Armor & Coins - please, No.

[Azgulor]

Apologies if this was covered in another thread and I missed it.

I found the following on another forum. It's supposedly a screen shot of a section on 4e preview on armor and coinage. I can't verify that it is, but if it is - color me very unimpressed.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/benimoto/2307597095/sizes/o/

Medium armor - gone. Simpler isn't always better. This one's a minor issue, though.

All armor takes 5 minutes to put on. - So leather armor isn't any easier to put on that a chainmail suit, or plate mail? Simpler isn't always better. This one seems like simplicity for simplicity's sake. (And don't start with the "you can house rule it" stuff.)

Masterwork only as magic armor - unnecessary change.

Starleather, spiritmail, godplate - I'm not really digging these. For all the weak accusations of 4e being video-gamey, these names definitely make me think of a video game.

But the prizewiiner = ASTRAL DIAMONDS! - WTF? Are you kidding me? I can see it now, perfectly cut diamonds scattered throughout the Astral Plane. How do you mine the Astral Plane, exactly?

To each their own, I guess, but I'm underwhelmed by these changes.

 

[DreamChaser]

Have you not paid attention to the design concept for the planes in 4e? Gone is the endless reach of empty space that only 9th level spells could get you to. The Astral Sea is full of places that could be reached by other planar denizens and intrepid miners to do a little mining.

DC

 

[Puggins]

That's odd... you're most annoyed by the addition that makes the most sense to me. Who says Astral Diamonds have to be mined? And even if they do, we've got tons of precedent for floating chunks of rock in the Astral- just think about all those dead gods whose flesh begins to crystallize as they float for eons on end. The Githyanki had to get their wealth from somewhere, right?

The uniform donning time is silly, but not that big a deal, I suppose. The names of the special armor are somewhat groan-inducing.

 

[Lizard]

Hmm. I can't think of any situation where the PCs were counting minutes to don armor.

If they were attacked while sleeping/not wearing armor (at a party, for example), they fought without it.

If they had time to prep, they put it on easily.

The different armor don times WERE realistic, but they also NEVER showed up in play, at least in my experience. Given that very few combats last even ten rounds, a character who spends a minute putting on armor might as well not show up. The only thing that tended to matter was putting on/taking off *shields*, whether to aboid the skill penalty or switch to a two handed weapon.

Eliminating medium armor? Not so sure. It might be because classes either wear light armor for mobility or heavy armor for protection, and 'medium armor' is only used by 1st level fighters who can't afford full plate.

Non-masterwork normal armor? Now, this is problematic. It means there's no gradation between 'normal' and 'magic' armor, and that's both unrealistic and unfun.

 

[FabioMilitoPagliara]

But the prizewiiner = ASTRAL DIAMONDS! - WTF? Are you kidding me? I can see it now, perfectly cut diamonds scattered throughout the Astral Plane. How do you mine the Astral Plane, exactly?

the Astral Plane is now the Astral Sea where float the Astral Dominion.... so probably astral diamonds come from some abandonated Astral Isle/dominion

btw you call this weird? do you know how you get Ioun stones in the original Vance books?

 

[lukeduff]

It says all armors take at least 5 minutes to put on. Their point is that you aren't going to be donning armor during combat. It doesn't say plate and leather take the same amount of time to put on.

 

[Saishu_Heiki]

Medium armor simply was not used enough to warrant inclusion in 4e (at least, that is the way all my games have played out). As for the donning time, it was another table in the PHB that almost never got used.

The heroic, paragon, and epic armors don't bother me, but then again I got used to elven chain, raptoran armor, armor made of leaves... starleather and godplate really don't bother me any more than those.

The astral diamonds are a bit odd, but the best explanation I have heard is that they are almost uniform in size by nature (like pearls), and then cut. Their scarcity makes them worth 10000 gp, they should not be lying around the plains like discarded copper. Of course, I plan to use adamantine coins in their place (to keep the "ad" abbreviation).

 

[WayneLigon]

just think about all those dead gods whose flesh begins to crystallize as they float for eons on end.

Astral diamonds - the tears of dead gods. Astral rubies; their blood. Yeah, I'm using that.

 

[hong]

Astral diamonds - the tears of dead gods. Astral rubies; their blood. Yeah, I'm using that.

Astral pearls, their

No, let's not go there.

 

[Emirikol]

I see dragon scale mail is worn by dragonborne. That's like human-skin-leather being worn by humans.

I noticed that the CONAN MMO coming up has variants for it's armor types:
Better cloth
Better leather
Better metal chain
Better metal plate

I like that idea. If it's non-magical all the better. We gotta get back to some "not-so-magic-crutch" for themes

jh