D&D 5E At what level do your heavy armored characters get their plate mail?

[SpellObjectEnthusiast]

The treasure hoards for Levels 0-4 are pretty stingy - unless the party pools all their money towards gearing a single PC.

The 5-11 hoards will give more gold, so likely by level 6 the party should have enough money for everyone that wants plate to get it.

 

[tetrasodium]

In my experience it is almost guaranteed somewhere between levels 3 & 7 but the vast majority of those are going to be found somewhere in about☆ level 5.

Although what I often notice both as a GM & player is the heavy armored character or one of the other players in the group suggesting things like "we should give bob an extra share of treasure so he can afford plate earlier" & in newer editions if bob finds plate players with any other gold sinks (ie wizard) are just expected to pay their own way when it comes to whatever that gold sink is. Weirdly that trend tends to continue with "afford plate" shifting to "oh well bob needs potions/magical weapons" despite nobody using the potions found or purchased ages ago & the magical weapon everyone needs one of generally being looted.

That used to be offset by bob converting that extra share into things like wands of CLW & similar voluntarily or by mandate from the group of players who each have their own expenses & purchasing goals. A lot of this weird unequal split to the richest PC seems to come from the way 5e tried to erode the need for teamwork & reciprocity in favor of an "I am The Star" every man for themselves solo near each other mentality driven by extreme overmitigation of risk by the system.

☆level 5 to level 6 takes a few sessions, sometimes it comes early in that range, other times it comes later... hence "about"

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

Would be nice if this was the one time crafting was relevant. Save half the gold on a full plate, actually makes a difference! However, it would also take 300 days, and many DnD games don't have downtime, and then you'd have to pay for the full party's lifestyle for a year...

I'd probably have them upgrade their heavy armor in steps, as they take armor bits off from enemy bosses (with some crafting/costs to adjust the size to match the PC).

It worked in the Mandolorian.

 

[Stalker0]

The poll is interesting so far. Though the standard guidelines would suggest that most PCs wouldn't have the gold (or item equivalent gold) to get plate until 6th level, it seems the vast majority of groups so far polled get it at 5th or even lower level (3rd also seems a popular level so far).

That suggests that party's in general get more treasure than the WOTC guidelines, or that party's let heavy armored characters get a greater share of the loot until they get their plate. The 2nd part actually makes sense in that gold is mostly worthless to a lot of characters at base, the classes needed the plate mail (and the wizard) are the only classes that really need the money for any power scaling.

 

[tetrasodium]

The poll is interesting so far. Though the standard guidelines would suggest that most PCs wouldn't have the gold (or item equivalent gold) to get plate until 6th level, it seems the vast majority of groups so far polled get it at 5th or even lower level (3rd also seems a popular level so far).

That suggests that party's in general get more treasure than the WOTC guidelines, or that party's let heavy armored characters get a greater share of the loot until they get their plate. The 2nd part actually makes sense in that gold is mostly worthless to a lot of characters at base, the classes needed the plate mail (and the wizard) are the only classes that really need the money for any power scaling.

There is the legacy practices carried forward from editions that didn't design against attrition to drop it down. In the past it made a big difference for everyone to have the (usually) fighter get plate ASAP because that would result in lower total party expenditures both in terms of consumables (potions/wands/etc) and spell slots used for healing up between fights.

5e may have taken steps to design against attrition & teamwork, but those get plate asap traditions die hard & a lot of players come to expect it even when the reasons for it are gone so they either suggest it for bob or feel& maybe make a case that Alice is being unreasonable if she "selfishly" pushes back in favor of her own expenses.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Generally speaking, it usually happens around level 5. It can happen sooner if the party decides to pool their funds.

The first time that happened in a game I was running, I'll admit that I was surprised. I did not expect everyone to empty their pockets so that one PC could have a suit of platemail.

 

[James Gasik]

The first time that happened in a game I was running, I'll admit that I was surprised. I did not expect everyone to empty their pockets so that one PC could have a suit of platemail.

This is actually my standard operating procedure when I game, if there's a big money sink I usually offer gold to support it. In the last campaign, even though my Wizard needed a lot of funds to fill their spellbook, I suggested we purchase plate for our Cleric first, so he had it just as we hit level 3. From that point on we really didn't have any immediate use for our gold- the town could only produce potions at a fairly slow rate and we didn't feel that we could really afford to take downtime as the denizens of the local dungeon were up to...something. Pretty soon our money was split between supplies (including whatever consumables we could scrounge and expensive spell components), a vague "buy magic short swords for the Ranger someday when we go to the big city" (lol), and filling my spellbook.

By level 8 the party treasury was sitting at about 30,000 unspent gp and we'd scavenged a few suits of plate and eventually plate +1.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

This is actually my standard operating procedure when I game, if there's a big money sink I usually offer gold to support it. In the last campaign, even though my Wizard needed a lot of funds to fill their spellbook, I suggested we purchase plate for our Cleric first, so he had it just as we hit level 3. From that point on we really didn't have any immediate use for our gold- the town could only produce potions at a fairly slow rate and we didn't feel that we could really afford to take downtime as the denizens of the local dungeon were up to...something. Pretty soon our money was split between supplies (including whatever consumables we could scrounge and expensive spell components), a vague "buy magic short swords for the Ranger someday when we go to the big city" (lol), and filling my spellbook.

By level 8 the party treasury was sitting at about 30,000 unspent gp and we'd scavenged a few suits of plate and eventually plate +1.

One of my hopes for the next edition is that gold stays useful for longer for everyone. So that you don't have the party carting around multiple dragon's hoards with them.

 

[Stoutstien]

Whenever the player want it really. Not worth the time to worry about.

The difference between splint and plate is 1 AC but costs 1300 more. Kinda silly when the medium armor has a lower ability score requirement and the price jump is only 350 and 35 for light.

The simple fix would be to drop the price and increase both the strength required to 16 and the penalty for wearing without having it, Dwarfs getting a pass of course.

If I really cared to look into it I'd heavy armor a secondary form of mitigation rather than just a smigen of AC.

 

[plecostomus]

My character received +2 plate armor after a fight that leveled up the party to Level 11. Was previously in default chain mail with a +2 shield. Overall AC change was 20 to 24.

The DM doesn't give us gold and provides loot from quests instead. We also do homebrew crafting from monster parts sometimes. I think we have only gone into a shop once over ~4 years of playing.