D&D General The diminishing effectiveness of armour across the editions

[CubicsRube]

@dnd4vr Good point. I think Hide is fine as it's just a cheaper option. Alternatively it could be put at 15 but with Disadvantage to stealth.

You're right about ring mail, it should be higher, 15 perhaps? I'd just as soon scrap Ring Mail to be honest.

 

[DND_Reborn]

@dnd4vr Good point. I think Hide is fine as it's just a cheaper option. Alternatively it could be put at 15 but with Disadvantage to stealth.

You're right about ring mail, it should be higher, 15 perhaps? I'd just as soon scrap Ring Mail to be honest.

Well, it is the same problem weapons have. A lot of options, but only a few dice for damage. After all, there are a number of d8 weapons and not a whole heck of a lot of difference between them TBH. Overall, your armor values range from 12-18, so I would focus on 7 armors, one for each AC value.

I can understand your desire to decouple DEX from AC but instead you might want to consider another option?

1. Restore full DEX to AC, regardless of armor type.
2. Change armors to Light = +2, Medium +3, Heavy +4 AC
3. Shield adds +2 AC
4. Add Damage Reduction: Medium = 1, Heavy = 2

This way the heavier armors contribute strongly to AC still, but offer the benefit of actually protecting the wearer by reducing damage slightly. Players who want a DEX-based PC are capped at AC 17, which is RAW anyway.

Anyway, it is just a thought for now. I'll think about your system more and maybe come up with something in a day or two (playing tomorrow so I'll be busy! ).

 

[CubicsRube]

Like yourself, I'm trying to find my own tweaks that align with what I want without making too many changes. I've tried that and it's a slippery slope. You just end up starting to write your own heartbreaker then!

 

[Lanefan]

One other change (only read page 1 thus far), is that DEX used to be able to be added to AC no matter what armor you wore.

For some odd reason people started thinking in RPG (D&D at least) that wearing heavier armor affected your mobility so much that suddenly your Dexterity and agility were absolutely useless.

Not being able to add DEX to your AC has also been detrimental to AC and Armor usage in general.

We put caps on what effective Dex the different armour types would let you have way back in about 1983. The heaviest armour still allows Dex 16, so it doesn't wipe out Dex bonuses completely.

In theory, adding a Ring of protection gives you another +1 so then you have an AC of 31.

That's a 3e thing; in 1e Rings of Protection didn't stack with magic armour, which solves a lot of those headaches in a hurry.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Like yourself, I'm trying to find my own tweaks that align with what I want without making too many changes. I've tried that and it's a slippery slope. You just end up starting to write your own heartbreaker then!

Well, that is too bad. I know it is hard to find changes to give you just what you are looking for without basically re-writing the entire game.

As I said, I'll still give your concept some thought and maybe come up with something you'll like more.

 

[CapnZapp]

I'm going to stop you there - Schwarzenegger was not realistically burly. very few people were burly like that, ever.

Lol. I was just waiting for someone to protest

But I'm talking fantasy heroes here. For a real person, good old 'Negger came close to your average STR 20 CON 20 SIZ 20 fighter hero

 

[Aldarc]

I suspect the reason has more to do with WotC following in step with what the video game industry realized: in sum, defense is boring. Games are often designed with an asymmetrical balance between offense and defense to prevent defense on defense slogfests. The best defense should not outperform the best offense. It speeds the combat portion of the game up.

 

[CubicsRube]

FWIW, I'm running a d&d adjacent campaign now and having the olayers roll defence with static monster atack ratings. It's mathematically the same but it makes the players feel like they're defending, and thus defence becomes more interesting for them.

 

[jasper]

One other change (only read page 1 thus far), is that DEX used to be able to be added to AC no matter what armor you wore.

For some odd reason people started thinking in RPG (D&D at least) that wearing heavier armor affected your mobility so much that suddenly your Dexterity and agility were absolutely useless.

.....

No. Most of who have played in armour recognize AC in games had little to do in real life. So we accepted heavy armour lose the dex because of game reasons. I am currently running some tier 4 games. My monsters have to hit AC 28 with disadvantage due to a build. So if we add dex to all armour then we need to add dex to all swings too.

 

[Aldarc]

FWIW, I'm running a d&d adjacent campaign now and having the olayers roll defence with static monster atack ratings. It's mathematically the same but it makes the players feel like they're defending, and thus defence becomes more interesting for them.

I’ve had good results in roll for defense systems, such as Cypher System and PbtA.