Hybrid Armour

[Holy Evil]

Had an idea and want to see if it is balanced.

Essentially it's just adding Leather Armour (or more accurately, Leather on top of the chain, so it rather acts more like padded Armour) to a Chain Shirt thus getting +5. The padding would basically cover the same parts as the chain shirt, but thus it would be harder to penetrate (thats how my logic works)

Battle Leather (Yeh, i know but i couldn't think of a better name, feel free to offer suggestions )
Cost: 250gp
Armour Bonus: +5
Max Dex: +4
Armour Check Penalty: -3
Arcane Spell Failure Chance: 25%
Speed: 30ft
Weight: 30lb
Armour Type: Light

Please say whether you think it's balanced, and if you think it isn't, please offer a suggestion (Other than changing it from Light to Medium armour as thats basically the greater purpose behind this)

(Chain shirt (100gp, +4 bonus, max dex +4, armour check -2, 20% arcane, 30ft, 25lb, Light.
Scale Mail (50gp, +4, max dex +3, armour check -4, 25% arcane, 20ft. 30lb, medium)
Using the ideas that i at elast seem to see in the differences here, i figure changing the cost of something thus makes it able to be a better item.
Increase in Cost = Increase in it's practical value.

 

[Elephant]

Hmm...compare it to Elven Chain:

Elven Chain
Cost: 4150gp
Armour Bonus: +5
Max Dex: +4
Armour Check Penalty: -2
Arcane Spell Failure Chance: 20%
Speed: 30ft (Medium)
Weight: 20lb
Armour Type: Light

IMO, the hit you take from an extra -1 Armor Check Penalty and 5% Arcane Spell Failure Chance does not warrant the price difference of 3900gp.

 

[Holy Evil]

You forgot that the Elven Chain is also 10lb's lighter

Yeh, i hadn't thought Elven Chain before, and well, that kind of puts doubt on the plausibility of "Battle Armour". But i seem to remember that it also gives a +5 or 10 to Hide or such.

 

[AuraSeer]

No, you're confusing it with the Cloak of Elvenkind. Elven chain is just nonmagical armor and doesn't give any stat or skill bonuses.

 

[Antoine]

Essentially it's just adding Leather Armour (or more accurately, Leather on top of the chain, so it rather acts more like padded Armour) to a Chain Shirt thus getting +5. The padding would basically cover the same parts as the chain shirt, but thus it would be harder to penetrate (thats how my logic works)

Chances are chain shirt is most likely worn over a leather or cloth padding already.

I don't think an extra padding covering the same parts as the chain shirt is worth +1 AC.

Padded armor covering the whole body is.

Also : careful with those +5 AC non magical light armors.
The only ones available in the game are the most expensive mithral chain mails and breastplates. Worth about 4 000+ gp apiece.

Also : your "battle leather", if built with masterwork quality, will cost only 400 gp and get even closer to elven chain.

Finally : chain shirt w/ some leather bits = superior to real chain mail in all aspects ?

Conclusion : unbalanced.

 

[Holy Evil]

Ahh, very valid arguments. Well, it would appear that "Battle Leather" shall never make it into a game, unless we also rule that Magic Missile does 1d20 per missile, with 3 missles at level 1, 9 at lvl 2, 21 at level 3 and so on and so forth.

Thank to all again.

 

[Enkhidu]

A quick reminder of how armor is already layered - chainmail (and heavier armors for that matter) are always worn over a padded garment to prevent chafing. Yes that means that you probably wouldn't be out of line to say that a person who removes their heavy armor but leaves their padding on is wearing the equivelent of padded armor. Which, if the person who crafted the armor in the forst place was paying attention, may also be masterwork or magical.

When you think about layering armor like this, remember that armor bonuses don't stack, and you should probably treat each layer of armor as a separate bonus.

 

[Starglim]

Historically there were plenty of reinforced chainmail styles, with padding, hardened leather, multiple layers, bits of plate, and so on. They would be described in D&D as banded mail, which also covers lamellar armour. I wouldn't consider a padded or boiled-leather coat plus chain mail to be light armour.