Armor simplicity

[genshou]

I've never been sold on these kinds of changes. If the PCs only want 4 types of armour they will only buy those, and I never generate random magic armour of an inferior type (who wants +4 medium fortification scale mail? ). The other types of armour I keep around for NPCs, especially soldiers and mercenaries. When you have to equip two hundred soldiers for your keep, or field three thousand axemen, suddenly scale mail sounds a lot more appealing, doesn't it?

 

[DreamChaser]

one race (human with bonus feats for racial abilities), three classes (warrior, expert, magic user), 9 weapons, 4 armors, ~20 spells (one for each school/subschool with scaling ability like summon monster). All of this is possible.

The question is, does it make the game more desirable or more fun? I think 85% of the game is in there for flavor rather than pure mechanics. the gradations and variations increase the conceptual interest even if they are often redundant.

 

[Bront]

Added 'leather armor'. Hide armor would be covered by either the Light or the Medium category. Yes, this means you get better stats on your Hide armor. Not that this really hurts.

Bye
Thanee

If you're ok with Hide being like that, then that works. Seems like it almost makes Dragonskin useless to a druid though.

 

[Li Shenron]

I agree with the premise, but not with the conclusion.

Some armors in the PHB are indeed near-useless and chosen only in restricted circumstances: either the player really cannot afford the price (a momentary case) or has a low Dex (but generally, a few gp more are worth the extra max Dex in case you get a Cat's Grace spell on yourself), or the player simply makes a mistake

But IMHO PHB armors are FEW. It would be nicer to have more, and not less. I would like more reasons to put value in those which are subpar, just like it is done with weapons (it's hard for me to find a weapon in the PHB which has utterly no reason to be taken).

For example, a subpar medium armor could provide a small benefit while mounted, or a subpar heavy armor could give a small protection to criticals (e.g. a minor penalty to anyone making a confirmation roll vs you).

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I use a similar system, except that instead of having only 4 stat packages, I let people choose the stats of any armor and call it anything they want.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Unfortunately the case of having 4 basic types is pretty much defacto in many games. This is because there are no real reason to get Banded Mail. Changing the mechanics to reflect this and allowing someone to call a set of Medium armor 'Banded' as pure flavour sounds good to me.

Li Shenron, are you suggesting take the basic 4 presented above, then have 'subtypes' {for lack of a better word} that alter specific characteristics?

Something like:
Jousters: +1 AC and -1 Max Dex
Archers: -1 AC and +1 Max Dex
etc..

{no, these are not the best ideas }
What are the edittable aspects of armor?
AC, Max Dex, Arcane Failure...

not much to work with

 

[Li Shenron]

Li Shenron, are you suggesting take the basic 4 presented above, then have 'subtypes' {for lack of a better word} that alter specific characteristics?

Well, I don't find the idea of having subtypes particularly attractive, I was rather suggesting to pick those few armors in the PHB which never gets taken (maybe splint mail and banded mail IIRC??) and add a minor benefit to each - for instance:

- a +2 AC in critical confirmation rolls only
- use half ACP in move silently and hide only
- treated a one category less for donning time and sleeping into

this kind of minor bonuses, just to leave a choice to the player.

 

[Bront]

The only armor I've found a reason to think about taking other than the basic four is Studded Leather, partialy for cost, partialy for dex purposes, and partialy for better restrictions than a Chain Shirt. But that's because it's perfectly balanced with Leather and a Chain Shirt. The problem is that the others aren't. Breast Plate should protect for a bit more, OR medium armors shoudn't hinder initial movement speed (My thoughts are run slows down 1 multiplier at medium, then heavy drops you the 10, not the other way around), Chain Mail is ok, but Splint is useless, and Hide is only good for Druids. And the only thing Banded has on anything else is price, which is useless by 3rd level or so usually.