Light, Medium, or Heavy Armor?

[Valwyn]

I've always wondered, what kind of armor is best? Personally, I like light armor because it lets you move at full speed and tumble, but heavy(er) armor tends to be better in terms of AC (and fluff for knight-like characters). What about small races in full plate (blasphemy, I know)?

So, what do you think?

[Deox]

Mithril Breastplate is an obvious candidate for why I lean towards lighter armor.

Personally, however, I prefer no armor and instead wear bracers of armor or enchanted clothing (via magic vestments) as it's very easy to add stats to AC.

Fluff wise? Mountain plate. Pure awesome.

[Valwyn]

Yup, mithril breatplate is a classic.

Say, other than being a dwarf or using Savnok's Tooth, is there a way for a character to move at full speed in heavy armor?

[Deox]

There are items/feats/features to grant additional movement to counter the movement loss. Not quite the same thing, however.

I believe the Knight is not restricted while in heavy armor.

[Quorothorn]

Mithril Breastplate is an obvious candidate for why I lean towards lighter armor.

Personally, however, I prefer no armor and instead wear bracers of armor or enchanted clothing (via magic vestments) as it's very easy to add stats to AC.

Fluff wise? Mountain plate. Pure awesome.

I love the new armours in Races of Stone. Awesome hilarity.


Yup, mithril breatplate is a classic.

Say, other than being a dwarf or using Savnok's Tooth, is there a way for a character to move at full speed in heavy armor?

Being a 9th-level Knight, I s'pose. Not sure about others.

[TuggyNE]

I've always wondered, what kind of armor is best? Personally, I like light armor because it lets you move at full speed and tumble, but heavy(er) armor tends to be better in terms of AC (and fluff for knight-like characters).

Nearly all armor gives almost exactly the same total AC bonus when you sum armor bonus and max Dex, with the exception of gnomish twistcloth (no max Dex at all), specific magic items like celestial breastplate, and maybe a few other things. Therefore, there are generally three criteria for selecting armor:

Are you proficient, and if not, will you be able to avoid making attack rolls or movement-based skill checks? Only armor with at least one Yes answer is suitable for 95% of PCs.
Do you have any class features that rely on a specific grade of armor, such as Evasion? If so, you should almost always only use those (unless you simply don't care about them). ASF could arguably be put in this category, especially since Armored Mage etc tend to let you ignore ASF for light armor.
What's your Dex? Pick the armor with the highest armor bonus that doesn't actively cut your Dex bonus down; you may wish to include a bit of headroom if you're likely to increase your Dex noticeably before you switch armor. Make sure to consider any and all special materials and armor enchantments you can afford for this.


Special materials that increase max Dex are handy, but since they are generally applicable to (nearly) all types of armor, they don't really change the relative usefulness of armor types.

[Spuddles]

If I've got a low dex build, mithril mechanus gear (10 ac, 2 max dex, counts as med) is the way to go, imo.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Generally, medium armor isn't worth it-- you either want Light armor if you have the Dex for it, or heavy if you don't.