Armor Types

[Thondor]

Have medium armors reduce medium characters speed by 5 and small characters speed not at all. Also knock the armor penalties down by 1 and masterwork versions of medium armor dex bonus up by 1
I think this is fair. It's how it works IMC.

 

[Bront]

With this system, an 'armor specialization' feat could then decrease the dex-penalty for that type of armor, for one thing. I also like the 2nd ed rule where it halved the encumberence of the armor, although with the movement restrictions, it kind of doesn't make a difference, since you are still restricted. Of course, doing it the other way around (reducing armor move penalties) also doesn't make a difference, since the weight of the armor is almost always going to bump a character into medium encumberance.

I'm not a big fan of your dex penalty idea, but it's an interesting concept. Try it out, it might be better than it sounds to me.

I completely forgot about the halving of encumberance. I like that. It means that some of the heavier armors don't get you for carrying capacity as much as they could. I think this works well, especialy with some of the other ideas here.

 

[Liquidsabre]

Here's what I like to use, picked up here on ENWorld, nice and elegant. Seems to give medium armors the chance to remain a viable choice over the long haul of things.

Light: normal tactical movement, normal run.

Medium: normal tactical movement, can only run 3x base speed

Heavy: reduced tactical movement, can only run 3x base speed


*Changes from core rules

 

[Felnar]

Instead of having a "max-dex bonus" for armor, there would be a "dexterity penalty". This would reduce your effective dexterity by said number for anything related to agility (AC, saving throws, certain skills; but not missle attacks, weapon finess, etc). If this ends up giving you a dex penalty, then you do NOT take that penalty to your AC. (Dex penalties to AC don't make too much sense anyways, to me. So if you are flat-footed and have dex penalties, you get better AC???)
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With this system, an 'armor specialization' feat could then decrease the dex-penalty for that type of armor, for one thing. I also like the 2nd ed rule where it halved the encumberence of the armor, although with the movement restrictions, it kind of doesn't make a difference, since you are still restricted. Of course, doing it the other way around (reducing armor move penalties) also doesn't make a difference, since the weight of the armor is almost always going to bump a character into medium encumberance.

Currently, the unencumbered fighter has a move of 20ft while wearing a breastplate, but if he takes it off and carries it, his move is 30ft. He's not encumbered, why is he slowed?
What if armor had an "encumbrance" rating which gave it dex penalties, but the penalties were partially reduced by high strength. This would be more like 2nd ed way only encumbrance slowed you down, and high strength kept you from being encumbered. You could have worn armor be more encumbering than just its weight tho (similar to wearing ankle-weights), say 10-20% more?

- Felnar

 

[Wolf72]

here are some feats inspired by Rokugan d20 and OA ... (note: never been used just some ideas I wrote down a while ago)


Armor/Shield Focus (general, fighter) [by Wolf72]
you excel in the use of a particular armor or shield.
Prerequisite: appropriate armor feat (light, medium, heavy, shield)
Benefits: Choose one specific type of armor; you get -1 ACP and +1 max dex bonus. Shields only benefit from the –1 ACP.

Armor/Shield Specialist (general, fighter) [by Wolf 72]
Your superior skill with armor allows you to use it more effectively.
Prerequisites: +3 BAB, Armor/Shield Focus
Benefit: With the specific type of armor you are focused you gain a +1 dodge bonus to AC (it stacks with other dodge stuff). You lose this bonus any time you would lose a normal dodge bonus.

Armored Mobility (general, fighter) [by Wolf72]
You are an expert at moving in heavier armors.
Prerequisites: +2 BAB, Armor Focus
Benefit: Armor counts as one category less for you (minimum of light). This allows you to move faster with medium armor (or use a ranger’s special abilities), or use the full run ability in heavy armor.
Special: This feat does not stack with any other ability that lessens the weight or encumbrance of armor, (ie: mithral, a suit of mithral half-plate will not count as light armor).

I also thought the AC for Medium and Heavy armors should be more, at least enough to seperate them from light armor.

Medium: +2 AC, +50gp
Heavy: +2 AC, +200gp, DR 1/-

you'd have to get used to some higher AC's but I think it might work ... table attached, it looks better if you open in word rather

 

[Felnar]

here's an idea i had

Edit: i can't seem to make a lined up code block

key changes:
-changed chainshirt to: chainshirt +3AC, +5maxdex, -2ACP, DR 1
-swapped the speed penalties for medium and heavy armors:
<medium: only x3 run
<heavy: reduced movement rate ( 20ft / 15ft )
-added DR 1 to medium armor, add DR 2 to heavy armors

this weakens the chain shirt's AC, but gives it DR. It's still has the best defense of the light armors, but chainmail and breastplate compare a lot better than before.

what do you all think?
- Felnar

 

[Thondor]

I really have bad feelings about the DR, I'm not sure that it is actually imbalancing but it really changes everything. Suddenly Adamantine isn't quite so good and a Barbarians ability only makes up for the fact that he can't wear heavy armor ( I think you will have to modify that, perhaps simply giving them a DR of 1/- at first level to put them on par with the scalemailed fighter?) Maybe a monk should also get DR at some point?
Also I'd suggest letting a light pick and heavy pick ignore armor DR and give them X2 crit instead of X4 (what is better at punching through armor?)
With those adjustments I think your system will work. Not that I'm going to implement it but each his own.
Cheers

 

[Lhorgrim]

Here's what I like to use, picked up here on ENWorld, nice and elegant. Seems to give medium armors the chance to remain a viable choice over the long haul of things.

Light: normal tactical movement, normal run.

Medium: normal tactical movement, can only run 3x base speed

Heavy: reduced tactical movement, can only run 3x base speed


*Changes from core rules

I'm with Liquidsabre on this one. This seems to give a reasonable adjustment to medium armor to make it a more attractive option.

 

[Felnar]

I really have bad feelings about the DR, I'm not sure that it is actually imbalancing but it really changes everything. Suddenly Adamantine isn't quite so good and a Barbarians ability only makes up for the fact that he can't wear heavy armor ( I think you will have to modify that, perhaps simply giving them a DR of 1/- at first level to put them on par with the scalemailed fighter?) Maybe a monk should also get DR at some point?
Also I'd suggest letting a light pick and heavy pick ignore armor DR and give them X2 crit instead of X4 (what is better at punching through armor?)
With those adjustments I think your system will work. Not that I'm going to implement it but each his own.
Cheers

are you forgetting that barbarian damage reduction increases every 3 levels?
adamantine's DR would stack with the armors mundane DR (adamantine breastplate = DR 3/- , admantine full-plate = DR 5/-).
Fighter: d10 hp, DR 5/- , 20ft move
Barbarian: d12 hp, DR 3/- , 40ft move (medium armor doesnt reduce speed), lower AC
Barbarians actually comes out ahead, becaue of their damage reduction ability. They could wear mithril full plate and at 13th level their AC and DR = the AC and DR of a fighter in adamantine full plate, but they move x2 as fast and have d12 hps. (Mithril is +2 max dex, -3 acp, and 6000 gold cheaper too)

- Felnar

 

[magic_gathering2001]

isnt chain shirt light armor anyway?