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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Malin Genie" data-source="post: 1308957" data-attributes="member: 1058">The current armour table lists armour that covers a number of eras historically and a number of regions geographically.  In most locations in most eras only a few of the DnD armour types would have been represented.Restricted availability is the key.  In the character's starting region maybe the technique of knitting chain has not been developed, and so chain mail and chain shirts are not available.  Characters would have to travel, or find a skilled blacksmith who knows the art and just might be willing - for a lot of money - to custom-make a suit for one of the characters.  And wearing it will immediately draw attention to the character as an oddity or outlander.And even masterwork doesn't have to be a universal choice - an era could have only basic metalworking skills and poor alloys and so while metallic armour can be bought, masterwork versions of metal armour are just not available.  This could lead to an interesting situation where apart from rare finds from ancient civilisations with now-lost skills or similar, the only magical armour is at best hide!Perhaps only dwarves have the skill and knowledge to make full plate (making half plate the 'best human approximation') and only a character who has done a great service to the dwarven nation could hope to buy one.Even using the default rules and availability, thoughts like this can help explain magical 'inferior' armour.  The armour dated from an era or came from a region where that armour was the best available.  A character with a good Appraise (or Craft(Armoursmith)) skill might be able to give a good guess as to where/when it came from, adding flavour to the campaign ('Ah yes, this dates from the era of King Horvax the Mad, who declared that fish were superior to humans and thus any armourer creating armour other than scale mail woud be executed...')</blockquote>

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