D&D (2024) Armor training

[UngeheuerLich]

I think it is time to revaluate armor training.
Only having 3 categories of light, medium and heavy is too restricting.
I think we should also add simple and martial armors.

Simple might be light up to leather, medium up to chain shirt and heavy up to chain mail.
This way, classes could determine if you get any category, and subclasses can upgrade to martial from simple.

This would be a boon for the cleric. At level 1 and 2, you usually start with simple armors anyway. And then when domain kicks in, you can upgrade to better armors if this makes sense for the respective domain.

 

[James Gasik]

I think it is time to revaluate armor training.
Only having 3 categories of light, medium and heavy is too restricting.
I think we should also add simple and martial armors.

Simple might be light up to leather, medium up to chain shirt and heavy up to chain mail.
This way, classes could determine if you get any category, and subclasses can upgrade to martial from simple.

This would be a boon for the cleric. At level 1 and 2, you usually start with simple armors anyway. And then when domain kicks in, you can upgrade to better armors if this makes sense for the respective domain.

There's not a lot of granularity with armors, since they range from "Dex +11" to "18". So the only way to add more armor types would be to break apart the existing three categories, which I think would be more restrictive- now you'd have "lightest of the light", "heaviest of the light, heaviest of the medium", "lightest of the heavy", and "heaviest of the heavy" as armor categories, all for what will eventually turn out to be a difference of 1 AC between categories, at best.

So you would have to add some other benefit to armor to justify this change.

Spoiler: Tangential rant spoiled so as not to derail discussion

Personally, as I see it, the game already has an issue that AC should rise as proficiency bonus does, but it doesn't- it rises based on how much money you can throw at your armor budget, and then completely stalls out, which means at lower tier play, it's possible to become "unhittable", but at higher tier play, AC becomes less and less relevant unless magic armors are added- and since the game considers these "optional", there's no real guidance for how/when/why to add them.

Many DM's who see AC's of 21 in low tier play are very loath to give players more options to boost defense, even when higher CR monsters gain a hit rate of 50% or better.

So I say instead that the entire system needs to be reworked, with armor doing something other than determining AC, so that AC can scale in a reasonable fashion.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

To your rant:

I could see level gating heavier armor with that training and lower money cost.

I break it up a little more:

Light, simple: 11 dex bonus top. Maye add one with 12 + dex bonus and disadvantage
Light, martial: 12+dex bonus top or 13 with disadvantage.

Medium, simple: 13+dex (max 2) or 14+dex (max 2) and disadvantage.
Medium, martial: 14 + dex (max2) or 15 +dex (max 2) and disadvantage.

Heavy, simple: 16 or 17 with disadvantage
Heavy, martial: 17 or 18 with disadvantage.

Yes, the upgrade is just +1 armor, but martial weapon over simple is usually only one point of damage too. It also adds flexibility.

I don't want to see proficiency bonus on armor, because I like the idea of having static DCs.
I could however see martial characters gain bonuses to their AC when they get extra attacks. Or having some martials start with bonuses to certain armors and upgrade from simple to martial later.

I want it class level gated, to have another incentice to stay at a martial class.

 

[Steampunkette]

As soon as I saw this in the Cleric thread I was impressed. I think it's a very clever design choice!

Treat Armor Proficiencies like we do Weapon Proficiencies! Like the Rogue doesn't get all martial weapon type, but they get -some-. So you could have some classes, like Druid, gain only -specific- armor proficiencies.

That's a clever lever!

 

[Amrûnril]

I like this idea in that it gives a way to decouple armor quality from strength vs. dexterity focus. As things currently stand, DEX-based characters gain little benefit from armor training, and characters without armor training severely handicap themselves by prioritizing STR over DEX. Whereas if STR vs. DEX and trained vs. untrained could vary independently of one another, that would facilitate more flexibility in character building.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I mean, I feel like you could simplify it further. Basically 5E D&D, once you're past level 3 or so, has 4 armour options:

Studded Leather - AC12 + full DEX

Breastplate - AC14 + DEX max 2
Half-plate - AC15 + DEX max 2 Disadvantage on Stealth

Plate - AC18 no DEX Disadvantage on Stealth

Everything else is kind of an irrelevance or ultra-niche corner case, or, at best "a thing you own until level 2-3 when you have enough money to buy the real thing". A very few campaigns might make it to 4-5 before anyone can afford Plate but come on.

It feels like there's a lot of wasted design space here.

 

[James Gasik]

Or, as this flowchart puts it:

 

[Steampunkette]

Definitely needs more levers in the armor section of the book, yeah. But not too much more complexity as a constant thing.

Like... what if some armors that aren't maxed out for their category on AC bonus instead provided 1-2 points of damage reduction, or something?

 

[mellored]

I kind of feel each class should just get AC.

Wizards, bards, Sorcerers: 15 AC.
warlocks, rogues, barbarians: 16 AC
Clerics, druids, monks, artificer: 17 AC
Fighters, Paladins: 18 AC.
+2 with shield as normal.

And dex is no longer required for everyone.

And magic armors are now open to being interesting.

 

[Horwath]

Remove armor proficiency completely.

Add min Str for all armors.

Add separate max Dex for every armor.