Platemail sold here for CHEAP!!
- Thread starter SDOgre
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Byronic
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HP Dreadnought said:
I'm going to object to your argument, my objection is that immersion is fun as well. And being able to buy plate armour at an improbable price (yes, let's stop the discussion about what was real and not real, it's all about what *seems* real) hurts immersion.
And about the argument about reselling (by someone else) I would like to say that Full Plate, (the really expensive kind) was made to size. this means that no one, besides someone that could pass as your identical twin could use your armour very well. They were very precise things (although some pieces might still fit).
Which is a very good reason for why no one would want to buy your armour for more then 50 ^_^
Byronic said:
Actually, from what I understand, 50 gold is a pretty reasonable price for a suit of plate in a real-world medieval economy. It's not that plate is underpriced; it's that everything else is grotesquely overpriced. Remember, 50 gp is one pound of solid gold - that's a hell of a lot of money.
On the other hand, full plate should also offer much, much better protection than scale. There's really no comparison. So I'd be inclined to support the view that "plate mail" means just that, plate and mail, not a suit of full plate; full plate simply hasn't been invented in the D&D world.
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Pedantic Grognard
In terms of the real-world medieval price of gold, fifteen and one-fifth troy ounces of gold for a suit of full plate armor is probably overpricing it, but it's of roughly the right order of magnitude.
In terms of the D&D economy . . . well, who knows what's realistic? Gold is certainly bizarrely abundant for some reason, given the prices of other things. So, well, maybe one of the ancient empires had magical mass-manufacture of plate, and so there are lots of old suits around, and the big problem is the smith finding an old suit roughly your size and making a few adjustments to fit it to you. It makes as much sense as a crossbow costing more than seven troy ounces of gold.
In terms of the D&D economy . . . well, who knows what's realistic? Gold is certainly bizarrely abundant for some reason, given the prices of other things. So, well, maybe one of the ancient empires had magical mass-manufacture of plate, and so there are lots of old suits around, and the big problem is the smith finding an old suit roughly your size and making a few adjustments to fit it to you. It makes as much sense as a crossbow costing more than seven troy ounces of gold.
I think the easiest way to resolve this is:
a) Remember that we're talking about functional plate suitable for wearing into caves, sewers and swamps, not ornate ceremonial dress plate. So a lot of the factors that could make plate expensive do not apply. Sure, you could get someone to do all the extra work on a set of armour to make it worthy of ceremonial wear, but the sets we're talking about don't have all that. In the PoL setting, that level of craftsman turns their attention to Dwarven Plate or Godplate.
Speaking of PoL,
b) The setting assumes an empire that collapsed only a few generations ago. That suggests lots and lots of military 'surplus' was collected either by the honorably discharged, deserters, battlefield scavengers, the enemy etc. This would include a fair amount of mass-produced plate - the sort that could be easily resized to fit members of a large army. A blacksmith could probably alter a set to fit someone similar to how they alter a horseshoe. It may have taken a month, but that's just backstory unless a PC wants to upgrade to a nonmagical set of plate during play.
because
c) Remember that the 100g starting wealth is the value of the starting gear - the PC does not walk into a shop in their underwear with 100g to spend.
Finally,
d) Plate does not offer significantly better protection than scale, and has stiffer penalties, to the point that there is some argument as to whether the extra point of AC is in fact worth it. So it doesn't make sense to try and charge too much more for it. Not only is it unbalanced from a game design point of view, but there wouldn't be many NPCs willing to spend 20 to 30 times as much for something that had as many drawbacks as benefits.
So it makes sense for a functional, utilitarian set of plate to not cost much more than a set of scale.
a) Remember that we're talking about functional plate suitable for wearing into caves, sewers and swamps, not ornate ceremonial dress plate. So a lot of the factors that could make plate expensive do not apply. Sure, you could get someone to do all the extra work on a set of armour to make it worthy of ceremonial wear, but the sets we're talking about don't have all that. In the PoL setting, that level of craftsman turns their attention to Dwarven Plate or Godplate.
Speaking of PoL,
b) The setting assumes an empire that collapsed only a few generations ago. That suggests lots and lots of military 'surplus' was collected either by the honorably discharged, deserters, battlefield scavengers, the enemy etc. This would include a fair amount of mass-produced plate - the sort that could be easily resized to fit members of a large army. A blacksmith could probably alter a set to fit someone similar to how they alter a horseshoe. It may have taken a month, but that's just backstory unless a PC wants to upgrade to a nonmagical set of plate during play.
because
c) Remember that the 100g starting wealth is the value of the starting gear - the PC does not walk into a shop in their underwear with 100g to spend.
Finally,
d) Plate does not offer significantly better protection than scale, and has stiffer penalties, to the point that there is some argument as to whether the extra point of AC is in fact worth it. So it doesn't make sense to try and charge too much more for it. Not only is it unbalanced from a game design point of view, but there wouldn't be many NPCs willing to spend 20 to 30 times as much for something that had as many drawbacks as benefits.
So it makes sense for a functional, utilitarian set of plate to not cost much more than a set of scale.
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