Build me a katana + trenchcoat guy

[Jon Wake]

You really want to be That Guy?

 

[hong]

Remember that most classes which don't have heavy armour prof will have dex or int as a primary stat, since there's no max dex, their AC will go up as they increase the appropraite stat. It's only Warlocks and possibly melee rangers who's ACs' might fall behind.

Remind me how armour prof works again...? Heavy armour doesn't give you your Dex/Int bonus to AC, is this correct?

 

[Sojorn]

Remind me how armour prof works again...? Heavy armour doesn't give you your Dex/Int bonus to AC, is this correct?

Yes.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Remind me how armour prof works again...? Heavy armour doesn't give you your Dex/Int bonus to AC, is this correct?

That's also going to be immidiately ruled out.

 

[hong]

That's also going to be immidiately ruled out.

And you are...?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

And you are...?

I presume the guy wearing the heavy armor?

 

[ProfessorCirno]

And you are...?

A sometimes DM?

Not quite sure what you're trying to be getting at here.

 

[Blackeagle]

That's also going to be immidiately ruled out.

Why? It seems like a good way to give the light, quick fighter a chance to keep up with the slow, wrapped in steel guy.

 

[Victim]

Heavy Armor already allows for really high AC without allowing a stat to add. Adding Dex would mean high level plate wearers could basically ignore AC based attacks.

 

[DonAdam]

Ouch. That implies a pretty big disparity between your tanks and everyone else.

No. The numbers exactly offset the rate of ability mod increases, as I said above. If they didn't, the plate armor would become obsolete at high levels.

Plate goes +8-> +11 (at levels 16-25) -> +14 (at levels 26-30).

Hide goes +3 -> +4 (16-25) -> +5 (26-30).

Level, proficiency, and enhancement bonuses are a wash, so we'll ignore them:

The masterwork bump is +3 for heavy armors, +1 for light. But the first comes after 5 (on average) increases in ability scores, which means that both characters' AC's have gone up by 3.

The second comes after 8 (on average) increases, which means you're still comparing +6 and +6.

Assuming we're comparing like vs. like (hide vs. plate, leather vs. chain) the AC difference would evolve like this over levels (I'm assuming characters get their new magic armors at the midpoint of their level range, on average, so levels 3, 8, 13, 18, 23, and 28):

Light Armor AC - Heavy Armor AC

Level          18 starting Dex         20 starting Dex
-------------------------------------------------------
  1-7                   -1                         0
  8-13                   0                         +1
 14-17                  +1                         +2
 18-20                  -1                         +0
 21-27                  +0                         +1
 28-30                  -1                         +0