PHB Armors in 3.x

[Mark CMG]

I'd say that, as long as you're allowing for a "poor quality" trait, you're not impacting realism so much as specificity. Crappy orc-made hide armor would still be in the game world, and still be modeled with appropriate mechanics; it just wouldn't exist as a specific item on the equipment table.

In this case, the clunkers might be some of the armors that are available to PCs on the regular equipment table that most don't use, as per some of the posts above.

 

[Chainsaw Mage]

Of course, that implies that the future of D&D is as some computer-paper hybrid, not bloody likely.

Where have you been these past two weeks, doode?

 

[shurai]

Armor doesn't scale well? That's quite an encumbered pun.

More seriously, I agree about the PHB armor table not being very good in a number of ways. The poll at this point shows that, basically, players almost always wear the best-of-group armors and that's it. That means the rest of the table is irrelevant and might as well be removed. In my view a more flexible system (provided it is simple enough) would be ideal. Hopefully the 4th Ed editors get this idea.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I have nothing against a few armor types being "sucker plays" in the long term for PCs. Some choices just might happen to be suboptimal and there is a place for that in any vaguely reaslistic universe.

At least among the light armors, Leather, Studded Leather, and Chain Shirt are each optimal for some particular PCs.

My big complaint is this same situation does not hold for medium and heavy. Why could not Chain been +6 (+1) and Breast Plate +5 (+3)? Then we would see a little diversefication. Ditto for heavy armors.

Personally, I think we should probably get rid of Mithral armors entirely. Sometimes, it seems like there is so much Mithral Chain Shirt we cannot give it away, but not a single bit of magical heavy armor to be found.

 

[WayneLigon]

Lighten up, Francis.

Any of you guys touch my stuff... and I'll kill ya.

Usually I'll see leather, studded leather, chain shirt, maybe chainmail, maybe half-plate. Sometimes I'll see scale mail because it does look cool.

 

[maggot]

Leather: Light armor druid
Hide: Medium armor druid
Studded Leather: Rogue very concerned about skill check penalties
Breastplate: Medium-armor Barbarian
Chainmail: Medium-armor Barbarian at first level
Full Plate: Heavy Armor guy
Banded Mail: Heavy Armor guy at first level
Chain Shirt: everyone else that isn't a mage

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Leather.
Studded leather.
Chain shirt.
Breastplate. I used this once, and it's never as good as a chain shirt unless you're mounted. (Silly speed reduction!)
Full plate.

That's it. IMO, there should be an armor quality called "primitive" that slightly worsens armor, rather than creating "bad choices". Having said that, there isn't really such a thing as "better hide armor" as far as I know.

 

[EvilPheemy]

I don't do a lot of playing these days. I'm normally the GM. Thus, I *love* lousy, crappy armor choices. Cultural choices play a big role in what becomes available to my players. For example, in one of my old campaigns, Full and Half Plate was restricted to the nobility. Indeed, if a person not of name were to be caught in ownership of such armor, they would be arrested, the armor confiscated, and brought before the local Lord for judgement.

I've also run campaigns where armoring techniques weren't advanced enough for certain armors to be available. Chainmail for example, was only available from the Elves. Dwarven smiths were well capable of crafting chainmail, but wouldn't because of their cultural antipathy.

Hide Armor is great for savage cultures that haven't discovered the secret of boiling leather in oil first to stiffen it.

At low levels, these restrictions turn into reasons for PCs to adventure. If Plate armors are restricted to the Aristocracy, then the PCs have reason to court a patron (who can grant them leave to possess the coveted metal suit). If they exist in a culture that hasn't developed chain mail yet, they'll become rather envious of that far away land where their warriors wear coats of woven steel.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Padded - With obscene Dex, it's arguably the best armor!

Leather - Played a Druid in a one-shot once, and the DM ruled studded leather counted as metal. That's the ONLY reason I've used this junk.

Studded Leather - For anyone aspiring towards padded, this is what to use in the mean time, generally. Still awesome at later levels, though.

Chain Shirt - +4 dex is a typical endpoint for many characters. Mithral twilight combo is also handy for casters.

Breastplate - Ok, anything that fits your dex bonus and adds up to +8 or higher is good. Same really applies to all the others.

Fullplate - For the low-dex crowd

If your point was to show the medium armors and all heavy armors besides full plate as worthless, I guess my experiences back you up.

 

[airwalkrr]

I've used all of them except padded. I can't even see a use for padded unless your Dexterity modifier is +8 and you can't contemplate it ever going up. Leather I use when playing barbarians, bards, rangers, and rogue at 1st level, I then upgrade to mw studded leather as soon as I can afford it. For rogues and rangers, my last upgrade is to mithral chain shirt. For barbarians I usually go with mithral breastplate to keep my fast speed. For bards, I might go either mithral chain mail or mithral breastplate, but it makes little difference unless I have a lot of Dex-based skills (which I usually do not with bards). When playing cleric, fighters and paladins, I normally start with scale mail at 1st level, then upgrade to chain mail as soon as I can. Since I don't care about ACP with such characters, I typically avoid splurging for breastplate. My last upgrade is usually mithral plate, although on occassion I have upgraded to banded mail, splint mail, or half-plate in between. I rarely wear full plate unless it is mithral. I figure if I'm gonna spend 1,500 base cost for armor, it better be great armor.