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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 8820910" data-attributes="member: 7006">To make something like armor or weapon choice "interesting" means doing it for one of two things-- either mechanically, which means coming up with some sort of mini-game within combat where these choices affect how they interest with other choices (the rock-paper-scissors thing I mentioned above)... or narratively, where the choice is meaningful to the player because they enjoy the visualization and narration of using said weapon or armor/shield during combats.  The same way one describes and cares about the physical features of their character.For the latter... just going with broad categories is fine because the player would just narrate what their PC was using / wearing and the generic mechanical expression would not get in the way.  For the former... someone would need to build a much more in-depth system of interactions between all the various pieces.  The game already has a few... Reach allows for more attacking distance, the damage types and damage resistances allow for this-vs-that bonuses and penalties, the Finesse property allows for the use of a different stat to attack that matches the stat connected to defense allowing for a character to double-up, and so forth.But how far into the weeds do people really want to go?  How complex or intricate do people really want D&D combat to be?  This isn't The Riddle of Steel RPG... the combat isn't meant to be this intense dance of mechanical interplay that replicates true combat as closely as possible... it's generic fantasy violence.  And with PCs already getting a bunch of additional mechanical heft from their class features... adding more heft purely in the armors and weapons themselves just might end up getting in the way and cluttering what is meant to be a fast and easy interaction.And I suspect most people are on this wavelength... where they don't expect or indeed want combat in D&D to be this intricately-designed tactical combat sim that takes armors and metals and weapons and shapes and speeds and guards all into account while also layering on the mechanical functions of the class structure.  It's too much for a game like D&D.  D&D is a foundational game, so going too far into the weeds just gets in the way.  And thus they leave it to other companies to produce the tactical combat sims of games like The Riddle of Steel and direct players who want that depth in those directions.</blockquote>

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