Keep Fullplate/Halfplate Rare`

[TooCuteForComfort]

It's not like wearing full plate makes you invincible or anything anyway.
But since gold is in short demand, why not just leave the price at where it was, and maayybe add a little flaw to the armor like the one Harri.. er.. which NPC was it? used to sell.

[LackofCertainty]

The rarer you make full/halfplate, the more you encourage dex based characters.  I like it rare, so it feels that much better when you -do- find a set, but don't go overboard.

I don't like fatigue scripts, unless you're going to implement them for everyone.  Sure, wearing fullplate is going to be tiring, but your average fullplate wearing behemoth has much higher con than the average Rogue/Bard/Duelist/what have you.  Heck, I'd expect my 10 con Mage to wear herself out faster in her robes than a 16-18 str, 14-16 con Fighter in fullplate.

Generally, scripts like that are more of a pain than they're worth, because you can't -do- anything to deal with them in an rp fashion.   A system like that can't take into account stuff like.... *Mister Fighter pauses at the stream and dunks his head under a bit, cooling himself off*

[Vlaid]

I like the rarity of plate (from what I've seen). But the environment is so humid, jungle hotness and all...would it be possible to add to certain areas that wearing heavy armor penalizes you in some way? Maybe a small reduction in speed in especially hot areas. Or any other small penalty that might add some edge to the people who invested those stat points in avoidance style armor.

Just in certain areas, like the jungle areas, on the beach, ect. Just tossing it out there, really not that huge of an issue either way, the grind to get that first fullplate is a milestone every warrior has to make.

[The Crimson Magician]

I still find it pretty ridiculous splint mail's that easy to find. It seems kind of weird that heavy armor is washing up on the shores and stuff, considering it is, as I supposed, heavy, implying it should stay at the bottom of the ocean.

How about something where you need to go some way under water, to retrieve the plate, probably in a treasure chest, or next to some pirate/corsair corpse? Any takers?

[Xorisai]

The idea of more penalties for heavy armor strikes me as a bit unbalanced.  Heavy armor is a class feature (and for fighters, a particularly important one), and I don't think there's anything to be gained from deliberately weakening the feature.  Armor check penalties already exist to penalize the mobility of characters of wearing heavy armor; I don't think more penalties are needed.

[Relinquish]

The whole idea of the penalty system for wearing heavy armor seems arbitrary. Just like we've decided not to have eating drinking ect mandatory, why should there be penalties for wearing armor that have never been in place before? Heavy armor should be available, as should be every weapon the game has. The rarity of these items should vary depending on many variables. If for some reason the island gets some smithies or establishes a trade route, it would likely become more available. However as it is they should remain rather rare.

[Vlaid]

It's not a penalty to the armor, it's a penalty to wearing it in certain terrains.

You know, like when you go under water and you move at a snail's pace unless your strip down? Same thing, only expanded to the hot humid climate of some of the jungle regions of the setting.

There's already a precedant for it in the underwater areas.

[petey512]

It's sounds silly to me, that people think plate shouldn't be allowed just because of the terrain or whatever... I think it's fine the way it is. I'm not sure why wer'e still discussing this. Changing anything would be a lot of trouble and not really worth it.

[Xorisai]

It's not a penalty to the armor, it's a penalty to wearing it in certain terrains.

A penalty to armor is a penalty to armor, even if the penalty is conditional.

The underwater areas are, as far as I have seen, few and far between.  In small amounts this isn't a problem.  The more such places you add, however, the more severe the penalty becomes, and the more unbalanced the game becomes.

The argument from realism is fine and all, but I feel that at some point we have to accept that this is a game, and a game that would be negatively impacted by penalizing class features without regard for both the mechanical repercussions.  Some rarity is not a problem, but if you make it so rare as to be inaccessible for most, or so bad that few will want it (with negatives to movement or other penalties beyond the penalties heavy armor already has), you need to be aware that you're changing the game balance.

[Sternhund]

I'm strongly, strongly against a penalty system for full and half plates. However, I am for making them more rare.

[Egon the Monkey]

[facepalms]
This was mostly a style thing, not a Super Realism RP thing.
Like I said, halfplate with a general +1 Ac bonus, or splint wíth +2 would achieve the same 8 AC, keeping the game balanced, while keeping the look of more light, flexible armor better for exploring.

Just making it rare without another way to get 8AC off armour would overpower Barbarians and Rangers compared to Clerics and Fighters.

[Daemonic Daz]

Rare platemail/half plate for the win.

[Thomas_Not_very_wise]

I wish it was more common.

I am sorry, but I find it ridiculous I am finding all these banded mails, which weigh 40lbs or, which is 10 pounds less than any half plate or full plate. Why didn't the smith use the 10 extra pounds of iron to make the half/full plate?

It seems foolish to me that everytime I find a splint mail, I have to say, "Who wants it!" everyone, in the group, doesn't want it because they already have one. This yells to me common.

I also wish to point out that the loot power in this setting is 3 times more powerful than what it had been in the underdark. Why the hell didn't these people who had to enchant this armor spend their gold on enchanting these items on full plate? It's not like they weren't stupid or anything, just, perhaps a bit unreasonable?\

Half plate and full plate more common, perhaps on the higher end quests, but certainly more available. I find it ridiculous, as crimson pointed out, that I find all this banded mail or splint, and no one had the decency to make it a half plate or a full plate.

[petey512]

*slaps hand on forehead and sighs*

The day I actually create a fighter that I'm going to stick with, people decide they don't like full-plate anymore.

[wcsherry]

I do not understand the vast amount of dislike for fullplate, though some seems to stem from posters that have not tried to play fighters yet, I'm certainly not interested in seeing Improved Expertise on the character sheet for every PC I look up.

Masochists, the lot of you.

Edit,

I can also safely say there will never be penalties for simply wearing the best armor available given the already incredible challenge our server presents to the average player.

Penalties are just not fun.