Take a feat get armor prof... no drawbacks?

[Cadfan]

I don't either. If anyone with the books figures it out, let us know please.

 

[Celebrim]

Interestingly bang for buck scale is the best heavy armor in the game.

That's the kind of thing that just annoys the heck out of me. Scale is low tech heavy armor. It's dark ages armor. It's superceded by just about everything as soon as the technology and wealth becomes available to produce it. It's not as good as either the lorica segmentata that comes before it, or the plate that comes after it. It's ok for mounted troops who don't need much flexibility, and its got pretty good protection from blunt attacks (though at the expense of broken scales), but thats about it.

Times like this I miss Gygax. He may have misnamed half the weapons in the PH and perpetuated all sorts of misunderstandings, but at least he had seen the stuff and knew what they looked like. Whether wrong terminology or right, he'd actually put some thought into. What happened to Banded Mail (lorica segmentata?) or splinted mail (brigandine? coat of plates?)?

The only things that survived in the fantasy world are the things that people could easily imagine in thier head. If they hadn't seen the stuff and couldn't imagine it, then it fell by the wayside and now we have to deal with a system were scale mail is the best form of heavy armor.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Turns out it says that the cost of masterwork armor is included in high level items. So apparently all 16th+ items are masterwork? Or somehow +6 leather is as expensive as +6 feyleather? I don't get it.

Yep, that's basically it. It's that feyleather is partially formed of magic. It falls apart without the enchantment to bind it together and keep it hard enough to make into armor. But it isn't expensive as a material, so it doesn't cost any more.

 

[FadedC]

That's the kind of thing that just annoys the heck out of me. Scale is low tech heavy armor. It's dark ages armor. It's superceded by just about everything as soon as the technology and wealth becomes available to produce it. It's not as good as either the lorica segmentata that comes before it, or the plate that comes after it. It's ok for mounted troops who don't need much flexibility, and its got pretty good protection from blunt attacks (though at the expense of broken scales), but thats about it.

Times like this I miss Gygax. He may have misnamed half the weapons in the PH and perpetuated all sorts of misunderstandings, but at least he had seen the stuff and knew what they looked like. Whether wrong terminology or right, he'd actually put some thought into. What happened to Banded Mail (lorica segmentata?) or splinted mail (brigandine? coat of plates?)?

The only things that survived in the fantasy world are the things that people could easily imagine in thier head. If they hadn't seen the stuff and couldn't imagine it, then it fell by the wayside and now we have to deal with a system were scale mail is the best form of heavy armor.

If you go back and reread what was posted, you will note that scale is not the most protective form of heavy armor. Plate has a higher AC. Scale is just easier to learn to use because it costs less feats.

Edit: Also if you were renaming banded mail lorica segmentata in 1-3e (presumably since banded mail never actually existed to my understanding) then it should be just as easy to rename scale male the same way.

 

[hong]

Scale is kQQL so that when WAR draws his scale-wearing guys, they won't automatically be categorised by everyone as 1st level noobs.

 

[FireLance]

Times like this I miss Gygax. He may have misnamed half the weapons in the PH and perpetuated all sorts of misunderstandings, but at least he had seen the stuff and knew what they looked like. Whether wrong terminology or right, he'd actually put some thought into. What happened to Banded Mail (lorica segmentata?) or splinted mail (brigandine? coat of plates?)?

So, the way I understand it, chain mail < scale mail < plate mail?

The solution seems obvious to me: scale mail is misnamed (and possibly drawn incorrectly). It's actually banded/splint mail.

 

[Celebrim]

The solution seems obvious to me: scale mail is misnamed (and possibly drawn incorrectly). It's actually banded/splint mail.

Which is what I would do. 'Scale' doesn't refer to the armor commonly called scale. It refers to armor composed of fitted plates of various sized sewn within layers of heavy cloth, and worn with or over light mail, a form commonly called 'brigandine' or by Gygax 'splinted'. See for example the armor of professional European infantry in the late middle ages, Chinese noble armor from about the 12th century onward, and the armor commonly associated with Samurii.

But the point is, the designers don't care. The target audience doesn't care. I care.

Gygax would have cared. He tried to categorize every European pole arm for crying out loud. I miss his military history geek influence. I miss when playing this game was educational.

 

[Sashi]

The solution seems obvious to me: scale mail is misnamed (and possibly drawn incorrectly). It's actually banded/splint mail.

Even the picture of "scale" mail in the PHB backs this up. It's bands of metal that look like large dragon scales. Higher level versions are even called wyrmscale.