Does Medium Armor Need a Buff?

[Psikerlord#]

I dont think medium armour needs a buff. Seems fine to me.

 

[MG.0]

It takes so long to put on and take off because it is well fitted. It takes a good long while to put on a tux properly - would you argue that sleeping in it makes you 1/7th of the way to dead?

Long story short, sleeping in armor is uncomfortable, but not to the level you seem to think, and there's multiple historical references that knights on the front lines did just that, and didn't keel over simply from doing it for a week. There are also modern day soldiers who do so (which is different from full plate, but not so different from lighter stuff).

The main issues with sleeping in your armor (and then going all day in the same armor) are basically the same as if you never change your clothes - you'll be rank, and your armor is going to start to rot and degrade.

I'd suggest that there are plenty more realistic deterrents to wearing armor all the time than needing to have people slowly die from wearing it in bed.

I wasn't clear. The exhaustion isn't cumulative. If you sleep in armor you get a single level of exhaustion if you are currently at zero, i.e. it doesn't make an already exhausted character more exhausted. Continuing to sleep in armor doesn't inflict additional levels.

Edit: Sleeping in armor doesn't decrease exhaustion levels either.

 

[Saeviomagy]

That's much more reasonable, but it still seems harsh to me.

 

[MG.0]

That's much more reasonable, but it still seems harsh to me.

Maybe.

I'm still open to tweaking it. In fact I'm planning to revamp the whole rest/sleep/exhaustion thing at some nebulous point in the future.

 

[Savage Wombat]

I don't mind medium armor as far as AC, but I feel like it needs more of a reason to exist than it currently has.

 

[Xeviat]

I'm mostly convinced. I just would like some responses to why optimized medium armor matches optimized light armor until Dex 20 (regardless of the level). Should I be looking at the difference between someone who puts those stat ups into Dexterity vs. Constitution? I don't like that the Str Ranger takes an AC hit compared to the Dex ranger unless the Str Ranger is willing to deal with a Stealth Penalty or spend a feat on Medium Armor master.

As for ability scores, I've found that my players all strive to start with a 16 in their attack stat and boost it up to 20 as fast as they can. The monster math supports this too; the baseline monster (the table from the DMG that CRs are based around) gets +1 AC at 4 and 8, and also at the proficiency bonus levels (except it gets 1 at 10 instead of 9, I believe).

 

[discosoc]

I don't know. I guess I just feel like you're dead set on trying to make everything perfectly even and balanced, when that's kind of unrealistic when there's so much that's subjective. If you want to make a strength ranger, and you want them to be able to sneak and not have to dedicate a feat to it, then something is going to give.

As for your players, if they all just want to rush their prime stat to 20, awesome. It's a choice they can make, and if they feel like medium armor isn't worth it then so be it. There are plenty of reasons why medium armor is fine the way it is, but none of that matters if your players aren't building characters that take advantage of those particular reasons. Such is choice.

 

[ad_hoc]

As for ability scores, I've found that my players all strive to start with a 16 in their attack stat and boost it up to 20 as fast as they can. The monster math supports this too; the baseline monster (the table from the DMG that CRs are based around) gets +1 AC at 4 and 8, and also at the proficiency bonus levels (except it gets 1 at 10 instead of 9, I believe).

Medium Armour is for the in-between classes. Valour Bard and Cleric come to mind. You can't max out everything.

 

[Shadowdweller00]

Swimming in full plate would actually be easier than chain mail, and definitely easier than robes. Full plate was custom fitted and the weight was evenly distributed around the body via buckles, straps, and harnesses. It would probably rust easily though.

Anyway, didn't mean to sidetrack it and your point about the rules not meant to be comprehensive still stands. Just saying that certain tropes like how plate is handled aren't always as accurate as they seem.

Physics fail. Weight -distribution- is not the issue with swimming in armor. Buoyancy (cf Archimedes' principle) is.

 

[Gillywonka]

No, i dont think it needs a buff. I think the PC in question needs to make a decision when they reach the balancing point... do they go with heavier armor and lose the DEX mod (and stealth), or do they go with the DEX mod path, and thus limiting themselves to wearing armor types that allow the DEX mod to influence their AC (and stealth).