Kinematics
Hero
Some interesting thoughts. Mixing in with stuff I've seen on YouTube channels, like Tod's Workshop or Shadiversity, my thoughts on design:
First, four general types of armor: padded cloth, leather (either advanced cloth or with metal plates [brigandine]), chain, and plate.
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Plate does great against arrows (seen in Tod's Workshop experiments). It's only really vulnerable when the arrows hit the joints or the parts where plate gives way to chain. It's also great against swords. Blunt weapons work well.
Chain works against swords. Arrows go right through it. Middling protection against blunt weapons.
Cloth does great against blunt weapons, and provides middling-low protection against piercing and slashing.
Leather would either be an enhanced cloth, or a structure that's sort of like chain in general protection (ie: brigandine). Probably treat brigandine as its own category, and consider the cloth-based leathers as variations on cloth itself.
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So then you assign that stuff as traits.
Cloth: Resistant to bludgeoning.
Brigandine: ??? (resistance to area damage, maybe?)
Chain: Resistant to slashing.
Plate: Resistant to slashing. Flat damage reduction.
Then you look at how it affects AC. AC represents how hard it is to do damage to you (not necessarily how hard it is to hit you). The question is, does Dex really help you move better in lighter armor? And does it not help you move in heavy armor?
Based on demonstrations people have done in plate mail, Dex should potentially help moving in heavy armor. At the same time, padded cloth is actually rather restrictive due to its bulky nature. So I have to wonder if Dex is really proper to use in general for calculating AC.
So, taking ideas people have mentioned above, what about: Simple armors add 1/2 your proficiency bonus, and martial armors adds your full proficiency bonus to your AC?
But then, I'm not sure splitting armors into simple and martial types really works. Perhaps a better approach would be to treat it like skills (like now with light/medium/heavy). You can have basic training in armor, or martial training in armor, or no training in certain armors. Rather than the armor itself determining the proficiency bonus applied, it's the training/skill. So a fighter with martial training in plate mail can add his full proficiency bonus to his AC, while the wizard with only basic training in cloth armor can add half his proficiency bonus to his AC, and with no training in plate armor would be stuck with only the baseline AC of that armor.
And then the base AC would be the baseline of how well a type of armor helps you avoid being hit. Assuming Dex is not being added to any armor type, it might be something like:
Cloth: 13
Chain/Brigandine: 14
Plate: 15
That would bump up to 15/16/17 with a level 1 proficiency bonus of +2 for martials, then 16/17/18 at level 5, etc. Someone with basic training would be at 14/15/16 at level 1, then 15/16/17 at level 9, etc.
Cloth armors would work best in low-level fist fights and drunken brawls, where no weapons are being drawn. Resistance to bludgeoning damage makes that much more survivable.
Chain armor would be best when dealing with typical single opponents with swords. City guards dealing with bandits and criminals, rather than soldiers on a battlefield.
Plate armor is the armor of the battlefield. Still not sure of the overall mechanics of it.
Not entirely sure about brigandine, but if it goes with the resistance to AOE, it might be an anti-mage option.
First, four general types of armor: padded cloth, leather (either advanced cloth or with metal plates [brigandine]), chain, and plate.
--
Plate does great against arrows (seen in Tod's Workshop experiments). It's only really vulnerable when the arrows hit the joints or the parts where plate gives way to chain. It's also great against swords. Blunt weapons work well.
Chain works against swords. Arrows go right through it. Middling protection against blunt weapons.
Cloth does great against blunt weapons, and provides middling-low protection against piercing and slashing.
Leather would either be an enhanced cloth, or a structure that's sort of like chain in general protection (ie: brigandine). Probably treat brigandine as its own category, and consider the cloth-based leathers as variations on cloth itself.
--
So then you assign that stuff as traits.
Cloth: Resistant to bludgeoning.
Brigandine: ??? (resistance to area damage, maybe?)
Chain: Resistant to slashing.
Plate: Resistant to slashing. Flat damage reduction.
Then you look at how it affects AC. AC represents how hard it is to do damage to you (not necessarily how hard it is to hit you). The question is, does Dex really help you move better in lighter armor? And does it not help you move in heavy armor?
Based on demonstrations people have done in plate mail, Dex should potentially help moving in heavy armor. At the same time, padded cloth is actually rather restrictive due to its bulky nature. So I have to wonder if Dex is really proper to use in general for calculating AC.
So, taking ideas people have mentioned above, what about: Simple armors add 1/2 your proficiency bonus, and martial armors adds your full proficiency bonus to your AC?
But then, I'm not sure splitting armors into simple and martial types really works. Perhaps a better approach would be to treat it like skills (like now with light/medium/heavy). You can have basic training in armor, or martial training in armor, or no training in certain armors. Rather than the armor itself determining the proficiency bonus applied, it's the training/skill. So a fighter with martial training in plate mail can add his full proficiency bonus to his AC, while the wizard with only basic training in cloth armor can add half his proficiency bonus to his AC, and with no training in plate armor would be stuck with only the baseline AC of that armor.
And then the base AC would be the baseline of how well a type of armor helps you avoid being hit. Assuming Dex is not being added to any armor type, it might be something like:
Cloth: 13
Chain/Brigandine: 14
Plate: 15
That would bump up to 15/16/17 with a level 1 proficiency bonus of +2 for martials, then 16/17/18 at level 5, etc. Someone with basic training would be at 14/15/16 at level 1, then 15/16/17 at level 9, etc.
Cloth armors would work best in low-level fist fights and drunken brawls, where no weapons are being drawn. Resistance to bludgeoning damage makes that much more survivable.
Chain armor would be best when dealing with typical single opponents with swords. City guards dealing with bandits and criminals, rather than soldiers on a battlefield.
Plate armor is the armor of the battlefield. Still not sure of the overall mechanics of it.
Not entirely sure about brigandine, but if it goes with the resistance to AOE, it might be an anti-mage option.