Armor Advice

[Valtu]

I've only played casters up until this point, at which I am a Binder, so I haven't had much experience with armor, and some of the phrasing is a little vague in PHB.

I've heard a Mithral Breastplate is the way to go as far as light armor is concerned (without getting into anything too crazy/magical/etc). Would that still have -1 ACP, or would it be 0, though? The text for Adamantine specifically notes that the Masterwork attributes stack with Adamantine's, but the Mithral text is a little less specific.

And for that matter, why do certain armors even exist? There are some that I see in the main armor table that just seem unnecessary. Hide armor, for instance. Why not just go with Studded Leather? Is there any advantage to going with Hide? That question isn't so directly related to my main one, just a curiosity.

[Captnq]

My Sig.
Get the EVD
Go to Folder Combat Equipment.
Open the spreadsheet Armor Lists v1.02.xls
Compare.
Open Word Doc Armor v1.02.doc
Read individual entries.
Open Materials v1.05.doc
See what you want to make your armor out of.
Open word doc Armor Special Abilities v1.03.doc
Enchant the crap out of that Puppy.

If you give me more specific requirements other then "it needs to be light" I can narrow down your search a bit more.

[aeauseth]

I like referring to this Armor Class Guide (http://aaronwiki.us/index.php?title=Armor_Class_Guide).

Mithral breastplate: +5 AC, max +5 Dex, ACP -1, 15% spell failure. (4,200 gp)

There are several sub-par armors. They are there for DM treasure. Some are sub-par, but cost effective. A level 1 character is poor and a chain shirt is less expensive than mithral breastplate.

Breastplate has a -4 ACP. Mithral reduces ACP by 3.

Hide is cheap (15gp). Suitable for a low level character, although you generally find this on monsters, not a player character.

[Firechanter]

I've heard a Mithral Breastplate is the way to go as far as light armor is concerned (without getting into anything too crazy/magical/etc).

Yea, Mithral Breastplate still has -1ACP. You can get rid of that by slapping the Nimbleness property on it, for a +1 bonus cost, reducing ACP by 1 and increasing max Dex by 2.


And for that matter, why do certain armors even exist? There are some that I see in the main armor table that just seem unnecessary. Hide armor, for instance. Why not just go with Studded Leather? Is there any advantage to going with Hide? That question isn't so directly related to my main one, just a curiosity.

From a player perspective, only 3 types of armour make any sense beyond level 1:
- Chain Shirt
- Breastplate
- Full Plate
and their Mithral versions, respectively.

You might think all the rest is just chaff. If you start at level 1, you may be forced to start out with a Scale Mail, because you can't afford any better, but those times are soon past.
Oh right, and also Druids aren't allowed to wear any armour with metal in it, so they are limited to Padded, Leather and Hide. Not even Studded Leather because, well, the studs are metal. However, in practice, Druids are going to Wildshape anyway, or even fashion themselves Plate armour out of Ironwood.

If you are wondering why Padded is not in my list, that's because it needs a friggin 30 Dex to be any use, and by the time you have that Dex, you can afford something like a Celestial Armour.

Pretty much the same pattern exists in the weapon department. Why would anyone ever use a Spear or a Greatclub, when you can have a Morningstar, Greatsword or a Glaive-Guisarme?

The way I see it, those inferior choices are there for NPCs etc. The DM may need to watch the budget when outfitting his mobs with NPC-WBL; secondly it's a matter of flavour that Bugbears run around in stinking Hide, and Orcs in rusty chainmail rather than a nice breastplate. Last not least, it means going easy on the players, because suboptimal gear means the mobs are easier to fight.

As an afterthought, you could think that maybe those suboptimal choices are there so players can discover the optimal ones and feel good about their "system mastery", and as well to set the PCs apart from the common rabble also visually: "all the Heavy Infantry wears Banded Mail, but our Hero wades into battle in Full Plate."