Level Up (A5E) Removing medium armor and adding strength to all armors as minimum ratings.

[tetrasodium]

I'm okay with some armors becoming obsolete if you have enough money to upgrade. I don't think a high level warrior should be wearing Hide unless it's magic or that's all that is available at the time.

I'm beginning to warm up to the idea of having Strength Score to more armors and Adding a penalty to Atheletics and Acrobatics

Light Armor allows for full Dex Modifier to AC.
Top tier Light Armor: Studded Leather, Gambeson

Medium Armor allows for Dex modifier to AC but is capped at +2
Top tier Medium Armor: Half Plate, Breastplate, Banded, Brigandine

Heavy Armor has flat AC
Top Tier Heavy Armor: Plate, Heavy Plate

If anything Medium should be most protected. Since it is the middle ground, it has the most variables.

That last bit is the problem When you drop medium armor you can do things like:

• all armor: AC, Spell/Touch AC, dex caps on light armor, bring back useful mounts by imposing a speed penalty for some armors, ACP, Capped DR sometimes tied to strength or others a caster attribute, possibly more like +attunement slots for a subset of magic items akin to starfinder's upgrade slots.
• all Light armor: Low AC, usually high dex caps, low or no movement penalties, generally low ACP
• Light armor: A selection from some of these.. Baked in minor enchantments. Everything to darkvision to featherfall & swim speed possibly even including panic buttons for some like a randomized short range misty step, good to OK spell AC bonus inverse to the possible ac+dex cap it allows, +/-slot level when casting some spells(ie element*/school/etc), low if any DR, a baked in assortment of energy substitution-like cast element X get element Y result
• All Heavy Armor: Great (physical/traditional) AC. Poor to ok spell/touch AC
• Heavy Armor: A selection from some of these, moderate to significant speed/acp penalties, Frequent low to good DR sometimes based on str sometimes on a caster stat, Combat auras with interesting effects(buffs & debuffs) on those nearby, those attunement slots, combat effects that buff the wearer in various ways, etc.

With medium armor there's not really enough room to make the nice things in light/heavy armor varied because the low end of both is centered in one place & it needs to be balanced if you have effects from both on one bit of armor.

* Fire damage needs to be wrenched in line closer to the other elements on the spell list

 

[Lanefan]

@CubicsRube - at first glance the one change I'd immediately make to your table would be to have Ring and Scale swap places.

Also, without any Dexterity limits on heavy armour this still doesn't do much to enhance Strength as a stat.

 

[Horwath]

Or we could just go with armor as DR, with strength handling how heavy armor can be without penalties.

Dex modifier applies to ALL armor. ALL can wear all armor.

For every STR MOD missing you suffer -1 to all attacks, all str and dex checks, -1 AC and saves and 5ft speed penalty.

That is, if you wear Plate with 14 or 15 strength, you suffer -3 to all attacks, all str and dex saves and check, -3 AC and 15ft speed penalty.

NAME	MIN STRENGTH	DAMAGE REDUCTION
Padded	10	1
Leather	12	2
Hide	14	3
Breastplate	16	4
Chainmail	18	5
Plate	20	6

 

[ThatGuySteve]

I'm more in favour of adding secondary features to existing armour as had been suggested.

Class features could also be used to add more differentiation. Beyond the Defense fighting style, there could be options to specialise further in particular classes of armour, eg pick up a little DR in heavy armour.

 

[Minigiant]

With medium armor there's not really enough room to make the nice things in light/heavy armor varied because the low end of both is centered in one place & it needs to be balanced if you have effects from both on one bit of armor.

But why are we protecting low end armors?

 

[tetrasodium]

But why are we protecting low end armors?

Let's hypothetically say there are 6-8 values ranging from 1-20 that wearers care about.
.. there will be some strong in a bit weak on n and c others strong in this other thing and weak on a along with points in between.. take 3.5 weapons as an example, a dagger was a simple weapon that was 1d4/19-20/x3. D4 is pretty bad, but if all you have is simple weapons and a skill that adds a bunch of extra dice likes sneak attack it becomes pretty good compared to spending a feat for a d6 19-20/x2 short sword while a kukri 1d4 18-20/xwmight be even or better with the dagger on a subjective level even though it too takes a feat.

