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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tessarael" data-source="post: 9873973" data-attributes="member: 12909">5E and 5.5E D&D don't allow the Dexterity maximum bonus to AC to be increased significantly for bounded accuracy reasons. You're limited to one of the following:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Light armor AC 12 + full Dexterity modifier => maximum of AC 17 with Dexterity 20.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Medium armor AC 15 + Dexterity modifier (max 2) => maximum of AC 17 with Dexterity 14+; but with the <a href="https://5e.tools/feats.html#medium%20armor%20master_xphb" target="_blank">Medium Armor Master feat</a>, this increases to max +3, so AC 18 with Dexterity 16+.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Heavy armor AC 18 and no dexterity modifier.</li> </ul>As much as this armor + Dexterity bonus maximum of AC 17 to 18 is a little boring, it avoids some of the crazy high AC values that were possible in earlier editions. I do agree that it should be possible to remove the Stealth check and movement speed penalties. There are expensive armors like mithral that remove the Stealth penalty. And to remove the 10' speed penalty, you just need to meet the Strength requirement for the armor, and in D&D 2014 being a Dwarf also provided that benefit.The basis intent is that folks wearing armor either have at least a moderately high Strength for the heavy armor, or a decent Dexterity score, but you're not rewarded excessively for both of those. It is fine to homebrew something different if you're not fussed about bounded accuracy and allow nigh unhittable characters, or if the players avoid such overpowered builds.I assume that you know all this, just detailing the logic behind the 5E AC framework, which makes sense to me. 3E got crazy with too many stacking modifiers. There are a few cases like this in 5E, such as casting the Shield spell while wielding a shield, which I would not allow to stack as a DM, but they largely fixed such issues.</blockquote>

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