Platemail sold here for CHEAP!!

[SDOgre]

Does anyone have any insight on why platemail now cost only 50gp?

I understand that they wanted to drop the amount of gold in circulation and I commend them for that. Good.

But only 5gp more than scale? Only about a 10% bump for the best mundane armor in the game? Far be it from me to enter history into the equation, but historians have said a full set of plate armor was like owning your own jet...

With a price change so dramatic, does anyone have some insight into why? (It's a 15 Skill Challenge)

 

[Shroomy]

Its so first level characters could afford the best non-magical armor they are proficient in.

 

[Torg Smith]

Does anyone have any insight on why platemail now cost only 50gp?

I understand that they wanted to drop the amount of gold in circulation and I commend them for that. Good.

But only 5gp more than scale? Only about a 10% bump for the best mundane armor in the game? Far be it from me to enter history into the equation, but historians have said a full set of plate armor was like owning your own jet...

With a price change so dramatic, does anyone have some insight into why? (It's a 15 Skill Challenge)

Skill is a limitation to wear it. You penalize the players that have the role to wear it if it is real expensive.

 

[Branduil]

In 4e, plate is rare because only Paladins begin the game proficient with it, not because it's expensive monetarily.

 

[markl]

A 10% bump in price for a less than 10% bump in effectiveness seems about right to me

 

[SDOgre]

So everyone agrees that it was WAY overpriced in 3E?

I know the economy is different in this edition, but if you think it's fine the way it is now, then you must think it was all jacked up before. Right?

 

[WalterKovacs]

For "mundane" starting gear ... 50 is the capper.

50 for plate, 50 for an everburning torch, 50 for the lowest potion, 50 for a spell book/ritual book. Considering that it is half your starting resources, and in this game, you are actually expected to start with it [as a paladin].

In 3e ... full plate was effectively a magic item considering it's cost ... you could not start the game with it at 1st level. Of course, they did add a number of intermediary types, that were cheaper, but provided less of an AC bonus AND less of a dex bonus to AC than the more expensive stuff ... so they purposely made cost a balancing factor.

In this case, each 'better' armor is slightly more expensive, but also, requires a longer "armor" tree than just light/medium/heavy. As a result, cost is minor [and irrelevant when it becomes magical] and the feats are the main balancing factor. [especially in the case of scale being much better than chainmail].

 

[Sphyre]

historians have said a full set of plate armor was like owning your own jet...

It's a good thing that none of the settings I play in, play in world called Earth in the Sol Solar System.

Actually, since paladins are the only PHB class that start with plate proficiency and paladins aren't that common in my setting, Plate is not normally made, sold and bought, but those with the appropriate connections (paladins) may be able to find someone who will make it for 50 gp, especially considering those who commonly make it are associated with paladins in some way.

If it's in the PHB, DMG or MM, you're not obligated to go with that cost.

 

[drothgery]

So everyone agrees that it was WAY overpriced in 3E?

Pretty much. The 3e pricing created a strange dynamic where no 1st or 2nd level fighter would wear plate (because they couldn't afford it) even if they were doing the heavy armor thing, but all heavy-armor wearing fighters above 3rd level or so always wore plate (because the cost of plate became insignificant relative to the cost of enchantment at higher levels, and in it was superior to other heavy armor in all ways other than price).

 

[theNater]

So everyone agrees that it was WAY overpriced in 3E?

I know the economy is different in this edition, but if you think it's fine the way it is now, then you must think it was all jacked up before. Right?

I was always annoyed that my plate wearers couldn't acquire plate before third level. The prices might have been more in-line with a real world economy, but they didn't enhance my play experience.