 

[tetrasodium]

Or we could just go with armor as DR, with strength handling how heavy armor can be without penalties.

Dex modifier applies to ALL armor. ALL can wear all armor.

For every STR MOD missing you suffer -1 to all attacks, all str and dex checks, -1 AC and saves and 5ft speed penalty.

That is, if you wear Plate with 14 or 15 strength, you suffer -3 to all attacks, all str and dex saves and check, -3 AC and 15ft speed penalty.

NAME	MIN STRENGTH	DAMAGE REDUCTION
Padded	10	1
Leather	12	2
Hide	14	3
Breastplate	16	4
Chainmail	18	5
Plate	20	6

there is also going with both since it winds up more compatible with base 5e.

I've done mix where armor has 1-3 points of dr that sometimes got better with magic versions depending on type and it worked well where over the campaign players went from lower ac with higher dr as well as lower dr but higher dr bits of armor during the campaign as they went.

 

[Horwath]

there is also going with both since it winds up more compatible with base 5e.

I've done mix where armor has 1-3 points of dr that sometimes got better with magic versions depending on type and it worked well where over the campaign players went from lower ac with higher dr as well as lower dr but higher dr bits of armor during the campaign as they went.

magic armor is also simple it adds +1 AC and +1 DR to counter weapons +1 attack and +1 damage

 

[tetrasodium]

magic armor is also simple it adds +1 AC and +1 DR to counter weapons +1 attack and +1 damage

Not all of it did, I wanted to introduce more subjective choices and only had so much room... is a dr 5 breastplate better than an ac18 or 19 set of plate with dr3?... the answer is not simple once you have more thsn one element thst matters mechanically on a bit of gear

 

[Minigiant]

Let's hypothetically say there are 6-8 values ranging from 1-20 that wearers care about.
.. there will be some strong in a bit weak on n and c others strong in this other thing and weak on a along with points in between.. take 3.5 weapons as an example, a dagger was a simple weapon that was 1d4/19-20/x3. D4 is pretty bad, but if all you have is simple weapons and a skill that adds a bunch of extra dice likes sneak attack it becomes pretty good compared to spending a feat for a d6 19-20/x2 short sword while a kukri 1d4 18-20/xwmight be even or better with the dagger on a subjective level even though it too takes a feat.

But what do we gain from making hide armor compete with scale shirts and full scale?

I think it is better to decide which nonmagical armors we consider top tier then decide how to make them all relevant.
Or we would have to add another variable to armor. Ones that mattters to everyone. Stuff like damage type resist isn't big enough.

Maybe go halfway. Add material type as a property?

• Banded (banded shirt, banded mail)
  • Best Armor: Banded Mail AC 16 +Dex Modifier (max 2) Stealth Disadvantage
• Chain (chain shirt, chain mail)
  • Best Armor: Chain Shirt AC 13 +Dex Modifier (max 2)
• Cloth (padded, gambeson)
  • Best Armor: Gambeson AC 13+Dex Modifier Stealth Disadvantage
• Hide (hide, studded hide)
  • Best Armor: Studded Hide AC 15 +Dex Modifier (max 2) Str 15
• Leather (leather, studded leather)
  • Studded Leather AC 12+Dex Modifier
• Plate (breastplate, half plate, plate)
  • Best Armor: Plate AC 18 Str 15 Stealth Disadvantage
• Ring (ring)
  • Best Armor: Ring AC 14 Stealth Disadvantage
• Scale (scale shirt, scale mail)
  • Best Armor: Scale mail AC 15 +Dex Modifier (max 2) Str 13 Stealth Disadvantage
• Splint (splint)
  • Best Armor: Splint AC 17 Str 15 Stealth Disadvantage