar, that the gold standard is still in the game.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

So this is what we've got, then:

Light Armor (Include either Dex or Int modifier):
Wizard: 15 = 10 + 5 (Int) + 0 (Cloth)
Warlock: 15 = 10 + 2 (Int) + 3 (Leather)
Ranger: 17 = 10 + 4 (Dex) + 3 (Hide)

Heavy Armor (no attribute modifiers):
Cleric: 16 = 10 + 6 (Chainmail)
Fighter: 19 = 10 + 7 (Scale) + 2 (Shield)
Paladin: 20 = 10 + 8 (Plate) + 2 (Shield)

This is excluding any racial or size modifiers we don't know about.

The really interesting here is that it seems like you have to take a different feat PER type of armor, now. So a wizard who wanted to wear plate would have to get Leather, Hide, Chain, and Scale proficiency before he even got to Plate proficiency. On the other hand, though, it seems like there's zero reason for a wizard NOT to burn a single feat to get leather proficiency, bringing his AC up to 18 or so - better than a fighter with scale mail and a two-hander. Hmmmmm.

The whole "int to AC" thing seems really dumb to me. It's basically a free bonus to wizard (and maybe warlord) armor for no discernable reason.

 

[mach1.9pants]

@AZRogue: Thnaks Dude! Totally unreadible on my download of it, I dunno why?

So still makes no sense that leather and hide have the same AC. Must be 2 and 3, respectively.

 

[konki63]

Is there still arcane failure in D&D4 ?

INT based character have lost skills, I think the AC bonus is the main counterpart ...

personnaly I like 2 stat based defenses/saves as I have always liked the "Force of Personnality" feat in D&D3 which switched Will bonus on the CHA stat & the "Insighful Reflexes" feat witch switched the Ref Save Bonus on the INT stat ...

the way D&D4 works for saves clearly comes from these 2 feats from the "Complete Adventurer"

 

[Noinarap]

Forgive me if it was said already, but could the fighter's higher AC than expected have to do with class abilities? I'm pretty sure R&C said that fighters would get dex bonuses to AC in heavy armor.

 

[hong]

How does this scale to higher levels, I wonder. Assuming "stat modifier" means the level-adjusted formula, (stat - 10)/2 + level/2:

Light armor:
AC = 10 + (Dex/Int - 10)/2 + level/2 + (armor bonus)

Heavy armor:
AC = 10 + (armor bonus)

That doesn't seem right, unless you want all high-level types to be wearing leather armour. So "stat modifier" must be the raw, non-level-adjusted modifier.