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

[DragonLancer]

They get it when they get it and if they want it. If it rolls up as a treasure fine, otherwise if they have the gold and they want it, they will buy it. It shouldn't be level dependent.

 

[GrimCo]

Usually around level 3 they have enough cash to buy it. If they kill someone with plate earlier, then they get it earlier. I run settings where munition grade armors (plate included) exist, so there are more of them around. Buying full plate for the tank is one of the rare useful things to do with gold.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

It is something the DM has to account for. You need to have some or all of the following:

*Downtime to allow for crafting, research, and other tasks that use gold.

*Training to acquire new abilities.

*The occasional ability to acquire a magic item- this need not be "Ye Olde Magick Shop" but could involve gaining clout with the church to "borrow" their holy sword, attend an auction for a retiring wizard, or pay a fixer a finder's fee for putting you in touch with someone who has an item they are willing to trade.

*Campaign goals that require gold: "Hey, I got the deed to the Kryptwood Keep from my dead uncle! Now the Lords of Waterdeep expect me to fix it up and hire people to patrol the forest!".

*NPC's who can provide services or favors- not necessarily physical rewards but things like information, new missions, transport and passage, or even dodging the thousand cuts of bureaucracy- fees, fines, taxes, and paperwork.

*NPC Hirelings who can provide specialized abilities but must be paid. Going into Grimtooth's Dungeon? Hiring an "Expert Treasure Hunter" might be to one's advantage. Assaulting an old military fort that has been taken over by orcs? Maybe you can find use for a siege engineer or sapper. Or hire an assassin to try and take out the BBEG who has immunity from prosecution because he's a high ranking noble!

It takes work, and the DMG really should make this all apparent, but if you can pull it off, it could make things way more interesting than trying to keep your players happy with fighting over dented copper coins and keeping even "mundane" purchases like better armor something they can only dream about, lol.

In my experience (which isn't necessarily universal), PCs aren't going to talk about downtime activities as much, so the DM should make room for it, or at least suggest it.

In my Cyberpunk Red campaign on the other hand, downtime is unavoidable as PCs need it to heal damage. if you're not injured, you will have free time to use while everyone else is resting.

IME it's pretty rare. If using proper material components, casters are often too busy with their own stuff to help out. Most barbarians tend to buy higher grade medium armor, so they'll be saving too. Not to mention the general purchase of healing potions taking up a chunk of cash. The only ones who don't seem to struggle with early money are rogues and monks.

Some of those spell components really are pricey. They're probably more of a cash sink than heavy armor, once you get to higher levels.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

It's a small difference of +2 AC over the starting stuff, for a build that still has less Initiative, ranged option and defense against AoE damage. Speaking only for my table, it does not seem unbalanced to offer it at a rather low level.

 

[p_johnston]

Generally level 3 to 5 (though its semi rare my party goes the heavy armor route).

If im being conscientious ill drop it as loot around level 3, if im being forgetful they have enough gold by level 5

 

[James Gasik]

Thinking about it, the cost to increase AC if you have a decent Dexterity is much cheaper than the reverse. Making heavy armor harder to acquire is actually a strike against Strength builds.

 

[James Gasik]

I should clarify that statement, because it's true that it's cheaper for a Str build to get AC 17- it only costs 200 gp (less 32 gp, 5 sp for the sale of their chain mail) vs. 750 gp (less 25 gp for the sale of scale mail).

And if you're using point buy, it's going to be difficult for anyone to get 17 AC outside of half-plate using a method not also available to the heavy armor user- the only PHB method I can think of would be burning a feat on Medium Armor Master if you started with a 16 Dex, doable at level 1 if Variant Humans are allowed, or level 4 at the cost of your ASI- but that's still using an ASI the heavy armor user can use in another way. Non-core, well, there's Tortles. But all of these require the DM to say "yes, we are using this optional content".

But that still means the heavy armor user has to come up with another 842 gp and 5 sp (I think, not enough sleep so my math is fuzzy) to surpass the half-plate user, and that seems like a lot of effort to get that 1 AC bump. Sure, you could dump Dex...but it's hard to know if the gains elsewhere will make up for the loss.

 

[Baron Opal II]

whether its a paladin, fighter, cleric.... if your going for the heavy armor....you want plate. The ultimate in protection!

But....at 1500 gp its one of the priciest core items in the game! So at what level do you generally find the heavy armor characters are getting their plate in your games? Could be they find it, find a magic version of it, or just get the gold and buy it, any method.

Third to 5th level. Being a team game, the party is highly invested in getting their mobile wall the best armor the party can afford.

 

[SteveC]

The campaign I'm currently in has a high degree of sharing and helping out between the characters. We got full plate at level 4 by pooling resources because the characters were pretty tight as friends, but also because a few of them didn't have much to do with the gold.

Our DM responded by setting out prices for lots of potions and basic magic items and it made people think about their coins a bit more. That and we're running the Trollskull Tavern, so that's an endless money pit.

 

[James Gasik]

Just last session I surprised my players. They hit this town and I mentioned that it had a weaponsmith/armorer, but apparently they assumed it was just basic PHB gear so they never went there. After some dungeon delving, they had a lot of treasure to unload, and someone finally walked into the Busterbuckle Armory. And found that the whole time the smith was able to crank out weapons that inflict elemental damage on commission, and even had a few items in stock that had been commissioned but never claimed!

They seemed stunned to realize that not only could they purchase magic weapons, but that I had actual prices and that the smith was willing to purchase their unwanted items for "store credit"!

Actual quote: "This is the first 5e game where I've actually been able to use my gold for something I wanted!"

Not useful. But something he wanted. I was satisfied with a job well done.