TRPG General Chat

6:00 PM

@MageintheBarrel reddit.com/r/lfg is another forum for looking for games.

@williamporter he retroactively made himself wrong by issuing errata to that effect; his comments on twitter were made when that rule literally did not exist

David Coffron

@Carcer Which is part of why the Sage Advice article has clarified that his tweets are no longer official rulings. He didn't want people considering his comments that may be outdated to be hard rules.

Rubiksmoose

Twitter is even worse at versioning than the Stack is!

Xirema

Does anyone have a good method to make the inferior armors, like Leather Armor (Light), Scale Mail (Medium), or Ring Mail (Heavy) relevant at higher levels?

Rubiksmoose

@Xirema 5e I assume?

Xirema

6:12 PM

@Rubiksmoose Yeah.

David Coffron

@Xirema Make the cost matter

(or the weight)

Rubiksmoose

I personally have never seen a way. We normally just buy the better armor whenever you can afford it and then it just kind of stays that way forever.

David Coffron

@Xirema Homebrew setting or an official one?

Xirema

@DavidCoffron Generic 5e setting.

David Coffron

@Xirema Well... You could make studded leather exceptionally rare (as it was exceptionally rare or nonexistant historically). Perhaps only exceptional artisans, or particular regions can craft such a piece (even if they only charge the 45 gp for it)

Carcer

6:15 PM

well, they're not supposed to be relevant, are they? That's sort of the point of the progression.

Xirema

Right now Studded Leather is always preferable for Light Armor Wearers, Plate Mail is always preferable for Heavy Armor Wearers. Medium Armor Wearers at least get a choice between Breastplate (no Disadvantage on Stealth) or Half Plate (+1 AC).

Yuuki

@Xirema Enemies start using ring-shaped projectiles that are perfectly blocked by the rings on your ring mail.

Someone_Evil

Well, Ring mail is (in my opinion) is only relevant if you want heavy armor and have a Strength <13

Rubiksmoose

Honestly, sometimes I yearn for the days of PF when you could add so much fun stuff to your items/armor. Even then though, I think this is a case of scheduled obsolescence right?

David Coffron

@Xirema Half plate and plate armor are exhorbitantly expensive and require the best smiths to build, how common are you allowing them to be accessed in your games?

Yuuki

6:16 PM

Scale mail gives an advantage to climbing-related checks.

Leather armor gives bonuses to Stealth.

Xirema

@DavidCoffron Well, 750gp and 1500gp is peanuts once you've gotten past level 5, and random encounters offer like 150gp each.

Someone_Evil

Why do you need/want them to be more relevant?

Rubiksmoose

@Xirema Not to mention the possibility of a DM wanting to use an enemy with that kind of equipment before then (subsequently looted) :-/

David Coffron

@Xirema I mean... That's up to the setting and the GM controls how much money is available. If you want to make random encounters provide less, that's up to prerogative

@Rubiksmoose There is a variant rule for that (equipment sizes and body shapes)

Carcer

the game design is that the crappier types of armour aren't intended to be relevant after a while, yeah, it's just a mechanism for providing some equipment progression in the early levels

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6:20 PM

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David Coffron

@Carcer Which is accurate to history for the most part. No one would wear ring mail if they have access to full plate (and are strong enough, and don't have stuff to carry).

Rubiksmoose

@DavidCoffron Wasn't ring mail the one that people now theorize never existed?

Carcer

yeah, I don't think this is a case where every piece of equipment available needs to be made equally useful somehow

Rubiksmoose

(in actual warfare)

David Coffron

@Rubiksmoose Yeah. Historians suspect that the drawings ring mail is based on are just shoddy depictions of chain mail

Carcer

6:21 PM

[mumbles something about plate mail]

David Coffron

@Carcer I corrected myself! :P

Xirema

@Someone_Evil I'm working on a system for piecemeal randomly generated "low power" magic items, and I'm noticing that while I can just supply Weapons into the system and let it do its thing (because there's not really "objectively best" weapon archetypes) I can't do the same for Armor because Leather Armor +1 and Studded Leather Armor have the same AC, and there's no reason to prefer one over the other. So you have to remove them from the system or you just clog it up with useless magic items.

Carcer

@DavidCoffron I didn't even notice

was just riffing on armour that didn't exist

David Coffron

@Carcer Don't get me started on studded leather xD

Carcer

@Xirema well you could always sub back in the dexterity caps from prior editions

Xirema

6:23 PM

@Carcer Medium Armor already does that though.

David Coffron

(or the fact that leather armor historically was hardened to the point where it was just like half-plate and should give disadvantage on stealth too)

Carcer

@Xirema no, medium armour just has a flat +2 cap. I'm suggesting you ditch that and make each kind of armour have a different dex cap, as it used to be in prior editions

Someone_Evil

@Xirema That's only for +1 bonuses though. Other "enchantments" would still be interesting.

David Coffron

@Someone_Evil There aren't very many interesting armor enchanments: Source

Xirema

@DavidCoffron Oh, I'm definitely homebrewing some new ones. Same for weapons.

Yuuki

6:25 PM

@DavidCoffron But leather armor is made from hide.

Xirema

TBH, the system is basically a mix-and-match system of Weapon Templates, where each applied template increases the rarity of the final item.

David Coffron

> Leather. The breastplate and shoulder protectors of this armor are made of leather that has been stiffened by being boiled in oil. The rest of the armor is made of softer and more flexible materials.

They mention that it is hardened in the rules, but don't offer the mechanical impact of that

GcL

@DavidCoffron I would expect that you only wear studly leather.

What else would you make underpants out of?

You've got to protect it from those sorts of gnomes you know... they're only in it for the profit.

Carcer

@DavidCoffron it's joke

stealth checks

hide

David Coffron

Like how does hardened leather armor not impact your stealth, but padded armor (which was used historically if you needed greater mobility) does

GcL

6:28 PM

@Carcer Always hide your stealth checks.

David Coffron

@Carcer ooooooh. over my head

Yuuki

Also, scale mail -> scaling walls -> climbing-related checks.

David Coffron

@Yuuki I see. I missed tht

Someone_Evil

@DavidCoffron I think the mechanical impact is the +1 to AC compared to no armour

David Coffron

And what does this even mean:

> Made from tough but flexible leather, studded leather is reinforced with close-set rivets or spikes.

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