D&D 5E (2014) D&D needs more armors

[Ace]

I'd like some AC13 light armor but that might be a bit cheesy.

Otherwise its easy enough to reskin existing armor as something else, Halfplate becomes Chitin or whatever. After all stats are balance, flavor is not.

 

[Horwath]

They just need something like 3E. A bit more variety in the armor. Heavy armor with +1 or 2 dex allowed sure why not?

Medium armor +3 dex allowed same thing.

Light armor AC 11-13, Medium 14-16, 17-19 heavy.

Modified by dex. 5E armor basically crap. I suppose you could put in +3 chainmail instead of +1 full plate but that's a high level thing because of the +3 part.

what variety in 3.5?

in 3,5e you had 2 armors:

Chain shirt and heavy plate(Races of Stone).
That is it for mundane armors.

You got some extra with mithril/adamantium verstions of those 2 armors and extra for mithril breastplate.
Every medium armor in 3.5e was a waste of printing ink.

 

[Horwath]

one way for armors to make a difference is to have innate damage reduction vs. some damage types.

Padded/leather/hide could be thick and have DR vs blunt damage.

chain armors could have DV vs slashing

plate could have DR vs slashing and piercing.

 

[Minigiant]

Well here are a few questions.

Why are we okay with having multiple weapons with no or little mechanical differences but are troubled or hesitant to do the same with armor?

If the mundane damage types (bludgeoning, piercing, slashing) only matter when adding adding variants, named items, or modules to the game, couldn't this be the thought pattern for armors?

What if there were a simple variant rule for materials and armor? There could be multiple "top rank" armors but the armors would have different materials.

Fore example Studded Leather, Thick Padded, and Gladiator Plate could be the top light armor. All three offer AC equal to 12+Dex Modifier. However they are made of Leather, Cloth, and Steel respectively.

As an reaction or when taking the Dodge action (in 5e), a character proficient in their armor can give themselves resistance to a few damage type until the end of their next turn. In other editions, you'd get similar resistances by doing something.

The different material types would give warriors a choice of armor beside the gold cost.

Do you choose leather armor to dodge fire and lightning or wear metal to resist slashing and piercing? Or is resisting sonic/thunder and bludgeoning your jam and you choose cloth armor?

 

[Minigiant]

If D&D were to go a little more complex and fantasical, I wold go

• Light
  • Padded​
  • Gladiator/Partial Leather​
  • Cord​
  • Leather​
  • Studded Leather​
  • Gladiator/Partial Plate​
  • Leaf Scale​
  • Thick Padded/Linothorax/Gambeson​
• Medium
  • Hide​
  • Chain Shirt​
  • Jack of Plates​
  • Light Bronze​
  • Scale Mail​
  • Gem​
  • Banded Shirt​
  • Brigandine​
  • Breastplate​
  • Bone Shirt​
  • Half Plate​
  • Monster Hide​
  • Wood​
• Heavy
  • Ring​
  • Copper​
  • Chain​
  • Splint​
  • Banded​
  • Ironwood​
  • Heavy Bronze​
  • Monster Bone​
  • Monster Scale​
  • (Full) Plate​
  • Stone​

Bold are armors of the same same top tier in their category. Different editions would use different rules.
Bone armor would resist slashing and fire.
Bronze Armor would resist slashing and acid
Cloth armors would resist bludgeoning and sonic/thunder.
Leather armors would resist fire and lightning.
Hide armors would resist fire and cold.
Stone armors would resist slashing and lightning.
Steel armor would resist slashing and piercing.
Wood armors would resist bludgeoning and lightning.

 

[Voadam]

I liked the array of 4e magic armor types, lots of flavor and style, small bonuses, pretty much separated from AC but on theme.

I hate having to upgrade armor to stay/become competitive/optimized. Pathfinder 1e fighter is particularly bad in this regard with armor abilities coming online at different levels that might or might not work with your stats. B/X D&D was great with a level 1 fighter being able to start with plate mail. 5e is decent in this regard but you still generally start out with chainmail then upgrade in a few levels to plate then some kind of magic plate. I generally prefer to have one character visual costume image and stick with it rather than a continually changing one for armor.

 

[RangerWickett]

Who has played Horizon: Zero Dawn? In it, you actively dodge attacks, but different sorts of armor soak different types of damage at various rates.

So here's what we do: four classes of armor - light, medium, heavy, shield. Light imposes no penalty for wearing it; aside from maybe social drawback. Medium slows you down unless you have Str 12. Heavy slows you down unless you have Str 16. Shields require you have a hand available.

Light provides two defensive benefits, medium provides five, and heavy provides nine. Shields also provide two.

A benefit might be +1 AC, or resistance to one type of damage, or some sort of nifty trick.

Now that we have that baseline, we throw out all concepts of physical medieval reality and come up with bonkers armor. For example:

Armor made of glowing magical energy
A swarm of beetles
You're literally wearing someone else's body
You phase parts of yourself out as you're attacked
A shield that's actually an extradimensional space that can swallow attacks and spit them out
Wooden bark filled with the spirit of a dryad that casts protective spells on you
A pharaoh's mask that blasts aside attacks with holy power
A bracelet that turns your body into stone
Boots that help you sprint to dodge attacks
A Jekyll-Hyde concoction that you drink to turn you into a brute that can absorb injuries

All this could fall under the category of armor.

 

[ArmoredSaint77]

I upvoted this at first, but then read more carefully. You aren't wanting to add more real-world armours; you're wanting crazy fantasy stuff, and I can't get behind that.

There's no point in adding off-the-wall fantasy armours when the game still can't get real-world stuff right, IMO.

 

[Ixal]

I do not see how new armors would fit into D&D.
The combat system is not complex enough so that new armors would offer anything new which is not already covered by the existing ones.

 

[d24454_modern]

I upvoted this at first, but then read more carefully. You aren't wanting to add more real-world armours; you're wanting crazy fantasy stuff, and I can't get behind that.

There's no point in adding off-the-wall fantasy armours when the game still can't get real-world stuff right, IMO.

What's "getting real-world stuff right"?

I think that there should be more types of warrior cultures to base equipment off of. Even Pathfinder doesn't have a Polynesian-themed culture that I can take inspiration from for gameplay.