My Armor Table, Can You Do Better?

[ren1999]

Armor Table
None ac10+0, weight 0kg (1 liter of milk weighs about 1kg)
Padded ac10+1 weight 0.5kg
Leather(includes Hide) ac+2, 1kg
Studded ac10+3, 1.5 kg
Chain ac10+4, Dex-1, 1.5kg
Scale ac10+5, Dex-2, 2kg
Banded ac10+6, Dex-3, 2.5kg
Splint(includes Half-Plate) ac10+7, Dex-4, 3kg
Plate ac10+8, 3.5kg, Dex-5

This armor stacks with
Light Wooden Shield ac10+1, 700grams
Heavy Wooden Shield ac10+2, 800grams
Tower Wooden Shield ac10+3, 900grams
Light Steel Shield ac10+4, 1kg
Heavy Steel Shield ac10+5, 1.5kg
Tower Steel Shield ac10+6, 2kg
No two-handed weapons or 2nd hand weapons with any heavy or tower shield

AC10+Armor Bonus+Shield Bonus+Dexterity Modifier+Feat or Power Bonus+Magic Abjuration

 

[Mattachine]

The armor weights are much too low. A good leather jacket weights 1-2 kg, so a full suit of stiffened leather needs to weight much more.

 

[ren1999]

Can you give me all the weights?

I remember visiting George Washington's house. The guy was a Halfling.

 

[El Mahdi]

...I remember visiting George Washington's house. The guy was a Halfling.

What...?

First off, George Washington was well over 6' tall.

Second, what in the hell are you talking about...? What does this have to do with Armor Weights...?

Third, concerning the OP:

My Armor Table, Can You Do Better?...

It depends on what you're trying to do, as to whether we can do better.

Are you trying to improve upon past D&D Armor Tables? (in which case I'd say you've fallen short, and yes - I can do better...)

Are you trying to make a more "realistic" Armor Table (based on real-world armor)? (in which case I'd say you've epically fallen short., and yes - I can and have done significantly better..)

Or are you just trying to come up with an Armor Table for 5E that you like? (in which case I'd say your liking this is probably in the minority, and it's likely impossible for anyone to do better when the criteria is "what you like"...)

 

[Mattachine]

I do like the idea of shields giving a significant bonus to AC. Also, a metal shield should give a better bonus than a wooden shield, just as leather armor gives a better bonus than chain. If D&D is going to use the system it uses (very abstract, armor as reduced chance to hit, dependent on material), then it should be more consistent.

 

[RHGreen]

Light Armour - Add Dexterity

Medium Armour - ? Not sure yet. (Lowest of dex/str or highest of dex/str or something else.)

Heavy Armour - Add Strength

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

Light Armour - Add Dexterity

Medium Armour - ? Not sure yet. (Lowest of dex/str or highest of dex/str or something else.)

Heavy Armour - Add Strength

How about:

Light - get Dex bonus
Medium - get 1 Dex bonus per Str bonus
Heavy - get 1 Dex bonus per 2 Str bonus

 

[RHGreen]

How about:

Light - get Dex bonus
Medium - get 1 Dex bonus per Str bonus
Heavy - get 1 Dex bonus per 2 Str bonus

That's interesting - using Strength as a Dex Bonus Cap. Something like that might work with Medium.

I wanted Heavy to work purely on Strength, though. The idea is that Heavy armour isn't as much to do with movement, but rather that they can take a hit full on and take the impact. If a child wore plate mail it is still going to take a beating. Arnie with Plate Mail on is going to take the impact shunt and brush it off with no HP damage.

 

[BobTheNob]

The shield bonus's get pretty big. I remember this from the Infinity engine games. The only time I ever had a 2-handed weapon weilder in those game was BG2 and thats only because there happened to be a really top notch Holy Avenger in that game, otherwise I wouldnt have bothered.

Why? Well, when shields give massive AC bonus's you end up saying "Am I really willing to give up my +5 tower shield for 8(9?) points of AC just to do a little more damage?". Well, without an absolutely AWESOME two-hander to justify it, almost never.

Lets face it, once you have a +5 longsword and a +5 twohander, the damage difference between them is negligible, and giving up 8-9 points of AC for that is just not going to happen.

I acknowledge alot of this discussion comes down to the difference in damage output of 1-handers vs 2-handers and how 5e will handle that, but without that knowledge I wouldnt be jumping the gun on how much AC a shield should offer.

 

[Savage Wombat]

In 3.5/PF, the difference between a 1-h Power Attack and a 2-h Power Attack is considerable. Even at low levels you're talking about a dozen or so extra points of damage.