Keep Fullplate/Halfplate Rare`

[Egon the Monkey]

It's been a couple of weeks, and nobody's so much as seen a half-plate until yesterday. This is a plea that it stays that way, with such equipment super rare. +1 AC Splints, Bandeds and 1/2 Plates sure, but I can't see fullplate making so much sense in the setting. It's an archipelago full of mud, beaches and quicksand, and full platemail is armor made for full on land battles, not exploring, and expecially not sea warfare.

I like the proliferation of interesting, lighter armor, and I'd love it to stay that way, with fullplate not only rare, but not even that desirable in a setting that's hot, humid and with mobility desired.

This isn't to try and nerf Heavy Armor classes, far from it, the 8AC could be accomplished with magic/mastercrafted other armors, but more for the feel of things.

[Jayde Moon]

I agree with this.  I would also like to add the following in regards to finding and wearing heavy armor:

As the "weather of the archipelago tends to be temperate to tropical, with frequent storms and thick mists and fogs," I think it would be neat to put in a script for areas where it can be expected to be hot and humid to institute the heavy armor penalty described in the Chult section of the FRCS, pg 103:

Any character wearing armor that has an ACP of -5 or worse for more than an hour becomes fatigued as if he or she had slept in armor (-2 penalty to STR and DEX).  He or she remains fatigued as long as he or she wears the armor and for 1 full hour after removing it.

So this could be tied to specific areas.  Maybe the Ziggurat and that island, maybe not in the mountains (where it would be cooler).  Don't know how the other islands measure up in terms of tropicality and stuff.

Anyway, it would be a bit more flavor and something for people to consider when making armor choices.

[bob7el]

I'm in full agreement with Egon.  Loving the rarity of good armor right now.

[Goblin Butcher]

I agree with this.  I would also like to add the following in regards to finding and wearing heavy armor:

As the "weather of the archipelago tends to be temperate to tropical, with frequent storms and thick mists and fogs," I think it would be neat to put in a script for areas where it can be expected to be hot and humid to institute the heavy armor penalty described in the Chult section of the FRCS, pg 103:



So this could be tied to specific areas.  Maybe the Ziggurat and that island, maybe not in the mountains (where it would be cooler).  Don't know how the other islands measure up in terms of tropicality and stuff.

Anyway, it would be a bit more flavor and something for people to consider when making armor choices.

Yes, this and mandatory eating, drinking and pooping under pain of death otherwise.

I agree that nothing heftier than a half plate should be seen. Also Egon there have been multiple half plates since day 2~ and not from the underdark either XD

[Howlando]

Out of curiousity does anyone want to see plates be more available?

[Relinquish]

I don't mind them being available. However, they should be somewhat rare or rather expensive. Perhaps even give them some sort of penalty like the old Mikleson armor had. They certainty shouldn't turn into what the UD had, people were selling full plates for under a thousand frequently.

[Goblin Butcher]

Out of curiousity does anyone want to see plates be more available?

Half plates and full plates -1 could be more abundant if expensive!

[Relinquish]

I saw somewhere that there was going to eventually (perhaps) be "special" skills added that you can take in addition to the normal skills. Things like masonry sailing forging. If that ever gets implemented making armors obtainable from being crafted by PCs with the skills to forge the armor is another idea.

[Xorisai]

Out of curiousity does anyone want to see plates be more available?

I don't mind full plate and half plate being comparatively rare, but I'll just bring up the obligatory point about game balance and say that I worry about armor-reliant classes that can't get anything better than chain (I have only seen one set of 6 AC armor so far, and certainly none above that).  I think there's probably a fine line to be drawn between a valuable, uncommon item and an item so rare it might as well be an artifact of ancient power, and I hope that plate ends up being the former rather than the latter.

Certainly AC 6 armors could stand to be more common, at least in my own personal opinion.

[Relinquish]

There are tons and tons of the corsair armor around, which is relatively powerful considering what it can do.

[Dr Dragon]

I want plates kept rare.

[Sandstorm]

I think platemail should be rare. However, I think that +vs thing banded mail or chainmail should be more common than it was on EfU, even if it was +2/+3 vs thing, since it would still be roughly the same as a fullplate, vs a specific enemy.

[derfo]

For what it's worth, I'd easily consider those classes that were much more-so dependent upon heavier armors (specifically fighters, paladins, and clerics) to have a significant mechanical advantage already when full plate was common back in the dark, under style

[wcsherry]

Plate and half-plate are suitably rare as it is.

And...

I'd like to see better armor available personally!

[Mechsword]

Keep in mind that if the people that inhabit the ziggurate from now until when people get tired of this place, wanted to focus on making better armor *Makes references to the raise dead comment earlier on this part of the forum* they would focus the economy and industry towards this goal.  Besides resources, which you can probably salvage from all sorts of stuff, there is nothing stopping any NCP from making them... although, they would indeed be taxing in the super humid jungle.