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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sword of Spirit" data-source="post: 7159720" data-attributes="member: 6677017">[UPDATE: I've changed the suggestion to Dexterity or Constitution, rather than Dexterity or Strength.]A lot of us recognize that medium armor is mechanically problematic. (I'm not going to discuss the details--I've briefly explained the problem at the end of this post.) Here's my proposed fix:If you wear medium armor, you add your Dexterity or Strength modifier (your choice), to a maximum of +2, to the base number from your armor type to determine your Armor Class.I wanted my fix to accomplish 3 things:1) Give satisfying numbers2) Be simple3) Avoid messing up monster/NPC statblocksI got the feeling that this was one of those "pick 2" situations. I believe I've succeeded on #s 1 and 2.As far as monsters go, of the 22 medium armor wearing statblocks in the MM, 15 of them are unchanged. Four of them gain +1 AC, two of them gain +2 AC, and one (the ogre) gains +3 AC. That seems to fall within reasonable tolerance--other than the ogre, and I could just say what they are wearing is mechanically studded leather. And importantly to me, the guard statblock--one of the most common statblocks in my games--remains unchanged.Are there any potential problems with this fix?Appendix: The Problem with Medium ArmorI'm assuming that medium armor is intended to be a reasonable choice for characters not proficient in heavy armor, and should be somewhere on par with light armor, just different. RAW, it fails in that.A combatant either focuses on Dexterity or Strength. For those focused on Dexterity, light armor is the superior option, and for those focused on Strength, heavy armor is the superior option. The only time medium armor is the best option* is for Strength focused characters who lack proficiency in heavy armor or want to avoid its stealth penalties (generally rangers, valor bards, or barbarians). All of that is fine.The problem is that a Strength focused character needs to put a 14 into Dexterity to get the full benefits of medium armor (and it is still the worst category of armor even with the 14 Dex). That is an absurd cost to pay just to have an average AC. If you don't spend that extra investment in Dexterity, then your AC is truly awful compared to everyone else wearing armor.*A Dexterity focused character who is proficient in medium armor and willing to taking a penalty to stealth can get a slight AC boost from medium armor at low-levels only. Which means the armor is only of temporary situational benefit to them.</blockquote>

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