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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nazerel" data-source="post: 2080455" data-attributes="member: 24002">I've entertained thoughts of bumping up the ACs for medium and heavy armor by using the chart progression.Light ArmorPadded +1Leather +2Studded Leather +3Chain Shirt +4Medium ArmorHide +4Scale +5Chain +6Breastplate +7Heavy ArmorSplint +7Banded +8Half Plate +9Full Plate +10It never made sense to me that a chain shirt (just the torso and a cap for the head, not even the forearms are covered!) protected a character as much as a full suit of scale mail (torso, arms, gauntlets, a skirt or leggings, maybe a cap) did. As for breastplate, they do protect the legs; metal greaves cover the front of the lower legs, and it came with a metal helmet (though no bracers or gauntlets). And a breastplate by RAW still only has a +1 AC bonus over chain shirt despite all of this (would a thin shirt made of maille stop weapon blows better than a breastplate made of molded metal?). Lightening up on the speed restrictions of medium armor is a good way to make them more attractive too. I'm sure it's been brought up before, but in reality the problem with heavier armor such as full plate wasn't so much weight (which is better distributed over the body than a suit of chain maille whose weight hangs off from the shoulders), but heat exhaustion (all that padding to prevent chafing). The D&D system doesn't handle exhaustion very well (though it tries).Then again, I think the problems with armor is only a symptom of a much larger problem with the current D&D system, in that BAB goes up but AC for most classes (including combat oriented ones with full BAB) stays the same. Why does offense scale with level but defense doesn't? It makes little sense. The game assumes that characters will be rewarded with and load up on AC boosting magical items. Much like characters can fall into golf bag syndrome with carrying a bunch of different weapons to bypass damage reduction, they're usually forced to have a veritable collection of magical doo dads and knick knacks to keep their AC up just to survive encounters. Unless PCs take a bunch of defensive feats like Dodge, Mobility, Combat Expertise, etc., keeping your AC up in a low-magic campaign will be more of a challenge, and feat slots are rare enough as they are already unless you're a fighter.</blockquote>

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