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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spatzimaus" data-source="post: 1622780" data-attributes="member: 3051">It's not that it's a BAD fix, and it's definitely a start, but don't stop there.  The problem is, if you invert the penalties, medium armor becomes decent again but in my experience it won't be the light-armor types moving up, it'll be the heavy-armor types moving down.The main flaw in D&D armor, in general, is that all it gives is an AC bonus which is identical, in practice, to the AC bonuses available through spells, items, DEX, etc., while adding new penalties.  Solid, material armor needs some bonus that isn't available any other way.IMC, we tried doing it like this:Light/No Armor or Bucklers/Small Shields: 30' movement, x5 RunMedium Armor and/or Large Shields: 25' movement, x4 Run, DR (Hardness/10)/AdamantiumHeavy Armor and/or Tower Shields: 20' movement, x3 Run, DR (Hardness/5)/Adamantium(The complication came from Small races; we just said the 25' reduced to 17.5', i.e., for the 7.5' you can treat one 10' diagonal as a 5' each round)"Hardness" is the hardness of the material used in the armor (Steel is 10, Adamantine is 30, etc.)  Since most items are made from Hardness 10 materials, this is DR 1 for the medium and DR 2 for the heavy.  Later in the game, when everyone's using adamantine this and mithral that, they'll be higher, but we've got a similar system for weapons so it all balances (hint: make masterwork bonuses stack with magic).For movement penalties, use the most prohibitive category, just like with encumbrance; for DRs, they stack.  So, a heavy armor and a large shield, both steel, is 20', x3 run, DR 3/Adamantium.  In addition to the usual AC, of course.</blockquote>

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