D&D 5E D&D needs more armors

Minigiant · Nov 11, 2020

D&D needs more armors.

D&D is a fantasy game. There is no real need to constrain the defensive protection of its warriors to the standards of the real world.

D&D could use armors of:

More materials. D&D already went down the leather, cloth, and steel rabbit holes. Might as well go down the wood, bone, bronze and other hard materials for armors.

More layers and thicknesses. Again. Already done the breastplate, half plate, full plate route. Heavier padded cloth and different hides make sense. Why is every nonmagical animal's hide the same protection? What about partial plate or leather?

More smithing techniques. Why would all these fantasy races be limited to the armorcrafting techniques of real life Earth? Maybe ancient dwarves made coats of steel strips out of leftover pieces in the forge. Or an armor made of sewed together cutlery or knifes.

Let's get a little crazy.

Zardnaar · Nov 11, 2020

Minigiant said:
D&D needs more armors.

D&D is a fantasy game. There is no real need to constrain the defensive protection of its warriors to the standards of the real world.

D&D could use armors of:

More materials. D&D already went down the leather, cloth, and steel rabbit holes. Might as well go down the wood, bone, bronze and other hard materials for armors.

More layers and thicknesses. Again. Already done the breastplate, half plate, full plate route. Heavier padded cloth and different hides make sense. Why is every nonmagical animal's hide the same protection? What about partial plate or leather?

More smithing techniques. Why would all these fantasy races be limited to the armorcrafting techniques of real life Earth? Maybe ancient dwarves made coats of steel strips out of leftover pieces in the forge. Or an armor made of sewed together cutlery or knifes.

Let's get a little crazy.

2E combat and tactics.

wingsandsword · Nov 11, 2020

These things have existed at other times and places in D&D's history.

Dark Sun in 2e covered the kinds of armor that might be more common on a world where metal is very rare, like bone.

The 3e Arms and Equipment Guide covered armor made out of stone and magically hardened leaves.

3e had a variety of forms of plate, from a breastplate alone (which counted as medium armor) to half plate and full plate (2e had the same distinction, calling it plate mail, field plate, and full plate).

The relatively simple list of armor types is specific to 5e, not to D&D.

BookTenTiger · Nov 11, 2020

One design problem I've noticed with "more weapons" or "more armor" designs is that their use is really limited by class in 5e. In the game I play in, only two out of the six characters- the fighter and the barbarian- even use weapons, and our general strategy with armor is "what's the highest AC I can get?"

To increase the versatility of armor, I think it would be interesting to increase the uses of armor.

Right now armor is only used to boost AC and punish some skills. What are some other meaningful ways that armor could impact gameplay?

Armor as a spellbook or living scroll?

Heavy armors made of different materials to impact carrying capacity / druidic restrictions?

Armor that grants bonuses on some rolls, such as Athletics or Concentration checks?

Armor that grants bonuses to saving throws?

Armor that allows different modes of movement (climb, swim, etc)?

These are just some ideas.

Puddles · Nov 11, 2020

Seems like a great thing to write some homebrew rules for your own campaign. If I was doing it, I would try to keep the bonuses as small as possible to fit in with the bounded accuracy of 5e.

Off the top of my head, having armour types that gives you a bonus of +1 AC against 1 of the 13 damage types would be a small bonus that still has a lot of design space between regular armour and magical armour.

Armour made from mundane materials could give you +1 AC against 1 of the mundane damage types (piercing, slashing, bludgeoning), and armour made from more esoteric means could give you +1 AC against 1 of the special types of damage (acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant, and thunder).

For example:

Silk Padded Half Plate
Armour (Half Plate), Uncommon Item, 900gp
This steel cuirass has been lined with layers of black-tarantula silk beneath and is able to stop an arrow or crossbow bolt from piercing it. While wearing this armour, you gain a +1 bonus to AC against weapons with the piercing damage type.

Dwarven Forge Plate
Armour (Plate), Uncommon Item, 1,700gp
This master-crafted suite of armour was made by the Dwarves of Stormgard and is said to hold the fires of the great forges within its steel still. While wearing this armour, you gain a +1 bonus to AC against weapons with the fire damage type.

Actually I might come up with a load of these to put into my world!

Minigiant · Nov 11, 2020

wingsandsword said:
These things have existed at other times and places in D&D's history.

Dark Sun in 2e covered the kinds of armor that might be more common on a world where metal is very rare, like bone.

The 3e Arms and Equipment Guide covered armor made out of stone and magically hardened leaves.

3e had a variety of forms of plate, from a breastplate alone (which counted as medium armor) to half plate and full plate (2e had the same distinction, calling it plate mail, field plate, and full plate).

The relatively simple list of armor types is specific to 5e, not to D&D.

5e and 4e. 4e had a buttload of armor types but they all were magical.

2e and 3e had more variety however they attempted to stick to reality too much.

BookTenTiger · Nov 11, 2020

Thinking about this further, what if instead of adding more armor types, you focused on armor materials?

Light Armor Materials

Web Armor
This armor is woven from the webs of giant spiders. It is exceptionally light, but vulnerable to fire.
Effects:

+10 gp
Change weight to 2 lb.
This armor does not grant disadvantage to Stealth checks.
A character wearing Web Armor gains advantage on rolls to escape from a spider's web attack or the effects of the Web spell.
When a character wearing this armor takes Fire damage, the armor loses one point of its AC bonus. When this bonus is reduced to 0, the armor is destroyed.

Alchemist's Armor
Stitched to this armor are a multitude of pockets, bottle-holders, and tubing. Alchemists use this armor to better access their materials.
Effects:

+200 gp
+5 lb weight
When wearing this armor, drinking a potion is a bonus action.

Aquatic Armor
This light armor is stitched from the fur, hide, and exoskeletons of sea life. Built into its structure are flippers and fins to aid underwater movement.
Effects:

+100 gp
+15 lb weight
When wearing the armor, characters gain a swim speed equal to 1/2 their movement +5 feet.

GMMichael · Nov 11, 2020

BookTenTiger said:
To increase the versatility of armor, I think it would be interesting to increase the uses of armor.

Right now armor is only used to boost AC and punish some skills. What are some other meaningful ways that armor could impact gameplay?

Two reasons PCs don't demand more armor:
1) armor never breaks, or loses its protective qualities.
2) as stated, the main benefit is AC. Why change from armor of one AC to another with the same AC?

Well, if armor wears down, then PCs will have to be forging their own armor, or buying what's around.

Alternative armors can differ in more than AC. Its appearance can get you faction benefits or penalties. Some armor is intimidating. Some armor keeps you from getting hit by your allies, since you look like they do. Some armor gets you into the Inner Sanctum. Baby Seal armor gives you an aura of odor repulsion. And evil.

Food for thought:

Final Fantasy 4 / IV / FF4 - Armor List

UFFSite offers extensive coverage of the Final Fantasy series (and then some). Includes information, news, media, interactivity, forums and more.

www.uffsite.net

Sacrosanct · Nov 11, 2020

I'm of the opposite approach. D&D has way too many armors. How many people over the years actually had PCs in banded or ring mail? The only reason to wear armor is for the AC, so that's the only real factor that matters. Just have armor categories, each with one common armor type, and leave it at that. if someone really wants to have "armor made from the tree of the rare ironwood, dipped in the blood of a demon, and held together by the exceedingly rare fart spider's webbing" then let them. No need to have it in a book.